Refresh Rate Explained: Does Hz Really Matter?

Quick answer: Refresh rate is how many times per second your display redraws the image, measured in hertz (Hz). A 60Hz screen redraws 60 times a second; 120Hz and 144Hz are smoother for fast motion. Higher helps gaming and scrolling but matters less for reading.

Check what your screen is actually running at: open the refresh rate test.

What refresh rate means

Each refresh is one full redraw of the screen. More refreshes per second means motion is broken into more steps, so movement looks smoother and feels more responsive. It is measured in Hz, where 60Hz is 60 redraws per second.

60Hz vs 120Hz vs 144Hz vs 240Hz

60Hz is the long-standing baseline and is fine for general use. 120Hz and 144Hz feel markedly smoother for gaming, scrolling and animation — the common sweet spot for gamers. 240Hz and above mainly benefit competitive esports players who want the lowest possible motion blur and latency.

Does a higher refresh rate matter?

It depends on what you do. For fast games and smooth scrolling, higher refresh is clearly better. For reading, email and most office work the gain is small. Remember your graphics card has to actually produce that many frames — a 144Hz screen only looks 144Hz if the game runs near 144 FPS.

Refresh rate vs frame rate

Refresh rate (Hz) is how fast the screen can redraw; frame rate (FPS) is how many frames your computer produces. The smoothness you see is capped by whichever is lower — a 144Hz screen fed 60 FPS still only shows 60 new frames a second.

Confirm your refresh rate

Use the refresh rate test to see your real rate. If it reads lower than your monitor supports, see our guide on a monitor stuck at 60Hz.