Can a 60hz monitor display more than 60fps
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Yeah just leave Vsync off.
Caporegime
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A 60hz monitor refreshes 60 times a second. If you're running at over 60fps without vsync you'll display part of each frame and get tearing, with vsync you get a solid 60fps unless you dip below 60fps.
Wouldnt that make having a high end graphics card pointless? Would i be better off and would it be worth buying a 120hz monitor?
No. It allows you to run higher settings and maintain good FPS.
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Correct. In other words, NO. A 60Hz monitor CANNOT 'display' more than 60fps (or at least, not properly or in full)
Caporegime
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I find that in most games with I can get way above 60fps (4.8ghz 2700k and 7970) with the details cranked up.
So rather than essentially producing a load of useless extra frames I use afterburner to limit my fps to 59 max (apparently 59 is smoother than 60).
What then happens is my GPU activity drops, so rather than running 100% producing 180fps, my GPU runs at 33% and produces a steady 59 fps. This reduces heat and power use, but there's plenty of grunt left in reserve for intense scenes etc.
The problem with 120hz monitors is they're TN panels, which I don't enjoy using compared with an IPS panel. Though you can overclock some of the newer IPS displays to higher than 60hz, which is very interesting.
So rather than essentially producing a load of useless extra frames I use afterburner to limit my fps to 59 max (apparently 59 is smoother than 60).
What then happens is my GPU activity drops, so rather than running 100% producing 180fps, my GPU runs at 33% and produces a steady 59 fps. This reduces heat and power use, but there's plenty of grunt left in reserve for intense scenes etc.
The problem with 120hz monitors is they're TN panels, which I don't enjoy using compared with an IPS panel. Though you can overclock some of the newer IPS displays to higher than 60hz, which is very interesting.
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That is just what your graphics card is outputting, it has nothing to do with the frames the monitor is displaying. As above a 60Hz monitor can only display 60 discrete frames per second.
That is just what your graphics card is outputting, it has nothing to do with the frames the monitor is displaying. As above a 60Hz monitor can only display 60 discrete frames per second.
But if it wasn't displaying more than 60fps i wouldn't see tearing
Soldato
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tearing can occur at any framerate when the monitor isnt in sync with the gpu - this is what vsync is for. It just so happens that its far easier to see it when the gpu is throwing rendered frames at the monitor faster than the monitor can display them.
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You'll see tearing at any fps unless you're using vsync I think. Without vsync the GPU will output a new frame no matter what stage of refresh the monitor is. So even if you're at 30fps a new frame may start to be drawn mid refresh.
Edit - beaten like a ginger kid.
Edit - beaten like a ginger kid.
Note, this is just how I've understood it for the CRT, I hope it's correct and that it applies to LCD, too:
Hz = "times per second"
FPS = frames per second
So if a monitor is operating at 60Hz, it means it refreshes the image 60 times per second. The computer can calculate more than 60 frames per second (but it can also calculate slower, duh). There's a buffer in the GPU, which the computer is calculating all the time, and refreshing as more information/data becomes available. Now imagine if the computer can calculate 20% faster than what the monitor asks for more data? Once the computer has calculated one frame, it will start to calculate the next. It manages to calculate 20% of the new frame, but then the monitor asks for a new frame (or more accurately just reads the buffer). The GPU has 20% of the new frame, but the rest isn't finished. The rest of the frame in the buffer is still from the previous frame. So it's 20% new frame, 80% old frame. But in a fast moving motion (like panning the view in Battlefield from left to right) the old frame is from a slightly different viewpoint, and the target's head might be 10cm to the right, while the rest of the body is still on the left side of the screen. This is seen as "tearing". (I think it should be possible for lower fps count, too.)
V-Sync forces the GPU to only send complete frames for each separate refresh. So no tearing.
PS. Though I'm not sure whether V-Sync also caps the calculation...? It might still calculate in the background, and just pick the "complete" frames to display. Someone more knowledgeable should chime in with regards to this. Triple buffering is a similar technique, but slightly more advanced, I think.
PS2. The example above is a simplification of the process. The pipeline will naturally choose which frames to start to calculate, otherwise it would choke on the "unlimited" workload (depending on the engine, of course).
Hz = "times per second"
FPS = frames per second
So if a monitor is operating at 60Hz, it means it refreshes the image 60 times per second. The computer can calculate more than 60 frames per second (but it can also calculate slower, duh). There's a buffer in the GPU, which the computer is calculating all the time, and refreshing as more information/data becomes available. Now imagine if the computer can calculate 20% faster than what the monitor asks for more data? Once the computer has calculated one frame, it will start to calculate the next. It manages to calculate 20% of the new frame, but then the monitor asks for a new frame (or more accurately just reads the buffer). The GPU has 20% of the new frame, but the rest isn't finished. The rest of the frame in the buffer is still from the previous frame. So it's 20% new frame, 80% old frame. But in a fast moving motion (like panning the view in Battlefield from left to right) the old frame is from a slightly different viewpoint, and the target's head might be 10cm to the right, while the rest of the body is still on the left side of the screen. This is seen as "tearing". (I think it should be possible for lower fps count, too.)
V-Sync forces the GPU to only send complete frames for each separate refresh. So no tearing.
PS. Though I'm not sure whether V-Sync also caps the calculation...? It might still calculate in the background, and just pick the "complete" frames to display. Someone more knowledgeable should chime in with regards to this. Triple buffering is a similar technique, but slightly more advanced, I think.
PS2. The example above is a simplification of the process. The pipeline will naturally choose which frames to start to calculate, otherwise it would choke on the "unlimited" workload (depending on the engine, of course).
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Soldato
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This isn't true
a 60hz display is 60fps, you can't display something the screen can't re-fresh fast enough.
it's not possible.
You can't really compare it like that. Yes the screen refreshes 60 times a second but your graphics card with v-sync off can easily put out more than 60 frames per second !.
You have to think of it in this way. When you get like 90 frames per second on a 60Hz screen, then it's not every single frame that gets displayed due to the screens max refresh rate of 60Hz. So what you really see may be the frames from 1 to 30, the frames 50 to 70 and frames from 80 to 90 - so because of the missing frames you get screen tearing namely because the screen is out of sync with the graphics card display output in frames per second.
So YES you can get more than 60 frames per second on a 60Hz screen, but the screen isn't able to show the full range of each individual frames within a second !.
Whether this a problem or not for gaming purposes is highly individual. You get the same problem with a 120Hz screen when your average FPS goes above 120 FPS.
You have to think of it in this way. When you get like 90 frames per second on a 60Hz screen, then it's not every single frame that gets displayed due to the screens max refresh rate of 60Hz. So what you really see may be the frames from 1 to 30, the frames 50 to 70 and frames from 80 to 90 - so because of the missing frames you get screen tearing namely because the screen is out of sync with the graphics card display output in frames per second.
So YES you can get more than 60 frames per second on a 60Hz screen, but the screen isn't able to show the full range of each individual frames within a second !.
Whether this a problem or not for gaming purposes is highly individual. You get the same problem with a 120Hz screen when your average FPS goes above 120 FPS.
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There are 2 significant advantages to gaming at 120fps on a 120Hz monitor:
1) A more 'connected feel' (mouse movements updated more frequently)
2) Lower levels of motion blur
Number 1 actually applies when running lower frame rates on a 120Hz monitor as well. But neither applies to running >60fps on a 60Hz monitor.
1) A more 'connected feel' (mouse movements updated more frequently)
2) Lower levels of motion blur
Number 1 actually applies when running lower frame rates on a 120Hz monitor as well. But neither applies to running >60fps on a 60Hz monitor.
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A monitor cannot display more *whole* images per second than it refreshes or polls for.
It can display more images than it's refresh if you want to be pedantic, because screen tearing occurs when the (in this case lcd poll rate iirc) is not synced with the video output. Thus the monitor *may* partially display the information from 2 or more frames at once.
It can display more images than it's refresh if you want to be pedantic, because screen tearing occurs when the (in this case lcd poll rate iirc) is not synced with the video output. Thus the monitor *may* partially display the information from 2 or more frames at once.
There are also disadvantages to 120hz monitors, they can appear washed out, less vivid and colour accuracy is not as good as say an IPS panel at 60Hz.
Motion blur is one of the reasons TVs are not as good as monitors for displaying computer graphics - to make the TV picture appear more fluid they introduce motion blur to a small degree, so a monitor (even a 60Hz one) will generally be better than using a TV.
Motion blur is one of the reasons TVs are not as good as monitors for displaying computer graphics - to make the TV picture appear more fluid they introduce motion blur to a small degree, so a monitor (even a 60Hz one) will generally be better than using a TV.