Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) has been a hot topic in recent years as it promises to prevent screen tearing and provide smoother displays. This is noticeable when it comes to simple activities like scrolling web pages, but more importantly, it greatly affects gaming performance. We can now expect to get this goodness in the Chrome OS ecosystem!

A few commits have appeared for both Chrome OS and the Chrome web browser that add support for this new feature.
This applies in particular to Chrome OS devices connected via DisplayPort 1.4 to a monitor that supports FreeSync. For those who don’t know, FreeSync is the open standard for VRR support in monitors and its adoption in many displays is being led by AMD. Along with VRR, these types of monitors usually also offer high refresh rates. Commits mention that a 12th gen or newer Intel processor is required for this to work, so you’ll want to keep an eye out for future Brya boards if that’s a feature you’re interested in.

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Every day we get closer to Steam support through the Borealis project, especially now that Vulkan support is working inside Crostini! Gamers really care the most about VRR, and games like fast-paced first-person shooters really benefit the most from this coming change. Since you have to move the game camera quickly, it will look more natural and you will feel less blur once VRR is activated and available.

It’s great to see Chrome OS devices getting new features so quickly these days! I recently switched from a 60Hz non-VRR monitor to a 144Hz VRR monitor and it makes a huge difference to me in practice. It’s subtle but you can tell the experience is just better in an almost magical way. Once you try this, you’ll never want to go back, and soon this experience will be possible on a Chromebook!

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