Why VRR Might Be A Better Pick For Gaming Than BFI

You just bought a fancy new smart TV and are ready to see your games come alive on a big screen, but before that, a little tweaking is necessary. After getting the boilerplate stuff out of the way, along come the gaming-specific settings, and that’s where things get a little more interesting. Smart TVs today have a bunch of features that give your games an extra kick, but what exactly is all this VRR and BFI stuff? Let’s dive into these technologies today.

A good display is just as important as your console, or your CPU and GPU, if it’s a PC. After all, this is where you’ll actually see all your games, the results of your hardware’s blood, sweat, and tears. And good visuals on a big screen just hit different, which is exactly why smart TVs are so sought-after these days. Now, if you’ve bought one for gaming, the above-mentioned settings will certainly become relevant. I’ll try to list what both of these actually do, and what I recommend, but the decision will be yours to make.

Choose VRR For Smoother Gaming

First up, we have the good old Variable Refresh Rate, which I’m pretty sure you’re already familiar with. VRR is actually a pretty crucial setting, one you’ll definitely see the results of in gaming, especially if your hardware is expectedly struggling to keep up with the unoptimized games of today. Variable Refresh Rate dynamically adjusts the screen’s refresh rate to accommodate your hardware’s FPS output, resulting in a much smoother overall experience.

Yes it has happened, VRR is finally here and working wonderfully!
byu/MistandYork inplaystation

Practically every smart TV today comes with this, but if you’re using one from the big guys, let’s say Samsung, there’s a lot more, too. VRR is generally a part of a bundle called “game mode” on these TVs. This mode combines settings like VRR, HDR, and even ALLM (Auto Low-Latency Mode) to significantly boost gameplay performance and input lag. Say goodbye to latency once you switch the game mode on. Oh, and speaking of latency, you might want to go the extra mile with a Samsung TV VPN and get added security as a bonus.

Bottom line, VRR is a necessity for smooth gameplay. Even more so if your hardware is on the humble side. When your PC or even a console struggles to keep up the framerate, the dynamically adjusting refresh rate makes sure there’s little visible lag and performance drop, on top of minimal latency. If you ask me, performance is the most important thing. What good are amazing visuals if the game runs on fumes? But if you disagree with me, the next one might be for you.

Black Frame Insertion Is For Ultra-Clear Images

If extreme visual detail and clarity are more your cup of tea, let me introduce Black Frame Insertion. You’ve heard of Nvidia’s Frame Generation, right? The tech that adds generated frames to the original ones to boost FPS? Well, this BFI thing is like that, except it’s inserting a black frame in between the actual ones. Why? To minimize flicker during moving scenes and make the image extra clear. With BFI enabled, your games will look a lot more immaculate and amazingly realistic, but it all comes at a cost.

I’m surprised more people don’t use BFI while gaming. I captured a demonstration you can see here of how it virtually removes all motion smearing when enabled. OLED’s instantaneous pixel response time paired with BFI really gives me a CRT feel but at much higher resolution.
by inOLED_Gaming

The first thing these black frames will do is reduce the overall brightness of the display. You’re getting a black frame after every original one; the brightness is bound to drop. Plus, many people experience eye strain because of this after prolonged use. And due to this brightness thing, your screen’s HDR might not agree with this setting, either. But above all, it’s not very compatible with VRR for now. The image clarity comes at the expense of smooth performance and zero latency.

BFI practically demands considerable hardware strength. Its job is to reduce motion blur with a fixed frame insertion, so you’ll need sort of a static refresh rate and high enough FPS. See how that’s practically the opposite of VRR? BFI is a lot more premium. This is why you need to make a choice. If you ask me, I’ll pick smooth performance and low latency over visuals any day, but that’s just me. If extreme clarity and motion blur are that important, go for BFI, but you probably won’t see the difference as much as what VRR brings to the table.