Windows 10 version 1903 known as May 2019 Update brought with it many new features, among which the inclusion of VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) technology stands out , which allows you to take advantage of a feature that more and more monitors come from the factory, the refresh rate. variable. Below we are going to show you how to turn this feature on and off , and what you can hope to achieve with it.
First of all you should know that contrary to what happens with NVIDIA‘s G-Sync or even AMD‘s FreeSync, VRR is not a proprietary technology. In fact, AMD has FreeSync, NVIDIA has G-Sync, and even VESA has the Adaptive Sync standard, but they are all forms of VRR, which is simply the functionality, with no first and last names.
Requirements to activate Variable Refresh Rate
First of all, you should know that there are certain requirements to be able to activate this functionality:
- You must have Windows 10 version 1903 or later.
- Your monitor must support Adaptive Sync / G-Sync.
- Your GPU must have compatible drivers (with WDDM 2.6 or higher).
Once the pertinent checks have been made (to know your version of Windows simply press WIN + R and in the window that appears write “winver” and press OK), then we are going to teach you how to activate and deactivate VRR easily.
How to turn VRR on and off in Windows 10
Click on the Start menu and select Settings (the icon with the gear wheel). In Settings select System, and then the first tab, called Screen. Within this menu, scroll down and click on “Graphics Settings”.
In the window that opens, you should see the option to turn VRR on and off simply by clicking on the “Optimize games for variable refresh rate” button. If the option does not appear, you are not meeting any of the requirements indicated above (including having a compatible monitor, obviously).
By default this option is deactivated, so if you want to be able to enjoy it you must activate it manually by following the steps that we have described. Of course, you can also deactivate it whenever you want by accessing this same menu.
What is the use of having Variable Refresh Rate active?
Microsoft recommends leaving this functionality disabled, since if the games are compatible with it, they will use the AMD / NVIDIA driver directly to use it (in other words, we must have it activated directly in the AMD or NVIDIA software), since if not it could create conflict with the same driver.
However, there are times when for some reason it does not work properly or does not work at all, so we will have the option to activate VRR directly in the operating system. If you do, however, it is recommended that you disable it in the AMD / NVIDIA software so that it does not generate conflicts.
What we are going to achieve with this is an alternative way to enjoy the benefits of FreeSync / G-Sync, which, as you well know, allows that when we have a monitor with a variable refresh rate, it is the graphics card that controls its refresh rate. to synchronize it with the FPS that the GPU is capable of generating, so that the images that we will see in the games will be much more fluid and we will eliminate the effects of stuttering and tearing.