I still have nightmares about the frame rate in Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. You know the part—where you drop a bomb rune into a crowd of Moblins and the Switch basically coughs, wheezes, and decides to render the next five seconds as a PowerPoint presentation. It was bad. Fun game, sure, but technically? A mess.
So when I saw the settings menu for Dynasty Warriors: Origins on the new Switch 2, I had to double-check I wasn’t accidentally streaming it from my PC.
We’re looking at a legitimate “Variable Frame Rate” toggle. On a Nintendo box.
For decades, the console experience—especially the Nintendo experience—has been about accepting what you’re given. You put the cart in, you press A, and you get whatever performance the developers managed to scrape together before the certification deadline. Usually, that meant a locked 30fps if we were lucky, or an “unlocked” frame rate that bounced between 20 and 45 like a ping pong ball in a dryer.
But now? We actually have a choice. And honestly, I’m not sure if I’m excited or just annoyed that it took this long.
The “Variable” Gamble
Let’s get technical for a second, because “Variable Frame Rate” is marketing speak that can mean two very different things depending on the hardware you’re holding.
In the best-case scenario, this toggle implies the Switch 2 is leaning heavily into Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) technology. If the console’s display panel can sync its refresh rate to the game’s output—say, dropping to 48Hz when the action gets heavy—then unlocking the frame rate is a brilliant move. It makes a game hovering around 45-50fps feel buttery smooth because you don’t get that juddery frame-pacing mismatch that plagued the original Switch.
However.
If this is just an “Unlock Framerate” switch without the VRR hardware backing it up (or if you’re docked to a cheap TV that doesn’t support VRR), we might be in for a rough time. Unlocked frame rates on fixed 60Hz displays are essentially screen-tearing simulators. I’ve been testing this on a few different displays since I got my hands on the hardware, and the results are… interesting.
In Origins, turning this option on seems to target 60fps, but anyone who knows Omega Force’s engine knows that 60fps is a suggestion, not a rule. The Musou engine is notoriously CPU-heavy. It’s calculating physics for hundreds of soldiers simultaneously. On the old Tegra X1 chip, this was impossible. On the new custom NVIDIA silicon in the Switch 2, it’s actually feasible, but the variance is wild.
I saw dips. Big ones. But—and this is the crucial part—it didn’t feel broken.
Why This Matters for the “Switch 2” Era
This setting represents a massive philosophical shift for Nintendo’s ecosystem. We’re moving away from the “curated, perfect garden” approach where users aren’t trusted with options, toward a more PC-lite experience.
Why now? Because DLSS is doing the heavy lifting.
I’m convinced that this variable option is only possible because the Switch 2 is leaning on AI upscaling to keep the GPU load manageable. If the system doesn’t have to render native 1080p or 4K, it frees up overhead for the CPU to handle the chaos of a Dynasty Warriors battlefield. The “Variable” option essentially tells the system: “Don’t worry about hitting a perfect resolution target; just give me frames.”
It’s the Steam Deck approach, finally formalized in a Nintendo product.
The “Quality vs. Performance” War
We’re going to see a lot more of this in 2026. I suspect by the end of the year, standard “Performance” and “Fidelity” modes will be mandatory for most third-party ports.
Here’s my hot take: Always choose performance.
Especially on a handheld screen. I tried playing Origins in the high-fidelity mode (which locks to 30fps with better shadows/lighting), and while it looks crisp, the input latency feels like wading through molasses compared to the unlocked mode. In a game where you’re mashing buttons to execute combos, that millisecond delay is the difference between a perfect block and getting juggled by Lu Bu.
The variable mode, even with its fluctuations, offers a responsiveness that the Switch library has desperately lacked. I’d rather have a game that looks a bit softer but responds instantly than a pretty screenshot that feels sluggish.
Omega Force: The Ultimate Stress Test
It’s funny that Dynasty Warriors is the canary in the coal mine for this. Omega Force has a reputation for brute-forcing their games onto hardware that has no business running them. Remember Dynasty Warriors 9 on base PS4? A disaster.
But that makes Origins the perfect benchmark for the Switch 2. If this console can handle a thousand units on screen with an unlocked frame rate and not melt, we’re in a good spot for the rest of the generation. It proves the CPU upgrade isn’t just a minor bump—it’s a generational leap.
I spent about four hours messing with the settings yesterday, toggling between locked and variable during the busiest battles I could find. My verdict? The variable option is messy, erratic, and absolutely the only way to play.
It feels raw. It feels like the hardware is sweating. But it also feels fast.
The Verdict
This isn’t just about one game. It’s about trust. Nintendo (and their partners) are finally trusting us to decide how we want our games to run.
For years, the argument against Switch ports was “it runs poorly and I can’t fix it.” Now, the argument is “it runs poorly, but I can tweak it.” Okay, maybe that’s not the best sales pitch, but for those of us who obsess over frame times and refresh rates, it’s a huge win.
If Dynasty Warriors: Origins is setting the standard, I’m cautiously optimistic. Just do yourself a favor: if you’re playing docked, make sure your TV supports VRR. Otherwise, get ready for some serious screen tearing. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
