What is a monitor’s refresh rate and why does it matter?

If you’re looking to pick up a new gaming monitor or TV, it’s important to consider the refresh rate of that display, but what is a refresh rate? 

Whether you’re unfamiliar with refresh rates or know the basics but have a question you’d like to be cleared up, you’ve come to the right place. Scroll down to learn everything there is to know about monitor refresh rates, including what they are, why they’re important and how fast of a refresh rate you should be aiming for. 

What is refresh rate? 

A refresh rate is the speed at which a monitor’s image changes, or refreshes. The refresh rate of the monitor heavily affects the smoothness of the image on-screen. You can think of it a bit like a flip book animation – the faster the image changes, the smoother the end result will be. 

The number of changes or refreshes per second is expressed in hertz (Hz). You can typically find the refresh rate of a monitor in its specs, with typical PC monitors starting around 60Hz and the latest top-end gaming displays stretching all the way to 500Hz. 

Is refresh rate important? 

It really depends on the application. For gaming, a fast refresh rate can be crucial in enabling the monitor to keep up with the fast pace of the game. 

A good PC can run titles like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Overwatch at hundreds of frames per second, while a modern mouse can report its position up to 8000 times per second depending on its polling rate. Your monitor needs to be able to keep up with these speeds in order to deliver the best possible experience and give players that split-second advantage in competitions. 

That said, there are many instances where a fast refresh rate is less important. For example, cinemas run at just 24Hz. 

What is the best refresh rate? 

As we mentioned, some gaming monitors can stretch as high as 500Hz. However, this isn’t always strictly necessary. 

If you don’t require a particularly fast refresh rate, you might find that the “best” refresh rate for you is a more standard 60 to 144Hz to keep the cost of your monitor affordable. 144Hz is also a very respectable refresh rate for a gaming monitor, making it the industry standard until very recently. 

It’s also worth noting that, while even casual gamers will likely notice the difference between a 60Hz monitor and a 100Hz+ one, it’s generally only the most competitive gamers that will appreciate the impact of a 240Hz+ monitor. 

A faster refresh rate also has its drawbacks, as it can make response time and motion blur more noticeable. 

What is response time? 

The response time refers to the amount of time it takes for a pixel to change from one colour to another. This is typically measured in milliseconds (ms). 

The refresh rate of a monitor hinges on the response time of its pixels, as the monitor can only refresh its image quickly if the pixels can keep up. For example, a 16ms response time would limit a monitor to around 60Hz or lower. 

This is one major advantage of OLED displays. Where LCD panels feature physical crystals that need to move beneath the display, OLED panels are 100% electronic. This means the pixels can change much more quickly, giving the typical OLED panel a response time of just 0.01ms. 

It’s worth noting that there’s no universal standard for measuring response times on monitors. This means that even if a monitor has, say, a 4ms response time, there’s no guarantee that it’ll look as fast as another monitor with a 4ms response time. For this reason, we’d recommend reading our reviews of the best monitors and best gaming monitors over simply trusting the specs in this area. 

What is motion blur? 

Motion blur is the direct result of a monitor that has too slow of a refresh rate or response time. There are a few different reasons this can happen. 

If your monitor has a slow response time, the pixels will take longer to fully transition from one state to the next. This can produce a ghost image behind the new image, making it appear blurry. 

There’s also eye-tracking motion blur. This occurs when your brain perceives an image to be blurry because your eyes naturally track movements on the screen. However, because the image is technically static for a fraction of a second, your eyes can end up blurring the image as they pan across it. 

The easiest way to prevent motion blur is by increasing the refresh rate of your monitor. However, there are other techniques – such as black frame insertion – which involve inserting a black image between each frame to reduce the amount of time each frame is displayed on-screen. This method can effectively double the refresh rate without supplying any additional information, preventing your eyes from tracking the movement and perceiving motion blur. 

Do you need a fast refresh rate? 

Again, it depends on what you plan to use your new monitor for, but if your answer is gaming, the answer is probably yes (and definitely yes if you plan to game competitively). 

It is worth considering the graphics power of your PC or console before you make you throw your cash at the fastest monitor you can find. For example, when the Nvidia RTX 4090 launched, Cyberpunk 2077 could only be played in 4K with ray tracing switched on at an average frame rate of 44fps. In this instance, the game would look just as good on a 60Hz monitor as it would on a 500Hz one, rendering a faster refresh rate pointless. 

On the flip side, some multiplayer titles, such as Overwatch 2, can run at up to 486fps in 4K with the same GPU, making it the perfect game for a 500Hz monitor. A cheaper GPU, meanwhile, might not offer the same fast frame rate as the 2022 flagship RTX 4090. 

This question really comes down to what you play. If you’re not one for competitive multiplayer games – FPS in particular – then you may be better off prioritising image quality over fast refresh rates (or a more healthy balance of the two).