Blur Busters Forums

Hello, I've been looking into get a high refresh rate monitor, but I was wondering are these types of monitors viable for people running budget gpu's? For instance, if I get a 144hz monitor and my games run at 60-120fps averaging around 80-90, am I still going to be seeing any benefits of this monitor or would I be better off with a 60hz panel and trying to overclock that?

Yes, you still benefit if you play old games like quake live and counterstrike games.

You would just get "Better Than 60Hz" benefits in fewer games, but you would still get benefits, including lower lag.

Keep in mind, if you are used to IPS monitors, you will want to make sure the motion benefits outweighs the switch from IPS to TN.

Chief Blur Buster wrote:Yes, you still benefit if you play old games like quake live and counterstrike games.

You would just get "Better Than 60Hz" benefits in fewer games, but you would still get benefits, including lower lag.

Keep in mind, if you are used to IPS monitors, you will want to make sure the motion benefits outweighs the switch from IPS to TN.

What about visual tearing? I've read when frames drop below the refresh rate it gives pretty bad tearing. I know vsync can fix this, but I can't stand the input lag it introduces.

Can these displays also be underclocked to something like 100hz?

monitorbutt wrote:What about visual tearing? I've read when frames drop below the refresh rate it gives pretty bad tearing.

Tearing exists both above and below refresh rate.
Yes, tearing is less visible at 120Hz than at 60Hz, even when you play at just 60fps.

monitorbutt wrote:Can these displays also be underclocked to something like 100hz?

Yes. Most 120Hz monitors also supports interim refresh rates such as 100Hz and 85Hz.
You can also use GSYNC to get low-latency without tearing -- see input lag tests of GSYNC.

I have a 7870 LE (Around a $200 gpu when new) So not exactly "budget" but far from high end. By playing with settings I was able to get a solid 100fps in bf4 most of the time. I'm not sure how budget you are thinking, but it is possible with modest hardware providing you prioritize frame rate.

I have a pretty moderate GPU, a GTX 760, and my 144 Hz monitor was a fantastic upgrade for games even before I got G-sync. I always use vsync since I've never had input lag issues and it causes less stuttering than vsync off. The monitor upgrade cut down on my input lag a lot, even though I didn't really notice it before. Playing Bioshock 2 (Unreal Engine 2 from the days before multicore rendering) at a solid 120 fps gave me the uncanny feeling that the game was responding to mouse movements before I had moved it.

Some tips for increasing your framerate on a moderate GPU:
-Put your game settings on high instead of ultra or very high. That last step up to maximum settings often makes very little difference in image quality but will have a large impact on framerate.
-Turn off MSAA and use post-processing AA instead like FXAA or MLAA. I often use an SMAA injector in single-player games since it's better quality but isn't natively supported by any games.