Only 1 in 10 PS5 owners have a variable refresh display, most gamers won't benefit from 120 FPS

Most PS5 owners won't use optional 120FPS modes in games that offer them, Sony has said.

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Sony just announced its new PS5 Pro console, which features a beefier GPU that can output some serious visual upgrades. Another part of the PS5 Pro's capability is Sony's proprietary PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR), a new secret sauce tech that uses AI to upscale image quality. PSSR can also help boost frame rates in games as well, sometimes doubling them in Fidelity Mode, Mark Cerny says.

This advanced tech is promising for enthusiasts who have, say, HDMI 2.1-enabled displays capable of supporting 120FPS, but everyday gamers are still playing mostly on 60Hz TVs. This was also a hot topic during the PS5's launch as the base model could support up to 120FPS output in specific games like Borderlands 3 and Black Ops Cold War.

During the official PS5 Pro prese event, Sony told CNET that the adoption for VRR televisions and displays--that is panels that can support 60-120Hz gaming--was quite low. Only 10% of PS5 owners actually own such a display.

"The statistic is that 1 in 10 have a variable refresh rate TV, not 8K," CNET's Scott Stein said in a Q&A video.

"I want to completely address that, and say that's a TV that can do a variety of refresh rates, including 120Hz. 8K...we don't even know how many people have those."

This small but eye-opening metric may also reinforce the target audience for the PS5 Pro; the pricing makes it even more of an enthusiast device than Sony's previous PS4 Pro console, which launched in 2016 for a $399 price point.