The Nintendo Switch 2 features a VRR screen, and initially, Nintendo claimed that it would also be compatible with VRR-enabled TVs. However, Nintendo later removed any mention of docked VRR support from its website and issued an apology on May 16th. They clarified to Nintendo Life that “Nintendo Switch 2 supports VRR in handheld mode only,” and apologized for the “incorrect information.”

But I’ve just confirmed that the official Nintendo Switch 2 dock does support VRR — by plugging the Steam Deck into it.

Interestingly, we observed that several competing handheld devices can output 4K at 120Hz with both HDR and VRR when connected to the Nintendo Switch 2 dock. This was confirmed with the Lenovo Legion Go S running SteamOS and the Asus ROG Ally X equipped with Bazzite, both connecting smoothly to my Samsung S90C TV. This insight was inspired by a Reddit user, u/DynaMach, and others, who shared similar VRR functionality.

It’s not particularly practical to play a PC handheld via Nintendo’s dock, because you’ll need a female-to-male USB-C extension cable and you’ll need to continually hold it against Nintendo’s spring-loaded platform to keep it from getting ejected — but I just so happened to have one of those cables lying around.

And before you ask, yes, I did actually test that 4K VRR actually works at up to 120 frames per second — I didn’t just trust SteamOS’s flag that it was supported. I downloaded the open-source VRRTest tool and messed with various settings, just to check that intermediate framerates between 48fps and 60fps and 90fps all stayed smooth on my TV as the framerate fluctuates.

So if the Switch 2 supports VRR, and the dock supports VRR, why does Nintendo not offer VRR display output from the Nintendo Switch 2?

It would be a boon in many games, whether we’re talking about games like Cyberpunk 2077 that don’t run at 60fps on Switch to begin with, or even games that only occasionally dip below that threshold (say, 55fps) where that dip currently manifests as a big stutter in your gameplay.

Personally, I think it’s possible Nintendo just doesn’t think the Switch 2 is ready to put it on the big screen.

Last month, Digital Foundry found “clear problems” even in the Switch 2’s handheld VRR mode, including judder in Cyberpunk 2077 and No Man’s Sky’s 40fps “performance” modes, as well as Hitman: World of Assassination’s unlocked-but-capped 60fps mode — although Nintendo’s own Welcome Tour showed proper VRR support.

“Clearly the feature is in there and working, because the Welcome Tour proves it, but the actual implementation in other games so far is disappointing,” Digital Foundry’s Rich Leadbetter explained on the channel’s podcast.

But if you’re looking for technical reasons why Nintendo might not pass along VRR to the official dock, Leadbetter tells me he hasn’t yet heard a good theory. He does believe, however, that Nintendo probably made an honest mistake when it wrote, then apologized for writing, that the Switch 2 would support VRR in TV mode. He doubts that Nintendo axed the feature at the last minute.

This is just the latest technological weirdness around the Switch 2’s launch, like we saw when testing the Switch 2’s semi-locked-down USB-C video output and why the best webcams didn’t work.

But as before, Nintendo is staying silent: it didn’t have a comment for our story.