Why You Should Set Your Monitor to Its Maximum Refresh Rate

Often, when setting up a new monitor, users are tempted to set its refresh rate to a lower value, such as 60 Hz, even if their monitor supports a higher refresh rate like 165 Hz or higher. However, doing so can limit the performance and visual quality you can achieve. In this article, we'll explore the benefits of keeping your monitor set to its maximum refresh rate, even if you primarily use a lower refresh rate.

Input Lag Reduction

One of the most significant advantages of using the highest refresh rate is a reduction in input lag. Input lag occurs when there is a delay between the time you press a button and the time the action is displayed on the screen. Higher refresh rates can lead to smoother motion and quicker response times, which is particularly beneficial in fast-paced gaming or applications that require quick and precise actions.

Better Motion Clarity

Monitors with higher refresh rates often handle motion better, even when you're only using 60 Hz. By setting your monitor to its maximum refresh rate, you can reduce motion blur and enhance the overall visual experience when transitioning to higher refresh rates or when displaying fast-moving content. This is especially noticeable in video and gaming scenarios where fluid motion is crucial.

Adaptive Sync Technologies

Many monitors with high refresh rates come with advanced synchronization technologies, such as G-Sync or FreeSync. These technologies are designed to work most effectively when the monitor is set to its maximum refresh rate. They help eliminate screen tearing and stuttering, even when the GPU is primarily operating at lower frame rates. This ensures a more stable and smooth visual experience.

Future-Proofing

Keeping your monitor set to its maximum refresh rate allows you to take full advantage of its capabilities in the future. As you upgrade your graphics card or play games that can output higher frame rates, you'll be ready to benefit from the increased performance without needing to change settings. This means you won't have to worry about setting your monitor to 60 Hz every time you play a new game that can push your GPU to higher frame rates.

Color and Brightness Performance

Some monitors perform better in terms of color accuracy and brightness when operating at their native refresh rate. Running a monitor at a lower refresh rate might impact these aspects, so setting it to its maximum refresh rate ensures optimal performance when it comes to color and brightness.

Advantages of Variable Refresh Rates

With most recent monitors and variable refresh rate technologies, setting your monitor to its maximum refresh rate allows for any refresh rate from its minimum to its maximum to match the GPU frame rate. G-Sync and FreeSync monitors are designed to work with variable refresh rates, meaning you can set your monitor's settings to match the performance of your GPU dynamically. This eliminates the need for manual fine-tuning and ensures a smooth picture, even if your GPU can sustain higher frame rates.

Setting the monitor to 60 Hz would limit its ability to operate at higher refresh rates if your GPU is capable of it. The majority of modern GPUs can exceed 60 FPS in many games, so setting the monitor to a lower refresh rate might be unnecessary and even counterproductive.

For older monitors that don't support variable refresh rates, setting the monitor's refresh rate to match the GPU's output is crucial for achieving the smoothest picture. However, with most monitors released in recent years, this type of manual fine-tuning is no longer necessary, especially for devices under 10 years old.

There is an additional advantage to running a monitor at 165 Hz even if you are only using 60 FPS. At 60 Hz, each frame updates in about 16 ms. At 165 Hz, it takes about 6 ms. This means that each picture appears 10 ms sooner at the higher refresh rate, which can enhance your reaction time as well.

While running at 165 FPS at 165 Hz would be even better, showing almost three times the number of frames per second and making motion smoother and actions clearer, simply increasing the refresh rate is still an advantage. Even if you can't hit the monitor's maximum, a faster refresh and frame rate will still provide a better visual experience.