It’s all well and good having a beastlygaming PC, but a lot of that performance is wasted if you’re not getting the most fromyour monitor. If you’ve had your monitor for a while then you might not know its exact specifications or you might be wondering what its refresh rate is or how you find out.
Perhaps you aren’t even sure why refresh rate matters and are just happily gaming away with default settings without a second thought. Well, we’re here to help with everything you could possibly need to know about refresh rates, how to change them, and why they’re so important.
What is a refresh rate?
At a basic level, the refresh rate is about how quickly your monitor can display a new image. When you’re gaming, the visuals from the game are sent from yourgaming PC(or console) to your monitor. As the scene changes, that needs to change on the screen too.
A higher refresh rate means the monitor is able to quickly change and show what’s next. This is important when you’re playingfast-paced modern games, where any slowdown in your system or latency can result in you losing a game or missing a shot you should have otherwise won.
Basic monitors usually have a refresh rate of around 60Hz, which means they can display 60 images, or frames, per second. More expensive gaming monitors will have 120Hz, 240Hz, 360Hz or higher. However, just buying one of those monitors doesn’t mean it’ll run at that refresh rate as standard. You need to change some settings in Windows first.
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Why does the refresh rate matter?
You probably already know that when it comes to gaming, the higher the FPS, the better.
If your gaming PC can run games with high FPS (frames per second) then you’ll likely have a smoother experience. But if you have a high FPS game and are only running a low refresh rate monitor then you’re missing out as you’re essentially creating a bottleneck.
If you’ve spent big money on a high-end PC with a decentmodern graphics cardthat’s pumping out hundreds of frames per second but then you’re limiting yourself to 60Hz refresh rate then you’re not feeling the benefits.
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How to check your monitor’s refresh rate
The good news is that it’s fairly easy to check your monitor’s refresh rate. Sometimes you’ll find there are hardware settings on your monitor that you’ll need to access via the menus but for the most part, you can find out what your refresh rate is directly from Windows.
First, you need to open your Windows display settings:
This will display the refresh rate your monitor and computer are currently set to. It usually defaults to 60Hz, even if your monitor technically has a higher refresh rate.
If you see a drop-down here click it and see if there are any other options for refresh rate. If your monitor is capable of more then you should be able to select a higher rate from here too. For example, you might be able to choose from 120Hz or 240Hz options.
It’s worth noting that some monitors require certain cables to run at their maximum refresh rate. Depending on your monitor specs you may need either a DisplayPort cable or HDMI cable for the best results. Higher-spec cables likeHDMI 2.1(for example) can support higher refresh rates in some instances. But it depends on your PC and the monitor specs.
If you find you can’t access the display settings by the method above don’t worry as there are other options.
You can also access refresh rate settings via Nvidia’s control panel:
Alternatively:
What’s your current refresh rate?
There’s a neat online tool you can use to check your current refresh rate without even clicking settings in Windows. All you have to do is visitthis website, and it should show your refresh rate right away.
The downside to this method is that it only shows you your current refresh rate, not the maximum setting, and you can’t use it to change your refresh rate.
Turn on G-Sync or FreeSync
If you are making the most of your refresh rate then you’ll also want to check to verify you are getting the best performance too.
Many modern monitors will support either Nvidia G-Sync or AMD FreeSync. This is a technology that ensures that the refresh rates of your monitor match your GPU. This reduces screen tearing problems, stuttering and more - ensuring a smooth gaming experience and the best possible results from your equipment.
We’ve written abouthow to enable G-Sync on your monitor, so be sure to head over and read that before you carry on.
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What about latency?
If you’re considering your refresh rate, you might also want to think about your system latency. Effectively, this is how long it takes for the screen to display the information that’s coming from your PC, as opposed to how fast the display can change what it is currently displaying.
If you have a fast refresh rate monitor then you also want to make sure you have the least amount of latency so you’re able to stay ahead of the competition in online games. There are various things you can do about latency including working out how much latency you have in your gaming PC and reducing it.
If you use an Nvidia GPU, then Nvidia Reflex is a handy tool to turn to for this and we’ve writtena detailed guide on it that you may check out here. AMD has a similar product, called Radeon Anti-Lagm which you can learn .
