PlayStation 5 Without 8K and VRR Support on Launch
The editors of Digital Foundry had the opportunity to test the capabilities of PlayStation 5. The following report shows that for now Sony's new console does not support 8K resolution and VRR and ALLM functions.
Sony is committed to present the PlayStation 5 as a truly next-gen device, both in official presentations and commercials. Therefore, the reports of Digital Foundry that PS5 does not yet support either 8K resolution or VRR and ALLM technology may come as a significant surprize. The staff tried to use the first of these options on a native 8K display, but without success. Similar information was provided by HDTVTest on YouTube.
VRR stands for variable refresh rate, a technique used to eliminate the so-called screen tearing. The problem is to display not fully loaded images when the source device (computer or console) cannot generate enough animation frames (e.g. 60 at 60 Hz screen refresh rate). VRR eliminates such errors by dynamically changing the frequency to match the number of fps.
ALLM (literally low-latency auto mode) is one of the new features of the HDMI 2.1 interface. It allows the TV to detect the start of a game on its own and reduce the reception delay as much as possible (usually by switching on a dedicated mode). Both technologies require support from both the TV and the source device.
Digital Foundry admits that the lack of 8K support is of little importance. Even playing 4K is not yet standard and few people even think about playing in even higher resolution, especially considering the price of the TVs supporting it. Let's add that Xbox Series X/S doesn't include such an option for the release either, which, as What Hi-Fi? found out, stems from lack of no content that uses 8K. However, the same cannot be said about VRR and ALLM - Microsoft's devices already enables us to use both of these features (including Xbox One X). Moreover, according to Digital Foundry, PS5 does not include native resolution support for 1440p monitors, which XSX/S can handle. Instead, the console will first scale from 4K to Full HD and then to 1440p.
