Is 120Hz worth it?

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Soldato
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Hi

To the owners of 120Hz capable monitors: Are they worth it?

I'd like an upgrade sometime in the not-to-distant future, but I'm a little concerned. Some time ago I felt happy that 120Hz monitors were appearing on OCUK and 3D gaming was becoming relatively convenient.

Now (quite a long time later) I see that there are only 4 120Hz capable monitors available?! :confused: I would have thought they would become far more mainstream than that. My colleague who owns a 120Hz monitor plays competitive CS:S, and he swears by it.

Is there a downside to them? Is the demand not as high as I'd expected?

Thanks
 
The main advantage of 120Hz monitors are the ability to display stereoscopic 3D content and increased fluidity of motion. The disadvantages of 120Hz monitors are the price you are paying for relatively poor image quality (they are all based on the same panel technologies as 'budget' monitors with a particularly powerful backlight to overcome the effects of dimming introduced by 3D glasses).

Nobody can tell you whether they will be worth it for you. It is all down to personal preference, opinion, the types of games you play and the level you play at. For me I would prefer superior image quality to enhanced responsiveness. In an ideal world you'd have both - that's why the prospect of OLED monitors excites me so much.
 
Most high Hz TVs don't tend to be true 100+Hz and not really relevant to PC useage (just treat them as a 60Hz panel for that context).

On the face of it 120Hz doesn't seem that different to 60Hz - a lot of people I would hazard won't even notice the difference - they are slightly smoother and more responsive... however they typically have low levels of input lag, lower levels of residual image issues which automatically make them a huge benefit to hardcore FPS gamers... coupled with being able to display more than 60fps I find that in FPS games my natural ability translates into the game much better and I consistantly put up better scores on my 120Hz panel compared to when I play on 60Hz.

My opinion is a lot of people won't see their moneys worth from a 120Hz panel unless they use it for 3D and even then I guarantee most won't use 3D much, for people who play games like WoW, etc. then a good quality IPS panel presents much more benefits but for someone who takes their FPS games seriously there is no compromise to having a 120Hz panel.
 
Well said Rroff

I recently bought one for 3D movies, but I've not even watched 1 of them since I got the screen lol

<-- dumb ass
 
If you play fast paced fps games like ut/quake then 120hz is a massive difference, so much smoother. I guess in games like cod/moh you can get away with 60hz but then again I havent tested those 2 games on a non-120hz monitor :)

I certainly wouldnt go back to 60hz on any panel type.
 
120Hz is a significant improvement imo!

I had a pretty decent samsung monitor before getting the 120hz viewsonic one and the difference actually startled me. Even in normal desktop use everything is so much smoother to look at.

And with gaming, I play CSS competitively and its great. Especially since we can now run the game with over 120fps constant it means the game is always as smooth as it can be (usually other factors come into play like the server quality etc).

The only downside I have noticed with 120Hz is that its less forgiving to those games where you cant achieve that 120fps - you will notice the stutter more than from say a 75hz or 60hz panel. Also, even though the screen supports frequencies less than 120hz, if you dont run it in 120hz you lose out on a lot of the features that make the screen good i.e. response time goes up, grey to grey time goes up, etc. 75hz on this viewsonic is worse than 75hz on my old samsung 2ms screen, but 120hz blows it away.

Also if you do a lot of gaming at native res then 120hz is HUGELY better, as most 60hz panels do not allows 75hz at native res, only 60. So the difference is considerable.

Also I should add that, with this viewsonic monitor anyway, the input lag is almost non-existant at 120hz. Even with vsync on the reaction is still quite good. I was very surprised by this and actually at first I thought there was no way vsync could be on, so double checked it.

I got the viewsonic purely for the 120hz, Im not at all interested in 3D gaming. And so far Im very happy with it!
 
xiphrex said:
120Hz is a significant improvement imo!

I had a pretty decent samsung monitor before getting the 120hz viewsonic one and the difference actually startled me. Even in normal desktop use everything is so much smoother to look at.

And with gaming, I play CSS competitively and its great. Especially since we can now run the game with over 120fps constant it means the game is always as smooth as it can be (usually other factors come into play like the server quality etc).

The only downside I have noticed with 120Hz is that its less forgiving to those games where you cant achieve that 120fps - you will notice the stutter more than from say a 75hz or 60hz panel. Also, even though the screen supports frequencies less than 120hz, if you dont run it in 120hz you lose out on a lot of the features that make the screen good i.e. response time goes up, grey to grey time goes up, etc. 75hz on this viewsonic is worse than 75hz on my old samsung 2ms screen, but 120hz blows it away.

Also if you do a lot of gaming at native res then 120hz is HUGELY better, as most 60hz panels do not allows 75hz at native res, only 60. So the difference is considerable.

Also I should add that, with this viewsonic monitor anyway, the input lag is almost non-existant at 120hz. Even with vsync on the reaction is still quite good. I was very surprised by this and actually at first I thought there was no way vsync could be on, so double checked it.

I got the viewsonic purely for the 120hz, Im not at all interested in 3D gaming. And so far Im very happy with it!
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Amen brother ;)
 
Some people will say s-ips etc is the way to go but while i can appreciate the viewing angles/colours, i just don't feel this way myself.

I couldn't do without the hugely improved motion of 120hz, ever.

Even in windows, just moving the cursor would annoy me now i've used it for a while.
 
I use a lcd buy imho you still can't beat the smoothness of crt's. But these 120Hz lcd could show me what i want to feel when playing fast paced shooters?. So let me get this right, at 60Hz you only get 60 frames per second and anything over is wasted?. At 120Hz you could get 120 frames per second and it would feel smooth just like a crt?.
 
is this true you notice MORE stutter if you are not maintaining 120fps on 120hz monitiors?! I can't work out why this would happen?
 
kedge said:
I use a lcd buy imho you still can't beat the smoothness of crt's. But these 120Hz lcd could show me what i want to feel when playing fast paced shooters?. So let me get this right, at 60Hz you only get 60 frames per second and anything over is wasted?. At 120Hz you could get 120 frames per second and it would feel smooth just like a crt?.
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Yea its just that crazy smoothness difference really. You can't feel any inputlag and if there is, its extremely negligable and its sufficiently good enough to keep my Fw900 24" CRT 1600x900@120hz monster sat on the floor next to my pc desk. The best way i can describe it is that its extremely smooth and any input lag that there may be is nicely offset by the clarity of a high res lcd without all the traditional drawbacks they used to have.

I'm led to believe the 24" 120hz screens are slightly less responsive if competitive FPS gaming is your thing but still night and day vs any 60hz panel for response. I can vouch for both the samsung / viewsonic 22"'ers being fantastic though and no disadvantage anymore (finally!!!).

Speaking from a high tier quake player prospective btw :) not a battlefield noob or similar :p
 
xiphrex said:
The only downside I have noticed with 120Hz is that its less forgiving to those games where you cant achieve that 120fps - you will notice the stutter more than from say a 75hz or 60hz panel. Also, even though the screen supports frequencies less than 120hz, if you dont run it in 120hz you lose out on a lot of the features that make the screen good i.e. response time goes up, grey to grey time goes up, etc. 75hz on this viewsonic is worse than 75hz on my old samsung 2ms screen, but 120hz blows it away.
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I'm not convinced that any of this is true.
 
It is worth 12 eye drops every year. It alleviates eye strain by as much as 100%. Normally sensitive people or computer freaks that most need such a refresh rate. Aside from this we have the hyped 3D feature, 60hz each eye.
 
Kreeeee said:
I'm not convinced that any of this is true.
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He may not have expressed it the best way possible (rather than stutter perhaps a better word would be jerkier) but i do get what he`s saying.

For instance if you spend most of your time playing 30 fps games (cough console cough) you will be convinced that 30 seems fine only when you experiance 60 fps do you begin to notice that 30 wasnt quite so smooth afterall.So now your convinced 60 is smooth as smooth can be...you then see it at 120 fps and again come to the conclusion that 60 wasn`t quite as smooth as you first thought.Now when games can`t maintain the 120 fps and drop to say the 70-90 you do notice the game becoming jerkier purely because your so used to the smoothness of 120 fps.Basically it`s the change in frame rate that makes it seems jerkier,its not that the frame rate is inherently jerky at 80 fps it just seems it after all the goodness of 120 fps ;) .If you locked the game at a frame rate it could manage at all times (lets say 90 fps) your eyes become accustomed to that frame rate and because there is no variation it will appear fine after getting used to it.probably. ;)

Yours

Dash
 
kedge said:
I use a lcd buy imho you still can't beat the smoothness of crt's. But these 120Hz lcd could show me what i want to feel when playing fast paced shooters?. So let me get this right, at 60Hz you only get 60 frames per second and anything over is wasted?. At 120Hz you could get 120 frames per second and it would feel smooth just like a crt?.
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Yes m8 you have got it bang on.120hz=120 discrete images per second.... 60hz=60 discrete images per second.

Incidently im convinced this is why SOME people aren`t always convinced that 120 hz/fps gaming is noticeable.Allow me to elaborate.

People with 60 hz screens who dont use vsync will see games sometimes running at anyting like 100 to maybe 300 fps etc depending on game.But because they are using 60hz monitor they are ONLY seeing 60 fps,the 180 fps count fraps is showing them is the internal speed the graphics card is doing it at, but it drops the frames it cant display and will only EVER show 60 fps.I`m convinced this is what some people are confused about.So when i come along with a 120hz/fps monitor and get a game at 300 fps again IM ONLY VIEWING 120 of them.

Therefore i am actually seeing an extra 50% fps compared to the 60 hz guy.And yes,it is noticeable.If a 300 hz monitor came along im sure the added smoothness again would be visable,although by this point we are within the realms of diminishing returns and the jump would not seem as big as say 30 to 60 and 60 to 120.

Yours

Dash
 
i jumped from 60hz to 120hz, i see a difference but i see no point i just buying a 120hz monitor just for that difference. Some people prefer having 120hz as they dont see screen flickers. I can look at any screen and say if its 70hz or less.
 
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