SpyderTracks
We love you Ukraine
A different take on monitor refresh rates (and the actual fact why 60hz to 144hz is the biggest jump and 144hz to 240hz not so much)
When we talk about refresh rates, we talk about a frequency in which the monitor refreshes the image on screen every second. We refer to that as hertz (hz).
So for marketing this is a very easy number to advertise. Same as the Ghz wars back in the day with the CPUs. The benefit we receive we have to measure in frametimes, which is the actual time between frames in which the monitor gives a fresh image.
For 60hz, we receive a new frame every 16.66 milliseconds. The jump to 144hz, in which we receive a new frame every 6.94 ms, means we shave off a total of 9.72 ms of waiting for the monitor to show a new image when we do this upgrade.
240hz means we receive a new frame every 4.16 ms. So from 144hz (6.94 ms) we shave a total of 2.78 ms. To put it in context, this is lower than the amount of frametimes we reduce when we upgrade from
60hz to 75hz - 3.33 ms
75hz to 100hz - 3.33 ms
100hz to 144hz - 3.06 ms
This doesn't mean it isn't noticeable. It is, specially for very fast paced and competitive games, but for the average person 144hz is more than enough to have a smooth performance.
But what about 360hz monitors? These deliver a new frame every 2.78 ms. So the jump from 240hz to 360hz cuts 1.39 ms in frametimes. I would argue this is where it starts to get tricker to notice the difference. This jump from 240hz to 360hz is the exact same in frametimes as going from 120hz to 144hz.
So to have it clean and tidy
60hz to 144hz = 9.72 ms difference in frametimes
144hz to 240hz = 2.78 ms difference
240hz to 360hz = 1.39 ms difference
And taken from a scientific article worked on with NVidia's input:
"The average reaction time to visual stimulus is around 250 milliseconds, and most people seem to be hard capped at around 190-200 ms with training. However, according to Nvidia, the company that invented the graphics processing unit (aka graphics card) the average reaction time of a talented gamer is 150 ms."
Source: https://www.ihmc.us/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/2021-03-Reaction-Time-2.pdf
So as you can see, the reaction time is largely irrelevant. As @Scott says, high refresh is faster than any possible reaction, those latency improvements are purely about your brain being able to guess upcoming moves.
I hope this helps to clear some things out.
When we talk about refresh rates, we talk about a frequency in which the monitor refreshes the image on screen every second. We refer to that as hertz (hz).
So for marketing this is a very easy number to advertise. Same as the Ghz wars back in the day with the CPUs. The benefit we receive we have to measure in frametimes, which is the actual time between frames in which the monitor gives a fresh image.
For 60hz, we receive a new frame every 16.66 milliseconds. The jump to 144hz, in which we receive a new frame every 6.94 ms, means we shave off a total of 9.72 ms of waiting for the monitor to show a new image when we do this upgrade.
240hz means we receive a new frame every 4.16 ms. So from 144hz (6.94 ms) we shave a total of 2.78 ms. To put it in context, this is lower than the amount of frametimes we reduce when we upgrade from
60hz to 75hz - 3.33 ms
75hz to 100hz - 3.33 ms
100hz to 144hz - 3.06 ms
This doesn't mean it isn't noticeable. It is, specially for very fast paced and competitive games, but for the average person 144hz is more than enough to have a smooth performance.
But what about 360hz monitors? These deliver a new frame every 2.78 ms. So the jump from 240hz to 360hz cuts 1.39 ms in frametimes. I would argue this is where it starts to get tricker to notice the difference. This jump from 240hz to 360hz is the exact same in frametimes as going from 120hz to 144hz.
So to have it clean and tidy
60hz to 144hz = 9.72 ms difference in frametimes
144hz to 240hz = 2.78 ms difference
240hz to 360hz = 1.39 ms difference
And taken from a scientific article worked on with NVidia's input:
"The average reaction time to visual stimulus is around 250 milliseconds, and most people seem to be hard capped at around 190-200 ms with training. However, according to Nvidia, the company that invented the graphics processing unit (aka graphics card) the average reaction time of a talented gamer is 150 ms."
Source: https://www.ihmc.us/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/2021-03-Reaction-Time-2.pdf
So as you can see, the reaction time is largely irrelevant. As @Scott says, high refresh is faster than any possible reaction, those latency improvements are purely about your brain being able to guess upcoming moves.
I hope this helps to clear some things out.
Last edited:
