What is a high refresh rate? A higher refresh rate refers to the frequency at which a monitor updates the displayed image. The unit for this update interval is milliseconds (ms), while the unit for display refresh rate is Hertz (Hz).
The refresh rate of a monitor indicates how many times per second the monitor draws a new image. It is measured in Hertz (Hz). For example, if your monitor has a refresh rate of 144 Hz, it means that it refreshes the image 144 times per second. When combined with a high frame rate generated by the GPU and CPU, a higher refresh rate can provide a smoother experience and potentially higher frame rates.
To take advantage of a higher refresh rate, three important components need to be considered:
- A high refresh rate monitor.
- A high-speed CPU capable of providing key game instructions such as artificial intelligence, physics, game logic, and rendering data.
- A high-speed GPU that can quickly execute instructions and create display images on the screen.
The monitor can only display images generated by the system, so it's crucial for your CPU and GPU to generate images quickly. If your CPU and GPU cannot provide enough frames for the monitor, no matter how good the monitor is, it cannot produce high refresh rate images.
If your monitor has a refresh rate of 144 Hz but the GPU only supports 30 frames per second, then the high refresh rate will be of no use.