How does the refresh rate work?
People shopping for desktop monitors are naturally influenced by measurements, shapes, resolutions, and color quality. The refresh rate of the monitor might also be a good option for your business, depending on your needs.
Refresh rate is the frequency at which the screen updates with new images each second, measured in hertz (cycles per second). The content may look steady on the display, but what the viewer can’t see is how fast the content is changing — up to 360 times a second. The higher the refresh rate, the smoother the visual quality.
When it comes to non-heavy computing tasks like word processing, spreadsheets, and e-mails, super-high monitor refresh rates aren't all that important. However, a high refresh rate for monitors is essential for professionals who work in more visual fields like creative production or game development.
Monitors with 60Hz refresh rates are standard on desktops. Nevertheless, numerous specialized, high-performance monitors have been developed in recent years that support 120Hz, 144Hz, and even 240Hz refresh rates, ensuring ultra-smooth content viewing even for the most demanding visual processing requirements.
Matching inputs and outputs
There is no magic to improving the display quality by simply buying a monitor with a high refresh rate. Refresh rate refers to the maximum rate at which the display can change the visuals. The amount of video frames that are sent to the display each second determines what appears on the screen.
A 60Hz monitor will easily provide smooth playback since most Hollywood movies are shot and produced at 24 frames per second (fps). The quality of playback won't be improved by using a 120Hz monitor (or even faster).
There are obvious advantages to using a 120Hz monitor with modern gaming platforms that animate at 100 frames per second or higher, however. With a high refresh rate, players' high-twitch inputs are translated into smooth actions on the screen.
A mismatch between the refresh rate and frame rate can cause screen tearing. When the computer's graphic card outputs more frames than the monitor can handle at the same time, users may see two half-frames on the screen at once, bisected horizontally and slightly misaligned. I don't like the way it looks. Games are usually configured to automatically match the PC’s graphics capabilities to avoid tearing, but running high-action visuals more slowly than intended makes for a compromised viewing and playing experience.
Ghostbusting tech
Refresh rate is also influenced by response time - the amount of time it takes for a pixel to change color. The refresh rate of a monitor is limited by the speed at which the LCD display can change colors rapidly.
Response times are measured in milliseconds (ms) rather than minutes (ms), which reflects faster changes.
The higher the refresh rate and the faster the pixel response time, the less ghosting will appear, and that is ideal for fast-paced visuals. On-screen visuals may become softer, even blurry, if slower tech is used to produce high-pace action sequences.
