Should I consider a better monitor?

Soldato
Joined
12 Dec 2005
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Right now I'm using a Dell P2414H monitor and I'm wondering if I should consider something bigger/better. I'm not really sure what the advantages of 144Hz are - Doesn't it mean that to actually get 144Hz your games will have to run at 144FPS? Games like GTA wouldn't be able to do this etc

Maybe I'm misunderstanding this
 
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Anything north of 90hz/90fps is a big improvement over 60fps, gsync/freesync are also well with having, but basically yes, hardware requirements shoot up or settings have to be turned down to maintain high refresh rates, but it doesn't need to be locked at 144hz, no
 
If I am playing a game at 60FPS on a 144Hz monitor would I still get 144Hz

Think of it as your graphics card outputting 60 fps, but the monitor taking snapshots of this 144 times a second.

Now say in a different game you graphics card was able to output 90fps, then with a 144hz monitor you will still be able to see all of those 90 frames because 144 is higher than 90.

Now imagine the same situation but with a 60hz monitor. Because your refresh rate (60) is now lower than your fps (90), some of your fps will go to waste because your refresh rate can t keep up.

So having a higher refresh rate makes it possible to see more of the fps your card is outputting. Your graphics card can be outputting 200fps, but on a 60hz monitor you'll only be seeing a max of 60 distinct frames. A 144 hz monitor therefore increases that upper limit to 144.

Keeping with this 'snapshot' analogy, you can also appreciate that there will be a syncing problem between your fps and refresh rate. If your refresh rate does not match exactly with your fps, i.e. each new snapshot does not coincide perfecrly with a new frame, then what can happen is that during a particular snapshot, your graphics card will change to a new frame too early and the end result is that you'll see a snapshot made from two frames. This is called screen tearing and his highly distracting.

To combat this you can use vsync, where your graphics card will wait for your screen to refresh (i.e. take a snapshot) before sending a new frame. This can work really well, but as you can imagine it will introduce some lag during the 'waiting' process. On the other hand if your graphics card can't keep up with the monitors refresh rate, then it will just send the same frame as before and keep doing this for each subsequent refresh untill the new frame is ready. This creates a very nasty juddering effect as the fps is momentarily reduced to a factor of your refresh rate. So if your refresh rate is 60, but your graphics card can't keep up and has to send the same frame again, then you'll be effectively seeing 30fps for the brief moment. Similarly if your graphics card sill doesnt have a new frame for the next refresh, then it will have to send the same frame once again, meaning your fps will effectively drop to 20 for that brief moment. This is why you see juddering.

Alternatively you can use something like g-sync (nvidia) or freesync (AMD), which instead of having the graphics card wait for the monitor, makes the monitor wait for the graphics card. In other words, the monitor will only refresh the screen when it detects a new frame from the graphics card. This is a far more elegant solution, as your graphics card will be free to output frames without having to wait for new refresh, meaning you won't experience the lag and juddering associated with vsync. Of course you still have a max refresh rate of 60 or 144 (or whatever your monitor supports), meaning if your graphics card fps breaches that limit your graphics card will then have to either switch to normal vsync or just disable the syncing altogether and introduce screen tearing again. For g-sync and freesync you get choose between these two methods. Also, being able use g-sync or freesync requires a compatible monitor and graphics card.
 
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Thanks for that Titanium makes it easier to understand

Got the benq XL2411Z connected it, set to 144Hz and the difference I noticed straight away. Played CS GO / rocket league and the difference was good - So smooth But the monitor has quite a few stuck pixels and bad uniformity, thinking of getting a replacement or extending my budget to £350 for a gsync monitor
 
Thanks for that Titanium makes it easier to understand

Got the benq XL2411Z connected it, set to 144Hz and the difference I noticed straight away. Played CS GO / rocket league and the difference was good - So smooth But the monitor has quite a few stuck pixels and bad uniformity, thinking of getting a replacement or extending my budget to £350 for a gsync monitor

best of luck getting your money back for dead pixels , don't know any suppliers that will cover that imo is rubbish dead pixels mean its defective so should get your money back best of luck
 
Thanks for that Titanium makes it easier to understand

Got the benq XL2411Z connected it, set to 144Hz and the difference I noticed straight away. Played CS GO / rocket league and the difference was good - So smooth But the monitor has quite a few stuck pixels and bad uniformity, thinking of getting a replacement or extending my budget to £350 for a gsync monitor

best of luck getting your money back for dead pixels , don't know any suppliers that will cover that imo is rubbish dead pixels mean its defective so should get your money back best of luck


from ocuk !!

TV & Monitor Pixel Policy
Please be aware that all of our Suppliers and thus Overclockers UK conform to the ISO 13406-2 standard - the acceptable number of dead pixels based on screen size and resolution. Information on this can be found through any major search engine typing "ISO 13406-2" and the monitor brand name. Products with dead pixels of equal to or less than those defined within the ISO 13406-2 standard will not be accepted for return.
 
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