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Checking a New Gaming Setup

By Jayadeep · Updated August 2026 · About 12 minutes

Seven checks that confirm you are actually getting the performance you paid for, rather than assuming it.

Gaming hardware is unusually easy to buy and then silently under-use. A high-refresh monitor left at the operating system default runs at 60Hz. A high-polling mouse connected through the wrong port reports at a fraction of its rate. A keyboard advertised for gaming may still drop keys in exactly the combinations games use. Each of these is invisible — the equipment works, it simply is not delivering what you paid for, and nothing warns you.

The theme running through this checklist is the difference between capability and configuration. Almost every step below distinguishes what your hardware can do from what it is currently doing. That distinction is where most of the disappointment in new gaming setups comes from, and it is nearly always fixable in software once you know to look.

The controller steps matter for a different reason. Analog sticks are the only component in the chain with a continuously moving electrical contact, so they wear faster than anything else you own, and a brand-new controller can occasionally arrive with measurable drift. Testing on day one both catches a genuine defect while it is trivially returnable and gives you a baseline reading to compare against in a year.

The checklist

Tick each step as you go. Work through them in order — the display checks come first because everything else is judged through the screen.

0 of 7 done

  1. Run the test with other applications closed and compare the result to the panel's rating.

    Open the Refresh Rate Test →

    Pass: A measured rate at or close to the advertised maximum.

    Fail: 60Hz on a high-refresh panel, or any figure well below the rating.

    If it fails: Monitor stuck at 60Hz — Change the display setting or find the cable that is capping the rate.

  2. Refresh rate is the ceiling; this is what you are putting through it. Both numbers need to be high for motion to feel smooth.

    Open the FPS Test →

    Pass: A stable frame rate near your monitor's refresh rate.

    Fail: Frame rate well below the refresh rate, or noticeably unstable.

    If it fails: Refresh rate vs frame rate — Understand which of the two is actually limiting you.

  3. Press every face button, both bumpers, both triggers and the D-pad, and watch each register.

    Open the Controller Test →

    Pass: Every input registers cleanly and triggers report their full range of travel.

    Fail: An input that does not register, or a trigger that does not reach full range.

    If it fails: Controller buttons not responding — Work out whether it is debris, wear or a dead contact.

  4. Put the controller down, hands off, and let the test read the resting position of both sticks.

    Open the Stick Drift Test →

    Pass: Both sticks resting at or very near true centre with a low severity rating.

    Fail: A consistent non-zero resting offset, or visible movement with nobody touching the pad.

    If it fails: Controller stick drift — Confirm the measurement and prepare a warranty claim while it is new.

  5. Click deliberately and slowly a few dozen times, watching for any single click that registers as two.

    Open the Double-Click Test →

    Pass: Every deliberate click registers exactly once.

    Fail: Occasional doubled clicks — a worn switch, which gets worse over time.

    If it fails: How to fix a mouse that double-clicks on its own — Confirm the fault and decide between switch replacement and warranty.

  6. Hold the key combinations you actually use in games — typically several movement keys plus a modifier — and check every one registers.

    Open the Keyboard Test →

    Pass: All keys in your common combinations register simultaneously.

    Fail: Some keys silently dropped when several are held at once.

    If it fails: How to test keyboard ghosting — Understand rollover limits and which combinations your board can handle.

  7. Run several attempts and take the pattern rather than the best single result. This is a baseline to compare against after changes.

    Open the Reaction Time Test →

    Pass: A consistent figure across attempts on your new setup.

    Fail: Wildly inconsistent results, which usually points to unstable frame delivery rather than to you.

    If it fails: How to improve reaction time — Understand what the number includes and what can actually be improved.

More tests worth running here

Not essential to the checklist above, but relevant to this situation and quick to add.

Aim TrainerCPS TestDevice Speed TestGamepad TesterPS5 Controller TestXbox Controller TestJoy-Con Drift Test

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is my new high-refresh monitor running at 60Hz?

Because operating systems commonly default a newly connected display to a conservative refresh rate rather than its maximum. Change it in your display settings. If the higher rate is not offered at all, the limitation is bandwidth — the cable or port cannot carry your resolution at that refresh rate, and a cable explicitly rated for the combination is the fix.

What is the difference between refresh rate and FPS?

Refresh rate is how many times per second your monitor can redraw, fixed by the panel. FPS is how many frames per second your machine produces, which varies with load. A 144Hz monitor fed 50 frames per second looks like 50; a 60Hz monitor fed 200 frames still shows 60. Both need to be high for motion to look smooth.

Should a brand-new controller have any stick drift?

It should read at or very close to centre at rest. Small non-zero values are usually within normal tolerance and get absorbed by in-game deadzones. A reading that produces visible on-screen movement with nobody touching the stick is a defect, and finding it in the first days is the easiest possible time to deal with it.

What is keyboard ghosting and does it matter for gaming?

Ghosting is when pressing several keys at once causes some not to register, because the keyboard's wiring matrix cannot distinguish every combination. It matters specifically for gaming, where holding two movement keys plus a modifier is routine. Keyboards advertising N-key rollover wire each key independently so any combination registers.

Does a higher polling rate actually help?

It reduces the delay between moving the mouse and the movement being reported, but the returns diminish sharply at the top end and very high rates increase CPU load, which on some systems causes stutter that costs more than the latency saved. It is worth testing rather than assuming higher is always better.

Why are my reaction time results inconsistent?

Some variance is normal and human. Large swings usually point at the system rather than at you — unstable frame delivery, background load, or a display doing heavy processing on the signal. Run the refresh rate and FPS steps first, because they measure the things that feed into the reaction figure.

Other checkups

Controller input, frame timings and click data all stay in the page. Nothing about your hardware or your scores is collected, and there is no leaderboard to submit to. See how we validate these tests.

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