Refresh Rate Pricing Analysis

[Discorz]

I did some research on refresh rate pricing and created charts to illustrate the findings. I thought this might be helpful. To ensure consistency, I established a few guidelines:

• the main specifications such as panel type, size, resolution, and aspect ratio, must remain consistent; for now this will be 27" 1440p 16:9, as it is becoming the new standard; Mini LED is not included for now
• the data is sourced from Geizhals.de, with providers from Germany, Poland, Austria, and UK, however, the data primarily applies to the German market.
• to ensure accuracy, a sufficient number of samples per category is included, although some markets have very limited availability; over 300 models were analyzed for these charts
• process:
  - input is the lowest possible price within a six-month period, not the average lowest price; the X-axis resolution is fixed to span half a year.
  - an average price from multiple models over the six-month period is calculated; to filter out outliers (overpriced top end), the AVERAGEIF function was used to exclude any models that are 25% more expensive than the average; given the wide distribution of data, the final output effectively represents the "average best price"

In the future, I may include 24-25" 1080p or other markets. Let me know what would you like to see next. For now, here are the 27" 1440p results.


27" 1440p OLED market

Samples WOLED: 480 (2), 240 (13); Samples QD-OLED: 360 (7), 240 (4)

Observations for 27" 1440p OLED market:

• market is still quite new
• drastic price drop
• no <240 or >480 Hz options yet
• 480 Hz is overpriced on release
  Predictions:
• prices will keep dropping

27" 1440p IPS market

Samples: 360 (1), 300 (4), 270-280 (7+1), 240-260 (15+2+2), 200 (5), 180 (15), 165-170 (22+16), 144 (13), 120 (5), 100 (14), 75 (23), 60 (19)

Observations for 27" 1440p IPS market:

• 75-200 Hz market saturation around 200€
• 60 Hz is continuously overpriced, therefore irrelevant, 75 Hz is cheaper
• 75 and 144 Hz start to intertwine in 2022
• 100 Hz appears in H2 2023 cheaper than 75 Hz, 75 Hz becomes obsolete
• 120 Hz appears in H2 2023 overpriced, pricier than 240 Hz, very few models exist
• 270+ and 240 Hz market are notably separate since 2023, making 270+ Hz less appealing
• price drop is more drastic for the expensive vs cheaper market
• no >360 Hz options so far
  In 2024:
• 60, 75, 100, 120 Hz are now obsolete
• 144-200 Hz range is sweet spot
• Couple of 200 Hz models appear in H2 2024 for cheap (hidden at ~213€), making 165-180 or even 240 Hz market look less appealing
  Predictions:
• markets keep saturating, possible 165-180 Hz irrelevance in 2026-27, 200+ Hz becomes new standard
• 380+ Hz is announced for 2025

27" 1440p VA market

Samples: 280 (1), 240 (14), 180 (10), 165-170 (21+5), 144-155 (10+1), 100 (4), 75 (11), 60 (3)

Observations for 27" 1440p VA market:

• 60 Hz is mostly unavailable from 2021-2023, only couple models exist, signs of dying market
• 75 and 100 Hz are similarly priced since 2024, 75 becomes obsolete
• 144 Hz is more expensive than 165 Hz since 2023, 144 Hz becomes obsolete
• 280 Hz appears in H2 2024 overpriced, only one model so far
• no >280 Hz options so far
  In 2024:
• 60 Hz is cheapest
• 165-180 Hz is sweet spot in H2 2024
• 75-180 Hz market saturation at ~100€
  Predictions:
• 240 Hz continues to drop
• 240 Hz may be similarly priced to 165 Hz in 2026-27

27" 1440p TN market

Samples: 240 (4), 165 (10), 144-155 (12+1), 70-75 (3+5), 60 (4)

Observations for 27" 1440p TN market:

• 60 and 75 Hz start to intertwine in 2020, 60 Hz becomes obsolete
• 75 and 144 Hz can be similarly priced
• 60, 144 and 165 Hz start to loose grip in 2022-23 due to fewer old models available, 60 Hz disappears in 2023, 144 Hz in 2024, signs of dying market
• no overclocks, 165/170+ Hz or 240/270+, signs of neglected market
• 165 and 240 Hz start to intertwine in 2022-23, 165 Hz becomes obsolete
• no >240 Hz options so far
  In 2024:
• 240 and 75 Hz are somewhat similarly priced in H2 2024, only couple 240 Hz models exist
  Predictions:
• Low-mid refresh rate market may die in near future, TN market has seen a significant reduction in manufacturing
• 240 Hz might be new sweet spot in 2025 if it doesn't die out

27" 1440p market in 2024

See same chart but with frame time or log refresh rate X-axis

Observations for 27" 1440p market in 2024:

• at 60 Hz VA is cheapest, IPS and TN are equally expensive
• 75 Hz IPS and TN are about equally priced
• 100 and 144-240 Hz IPS and VA are similarly priced
• 120 Hz IPS is badly positioned
• 165 and 144 Hz TN are loosing grip
• 144-165-180 Hz are sweet spot depending on panel type
• TN is cheapest at 240 Hz
• 240 Hz OLED is about 2x pricier than 240 Hz LCD, while at 360 Hz they are very similarly priced

[Dalek]

Great graphs, really interesting to see the price differences between the different panels.

It would also be nice to see the graphs in a higher resolution too

[RealNC]

The most surprising thing to me is how long it took for 1440p to become the new entry point instead of 1080p, which has been around for almost 20 years now. IIRC, as soon as 16:9 became the new norm instead of 4:3, 1080p was the most common resolution. That's a long time ago.

[Dalek]

The most surprising thing to me is how long it took for 1440p to become the new entry point instead of 1080p, which has been around for almost 20 years now. IIRC, as soon as 16:9 became the new norm instead of 4:3, 1080p was the most common resolution. That's a long time ago.

It makes sense that 1080p stuck around for such a long time. 24" monitor is a sweetspot of not too large and not too big, being able to fit on smaller desks and also with larger 1080p TVs still looking ok at 1080p from a distance.

I've noticed that certain fonts on Windows look blurry and less sharp in comparison to other fonts, and I think it's probably due to the fact that more developers are using 4K and don't check lower resolutions to see how the font scales.

[Discorz]

It would also be nice to see the graphs in a higher resolution too

24-25" 1080p is up next. After that 4k at maybe 32" since it appears to be more popular than 27" (according to amount of models released). If u meant larger resolution X-axis I'm not planning to do that. This already took ton of time.

The most surprising thing to me is how long it took for 1440p to become the new entry point instead of 1080p, which has been around for almost 20 years now. IIRC, as soon as 16:9 became the new norm instead of 4:3, 1080p was the most common resolution. That's a long time ago.

And it's a very small bump in pixel amount for the many years it took. According to that Steam survey, we are now at point with 1440p where 1080p was in 2011? I guess the progress can appear slow, but from a further perspective things are movin'. Apparently 4k now is where 1440p was in 2019?

[Dalek]

It would also be nice to see the graphs in a higher resolution too

24-25" 1080p is up next. After that 4k at maybe 32" since it appears to be more popular than 27" (according to amount of models released). If u meant larger resolution X-axis I'm not planning to do that. This already took ton of time.

The most surprising thing to me is how long it took for 1440p to become the new entry point instead of 1080p, which has been around for almost 20 years now. IIRC, as soon as 16:9 became the new norm instead of 4:3, 1080p was the most common resolution. That's a long time ago.

And it's a very small bump in pixel amount for the many years it took. According to that Steam survey, we are now at point with 1440p where 1080p was in 2011? I guess the progress can appear slow, but from a further perspective things are movin'. Apparently 4k now is where 1440p was in 2019?

I meant the actual image of the graphs being in a higher resolution (sorry, I should have been more specific )

[Discorz]

24-25" 1080p IPS market

500 (2), 380-390 (4+2), 360 (8), 310 (1), 270-280 (2+5), 240 (18), 180 (22), 165-170 (21+4), 144 (2), 120 (2), 100 (30), 75 (38), 60 (32)