The Benefits of a Gaming Monitor Refresh Rates Response Times and More

A Gamer's Guide to Refresh Rates and Response Times

Editor's note: We have a new guide to this subject, so read our guide to TV refresh rates: How to see through the TV industry's biggest lie for the latest info.

The cheapest monitor you can buy is less than $100. The most expensive monitor can cost you upward of $2,000.

But how can screens be so different? What specs make one so cheap and the other so expensive, and are either of them really worth it? And what the heck is G-Sync?

The important variables are response time and refresh rate. If youre looking to buy a new monitor, this guide will explain what to look for, and how to tell whats right for you.

Quick Reference Guide: What to Look For in a Monitor

Response time

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Refresh rate

Swipe to scroll horizontally

What Are Refresh Rates and Response Times?

Over a decade has passed since the LCD monitor unceremoniously ousted the boxy CRT monitor into obsolescence, but with that ousting came a small problem: CRT monitors redrew every frame from scratch, and this was baked into the fundamentals of how PCs sent information to the screen. Monitors redrew the screen with a refresh rate of 100 Hz, (100 times a second), and they were silky smooth.

LCD monitors dont have this problem, because the pixels dont need to be refreshed. Instead, they update individual pixels with new colors, and each of those updates takes a certain amount of time depending on what the change is. The response time refers to how long this change takes. LCDs started with a 60-Hz refresh rate but a response time of about 15 milliseconds (ms).

Because the pixels took a long time to change, fast-moving images looked fuzzy and produced a ghastly trail behind them. At 60 Hz, the monitor was receiving a new frame every 16 ms; and with a refresh rate of 15 ms, the next frame was starting only 1 ms after the previous one had been fully displayed. Games tended to slush together during movement, so gamers would avoid LCDs, even while offices and schools flocked to them for their smaller footprint.

As a general rule, if youre not gaming, 60 Hz is fine. If you are gaming, you want the highest refresh rate and the lowest response time you can afford.

MORE: The Best Gaming Monitors You Can Buy

Lets Talk About G-Sync

Youve probably seen VSync in your game settings. VSync locks your video card in step with your monitors refresh rate. If this sounds unreliable, its because it is.

With VSync on, you can get performance problems if your frame rate dips below your refresh rate. But with Vsync off, you get screen tearing if your frame rate goes above your refresh rate. Hello, Rock; meet my friend, Hard Place.

This problem spawned the most important feature to look out for: G-Sync.

G-Sync is an adaptive refresh rate technology that allows the monitor to update only when a frame is received from the video card, keeping them perfectly in sync no matter what the frame rate. AMD has its own version, called FreeSync, which does about the same thing for roughly the same goal. Like Nvidias version, it requires both the monitor and the video card to be FreeSync-enabled, and also like Nvidias version, it eliminates screen tearing and sync problems.

The results are glorious. Its difficult to put into words the experience of playing on G-Sync for the first time, but I can summarize it for you: Everything just looks spectacular forever.

With G-Sync and FreeSync, you see the best your PC can produce, regardless of what the frame rate is. What these technologies do is allow for the seamless display of frame rates below your monitors refresh rate. Nvidia does it better, but its product costs more, whereas AMD aims for a more affordable price.

Bottom Line

If you are not a gamer, none of this matters to you. Buy a monitor thats the right size, resolution and price for you.

If youre a gamer with a monster rig and three high-end graphics cards, you probably dont need a G-Sync monitor, because youll always be above the maximum refresh rate for your monitor.

But if youre a regular gamer, you want a high refresh rate and a low response time. Furthermore, you should strongly consider a monitor with G-Sync or FreeSync, because the longer you keep it, the more demanding new games will become, and the more youll feel the benefit.

Here are some recommended models to consider:

Nvidia G-Sync:

Swipe to scroll horizontally

AMD FreeSync:

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Fixed Refresh Rate:

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Or, if you have unlimited funds, check out the Asus ROG PG348Q.

Need more insight into your next monitor purchase? Cant decide between a TFT or IPS panel, or whether you should get a curved or flat monitor? Leave a comment below, and lets discuss.

Christopher "Chhopsky" Pollock is active on Twitter, where he frequently posts memes and complains about League of Legends, and occasionally streams on Twitch.

Monitor Refresh Rates: Why higher isnt always better

What does refresh rate mean, and how does it affect gaming? We explain 144Hz monitors and beyond, and why more hertz isnt always better (but usually is).

For years, the refresh rate has been the go-to number for gamers when buying a monitor. But what exactly is refresh rate and how does it relate to other aspects of monitor technology, such as panel type and response time? Read on to find out.

What is refresh rate?

The refresh rate of a monitor is the speed (rate) at which the monitors image changes (refreshes). The faster the refresh rate, the more times the image can update every second and the smoother the image will look. This number of changes per second is measured in hertz (Hz).

The generally accepted level of refresh rate that leads to a satisfying image depends on the application. Cinemas run at just 24Hz, while the old TV standards of PAL and NTSC ran at 50Hz and 60Hz respectively. A typical PC monitor will have a refresh rate of 60Hz, but the latest gaming displays can reach all the way to 240Hz.

The pursuit of faster refresh rates is crucial for gaming, since it allows the screen to keep up with the rapid movements of a player. For instance, a modern mouse can report its position up to 1000 times a second, while modern PCs can run competitive games such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive or Overwatch at hundreds of frames per second. Having a monitor that can keep up with all that can potentially give a gamer that crucial split-second advantage.Related: Best CPUs for gaming

However, there are diminishing returns. For a long time 144Hz was the de facto standard gaming monitor refresh rate (because its 6 x 24Hz) but now were seeing 240Hz panels. Were yet to review such ultra-fast panels, but early verdicts suggest that only the most competitive of gamers will gain an advantage. This compares to the leap from 60Hz to anything over 100Hz, which even fairly casual gamers will notice.

Moreover, once youve reached such a level of refresh rate, other factors become more noticeable when it comes to trying to get the most clear image. Factors such as response time and motion blur.

Response time

Response time is the time it takes for a pixel to change from one colour to another. Generally measured in milliseconds (ms), its directly related to refresh rate in that a monitor can only really refresh its image quickly if the pixels can respond quick enough. A 16ms response time translates to a theoretical maximum of a 60Hz refresh rate 1s/60 = 16.6ms.

Response time is the reason that gaming monitors still use TN LCD panels with poor viewing angles, when most other monitors and LCD screens in phones, tablets and laptops have moved onto better technologies such as IPS and VA. TN can respond as quickly as 1ms, whereas the fastest IPS screens are around 4ms and most are 8ms or longer.

Meanwhile, response time is the big advantage that OLED displays have over LCD panel, and is the reason that many of us are so excited about them eventually being cheap enough to replace LCDs in computer monitors. LCDs work by physically moving tiny crystals embedded in the surface of the screen, and so are relatively slow to respond. OLED displays, on the other hand, are purely electronic, making them several orders of magnitude faster a typical OLED panel has a response time of just 0.01ms.

When youre done: Read our best gaming monitor reviews

Something to keep in mind when looking at monitor response times is there isnt an accepted standard of measurement. Its generally measured by a figure called grey-to-grey time, which refers to the time it takes for a pixel to transition from grey to white and back again, rather than all the way from black to white to black, which takes longer. But there isnt a hard and fast standard that defines this.

As such, you can sometimes end up with situations where the monitor may say it has a 4ms response time, for instance, but it can look far slower than that. Unfortunately, theres no way to really test for this other than to read reviews by people that have actually used the displays.

Motion Blur

One of the effects of having a slow refresh rate or response time is that an image can look blurred. This can happen for a couple of different reasons.

The first is due to response time. With a slow response time, pixels can take a while to fully transition from their previous state to their new one. This can result in there being a trailing, or ghost, image behind the new one. The slower the pixels take to respond, the longer the trail and the less clear your image.

This was a particular problem with the AOC C3583FQ, for instance. It has a fast 160Hz refresh rate that initially, at least, means the image responds quickly. However, the VA LCD panels slow response time meant that it had very long, distracting trails that made the display feel nowhere near as responsive as typical TN gaming panels.Related: Best gaming PC specs to build yourself

The other type of motion blur is eye-tracking motion blur. This is where your brain can perceive an image to be blurry because your eyes naturally track the movement of an image on-screen, but because the image is actually static even just for a fraction of a second your eyes end up blurring the image as they pan across it.

^{You can test motion blur for yourself at Blur Busters}

This can be reduced by having a faster refresh rate. However, of even more benefit is a technique known as black-frame insertion. This is where a completely blank image is inserted in between each frame, reducing the time its displayed for and masking the effect of your eyes tracking the movement. It effectively doubles the refresh rate, but without the need for any extra image information, which is why it works when watching fixed-refresh rate video on TVs too.

How this is achieved depends on the type of screen technology. OLED screens can just turn on and off, but with LCDs it is the backlight thats turned on and off instead.

The interesting thing about this effect is that it can be just as effective on displays with fast response times. Thats because its to do with how long the image is displayed for, not how quickly it can change, which is why its still effective even on OLED displays that have super-fast response times.

That said, black-frame insertion does have a double advantage when it comes to LCDs, since it masks the ghosting effect of their slow response time.

So do you need a fast refresh rate?

So are fast refresh rate gaming monitors worth it? Absolutely. If you play fast-paced, competitive games, the responsive feel of a 100Hz+ monitor with a sub 4ms response time is undeniable and can bring a real competitive advantage.

Be honest with yourself, though. If you dont actually play competitive multi-player games particularly FPS then youre better off prioritising image quality over refresh rate and response time. Indeed, thats why the likes of the Asus PG279Q and Acer XF270HU have proved so popular: they strike the perfect compromise between all these factors.