60Hz or 120Hz

[sweetiebelleswa]

title says it all which should I get? Whats the differnce?

general idea of the power I will have is 2 x 680's

[chappa'ai]

The difference is that the refresh rate would be 60hz or 120hz.. Meaning the screen can display at most, 60 fps or 120fps.

The human eye has a very hard time noticing if something is above ~45fps though.

Also, cost

[wuliheron]

For video games the biggest differences concern competitive fast paced 2D gaming and stereoscopic 3D gaming, while for movies and TV it makes the biggest difference with fast paced action flix and sports. For 3D gaming size also matters so I'd recommend getting a 27" monitor if that's your thing and two 680s are powerful enough to render almost any game in S3D at max settings.

Most games though are only 30fps to begin with and don't benefit much as far as competitive play goes from higher fps on the monitor. Stereoscopic 3D is especially great for third person perspective, flying, and racing games. Not as impressive with first person shooters and other types of games.

It gets a lot more complicated, but that's the basic gist for your average user. Some day just about every monitor will be 120hz or more, but right now most people have to pick and choose the features they are willing to pay for.

[sfade]

Also, pay attention to what you are buying if you are buying in the 27" range. It's my opinion that a lot of panels give up too much pixel pitch in order to reduce costs in that particular size bracket.

[seseorang]

Originally Posted by chappa'ai

The human eye has a very hard time noticing if something is above ~45fps though.

Nowhere near that low. It's more closer to 700frames every second that be ascertained.

[Shad0WeN]

Originally Posted by chappa'ai

The human eye has a very hard time noticing if something is above ~45fps though

That's not accurate at all. As far as PC gaming goes you can easily tell the difference between 45 and 60fps, and possibly even somewhat more. Once you start getting higher and higher though, at a certain point the difference doesn't matter much anymore.

American standard TV on the other hand is said to be 24 frames/sec, but the reason it appears smooth is supposedly because of motion blur that fools your eyes. Anyway, you can't directly compare the two technologies because it's misleading. It's apples and oranges in some ways.

Originally Posted by wuliheron

Most games though are only 30fps to begin with and don't benefit much as far as competitive play goes from higher fps on the monitor.

This is also somewhat inaccurate. Most games that have been designed with the PC/Mac platform in mind are capable of at least 60fps. And the ones that aren't are usually sloppy console ports from Xbox or PS3.

[chappa'ai]

700fps? That is bull♥♥♥♥. Sorry.
I've seen claims that anything from 15 to 60 fps can be considered "smooth motion" depending in the individual.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frame_rate

When you say you can tell the difference between 45 and 60 fps, it is that the game is rendering smoother, making the motion smoother. You can not visually tell the difference between 60 and 120 fps. Yes, it WILL be smoother, but you will not notice anything aside from the smoothness.


In gaming, the more fps, the better. That is a given. Just that depending on your monitor, you won't see any more of those frames you are generating, because it is limited by your monitor, then it is limited by your own eyes.

[masterchef341]

Originally Posted by chappa'ai

You can not visually tell the difference between 60 and 120 fps. Yes, it WILL be smoother, but you will not notice anything aside from the smoothness.


In gaming, the more fps, the better. That is a given. Just that depending on your monitor, you won't see any more of those frames you are generating, because it is limited by your monitor, then it is limited by your own eyes.

Pretty much all of this information is inconsistent.

Being able to differentiate frame rates in video games is largely dependent on the sharpness of the image and the amount of motion in the scene. Sharper images mean bigger changes in the image when motion occurs.

There are absolutely cases where you can differentiate between 30, 60, and 120 fps, and there are cases where you can't differentiate 1 fps vs 120 fps.

If you are playing a first person shooter that doesn't have motion blur, and you are aren't using any AA (especially FXAA or post processing AA), and you spin around using the mouse, using sudden jerky movements, you should easily be able to detect the difference assuming you have a 120hz monitor and the game is set up to render at that frame rate (some games cap out at a lower frame rate).

If you are staring at a brick wall and not moving, it's possible that you wont be able to tell the difference between 1 fps and 120 fps.

There are other factors: input lag, control, responsiveness are all related. You can perceive smoothness at pretty low frame rates (maybe around 20-25 fps) in blurry games like Crysis (motion blur, and FXAA/post processing AA contribute to this). This doesn't mean you can't perceive higher frame rates, and you can also run into problems with control / input lag because of the relatively choppy execution of the game (regardless of the fact that the motions appears smooth).

Hope that helps.

[wuliheron]

People seem to be confused about the issues so I'll try to clarify a little. The human eye can detect differences in over 300fps, but that can be a still frame photograph your monitor displays. For all practical purposes 120fps is plenty for a monitor to display, but there are two other frames rates that influence what you end up seeing in video games.

The first is the number of frames per second the game itself was designed for. Cranking up a game designed for 30fps will make some difference, but not nearly as big a difference if it was designed from the beginning to be played at 60fps. It's a bit like trying to throw a fast ball with a wiffle ball. The thing was never really designed to be thrown that fast in first place and the game simply won't respond as quickly to your commands.

Then there is the frame rate your graphics card actually spits out at the monitor. The differential between all three is what you end up playing with and it's never the ideal no matter how high you crank them because the game itself really needs to be designed from the beginning for about 85 frames per second to produce ideal results where every split second twitch of the mouse counts. The differential is good enough though if the game is designed for 60fps, you crank up your rig to spit out as many as 180fps, and the monitor can do at least 120fps.

Asus just put a 144fps monitor on the market and I'm sure it will get a lot of attention from serious S3D and competitive gaming fans.

[himynameisruss]

i'll never go back to 60hz after getting my 120hz monitor. i'll lower graphics on certain games so i can get 100+ fps on lower settings rather than 50-60 fps on max settings.

[EliteTemptation]

1) Use 120hz

2) You need to consistently have above 120 frames per second in the game you're playing

3) The monitor is most smooth when you're consistently above 350 frames a second

4) You stop noticing framerate at around the 500-700 mark (also considered the ultimate smoothness)

5) The higher your framerate, the less input lag from your hardware; so the more frames you have, the more responsive your mouse is going to be (this may be title restricted)

I'm on the benQ xl2420t, possibly the best monitor on the market, it does require you to change settings out of box, but they're available largely online and changing them takes less than a few minutes because of the easy on screen UI, you can PM me if you get it and I'll copy down my settings that I got from pcmonitors.org

However playing in native 1920x1080 can take a while to get used to, or you can play in your original res such as 800x600 and simply set your scaling to be done by your GPU and you'll have black bars, then you can adjust accordingly with the monitor itself

The monitor basically cuts your mouse delay in half, shows you enemies before they see you (meanning if someone is playing in 60hz, you'll actually see them before they see you) if someone else is on 120hz, then you'll be on level with them, and just gives a smooth image.

However if your framerate ever gets near your refresh rate (meaning 140 frames) you'll notice a delay/unsmooth image, because the screen is sort of tearing

So be wise if you're going to blow money on one of these monitors, if your rig isn't up to par, you won't get the full use of the monitor, also when in 1920x1080 you don't need to use things like AA because there's so many pixels that edges already look smooth, you should actually be playing on the lowest settings the game offers to get the most frames

[NitrousX]

There is a NOTICEABLE difference between 60Hz and 120Hz. I recently upgraded to a 120Hz monitor and the difference is night and day. Games feel incredibly fluid (like playing on a CRT monitor) and I noticed there is a decrease in eye fatigue due to how fast the image is refreshed per second, for me at least anyways. I can say that as long as you can get 80FPS+ in a game, a 120Hz monitor is more than beneficial.

To anyone looking to upgrade to 120Hz, I recommend watching Linus's video:

http://youtu.be/6CML9GaMSdg?hd=1

[himynameisruss]

Originally Posted by EliteTemptation

I'm on the benQ xl2420t, possibly the best monitor on the market, it does require you to change settings out of box, but they're available largely online and changing them takes less than a few minutes because of the easy on screen UI, you can PM me if you get it and I'll copy down my settings that I got from pcmonitors.org

i'm using the same monitor, mind sending me a PM with your settings? i've changed them prior using some settings i found on another forum but i'd like to know what you're using.

[Powered by src]

I wish there was 120hz IPS monitors

[NitrousX]

Originally Posted by Powered by src

I wish there was 120hz IPS monitors

There are some Korean LG Panel IPS displays (Yamakasi Catleap) that have the ability to overclock to 120Hz but they lack the pixel response time that you get from TN monitors. So while some can be overclocked to 120Hz, you just won't experience the 100% smoothness that you get when playing on a 120Hz TN monitor.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1225919/y...p-monitor-club
http://120hz.net/