60hz vs 100hz vs 144hz vs 240hz Monitors: The Complete Comparison

60hz vs 100hz vs 144hz vs 240hz Monitors, the refresh rate is significant for gaming. However, there is a point of diminishing returns when it stops making as much sense. Also, the higher the refresh rate, the more powerful your PC needs to be.

The primary difference between all the refresh rates is how smooth your game can be when taking advantage of the full refresh rate.

However, you need to consider what resolution your monitor is set at and whether your PC will be able to consistently reach up to the highest resolutions in frames per second.

Now we will talk about a topic that’s becoming more and more relevant. This is when it makes sense to upgrade from 60 Hz to 144 Hz.

60hz vs 100hz vs 144hz vs 240hz Monitors

Refresh rate is like the life-cycles of insects and other living creatures. So often we talk about how the continual movement can cause us to appear old or sickly when in reality it just means that our lives were never meant to be taken for granted.

The higher the refresh rate, the more frames per second (FPS) your monitor can comfortably display. However, it’s up to you to make sure that your PC is set up properly and delivers those frames at a steady pace since it all depends on the processing power of your GPU.

When an image of a moving object is updated more frequently, researchers can more accurately measure the speed and acceleration of an object, because more smaller movements will be captured”

With a high refresh rate, like 144 Hz, the frames still get to your eyes within 16.67 milliseconds of each other.

That means that the input from your mouse is only missed by the monitor when you happen to move it between two frames being displayed to you.

This also means that opponents in competitive games like CSGO or anything similar will appear on your screen sooner. This gives you more time to react and possibly adjust your strategy accordingly.

If you’re into competitive multiplayer gaming and have a limited budget to build your computer then having a high refresh rate monitor would certainly be one of the more viable options as it will eliminate any potential tearing or jittering while allowing all games, applications and media to run flawlessly with an astounding visual performance.

If you are only playing single-player, story turned titles then I wouldn’t recommend going for a high-end monitor.

If this describes your situation though then I would recommend sticking to your standard LCD because getting something high end like that might be both overkill and not all that useful to you.

144hz monitors may not be all that more expensive these days, but at max graphical settings in single-player games, you are less likely to come anywhere near 144 FPS.

Increasing graphics settings will give you a boost of around 15 fps average, which means you’d need a 144 0125Hz monitor to get closer to your goal.

You can also take the extra money that you save on scaling down from 144hz to 60hz and reinvest that into you monitor setup as well. This will help provide better visual quality when it comes to image rendering while playing games.

When playing single player games, a rough idea of the strategy behind the level is usually enough to get started.

In competitive multiplayer games however, you can only improve by testing out new strategies and mining resources faster than everyone else in order to win.

The jump from 60Hz to 144Hz is said to be one of the greatest leaps a PC gamer can make because of how much better a 144Hz monitor makes games feel – detailed motion instead of blur, motion-blur reduction, sharper and clearer images with less ghosting and smearing.

The movement delay between the player character and their reflection in a mobile game I once played can be broken down into two parts.

The difference in lag between 60-hertz and 144-hertz is 16.67 milliseconds, while the latter requires 6.94 milliseconds of additional latency on top of that.

One can easily calculate this by using the following formula:

1 / Refresh Rate = Time Between Frames

Every 1 second the image on a 60hz monitor refreshes by 60 times (60 updates) whereas this number is up to 120+ for 120hz monitors, which means that you see every single change 120ms faster than someone with a regular monitor.

This also helps us understand why the difference between 144-hertz and 240-hertz isn’t as noticeable.

At nearly double the amount of frames per second, a 240-hertz display provides images that are smoother than standard 60 fps displays because it eliminates any visible flickering or motion blur.

This is especially beneficial for users who are susceptible to seizures triggered by rapid repeating light patterns such as those produced by LCDs.

One of the most significant benefits of having a higher refresh rate is that nothing in your game slows down which can make a big difference when you’re playing fast-paced games like Rainbow Six Siege, Counterstrike: Global Offensive, or Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds.

In most cases, anything below 144Hz won’t noticeably affect your gameplay performance but on rare occasions having a higher refresh rate will give you an advantage.

The only refresh rate left as of late that we haven’t discussed is 100hz, weighing in at ten milliseconds between every frame.

I have a monitor with a refresh rate of 100 Hz. It definitely feels smoother than 60 Hz monitors when I am able to achieve it!

On the other hand, in a couple of my favorite games, I can rarely run a 100 FPS at just 1440p with medium to high graphical settings.

I think this could be a great resolution for those who play lots of multiplayer games, as well as those who play all alone.

If you have a regular 1080p or especially if your resolution is 1440p, this wouldn’t be very difficult of an FPS to reach to get a much smoother feeling game.

In addition to these positive attributes, they also tend be less expensive than 144Hz monitors so you can save that extra money for things like your monitor investment or keeping a rainy day fund set aside.

Whenever I play a game that’s running at 60fps, it just never seems as smooth to me and doesn’t have the same addictive feel as when it runs at 100fps.

Now we are going to go into greater detail and break down each refresh rate even more. Some of the new options that have become very popular in recent times include:

Are 60hz Monitors Good For Gaming?

60Hz monitors can be ideal for certain types of gaming, although it is not recommended if you take your gaming seriously.

60hz monitors can provide an experience that is perfectly smooth in single-player games and simulation/strategy games which don’t require much in terms of reaction time.

They are also great for racing games, although high refresh rate monitors can be even better.

Some of the highest response time displays are built for hardcore gamers so they may benefit from a higher refresh rate than a typical consumer monitor.

60hz monitors are our best budget choice when it comes to monitors for gaming. Seeing as how no-one really needs a higher Hz than 60, this means that 60hz monitors are extremely affordable today.

It’s easy to get blown away with the sheer amount of different models that exist on the market when you’re PC shopping. You’ll find screens nowadays as low as $100, so if you are on a budget I recommend looking for an IPS monitor with a 1080p resolution.

1080p has a standard Vertical Scan Rate of 60Hz (the number of times each second that your monitor can draw the picture on the screen). You can expect to reach this FPS without too much effort as long as you don’t go overboard when it comes to visual tweaks.

You can get high quality visuals for gaming, and since movies are filmed in 24 FPS and often shown at 60hz, you’ll have no problems watching movies on these monitors.

You can get high quality visuals for gaming and since movies are filmed in 24 FPS and often shown at 60hz, you’ll have no problems watching movies on these monitors.

TN panels are the worst when it comes to color accuracy, viewing angles and overall lifespan, but they are usually the cheapest.

They come with serious disadvantages, partly because of their poor quality, but because you should always opt for a monitor with a Motion Blur Reduction setting if your main occupation is to work on graphic applications! Fortunately we can learn from our mistakes and choose better next time.

Are 144-hertz Monitors Worth It?

144Hz monitors are an amazing option for gaming, and most likely the best choice overall.

They are quickly becoming popular in the gaming community because they offer the screen refresh rate that gamers need to get an immersive experience so they can forget about their surroundings.

However, with the increase in price from around $60 to around $150, it is fair to wonder if you’re really getting a better product for this new price.

144Hz monitors are awesome for gaming, but chances are if you’re not running on a tight budget, buying the 144Hz display might be out of reach.

We want to remind you again of the importance of an SSD upgrade. This is most definitely one of the BEST upgrades you can make to your setup. An SSD will:

Games are much smoother to play on high-end PCs with frames per second that hit the sweet spot of 144.

If the PC you’re currently using is incapable of operating at 144 FPS, it may be best to hold off on a 144-hertz monitor since more power than that may not even be necessary.

Perhaps you might be tempted to get a 144-Hz monitor and gradually build your PC from the inside out until it lasts no more than 10 minutes at that benchmark rate, but if you’re on a budget it may be much wiser to select the 60 Hz option instead.

To see the visual differences in 60hz and 144hz, watch this video that demonstrates how important refresh rate is to games.

Whether you’re playing a match with your friends or against strangers, it’s easy to see the appeal of seeing exactly how other players are doing on their end. Being able to track their movements, however – even if they’re right in front of us or simply within range – is something that can be difficult to do unless our equipment is capable enough.

It will take some time to get used to one’s eyes adjusting to the much smoother FPS caused by high refresh rate monitors.

However, many studies performed by component manufacturers reveal that higher frames per second increase win rates.

Movies that are made with the intention of being shown at 24 FPS is because they are shot with film in mind – a medium that is often projected at 24 frames per second.

However, many modern movies are filmed at a faster rate of speed. This may be excessive for some people and might cause you physical discomfort.

Wrapping up this section, if you are a competitive PC gamer with 144Hz and a high-end PC that can reach near 200 FPS, I would recommend getting a 144Hz monitor.

If you are a competitive PC gamer looking for the best combination of performance and rich features, I would recommend the ASUS VG248QE.

It makes games look great on its 24-inch 1080p display and it also delivers 144Hz refresh rate and 1ms response time, which is currently found in very few monitors on the market.

Are 240-hertz Monitors Worth It?

Now we are starting to get to the point of diminishing returns.

Turning on a 240 Hertz monitor won’t affect performance, but it will feel like a whole new world for your eyes when you see how much easier it is to interpret the smooth movements and increased responsiveness of the graphics.

You can get 144-hertz monitors for $200 less than 240-hertz monitors and most of the time, you will not be able to see any difference between the two; there’s also a chance that you might actually get better visual quality or extra features for your money.

It’s highly unlikely that anyone is able to play 1080p and reach the FPS that is mentioned in the advert. This is because you have to have a heavy spec PC and it isn’t likely that anyone has this level of computer if they’re looking at buying one of your products.

If you already have a 144-hertz monitor, you might be wondering what the point of getting a 240-hertz one is. After all, wouldn’t it just look the same to your naked eye?

Since the time between frames is as low as 2ms compared to the typical 10 they way it moves feels very smooth and seamless.

If you are a high-level competitive gamer with an unlimited build budget, I would advise you to buy a 240 hertz monitor. Otherwise, a slow-refresh display is worth the investment for its price and utility.

Are 360-hertz Monitors Worth It?

If only the best of the best could reach 240 FPS, you need a NASA level computer to get 360 FPS in any game.

The same goes for getting from idea to market: if your prototype fails or if you struggle to iterate, your product won’t make it off the ground.

Not to mention, if you can get this in games like “CSGO” or any other well-optimized, low intensive game it is likely the graphical quality will be relatively low.

If you’re looking for a monitor that will last you for the long term, opt for monitors that support a higher refresh rate. Getting to enjoy fluid graphics in games or videos without stutters is ultimately a win-win scenario.

There would be no other reasonable refresh rate you would need, and any PC upgrade you made would be fully optimized by the refresh rate.

There aren’t any disadvantages to overbuying refresh rate other than price.

Having a monitor with a very high ceiling might even be good since you won’t need V-Sync on, nor will you experience screen tearing.

Screen tearing occurs when the monitor’s refresh rate can’t keep up with its vertical sync, which won’t be a problem for these monitors.

V-sync is only for when you’re exceeding your monitor’s maximum refresh rate. And once turned on, it will definitely increase input lag. Luckily, this isn’t a problem with 360-hertz monitors right now.

Lastly, like both a Ferrari & Crocs®, if you’re going to pay hundreds of dollars for a monitor, then cheaper isn’t always better.

When buying an expensive 360-hertz monitor , 60hz vs 100hz vs 144hz vs 240hz Monitors take a look at its reviews before committing to the purchase. The last thing you want is to invest in a $700 monitor that has poor image quality or inferior color accuracy.

Technically, you won’t be able to get a 4k or 1440p monitor with this technology right now as all available models are limited to 1080p, making it one drawback of the 360-hertz refresh rate technology.

Resolution also affects pixels which exist on-screen – typically more pixels means better quality , because each pixel will have some room (width, height) to breathe and make things look sharp enough.

The problem is that with more pixels, your GPU has more work to do, which means that it simply won’t be possible to reach even 240 FPS at 1440p.

With that being said, this is the ultimate buy for anyone who does not want to buy another monitor for a long time. And if you have that kind of money to shell out. This isn’t as much of an option as a necessity.

IMPORTANT: What Refresh Rate Does HDMI Support?

If you are using an HDMI 1.4, your HDMI can display a max refresh rate, which varies depending on the resolution

These are the refresh rates for each resolution on HDMI 1.4 cables:

1080p	144-hertz
1440p	75-hertz
2160p (4K)	30-hertz

The refresh rates HDMI 1.4 supports.

These are the refresh rates for each resolution on HDMI 2.0 Cables:

1080p	240-hertz
1440p	144-hertz
2160p (4K)	60-hertz

The refresh rates HDMI 2.0 supports.

These are the refresh rates for each resolution for Display port 1.4:

1080p	240-hertz
1440p	240-hertz
2160p (4K)	120-hertz

When buying a display monitor, make sure you look for information on the ports. Are you going to be able to use all of them? If not, are there adapters that will go with your new model?

I’ve seen tons of people return products because the item they purchased didn’t start malfunctioning until they tried to use it with the incorrect cable.

Refresh Rate Vs. Response Time

I can completely understand the confusion that comes from some confusing computer terms because there are so many of them to try and learn at any point.

And we understand why some visitors may be confused. 60hz vs 100hz vs 144hz vs 240hz Monitors But there’s a big difference between a monitor’s refresh rate and its response time-which is the time it takes to switch images on the screen once you’ve started moving or clicking something.

The refresh rate is the number of times in a second that a monitor can display an image.

The response time is the number of seconds it takes a monitor, such as an LCD screen, to change from one color to another.

Both resolution and frame rate are vital features to any gaming experience, so many game developers make sure to prominently display those specifications on their product’s sales page.

Ghosting is like a dark trail of color that follows around moving objects in a game or movie. Poor monitor settings are responsible for creating ghosting because the monitor’s refresh rate cannot keep up with what’s happening in the game or video.

If a monitor has a 1ms or less response time, it will be 3x faster than one with a 5ms response time. This means that the image shown on screen is more responsive to your changes and becomes clear instantly without any lag.

Refresh Rate is similar to frames per second or fps in video games. The higher the number of frames per second, the smoother the gameplay experience will ultimately be.

The higher the refresh rate, the smoother your gameplay will be. A high refresh rate is important for competitive FPS games that require quick reflexes and response time.

Or, in the case of 240-hertz and 360-hertz monitors, if you can reach even 144-hertz, the game will look and feel much better than 60hz. *Technically 144 Hz is not twice as fast as 60HZ.

Refresh Rate Vs. FPS

This example is another measurement that new PC gamers might confuse, which is entirely understandable since the two are often used in the same sentence when referring to displaying measurement.

60hz vs 100hz vs 144hz vs 240hz Monitors, the refresh rate is how many times your monitor can redraw itself in a span of 1 second.

FPS is the acronym for frames-per-second and measures how many frames per second your graphics card can output in a single second.

Although a refresh rate can be shown as FPS, it means something different. A refresh rate is measured in Hertz (Hz), which is the number of times your monitor is drawn an image per second.

The refresh rate is typically a fixed value that a monitor is built to run consistently. Whereas with frames per second, it changes based on the power of one’s computer.

A game’s FPS (frames per second) logs the revolutions of your computer processor. During scenes in a game that are slow, such as ones with little objects visible on screen, your FPS will typically rise.

Call of Duty Cold War gave me an excellent example recently because the Desert map has so few locations that it minimizes the graphics engine processing power required to render those few locations, resulting in an average FPS rate of about 130 for me.

Although I have chosen to play on the Miami map, FPS can drop when there are dramatic effects such as an explosion or fire starting near me.

Another good demonstration is CSGO vs. Battlefield. CSGO, when using low settings, is an easy game to get optimal performance on when you’re looking at FPS rates and resolution.

CSGO, however, is still an incredibly fast-paced FPS as even on lower settings it’s still capable of running at such a high frame rate that you’re never able to reach anywhere near the level of performance offered by Battlefield 1.

CSGO is a simpler game than Battlefield. CSGO has much fewer pretty graphics and little detail in the maps, whereas Battlefield has a variety of detailed maps and environments which are unique to the game.

FPS will change depending on various PC hardware, for example if you have a 1070ti card and decide to upgrade to the new 2070 super, one might see an increase in FPS.

Less powerful graphics cards cost less, but are limited in their ability to render frames and thus can strain your system resources resulting in the user interface and frame rate dropping.

What Is Variable Refresh Rate?

Variable refresh rate is a special kind of technology that will match the refresh rate of your monitor to the FPS in-game. This ensures the smoothest experience possible and eliminates visible screen tearing.

The benefit of this is you can remove screen tearing, whilst not having to deal with the other stuff that might happen when V-sync is enabled.

The most annoying predicament for gamers is when the game lags because the GPU (graphics card) can’t deliver a frame in time.

Variable refresh rate technology was created to solve the problem of screen tearing and minimizes display stuttering that occurs when the frame rate of your game exceeds the maximum refresh rate of your monitor.

If you are using a laptop, there may be an option to choose between an HDMI or DisplayPort connection.

You will need an adapter if you are trying to plug into a tv and a display that uses the other type of cable. To see our adapter options, click here.

This technology has also been built in to monitors that support it, and if so there is a unique identifier for identifying the VRR standard.

There are currently two types of graphics cards with VR capacity. It can either be a G-Sync or a Free Sync.

Free Sync technology allows the GPU and the monitor to synchronize the refresh rates of their display so that each frame displayed is displayed for the best visual experience, instead of freezing or tearing between frames.

You will see many more monitors with Free Sync over G-Sync, and typically they will even be cheaper.

Free Sync is available to users of Nvidia graphics cards too, 60hz vs 100hz vs 144hz vs 240hz Monitors but only if their monitors have adaptive refresh ranges between 40Hz and 75Hz and within a 40-millisecond window.

Even if you don’t have a compatible Free Sync monitor or graphics card, there are ways to use NVIDIA graphics cards with a Free Sync monitor.

NVIDIA’s G-Sync is a type of variable refresh rate that originally was only available for use with NVIDIA graphics cards.

With AMD Free Sync, PC gamers can now experience smooth gameplay on monitors with NVIDIA G-SYNC™ technology.

As of 2019, NVIDIA has created something they call Adaptive Sync technology. It is based entirely on Free Sync and basically works in a way that will benefit many GPU users regardless of brand because it’s compatible with monitors.

Conclusion

When choosing a refresh rate, it’s important to think about several things including the specs on your personal computer, which games you’ll be playing and the type of environment you intend to view those games in.

Many casual gaming enthusiasts can be quite satisfied by owning a 60 Hz monitor, but if you’re thinking of becoming seriously involved in e-sports or playing really advanced games with high frame rates and crazy amounts of eye candy, you’ll need to own a 120 Hz or 144Hz monitor.

If you find that you’re more competitive than others, I would suggest going for a 144Hz monitor because it allows you to enjoy enhanced speed and an unrivalled level of responsiveness which could result in more victories.

Anything past 144 hertz is entirely up to you, but bear in mind that a high refresh rate isn’t always needed. If you have a lot of money to play around with, you can get what you want.

However, if you don’t have much to spend on desktop monitors, it might be wiser not to go for extremely high refresh rates.

The higher your refresh rate, the smoother and clearer all your games will become and you will find you can react to everything on screen a lot more quickly when it counts.

NVIDIA has done a study that shows higher refresh rates can lead to a lot more victories, 60hz vs 100hz vs 144hz vs 240hz Monitors and I believe this is valid as I have clearly seen that a bigger difference occurs in my game ever since I upgraded my monitor.

When you’ve increased your refresh rate, you barely notice the difference to begin with. But after a while, it feels incredible because everything looks so smooth.

However, as there is always a price to pay for everything, increasing your refresh rate may also mean you will have to upgrade your PC. Consider what FPS you can handle before buying a monitor with a high refresh rate.

The best monitor display option for you will depend on several factors. One of the most important considerations is whether your monitor supports a variable refresh rate compatible with your GPU.

V-sync and VRR are pretty much the same things. They both work in reducing screen tearing, but VRR does better since it doesn’t cause stuttering problems as V-sync.