As mentioned above, the number of images displayed on the screen per second is given in Hertz. So a 60 Hz monitor will show 60 images in a second and a 120 Hz monitor will refresh and show 120 images.
- What is the best refresh rate for gaming?
- Best refresh rate for high-tier competitive gaming
- 240 to 360Hz
- What Does “Refresh Rate” Mean?
- What Qualifies as a “High” Refresh Rate?
- What is Good Refresh Rate for Gaming?
- Do You Need 75Hz or 144 Hz or 240Hz Monitor?
- Is a Higher Refresh Rate Better for Gaming?
- Is 60Hz Good for Gaming?
- What Does It Mean?
- What Is The Best Refresh Rate For Gaming?
- What Monitor Should I Choose When Upgrading?
- Final Word
- Do I Need Over 60 Hertz?
- Is It Worth Going For 144Hz Or 240Hz?
- Input response
- Do you need really need a 120Hz or 240Hz monitor?
What is the best refresh rate for gaming?
When creating a gaming PC, designers spend hours searching for the perfect components that will provide the best performance within their budget. Smooth frame rates and playing games without stuttering or freezing are usually top goals for anyone looking to put together a gaming rig.
With a high-end gaming PC, you’ll be able to play your favorite games at higher frames per second, which allows you to use monitors with high refresh rates. A high refresh rate monitor will make games look smoother and have a faster response time in most cases, allowing you to react faster in certain situations.
High refresh rate monitors may seem like a nice addition to your gaming setup at first glance, but once you step into the world of higher refresh rates you may never be able to go back. Games will start to run faster and smoother as the screen redraws faster.
The higher your monitor’s refresh rate, the smoother your gaming experience will be, but this may not always be the best option for everyone. From a competitive point of view, a 360 Hz monitor will outperform a 144 Hz monitor every day of the week. There are several aspects to consider before purchasing a high refresh rate monitor. This will define the optimal refresh rate that your system can handle.
Based on a pure spec, there will always be the best monitor, but the question is whether the monitor will fit your system. This will be one of the deciding factors when it comes to choosing the right monitor. If you’re looking for the best refresh rate for gaming, you’ll need to test your system’s limits with your favorite games and make a decision based on your results. It will be equally problematic to go overboard or a weak option.
Best refresh rate for high-tier competitive gaming
240 to 360Hz
Most competing monitors limit the range from 240 Hz to 360 Hz. If you are a competitive gamer and your system can achieve FPS higher than 240 in your favorite game, this series monitor will be the best choice for you.
However, it doesn’t matter if you manage to get these frames when you look at the wall. You should be able to average over 240 frames, which corresponds to your monitor’s refresh rate, so you can get the most out of your monitor. You will still be able to use the monitor, but you may not average the required frames. It will also be cheaper to choose a monitor with a lower refresh rate.
Resolution also affects the image quality of the monitor and the type of hardware needed. A 4K resolution monitor requires a more powerful graphics card than a Full HD gaming monitor.
What Does “Refresh Rate” Mean?
The term “refresh rate” is used to describe the number of times a monitor is updated in one second. This is measured in hertz (Hz), with most regular monitors designed for office use having a refresh rate of 60 Hz, although higher refresh rates are increasingly being used.
All displays use this metric whether you can see it on the box or not. This is true for smartphones and tablets, most of which use 60Hz displays. Manufacturers are quick to point to higher refresh rate models that use 90Hz displays (such as Google’s Pixel 5), although some manufacturers such as Apple hide this number behind marketing terms such as “ProMotion” which is used to describe the display iPad Pro 120 Hz.
Apple
Even TVs now have higher refresh rates thanks to 120Hz pressure from the Microsoft Xbox Series and Sony PlayStation 5. These gaming machines use the high bandwidth provided by the HDMI 2.1 standard to run some 4K games with HDR at 120Hz.
What Qualifies as a “High” Refresh Rate?
A standard desktop monitor, budget smartphone, or entry-level TV will have a refresh rate of around 60 to 75Hz. This is fine for most activities, including browsing the internet, browsing social media, or playing games in a non-competitive environment.
In general, anything above 120Hz qualifies as a “high” refresh rate display as it is higher than the established standard of 60Hz. There is no hard definition of what qualifies as “high” and some may interpret this differently.
120Hz gaming has taken the spotlight with the arrival of the next generation of consoles in 2020. Most TVs produced around launch still ship with 60Hz panels, but we expect more models to be sold with panels that flicker at 120Hz (and HDMI). 2.1 ports, which are essential for 4K gaming at higher refresh rates).
Asus
The next step for PC gamers is 144Hz monitors. The question of why 144 Hz is a magic number has many theories, including marketing, the fact that 144 Hz is a multiple of 24 (with 24p being a cinematic frame rate), and DVI bandwidth limitations. Many 144Hz monitors can be ‘tweaked’ to 165Hz by simply forcing a refresh rate in your display settings.
Premium 240Hz and 360Hz monitors such as the ASUS ROG Swift PG259QN. At this stage, many players are not able to tell the difference between the two, although lower latency on the higher end may be beneficial.
Most competing monitors limit the range from 240 Hz to 360 Hz. If you are a competitive gamer and your system can achieve FPS higher than 240 in your favorite game, this series monitor will be the best choice for you.
What is Good Refresh Rate for Gaming?
Good gaming monitors typically offer refresh rates above 75Hz. Display manufacturers are struggling to produce monitors with higher refresh rates like 75Hz, 120Hz, 144Hz, 240Hz etc to improve user experience .
This wide range of options can be very confusing to the player. This is one of the reasons FPS gamers always worry about refresh rates when comparing the performance of 75Hz and 144Hz monitors to determine which one offers better gameplay.
The best place for PC gaming is a 1440p monitor with a refresh rate of 144 Hz.
Do You Need 75Hz or 144 Hz or 240Hz Monitor?
If you are purchasing a gaming monitor, it is important to choose higher refresh rates than upgrading to 4K for smoother gaming without the teardrop effect.
As for the ideal refresh rate, there is no mentioned rule for determining the best frequency. For over a decade, 144Hz remained the standard refresh rate for gaming monitors.
Even though the monitors now come with the excellent refresh rates of 240Hz, the 144Hz monitor is still considered ideal for gaming. If you’re going to be doing ultra-fast stuff, 240Hz is the next and possibly the best option for you.
However, in some cases, a 75 Hz monitor is the best choice for gaming. For the occasional gamer who can’t buy extravagantly, the 75Hz monitor is a much cheaper and natural choice.
Also, not all games are demanding on framerate and refresh rate, so if you fall into the framerate gamer category, a 75Hz (or even the standard 60Hz) monitor is a welcome choice.
While you always run the risk of screen tearing with frames per second above the refresh rate, that’s only up to a point. In games like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, where the frame rate is often around 100fps, there are more and smaller tears. A single tear is easy to see, but several smaller tears are not recorded for most people.
Is a Higher Refresh Rate Better for Gaming?
Playing at a high refresh rate can make a huge difference to your gaming experience. These Xbox One X monitors we reviewed before are prime examples. Fast refresh rates are especially important in dynamic action where every frame counts. However, just getting 144Hz or 240fps monitors is not enough to enjoy fast performance.
Your system should be able to handle these frame rates so that you can make good use of the higher refresh rates.
Is 60Hz Good for Gaming?
A monitor with a refresh rate of 60 Hz displays 60 images per second. Some gamers consider this framerate to be adequate performance. An advanced graphics card is not needed for a gaming monitor (click here to see the best 32 inch gaming monitors) to deliver 60fps in Full HD resolution. For this reason, monitors with a refresh rate of 60Hz are fine for novice gamers.
Simple titles like Minecraft, with a minimal number of characters moving, work fine at 60Hz. Moreover, adventure games like Red Dead Redemption and Batman: Arkham Asylum run smoothly at this pace.
Before purchasing monitors with high refresh rates, it is important to test your system with your favorite games. Load your favorite titles and play a few rounds with software that displays your frames, such as MSI Afterburner.
What Does It Mean?
You must have seen 120 Hz or 240 Hz written on the nameplate and you could have linked that to something related to performance. But isn’t it the same. Frequency basically tells you how often your screen is refreshed. The refresh rate is the amount of time the display actually refreshes the data displayed on the screen per second. You are seeing motion because of the difference in the output image on the screen as it is happening so fast that you cannot see the screen flickering.
Most gamers or consumers confuse the refresh rate with the frame rate. But they are both different. The refresh rate is the monitor’s ability, while the frame rate depends on the game or software that sends data to the monitor for projection.
Having a higher refresh rate than the frame rate is good as your monitor will be able to handle the data it receives at high speed. However, a higher frame rate than the refresh rate can be a problem because the monitor does not render the data at the same rate that the program sends it. This may cause stuttering or flickering while playing.
What Is The Best Refresh Rate For Gaming?
Motion blur is one of the biggest problems faced by most gamers on their screens. The best way to deal with this problem is to increase the refresh rate. This does not mean, however, that increasing her to a very large figure is the best way. Monitors with a refresh rate of 60H, 120Hz, 144Hz, and 240Hz are common in the market, but 120Hz is the best and most optimal refresh rate for a smooth gaming experience.
Most games, online casino games that are not included, such as games with no deposit bonus on registration, or movies are shot at 40-60 frames per second. The maximum number of games can exceed the limit of a hundred, but still 120 Hz is more than enough to very easily play even advanced and newest games. Lots of brands claim their monitors have a refresh rate of 240Hz, but this is roughly just an upgrade to 120Hz with the help of some extras. Most monitors use image processing to improve motion quality and add frames to slightly improve quality and brand their product as 240Hz monitors.
You should not fall for such scams. Not only that, after a while, displaying more frames per second does not make much difference, and the lower number of frames per second reduces the quality of the game. This makes the 120Hz refresh rate the most optimal refresh rate for any high-end game.
In any case, 120Hz gaming monitors are hard to come by, and since 144Hz monitors are so affordable these days, it would be silly not to recommend them.
What Monitor Should I Choose When Upgrading?
If you have a 60Hz monitor and want to upgrade it, with so little performance difference between 120Hz and 144Hz, choosing the former isn’t the worst thing in the world, especially if you can’t afford the 144Hz option. However, if you can afford a 144Hz monitor, you should definitely invest your money in one.
If you’re currently using a 144Hz monitor and are considering upgrading to 240Hz, you just need to make sure you have computer power to take advantage of the higher hertz. Be sure to check what FPS you expect in the specific settings of your games, otherwise buying a higher frequency monitor could be a waste of money or require you to spend even more cash. Besides, they are worth investing in and they will give you a slight advantage in the competitive sphere.
Final Word
Do I Need Over 60 Hertz?
144Hz should be considered the norm for any gamer who doesn’t want to play 4K. The cost of 144Hz monitors has been dropping year on year, and some great options available for less than $ 200 have finally started to show. Anything less will show a significant difference in performance and the game experience when it comes to responsiveness.
As for 240Hz, it’s a big investment and only worthwhile if you have a GPU that can handle the high performance required to pump out 240 FPS in select games. This is especially true when playing FPS games such as CS: GO, PUBG, or BF5.
You can check out our guide to the best 240Hz monitors and learn more about G-Sync and V-Sync at the end.
Is It Worth Going For 144Hz Or 240Hz?
It depends on the games you play and what you expect from your hardware. Competitive players like it fast and very accurate, any noticeable delay can cause a miss or slower reaction. CS: GO gamers surely know that this statement is quite accurate and accurate, but needless to say, if you’re serious about competition, go for a faster refresh rate monitor.
Where it gets a bit more difficult, it sits at the ends of the gaming PC spectrum. If you’re on a budget or just playing casually, a monitor with a fast refresh rate is unlikely to make any difference to your gaming experience. 4K gamers can also choose 60Hz, simply because 60fps at max settings isn’t the easiest thing to achieve unless you have a god-like system and 60fps is a much easier value for G-Sync / Freesync to work. While there are 4K gaming monitors with fast refresh rates, this is a relatively new idea and comes at an incredibly high cost.
We analyzed the key differences between 60Hz, 120Hz, 144Hz and 240Hz to finally answer which monitor is best for gaming. Of course, the answer is not as black and white as we would like, but when is that in the tech world?
The bottom line to pick up is that if you’re a competitive gamer who loves fast and responsive hardware, you can’t go wrong with a faster refresh rate monitor. It’s worth noting, however, that you will need to make sure your PC can handle the update, but many will find it a small price to pay for that advantage over the competition.
What is the refresh rate for a gaming monitor? Did you notice the dramatic difference between 60 Hz and 144 Hz? Drop us a comment below or head over to the WePC community to share with the team.
The 120Hz monitor displays 120 images per second, which is a marked difference to the previous two refresh rates. This monitor displays an image approximately once every eight milliseconds.
Input response
Aurelien Meunier / FIFA / Getty Images
The monitor refresh rate has an effect on the input lag. For example, a 60Hz display will never have a visible delay of less than 16.67 milliseconds because that is how long it takes from one refresh to the next. The 120 Hz display cuts this time in half to 8.33 ms, and the 240 Hz display further cuts it to 4.16 ms.
Reducing latency by less than 10 ms may seem insignificant, and for many people – even gamers – it is not. However, the lag may be worth eliminating for very competitive games or for those who like to keep games as smooth as possible. Once again, this is a problem that some people will notice more easily than others.
Note here that the refresh rate has nothing to do with input lag. Every time you click the mouse or press a key, your computer continues to receive and process them at the same pace. The refresh rate just has to do with how quickly you see the result of your action on the screen, putting your entire input chain at risk.
Do you need really need a 120Hz or 240Hz monitor?
We believe that switching to a high refresh rate monitor will be more meaningful to gamers than switching to 4K, as doing both can be quite costly and also a burden on your hardware. 120Hz or 144Hz displays provide smoother gameplay with no tearing and less input lag. This improved performance is especially beneficial in games where fast input is essential to winning, and in games with competitive fighters or shooters including Fortnite, Overwatch, Mortal Kombat, and others in these genres.
You’ll likely be more fortunate enough to find a good monitor at a physical store rather than on the Internet.
The best way to understand how this feature works is to physically watch the motion demonstrations on the screens in a real store. This way, you will be able to make a more informed decision about whether or not to upgrade.
Unless you’re a gamer, higher refresh rates provide an almost imperceptible change in overall system performance. It will make your desktop look smoother when surfing the web, but otherwise you won’t see much improvement. Televisions with 120 Hz or 240 Hz panels further improve the quality of traffic thanks to image processors that alter the input signal. Some can even add frames, which increases the speed of content playback. In contrast, monitors usually do not have a CPU, which minimizes the benefits of the panel when viewing video content. The improved refresh rate also does not guarantee the elimination of “sprites.”
Ultimately, we believe dedicated gamers will surely benefit from upgrading their systems with high refresh rate displays. If you are not an avid gamer, there are many features to better meet your non-gamer desires.