What Is Screen Refresh Rate?
Refresh rate is how many times per second your display redraws its image, measured in Hertz (Hz). 60Hz has been the long-standing standard for desktops, laptops, and phones. Modern gaming and creator displays push 120Hz, 144Hz, 165Hz, 240Hz, and even 360Hz and 540Hz at the high end.
Higher refresh rate produces smoother on-screen motion. Scrolling, cursor movement, and fast-action gaming all benefit from more frames per second. The improvement is most dramatic going from 60Hz to 120Hz; subsequent jumps deliver diminishing returns for non-competitive use.
Refresh rate is independent of frame rate. A 144Hz monitor will display whatever the GPU outputs, capped at 144 frames per second. If the GPU produces 60 fps, the monitor still refreshes at 144Hz but shows duplicate frames.
Mobile phone displays have also adopted high refresh rates. The iPhone 14 Pro and later, Samsung Galaxy S series, and most flagship Androids run 120Hz LTPO panels that scale dynamically between 1Hz and 120Hz to save battery.
How the Browser Measures Refresh Rate
Our refresh rate test uses requestAnimationFrame, the browser's native frame-synced callback. The browser fires this callback once per display refresh, immediately before painting the next frame. By measuring the time between consecutive callbacks with performance.now(), we calculate the actual refresh rate.
The measurement is accurate to within ±1Hz under stable conditions. We average over the last 60 frames to smooth out individual frame timing variation, then display the live, min, max, and average rates separately.
This approach measures the rate at which the browser is actually rendering: which equals the display refresh rate when the GPU has enough headroom. If a GPU-heavy task is running concurrently, frames drop and the measured rate falls below the display's actual refresh rate.
For the most accurate reading, close other tabs and applications, plug your laptop into AC power, and ensure your browser window is the active foreground window. Background tabs throttle their requestAnimationFrame timing.
60Hz vs 120Hz vs 144Hz vs 240Hz: Which Do You Need?
60Hz is fine for general office work, web browsing, movie watching, and casual gaming. Movies are mastered at 24 fps anyway, so a 60Hz display has more than enough headroom.
120Hz is the threshold where most people notice a clear difference. Scrolling feels buttery. Cursor movement is more responsive. Casual gaming feels smoother. Most modern phones and many laptops hit this mark.
144Hz is the gaming sweet spot. Competitive games like Counter-Strike, Valorant, and Apex Legends benefit from the lower input latency. 144Hz monitors are widely available in 1080p and 1440p at reasonable prices.
240Hz and above is for serious competitive gamers. The benefit over 144Hz is real but marginal for most players. Pros in tournament settings can capitalize on the additional 1.4 ms of reaction-time advantage; casual players rarely see meaningful gains.
For content creation: refresh rate matters less than color accuracy and resolution. A 60Hz 4K color-accurate panel beats a 240Hz 1080p panel for photo editing. Choose based on your primary use.
Why Am I Not Getting My Monitor's Rated Hz?
If you bought a 144Hz monitor but our tester shows 60Hz, the most common cause is Windows defaulting to 60Hz. Open Settings → Display → Advanced display → Refresh rate, and change it to 144Hz manually. Some monitors require this change after every driver update.
Cable bandwidth is the second common cause. HDMI 1.4 maxes out at 60Hz at 1080p. To run 144Hz at 1080p, you need HDMI 2.0 or DisplayPort. For 144Hz at 1440p, DisplayPort 1.2 or HDMI 2.0. For 4K at 120Hz, HDMI 2.1 or DisplayPort 1.4. Buying a cheap HDMI cable on Amazon often defaults to 1.4 and silently caps your refresh rate.
Graphics driver: outdated NVIDIA or AMD drivers can fail to advertise high refresh rates. Use GeForce Experience or AMD Adrenalin to keep drivers current.
On laptops, battery saver mode often forces 60Hz. Plug into AC power for full performance. Some laptops also have a 'dynamic refresh rate' feature that drops to 60Hz when not in gaming mode.
Dual-monitor mismatch: if one monitor runs 60Hz and the other 144Hz, Windows occasionally caps both to 60Hz. Disconnect the lower-refresh display and retest to confirm.
VRR, G-Sync, and FreeSync Explained
Variable refresh rate (VRR) syncs the monitor's refresh rate to the GPU's output, eliminating screen tearing without the input latency of traditional V-Sync. NVIDIA calls their version G-Sync; AMD calls theirs FreeSync; both are based on the same underlying VESA Adaptive Sync standard.
With VRR active, our tester will show a fluctuating Hz reading rather than a steady number. This is normal: the refresh rate is varying frame-by-frame to match the GPU output.
For accurate refresh rate measurement, disable VRR temporarily. Windows: Settings → Display → Graphics → Variable refresh rate → Off. NVIDIA Control Panel: G-Sync settings → Disable. AMD Radeon Settings: FreeSync → Disable.
VRR is generally beneficial for gaming: it gives smoother frame delivery than fixed refresh rates. Leave it on for daily use and disable only for measurement purposes.