144Hz Monitors pointless/useless?

ibex333

ibex333

[H]ard|Gawd
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Oct 30, 2007
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So I gave in to the hype and bought a 144Hz monitor. I am currently playing Metro Exodus with my 1080 GTX and only getting an average of about 44fps, which is normal for this card and resolution I am playing at. Regardless, I'm nowhere near my monitors speed, so what's the point? I might as well be using a 60Hz monitor...

I feel like I wasted my money.


Don't get me wrong, the monitor is very clear, great colors, 1440p resolution, etc... But the big question is WHY, when I could have been using a much cheaper 60Hz display?

Many people mention some kind of "increased responsiveness/smoothness" in windows. I am not noticing anything like that. And even if I was, does it really matter when typing up a word document or checking your mail?

By the way, YES, I am definitely running at 144Hz. Using a display port cable, went to adapter properties, checked that I am in fact running at max speed.

So again, unless I was a competitive Counterstrike/Overwatch player, do I really need 144Hz?
 
Did you buy a 144hz monitor for one game?

I have a 144hz 1440p monitor. Some single player games that are immersive, I don’t notice the difference.

Playing FPS games, major difference. I recently swapped monitors and bumped from 60hz. I have scored better in Apex and Overwatch. So I believe it makes a difference.

That said rather or not you found value in your purchase, is up to you.

But obviously playing games that you can’t keep a high frame rate on with settings you’re happy with, won’t show the benefit of the monitor.
 
jmilcher said:
Did you buy a 144hz monitor for one game?

I have a 144hz 1440p monitor. Some single player games that are immersive, I don’t notice the difference.

Playing FPS games, major difference. I recently swapped monitors and bumped from 60hz. I have scored better in Apex and Overwatch. So I believe it makes a difference.

That said rather or not you found value in your purchase, is up to you.

But obviously playing games that you can’t keep a high frame rate on with settings you’re happy with, won’t show the benefit of the monitor.
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I actually don't play multiplayer FPS at all. I don't like the feeling of being humiliated by 13 y/olds. Single player only, like DOOM, Rage, STALKER, etc. I guess I will see if I get any better with my accuracy or reaction time.
 
Try playing a game with high fps like DOOM or an older game like Left4Dead, you will see what 144Hz is all about.

You can also try turning down some settings on Metro, you should be able to get more than 45fps.
 
You might have better luck toying with some older titles or games like Subnautica, which are less demanding on the GTX 1080. Racing games are another great application of high refresh rate monitors. Games like DIRT and Forza Racing/Horizon. Scrumptuously smooth.

I'm still waiting to pull the trigger on an ultrawide 144Hz IPS display, waiting for prices to come down still. I've used a few of my friends though, and they're pretty great in situations where the speed is more advantageous.
 
DoubleTap said:
You don't have a monitor problem, you have a gpu/game problem.

Would you complain about your sports car being slow because you only drive in congested traffic?

Try some other games?
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I disagree with that statement.

It is not driving a sports car in congested traffic. It's like driving a sports car which only has whichever engine you can afford installed. Sure, there is a "potential" to drive that car at an insane speed, but that's not gonna happen unless you put a right engine inside.

If what you say was true, then 144Hz monitors would have to come bundled with top of the line GPUs. After all, one buys a 144Hz monitor to play at 144Hz, not to play at whatever their card can push out. In this particular case, the situation is so bad, that even if I had a RTX 2080Ti, I STILL wouldn't be able to max everything out and maintain a smooth 144 fps!!! I have to wait 1-2 years until such a beast of a card gets made or use 2x Titans or 2080Ti's in SLi. Funny part is, by that time, they'll come out with a new fad, like 500Hz or whatever it will be...

Is lowering your settings in Metro Exodus to increase fps really such a big deal? Why YES! Yes, it absolutely is. The eye candy in this game really makes a night and day difference. Lowering the settings really does take away a huge amount of detail and beauty.


If a 144Hz monitor is only good for older games, than that should be a huge red sticker in the middle of the screen when they sell these. Not that I didn't know that I would not be able to run all games at 144Hz before purchasing this. I knew it already, HOWEVER, I expected such a monitor to provide other bonuses, such as smoother scrolling while browsing, and smoother mouse movement across the screen. This is absolutely not the case. You are essentially paying several hundred more for the POTENTIAL to play at 144Hz when purchasing these, and not for any guaranteed feature or a bonus.
 
Are you sure your mouse is able to update fast enough? I've had several mice that only poll at 60Hz, making the Windows desktop dragging windows still choppy at high refresh.
 
Varies by game. Obviously that game on your current hardware, there is no need for that monitor. But there are many other games out there. In your case, I'd say you wasted your money. For the rest of us, YES, there is a difference.
 
ibex333 said:
I disagree with that statement.

It is not driving a sports car in congested traffic. It's like driving a sports car which only has whichever engine you can afford installed. Sure, there is a "potential" to drive that car at an insane speed, but that's not gonna happen unless you put a right engine inside.

If what you say was true, then 144Hz monitors would have to come bundled with top of the line GPUs. After all, one buys a 144Hz monitor to play at 144Hz, not to play at whatever their card can push out. In this particular case, the situation is so bad, that even if I had a RTX 2080Ti, I STILL wouldn't be able to max everything out and maintain a smooth 144 fps!!! I have to wait 1-2 years until such a beast of a card gets made or use 2x Titans or 2080Ti's in SLi. Funny part is, by that time, they'll come out with a new fad, like 500Hz or whatever it will be...

Is lowering your settings in Metro Exodus to increase fps really such a big deal? Why YES! Yes, it absolutely is. The eye candy in this game really makes a night and day difference. Lowering the settings really does take away a huge amount of detail and beauty.


If a 144Hz monitor is only good for older games, than that should be a huge red sticker in the middle of the screen when they sell these. Not that I didn't know that I would not be able to run all games at 144Hz before purchasing this. I knew it already, HOWEVER, I expected such a monitor to provide other bonuses, such as smoother scrolling while browsing, and smoother mouse movement across the screen. This is absolutely not the case. You are essentially paying several hundred more for the POTENTIAL to play at 144Hz when purchasing these, and not for any guaranteed feature or a bonus.
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I'm not going to argue analogies, but I have a 1440P / 144Hz monitor and a 1080Ti and almost every game I play stays in the 120-144hz range with the exception of GR:WL.

Blame your game, not your screen.

Or your GPU:

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Performance_Analysis/Metro_Exodus/6.html

Average GTX1080 performance at 1440P is 67fps
Average GTX1080Ti fps is 89
Average RTX2080Ti fps is 118
 
Why does this thread remind me so much of people feeling the need to remind everyone "I don't watch TV anymore"?

I actually don't play multiplayer FPS at all. I don't like the feeling of being humiliated by 13 y/olds. Single player only, like DOOM, Rage, STALKER, etc. I guess I will see if I get any better with my accuracy or reaction time.
Click to expand...

You might be surprised that in many online games the average age is closer to 31 than 13.
 
44pfs? how can you live with that

I have always made sure my game runs at 60fps+ since quake came out 44fps would feel horrible
Sadly no 120/144hz mointor for me :(


oh hey ihave an idea why dont you donate you monitor for me so i can run hgih fps since you dont mind the low fps anyway no? damn:clown:
 
IMHO frame rate is king because it is a direct mapping of your input (mouse + kb) in to the world you are in. Now single player (SP) and multiplayer, (MP) and multiplayer FPS games (MPS) can benefit greatly from higher 99% tile frame rates. Those thresholds for me are 75, 85 - I don't play many multi RTS but can see the need, and 100 respectively.

In a perfect world you would have two monitors as keeping 99% tile frames above 100 on a 1440p monitor is difficult; so you have a 1080p monitor for frames and 1440p for image quality + frames.
 
ibex333 said:
If a 144Hz monitor is only good for older games, than that should be a huge red sticker in the middle of the screen when they sell these. Not that I didn't know that I would not be able to run all games at 144Hz before purchasing this. I knew it already, HOWEVER, I expected such a monitor to provide other bonuses, such as smoother scrolling while browsing, and smoother mouse movement across the screen. This is absolutely not the case. You are essentially paying several hundred more for the POTENTIAL to play at 144Hz when purchasing these, and not for any guaranteed feature or a bonus.
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This thread reads like your trying to go out of your way to NOT like the monitor.

144hz is great, I don't know what your expectation of "Smoother" is, however on 144hz things are clearer in motion, aka you can still read the text while moving an item across the screen. This translates to video games as your ability to track targets across the screen is improved, which is why some people state there KD Ratio is higher on a 144hz monitor.

Some links to try, You can clearly see the difference:

https://www.testufo.com/
https://www.testufo.com/framerates-text
https://www.testufo.com/mousearrow
 
cybereality said:
Are you sure your mouse is able to update fast enough? I've had several mice that only poll at 60Hz, making the Windows desktop dragging windows still choppy at high refresh.
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Good idea. I have to try that. However, I do have a newer Corsair mouse. The one that looks like a cybernetic spaceship. It's one of the better ones.

Krispy Kritter said:
Varies by game. Obviously that game on your current hardware, there is no need for that monitor. But there are many other games out there. In your case, I'd say you wasted your money. For the rest of us, YES, there is a difference.
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I concur. Certainly my fault for giving in to the hype.

DoubleTap said:
I'm not going to argue analogies, but I have a 1440P / 144Hz monitor and a 1080Ti and almost every game I play stays in the 120-144hz range with the exception of GR:WL.

Blame your game, not your screen.

Or your GPU:

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Performance_Analysis/Metro_Exodus/6.html

Average GTX1080 performance at 1440P is 67fps
Average GTX1080Ti fps is 89
Average RTX2080Ti fps is 118
Click to expand...

That 67 fps they are getting is with some options OFF. I am playing with those options ON. Will try to match their FPS.
 
ibex333 said:
Good idea. I have to try that. However, I do have a newer Corsair mouse. The one that looks like a cybernetic spaceship. It's one of the better ones.



I concur. Certainly my fault for giving in to the hype.



That 67 fps they are getting is with some options OFF. I am playing with those options ON. Will try to match their FPS.
Click to expand...

I find that I'm fine with 70-80 fps in single player games. Even the 60fps in WildLands is fine because it's on Ultra and the game looks way worse if you even drop down to high.

But on multiplayer games, I usually run medium-high or even low-medium settings to maximize fps and overall performance.

When I had 3x 1440P monitors, I could run Battlefield 4 at 7680x1440 at 100+ fps on a single 1080Ti - not on max settings, but it was a hell of a good time in multiplayer...
 
:LOL: This guy's trolling you all so bad, "My tires are rated for 200 but my street is limited to 30 like what's the point? :cry:"

hehehe, should've gone with "I only watch gifs at 12 fps" :ROFLMAO:.
 
ibex333 said:
Acer XF270HU Cbmiiprzx 27 This is a Freesync monitor, but FreeSync does work with nVidia now, and I do have it enabled.
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FreeSync range on that only goes down to 48 hz so you aren't getting the benefit of FreeSync or the smoothness of high refresh rate. You can try for 48 fps minimum with lower settings or a better card, or just return it because you're only getting the benefit of a little less tearing at 44 fps on a 144 hz display.
 
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Fuzzy_3D said:
:LOL: This guy's trolling you all so bad, "My tires are rated for 200 but my street is limited to 30 like what's the point? :cry:"

hehehe, should've gone with "I only watch gifs at 12 fps" :ROFLMAO:.
Click to expand...

Your comparison is wrong. And no one is trolling anyone. It's not the street that's limited, it's the engine. But if so, no point in those tires.
 
Mouse movement and scrolling in web browsers is definitely way smoother on high refresh rate displays so I can't really relate to what you are saying at all. Going back to my laptop which is a regular 60 Hz display feels way more sluggish on the desktop.
 
Do you need it? Probably not.
But is it very nice to have? Damn right.

I've been running 144hz for a few years now and will never be able to go back to 60hz for pc gaming.
 
Yeah, for sure. At 1440p you will be getting better fps than 4K, so you can take advantage of the higher refresh.
 
I like high refresh (using 166Hz now) but right around 90 - 100fps is the point of diminishing returns.

So if you can get 100fps you should be fine.
 
Ordered the LG has VA panel, VESA mount, decent free sync range and ambient rear LED glow, 144 Hz and doesn't break the bank.
 
I tried out a friends 144Hz monitor playing Overwatch- made me a bit nauseated.... my urge to upgrade faded after that.
 
For me it is not all about hitting and maintaining 144hz.
It's nice but it is not the be all and end all to enjoying your PC gaming.

No the biggest advantage is the butter smooth, lower lag, judder and tear free experience that variable rate technology brings.

So I would say it is far more important to make sure your minimum framerates don't dip below the operating range of G-sync and Freesync.

Staying between 60fps to 144fps is the sweet spot.
Most will be happy with that.
 
Sometimes it is nice to crank everything to max settings, but you have to wonder if you are even able to tell the difference. For instance shadow detail. I have never sat and looked at the detail of a shadow of someone (or NPC) I'm trying to shoot in a game, so player (or NPC) shadows are okay set to low/medium. Same with anti aliasing, sure 8x is great at 1080p, but 8x at 1440 or 4k is not really very noticeable so you can drop to 2x or 4x for more performance. I say drop the quality on some settings and try gaming at a higher frame rate. You might also be double dipping like running at 4k in rendering and it is down sampled to 1440 which if run in conjunction with anti aliasing is two things doing almost the same thing, the same goal of less jaggies. Just do one or the other.
 
Well the game is running sub 60fps, so that's why you don't feel any of the benefits of the higher refresh rate.

You need to either turn down some settings to get the FPS in the ~100fps range or try other games which can hit higher FPS much easily, stuff like overwatch etc.

144hz is very nice, but yeah it requires you to have considerable graphics grunt to hit those high framerates in new release titles.
 
ibex333 said:
Your comparison is wrong. And no one is trolling anyone. It's not the street that's limited, it's the engine. But if so, no point in those tires.
Click to expand...
Sounds like you're simply agreeing the problem is not the monitor, but the GPU (and choice of game to use for the example). Either you're interested in fixing the real problem, or you're not.
 
Huge improvement no smearing or input delay, feels like I upgraded to new video card.
 
Thought this was amusing... In the new posts list right next to each other:

2019-03-20_10-37-17.jpg


To be actually useful: others have covered it, you won't notice any benefit of high refresh rates without actually being in those high refresh rates. Frankly I even notice it on the desktop (I don't own a 144hz+ monitor, but I've used them before at my old work), and even just dragging windows is smoother by far. I've also found 'cranking the details' to max realllyyyy doesn't show off a lot most of the time. I tend to turn down things like AA to 2x (27" 1440p is slightly more pixel dense than 1080p 24" so less AA required), and i turn down shadows/turn any ambient occlusion option to lowest (but still on). This helps a LOT with framerate for very minimal loss in clarity. May help bring up some frames?
 
cybereality said:
Try playing a game with high fps like DOOM or an older game like Left4Dead, you will see what 144Hz is all about.

You can also try turning down some settings on Metro, you should be able to get more than 45fps.
Click to expand...


^^ This 100% I was actually upset with myself for waiting so long to move from a 60Hz to 144Hz LCD.. LCD's have a lot of problems but higher refresh models certainly help with one of the bigger issues they face... motion handling quality.. but you need to be at 100+ fps to really see the benefits.

Doom (2016) at 144fps / 144Hz is amazing.
 
You wasted your money. Sounds like a 60hz would have been more than enough for your usage case. Or just a cheap television.
 
One thing that I also replaced that made me appreciate my 144hz monitor was my mouse. I had a cheap 10+ year old optical mouse which I later realized was a piece of crap when I bought a proper laser gaming mouse. Scrolling was so much smoother and it was very noticeably when turning around in fps games.

I would suggest loading up an old game that can hit 144fps (or close to it) then compare how it feels vs 60hz.

I can tell immediately if a game framecapped at 60.
 
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