Refresh Rate Test

How to check your refresh rate

1. Open the page on the monitor you want to test and keep the browser window on that screen. The test starts by itself.
2. Wait about three seconds. The big number is your refresh rate, rounded to the usual value (60, 120, 144 Hz and so on). The line under it shows the exact measurement, for example 59.94 Hz.
3. Watch the moving shapes. The top one moves every refresh; the middle one at half the rate and the bottom one at 30 Hz. On a high refresh rate screen the top one looks clearly smoother and sharper.
4. Check the row of squares under the motion area. One square lights per frame. If you photograph it with a slow shutter, a gap in the lit squares means a skipped frame.
5. If you move the window to another monitor or change a display setting, press Measure again.

What the results mean

The refresh rate is how many new images your screen can show each second, measured in hertz (Hz). The test times the gaps between the frames your browser draws, which are locked to your display, so it reports the rate the screen is actually running at right now, not what the box or spec sheet promises.

• 60 Hz (or 59.94 Hz): the standard for most office monitors, laptops, TVs and older phones.
• 75, 90 or 100 Hz: budget gaming monitors and some phones and tablets.
• 120, 144 or 165 Hz: gaming monitors, gaming laptops, iPhone Pro and many Android phones.
• 240 Hz and above: high-end esports monitors.

Jitter is how much the frame time varies. Under about 0.5 ms is excellent; a few milliseconds means the browser or system is busy. Skipped frames counts refreshes where the browser missed its turn. A few at the start are normal; a steady climb points to a busy system or a power-saving mode.

Why is my monitor showing 60 Hz instead of 144 Hz?

This is the most common surprise. A new 144 Hz or 165 Hz monitor often runs at 60 Hz out of the box because the operating system picks a safe default, or because the cable cannot carry the higher rate. Older HDMI cables and ports (HDMI 1.4) top out at 60 Hz at 1440p and above, while DisplayPort and HDMI 2.0/2.1 can carry 144 Hz and more. Laptop users should also check that the browser is on the built-in or external screen they mean to test.

Variable refresh rate (G-Sync, FreeSync, Adaptive-Sync and ProMotion on Apple devices) can also lower the rate when little is moving. Phones and tablets with adaptive displays often drop to 60 Hz in the browser or in battery saver, then rise to 120 Hz in games.

Refresh rate vs FPS

Refresh rate belongs to the screen; FPS (frames per second) belongs to the computer or game. You see whichever is lower. A 144 Hz monitor fed 60 FPS looks like 60, and a game at 200 FPS on a 60 Hz panel still shows 60 new images a second. To measure how many frames your browser actually manages, with a frame-time graph, use the FPS test. To check the screen itself for faults, run the dead pixel test.

Common problems and fixes

Set the refresh rate on Windows

Open Settings > System > Display > Advanced display, select the monitor and choose the highest value under "Choose a refresh rate". In NVIDIA Control Panel (Change resolution) or AMD Software (Display) you can set it too. Then press Measure again.

Set the refresh rate on a Mac

Open System Settings > Displays, select the monitor and pick the highest option in the Refresh rate menu. MacBook Pro screens use ProMotion: choose "ProMotion" for up to 120 Hz. Low Power Mode can limit it to 60 Hz.

High refresh rate is missing from the list

Use the cable that came with the monitor, preferably DisplayPort, or a certified HDMI 2.0/2.1 cable, plugged into the graphics card, not the motherboard. Update the graphics driver and enable the high refresh mode or overclock option in the monitor's own menu if it has one.

Phone shows 60 Hz instead of 90 or 120 Hz

Turn off battery saver or Low Power Mode, then check Settings > Display > Motion smoothness (Samsung), Smooth display (Pixel) or Screen refresh rate (other Android phones). On an iPhone or iPad, Safari has its own 60 fps setting; see the next fix.

iPhone or iPad shows 60 Hz in Safari

Safari on iPhone and iPad draws web pages near 60 fps by default, even on ProMotion screens that run at 120 Hz everywhere else. To let the test see 120 Hz, open Settings > Apps > Safari > Advanced > Feature Flags, turn off Prefer Page Rendering Updates near 60fps and reload the page. Low Power Mode also caps the screen at 60 Hz, so turn it off first. iPhones without ProMotion have 60 Hz screens, so 60 is the right answer there.