Why Higher Refresh Rates Matter - 30Hz vs 60Hz vs 120Hz vs 240Hz vs 540Hz

welcome back to monitors unbox today I'm going to be showing you exactly why higher refresh rates are better for gaming and why refresh rates commonly talked about as Overkill unnecessary or diminishing returns might actually provide more of an improvement than you think if you want to see the differences in motion Clarity between 30 60 120 240 and even 540 Hertz you've come to the right place over the years testing monitors and PC Hardware I've seen quite a few opinions from people claiming that 60fps or even 30 FPS is sufficient for modern games and that there's no real benefit to playing games especially single player titles at a higher frame rate and refresh rate some even argue that the visual quality of gaming at lower FPS is better because you can run the game at higher graphical Fidelity settings in most cases this isn't true because it ignores the simple fact that not only is higher refresh rate gaming smoother but it's also less blurry on Modern displays and when an image is less blurry in motion it looks better visually something that's often ignored in the discussion around Graphics quality and frame rate or 30fps quality modes versus 60fps performance modes on consoles before we talk about why this is the case today's sponsor spot is brought to you by msi's new range of GeForce RTX 40 series gaming slim graphics cards designed to deliver exceptionally fast performance for gamers and creators but without the big bulky coolers that we've become accustomed to the thinner and lighter design allows for hassle free installation and better compatibility all models are available in either black or white designs and take advantage of the latest Tri frozer 3 cooler with Torx 5.0 fans a nickel plate of copper base plate with up to eight heat pipes then thanks to nvidia's a love lace architecture you get AI power dss3 and class leading R tracing support along with competitive features such as reflex so to learn more about the all new MSI GeForce RTX 40 series gaming slim graphics cards please click the links in the video description High refresh rate for gaming are better for three primary reasons input latency smoothness and visual Clarity I'm going to primarily be talking about the last reason in this video but let's briefly touch on input latency and smoothness first because they are also important benefits you get when buying a higher refresh rate monitor to play games at a high frame rate smoothness increases at higher refresh rates because more frames are being shown this is pretty clear when showing 30fps and 60fps footage side by side the more frames are being displayed the smaller the differences are between each frame in motion the smoother the gaml becomes some game developers will attempt to hide this through the use of motion blur which blurs frames together to reduce the apparent differences between each frame at low frame rates but when you disable motion blur the differences in smoothness between low refresh rates and high refresh rates becomes very obvious these smoothness benefits extend to refresh rates above 60 HZ although we can't show you those advantages in a 60fps video like this 120 HZ is noticeable smoother than 60 HZ and 240 HZ is smoother again how noticeable each of these jumps are depends on your sensitivity to smoothness input latency decreases at higher refresh rates because the difference in time between an input from your mouse keyboard or controller and that input being reflected on your display decreases at 60 HZ the display is fully updated every 16.7 millisecs but at 120 HZ the display is updated every 8.3 milliseconds if your mouse is provided the game with new input information every 1 millisecond at a 1,00 HZ polling rate it will take roughly half as much time for that input to be reflected on screen at 120 HZ versus 60 HZ this means the 120 HZ display has lower input latency and so feels more responsive to play on because that delay between input and refresh is lower this is of particular importance to multiplayer gaming where lower latency makes it easier to Target enemies which can give you a competitive advantage versus a lower refresh rate gamer or allow you to maximize your skill but it's also relevant for single player games as lower latency makes your character interaction or camera movement more responsive which is a more pleasant less sluggish gaming experience it can also make single player games less challenging if you are struggling with latency sensitive actions like aiming or timing a move the visual Clarity benefits of higher refresh rate gaming is the aspect I think is the least understood and most forgotten when discussing why you should buy a high refresh rate display and try to game at a high frame rate this benefit is due to the way modern displays both LCD and OLED typically work they are sample and hold displays meaning each frame is shown on screen for the full duration of each refresh cycle without gaps or black periods between each frame sample and hold displays appear blurry when your eyes need to track an object moving across the screen like an enemy in a gunfight or something cool in the environment while walking this is because your eyes move at a constant steady rate to track objects while the actual object on screen is only updating its position at every refresh between each refresh your eyes are moving while the object on screen is stationary held in place by the sample and hold display when your eyes move but the object on screen does not this creates blur in the same way a moving camera capturing a still object will create a blurry photo the longer the object on screen stays in the same position without being updated in other words the lower the refresh rate the greater the amount of blur will be more frequent updates with smaller changes between each update reduces blur on this type of display and this is why higher refresh rates produce less blur we can see this in action using the blur Busters UFO test a scientifically validated test which when captured correctly simulates the blurriness of tracking an object on screen with your eyes for these examples I've used the Asus Rog Swift Pro pg248 QP to show the differences between various refresh rates up to a maximum of 540 HZ as fast as we have access to today I'll start here with a relatively slow object speed which looks like this in real time this is the sort of motion you'd see in a slower paced single player game even with slower motion a 30 HZ refresh rate is very blurry the text above and below the UFO is illegible and there's little to no definition in the UFO image in fact you'd be hardpressed to describe what the alien inside the ship looks like outside of very basic descriptions this is why 30 HZ gaming is often unpleasant and unenjoyable even for single player titles bumping up the refresh rate to 60 HZ is a substantial Improvement to Clarity although the image overall is still blurry the text is more distinguishable and partially readable and there's more definition in the UFO but it's upgrading to 120 HZ and 120 FPS that we see the clearest image yet the text is largely readable the lines in the UFO body are more defined and we can start to resolve how many eyes the a alien has especially compared to 30 HZ this is a night and day difference in Clarity 30 HZ is absolutely atrocious in comparison and this is definitely a visual quality improvement that the higher frame rate and refresh rate is bringing to an object moving somewhat slowly often 120 HZ is described as enough for single player gaming and while this is true to some degree for this type of slow emotion 240 Herz is still an improvement to visual quality when we jump up to this higher refresh rate the text is perfect ly readable and even the smallest details are now visible like the number of white squares inside the UFO's red body you wouldn't have even known the UFO had individual white squares at 30 or 60 HZ and at 120 HZ we only saw hints of this at 240 HZ the image is almost crystal clear I say almost crystal clear because we see a further Clarity gain moving to 360 HZ which for this level of motion gives us Perfect Image Clarity there's little to be gain jumping up to 540 HZ from here the difference between 360 HZ and 120 HZ exposes the lower refresh rate as actually being reasonably blurry despite 120 HZ often being labeled as sufficient 60 HZ and 30 HZ looks like we have applied a motion blur filter to the image when this is actually just the visual difference on a sample and hold display it's clear from this that higher refresh rates don't just improve performance through lower latency and added smoothness but provide a substantial visual Improvement as well where you would see this sort of benefit is for example walking or jogging around a city with Billboards and of fine texture detail on a 30 or 60 HZ display running the game at a low frame rate it will be difficult to read small text elements on said billboard in motion because the image will appear too blurry at 120 HZ it will be much easier to read the billboard without pausing to look directly at it and at 240 HZ and especially 360 HZ these in-game elements will appear extremely clear now let's look at moderate motion like a firefight in a single player or multiplayer game with moving enemies here's what that that looks like at normal speed reasonably fast but nothing crazy at 30 HZ the image is completely blurred to the point you won't resolve any detail and may not know there's an enemy moving at all while at 60 HZ you'd likely be able to tell there's an enemy in the general area but the image is still far too blurry to discern the exact position of the enemy or any detail about it the text above and below the UFO is completely unreadable at 12 HZ it's now possible to tell what we are looking at in general terms and we get a fairly good idea of the position of the UFO much better for Target acquisition in a multiplayer game the fine detail aspects to the image are still lost in Sample and hold motion blur and the text is pretty much unreadable but this level of clarity is certainly much more playable than the lower refresh rates it's at this sort of motion that higher refresh rates really shine and why higher refresh rates actually do matter for faster motion and multiplayer gaming at 240 HZ relative to 120 HZ the text is now partially legible and we see much more definition in the moving UF U Target such as in the lines inside the red UFO body this would make it easier to identify enemies in a noisy environment or enemies that are camouflaged as you're seeing much more detail tracking moving objects but the improvements don't stop at 240 HZ both 360 HZ and 540 HZ are again quite a bit clearer the text is especially readable at these higher refresh rates and fine detail can be resolved much better with small gains even seen between 360 HZ and 540 HZ at such a high refresh rate the image looks very clear in motion especially compared to the blurriness of 120 HZ and in particular 60 HZ this is why faster paced games look better at higher refresh rates and end up more enjoyable to play the final example I have is from motion twice as fast as the previous example so this would be quick pan movements in a multiplayer title anything faster than this becomes increasingly difficult to track due to the actual speed limitations of your eye movements on a display of this size and resolution 30 hzz in 60 HZ refresh rates are useless with this sort of motion speed you just can't tell what's going on at 120 HZ we can barely make out what we are looking at is some sort of UFO but we can't discern any detail here and definitely cannot read the text I wouldn't even describe the 240 HZ image as especially clear but at this refresh rate the position of the UFO is more defined and easier to Target it's at this sort of speed that we start to see the benefits from 360 and 540 Hertz come to play these higher refresh rates are quite a bit clearer than even 240 HZ for example the more than doubling we get going from 240 to 540 HZ almost makes the text legible where it's basically unreadable at 240 HZ we can see the UFO's joystick controls at this refresh rate and the number of lines in the UFO's red body also becomes visible these are details you just wouldn't see at this sort of motion speed at refresh rates like 240 or 120 HZ yes your eyes really are capable of seeing this in real life I suspect expect that an even higher refresh rate like 1,000 Herz would provide further benefits and this should be possible with future displays now all of what I've been discussing and showing applies to sample and hold monitors but not impulse displays like CRTs or LCDs with backlight strobing enabled technology like backlight strobing is a way to almost cheat the system and deliver greater Clarity by harnessing the Persistence of human Vision something I won't cover in this video but right now strobing typically comes with its own set of drawbacks like extreme strict setup requirements the appearance of flickering at low refresh rates the potential for some users to get eye strain or headaches and incompatibility with Technologies like variable refresh rates or varying frame rates most Gamers today play using a sample and hold display setup rather than an Impulse display setup anyway hopefully this has all shown you why higher refresh rates matter for gaming and why buying a high refresh rate display does lead to a better visual experience for both single player and multiplayer gaming the faster the motion the more you can benefit from a higher ref fresh rate which is typically why 240 360 and 540 HZ monitors are recommended for fast-paced competitive multiplayer Gamers but there are benefits to these refresh rates for slower motion as well once you've tried even 144 HZ gaming after being stuck on 60 HZ for so long you should see benefits in visual quality smoothness and latency it's really a revolutionary upgrade anyway that's it for this video If you do appreciate the monitor content that we produce on this Channel please do consider subscribing giving the video a like and supporting us directly via our patreon and float plan accounts we really appreciate everyone that supports us it allows us to purchase monitors for reviews of course there are many reviews on this channel they're all independently funded so we do appreciate all the support anyway that's it thanks for watching I'll catch you in the next [Music] one [Music]

Channel: Monitors Unboxed

Views: 80,639

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Id: OV7EMnkTsYA

Length: 14min 9sec (849 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 19 2023