Your monitor comes with a refresh rate. Like frames in a video, more frames means a more fluid video, so a higher refresh rates mean smoother visualization in your monitor. The standard for modern consumer monitors these days is "60Hz", which for most people is enough. You can see your cursor move around your screen and you can recognize when windows minimize and maximize. Videos and games play just fine, and you can see everything you need to see! Neato. Why would you need more? Well, if you're asking, then you've probably never tried using a 144Hz monitor.

On your screen, try moving your cursor from the left side your monitor to the right side, back and forth, very quickly. At some point, it looks like your cursor is kind of just appearing to where you put it, rather than seeing it move the whole way over there. You do see the cursor appear sometimes in-between the endpoints, which does a good job of simulating movement since our brains are very good about filling up that kind of missing information without us noticing. When you watch a video the frame tends to blur when things move. In general you probably never notice the missing frames until you made a point to look closely. It's possible you don't even notice it now--many people don't.

But with a side by side comparison, the difference is undeniable. Animations in games and videos and transitions in the general OS look sharper from the increase in frames. Any sort of motion or movement on your screen is crisper and cleaner. You see more details with a more precise eye, and this can make quite an impact on something more motion intensive than internet browsing like watching a high-quality action movie or playing a competitive game.

Now imagine you're playing a game. You and your team's eyes are glued to the building where your enemy is. You NEED to react immediately and act as soon as they show their face to get the kill. Fingers poised, breath held, you see them to your right! You fling your cross-hair around as fast as you can and strike! Oh...well, nevermind. Your teammate got the kill. How did they see so quickly? Is it possible that they're just better than you at this game? Nah, that's not possible...so maybe they're using a monitor with a higher refresh rate.

Time for an upgrade!

With the consideration of upgrading to a 144Hz+ monitor, you need to make sure you have the hardware to back it up. However, if your GPU isn't up to par, it won't be able to input the frames that you want to see on monitors with high frame output. We can help with that. Check out our GPUs and bump up your gaming experience in more ways than one!