Is 144Hz Worth It? 60 vs 144 vs 240Hz Explained
Going from 60Hz to 144Hz is the single most noticeable monitor upgrade for anyone who games or even just scrolls a lot. Whether it is worth the money depends on what you do and whether your computer can feed it.
The short answer
- 144Hz draws a new frame every 6.9 ms instead of 16.7 ms at 60Hz. Motion is smoother, blur is lower and your input shows up about 10 ms sooner on average.
- Worth it: for fast games (shooters, racing, fighting), and for anyone who finds scrolling and dragging windows jarring at 60Hz. Nearly everyone sees the difference immediately.
- Less worth it: for video and films (24 to 60 fps content), office work, or a PC that cannot hold 100+ fps in your games.
- From 144 to 240Hz the gain is real but smaller; most people should spend the extra money on a better panel instead. And check your settings: many 144Hz monitors run at 60Hz out of the box.
Try it in your browser
Refresh Rate TestFind your monitor's real refresh rate in hertz.What refresh rate actually changes
Refresh rate is how many times per second the screen draws a new image. At 60Hz that is every 16.7 ms; at 144Hz every 6.9 ms; at 240Hz every 4.2 ms. Three things follow from a shorter interval:
- Smoother motion. A moving object is shown in more positions per second, so the eye tracks it as movement rather than a series of jumps. The effect is strongest on fast pans and scrolling.
- Less motion blur. On a sample-and-hold display (every LCD and OLED) each frame stays on screen until the next one, and your eye smears it as it moves. Shorter frames mean shorter smears. The UFO test shows this directly: the UFO is readable at 144Hz where it is a blur at 60Hz.
- Lower latency. A click can only be shown at the next refresh. On average that wait is half a frame: 8.3 ms at 60Hz, 3.5 ms at 144Hz. Add the frame your GPU is rendering and the total chain is often 10 to 20 ms shorter at 144Hz.
What it does not change: image quality. Color, contrast, resolution and viewing angles come from the panel type, not the refresh rate.
Can you actually see the difference?
Yes. The old claim that "the eye cannot see more than 60 fps" confuses two things. The eye does not sample in frames at all; it responds to changes in light continuously. Studies show people can detect single frames flashed at well over 200 Hz and reliably tell 60 from 120Hz in blind tests when there is motion on screen. The difference between 60 and 144Hz is obvious to almost everyone moving a mouse cursor across the screen. The difference between 144 and 240Hz is noticeable to most people in side-by-side motion tests but subtle in normal use.
What people often mean by "I do not notice it" is "it does not matter for what I do". Reading a document at 144Hz looks identical to 60Hz, because nothing moves.
Who benefits, and who does not
| Use | 60 to 144Hz | 144 to 240Hz |
|---|---|---|
| Competitive shooters, racing, fighting games | Large: easier tracking, lower latency | Moderate; pros use 240 to 360Hz |
| Single-player games, strategy, RPGs | Clearly smoother, less essential | Small |
| Desktop use, browsing, coding | Scrolling and window drags feel smoother; many people never go back | Barely noticeable |
| Video and films | None: content is 24 to 60 fps | None |
| Photo and video editing | Timeline scrubbing is smoother; color accuracy matters more | None |
| Consoles | PS5 and Xbox Series output 120Hz in supported games; 144Hz adds nothing on console | None |
Your PC has to keep up
A 144Hz monitor only shows 144 different frames per second if the game produces them. At 60 fps on a 144Hz monitor you still get the lower latency and tear-free motion (with adaptive sync), but not the smoothness. As a rule of thumb, you want the game to average at least 100 fps to feel the upgrade, which means lowering settings or having a mid-range or better graphics card at 1080p and a strong one at 1440p.
Two things make the pairing work well:
- Adaptive sync (FreeSync, G-Sync Compatible). The monitor refreshes when a frame is ready instead of on a fixed clock, so a game running at 90 fps looks smooth with no tearing. Almost every 144Hz monitor has it; make sure it is on in both the monitor menu and the graphics driver.
- A frame rate cap a few frames below the refresh rate (for example 141 fps on 144Hz) keeps you inside the adaptive sync range and avoids the latency V-Sync adds.
Check what you are actually getting: the FPS test shows the frame rate your browser can draw, which equals the refresh rate on a healthy system.
Make sure it is really running at 144Hz
A large share of 144Hz monitors run at 60Hz because the setting was never changed or the cable cannot carry it. Open the refresh rate test: it measures the real rate the browser is drawing at. If it says 60 on a 144Hz monitor:
- Windows: Settings > System > Display > Advanced display > Choose a refresh rate. Mac: System Settings > Displays > Refresh Rate (hold Option while clicking the resolution list if it is missing).
- Cable: HDMI 1.4 tops out at 1080p 144Hz or 1440p 75Hz; for 1440p 144Hz you need DisplayPort 1.2 or HDMI 2.0; for 4K 144Hz, DisplayPort 1.4 with DSC or HDMI 2.1. Use the cable that came with the monitor.
- Monitor menu: some monitors have an "overclock" or "DisplayPort 1.2" toggle that must be on for the full rate.
- Laptops: the internal screen often drops to 60Hz on battery to save power. Check the power settings or plug in.
- Browser: Chrome on Windows sometimes locks to 60 fps on a secondary monitor; drag the window to the fast monitor and reload the test.
iPhone and iPad: a 120 Hz ProMotion screen will still read about 60 Hz in a browser test, because Safari renders web pages near 60 fps by default. Turn off Prefer Page Rendering Updates near 60fps in Settings > Apps > Safari > Advanced > Feature Flags and reload. Low Power Mode caps the screen at 60 Hz too, on iPhones and on MacBooks.
144 vs 165 vs 240 vs 360Hz: where to stop
The improvement is proportional to the change in frame time, and frame time shrinks less with each step: 60 to 144Hz removes 9.8 ms per frame, 144 to 240Hz removes 2.8 ms, 240 to 360Hz removes 1.4 ms. So for most buyers:
- 144 or 165Hz is the sweet spot. The two are effectively the same; 165Hz panels are often the same part with a factory overclock.
- 240Hz makes sense for competitive players with a PC that reaches 200+ fps in their game, and now costs little more at 1080p.
- 360Hz and above is for esports; the gain is measurable in tracking tests but small.
Between a 240Hz panel with poor contrast and a 144Hz panel with better colors, response time and an adaptive sync range that works, the 144Hz one is the better monitor for almost everyone. Check pixel response too: a slow panel smears regardless of refresh rate, which the UFO test will show as a trail behind the UFO.