Starch RVA profile parameters serve as important indices in the estimation of rice cooking and eating quality. Four cold- tolerant and five cold-sensitive japonica rice varieties grown at 3 different altitudes in Yunnan plateau were used in this experiments. RVA parameters including peak viscosity(PKV), hot viscosity(HTV), final viscosity(FLV), breakdown viscosity(BDV), setback viscosity(SBV) and pasting temperature(PaT) were investigated. SBV and PaT of cold tolerant varieties and PKV, BDV and SBV of cold-sensitive varieties were significantly influenced by environments. The variances of RVA parameters were affected by genotype×environment interactions in cold tolerant and sensitive varieties. The coefficients of variation of RVA parameters except for SBV in cold tolerant varieties were lower than those in cold sensitive varieties. HTV, FLV and SBV of cold tolerant varieties were significantly lower, while PKV, BDV and PaT were significantly higher than those of cold sensitive varieties. With altitude increasing, SBV and PaT of cold sensitive varieties increased significantly, whereas PKV, HTV, FLV and BDV decreased significantly. However, PKV, BDV and PaT of cold tolerant varieties gradually increased while HTV, FLV and SBV increased and then gradually decreased with altitude rising. These results suggested that cooking and eating quality would be improved by improving cold tolerance of rice varieties in breeding program.