New discovery shows Nintendo Switch 2 dock supports VRR even though it doesn’t work with the system

A bit of an odd discovery has been made as Nintendo Switch 2 supports VRR when docked, even though the system itself isn’t currently capable of using that feature.

This all came about with a Steam Deck test, which can be done with a female-to-male USB-C extension cable. It turns out the the Nintendo Switch 2 dock supports VRR once you plug that device into it. The Verge tested that 4K VRR does actually work at up to 120 frames per second rather than relying only on SteamOS’ flag that it was supported and also downloaded a tool to ensure that it was functioning properly.

But it doesn’t stop there. Other handhelds are also able to output 4K at 120Hz with both HDR and VRR if you plug them into the Nintendo Switch 2 dock, including Lenovo Legion Go S with SteamOS as well as an Asus ROG Ally X with Bazzite.

The thing is, no one can say at the moment why Nintendo Switch 2 itself doesn’t support VRR when the console is docked. We know that the feature works in handheld mode. Nintendo did originally say that there would be support when docked as well, but later clarified that this was an error.

We also heard this week that Nintendo Switch 2 has essentially broken third-party docks. You can read more about that here.