How to Check Monitor’s Refresh Rate in Windows (Simple Ways)

Quickly master the simple steps to check your monitor’s true refresh rate across Windows, Mac & Linux platforms. Learn how to check monitor refresh rate and troubleshoot the common refresh rate issues with expert tips:

The performance of your device can be impacted by several computer monitor features, namely, aspect ratio, screen size, resolution, and refresh rate.

Aspect ratio is the width and height of the monitor separated by a colon (:) (e.g. 4:3, 16:9, 21:9) – 16:9 aspect ratio formats used for mainstream laptops, high definition (HD) television, and gaming monitors. This format is popular for competitive pricing, compatibility, and exceptional gaming experience.

Check Monitor Refresh Rate in Minutes

16:10 aspect ratio format became popular due to extended screen space and comfortable view in browsing, reading, and playing games. However, the 16:10 format is widely suitable for coding, spreadsheet calculations, and editing videos and documents, whereas the 16:9 format is selected for video and movie streaming, and playing games.

Screen Size of computer monitors comes in the range from 19 to 40 inches diagonally with sizes like 21.5, 24, 27, and 32 inches. For less than 3 feet distance 24 inch screen is ideal and for 3 to 4 feet viewing distance 27 inch screen is preferred. The selection of an adequate screen size will provide an immersive gaming experience and enhanced productivity.

Screen Resolution is the pixel count displayed on the screen and is the width x height of the screen (e.g. full HD screen resolution – 1920 x 1080). The resolution of video or digital image is measured in pixels per inch (PPI) – also termed as the pixel density of a computer screen, Dots per inch (DPI) is more popular for printing high-resolution images (e.g. 300 DPI).

Screen resolution is a feature to observe minute details in the image. 16:9 aspect ratio is preferred with full HD resolution i.e. 1920 x 1080.

The refresh rate of the computer screen measured in Hertz (Hz) is how often the image is updated on the computer screen in one second. for eg. 144 Hz will refresh its screen 144 times in seconds. A higher refresh rate is preferred for real-life experiences in browsing and gaming.

You can check your computer’s refresh rate by right-clicking on your computer screen & selecting display settings, Clicking on the Advanced display settings link & check the refresh rate in Hz under the display information section.

What is the Refresh Rate

The refresh rate is one of the properties or features of the display of your device, which says how often in a second an image gets refreshed on the screen. Modern-day computers are designed with more storage, space, and multi-core processors and graphics cards like GeForce from NVIDIA, AMD Radeon series of drivers, or Intel Arc series for an excellent visual experience.

Here is a quick video on monitor refresh rates and the differences between them:

In recent years, advancements in technology have made customers more demanding to explore the fields of digital transformation, and research in the fields of science, technology, medicine, and social media.

High-end processors and graphic cards enable devices to design complex software related to artificial intelligence, machine learning, data analytics, gaming, and scientific research.

Your computer hardware, like CPU, monitor and GPU, works simultaneously for a higher refresh rate.

You should have a CPU that is efficient in data rendering, artificial intelligence, scientific calculations like physics, the internet of things, complex logic for gaming and instructions to be followed while playing the game, Graphics processing unit (GPU) for quick execution of instructions and design the graphics that we see on the screen, and monitor that can quickly refresh.

Your monitor specification does not matter if the GPU and CPU cannot supply the monitor with an adequately high number of frames, as your monitor can not produce a high-refresh-rate image.

Effect of Refresh Rate on Gaming Monitors

Most gaming software requires around 95-110 pixels per inch – pixel count within an inch of a digital image, and 60 Hz of refresh rate for occasional players, 110-140 pixels per inch and 144 Hz are optimum for medium games.

High-end top-of-the-line gaming monitors require a screen resolution of 140 pixels per inch (PPI) with a 240 Hz refresh rate for gamers that use professional games like Alto’s Adventure, FZ9 Timeshift, Shadowgun, Final Fantasy, Mekorama, and Minecraft.

With a 13.4 percent CAGR for the year 2024-2030, the Global Gaming Market has forecast US 557 million for the year 2030 due to the advent of 3D gaming and the sharp rise of high-end smartphones used for entertainment by teenagers in the last few years.

How to Find Refresh Rate in Windows PC?

It is essential to find out what is refresh rate of your computer is and decide if you need to modify it to make your monitor screen suitable for an exceptional gaming experience. The steps carried out to find the refresh rate for Windows 10 computers are described below.

You can follow any one of the ways to go to advanced display settings.

You may either follow the steps below:

• Click on the Windows icon on the bottom left corner of your screen OR Right-click on the Windows icon.
• Select the Settings icon from the list & click on it.

Alternatively, you may follow the below steps:

• Press the Windows + I key simultaneously from your keyboard.
• Windows Settings page will appear.
• Click on System from the list.

OR follow the below steps:

• Right-click anywhere on your screen, excluding any icons.
• Select & click on the display settings option.

Any of the above steps will bring you to the settings page.

• Click on the Advanced Display Settings link.
• The advanced display settings page will appear.
• Refresh Rate is a separate section in the drop-down and under the Display information section in Hz (Hz – Hertz).

Note: The refresh Rate usually is around 59.994 Hz as shown on the screen.

How to Find the Refresh Rate for Linux OS Computer Screen

If your computer has Linux as its operating system, follow the steps given below:

• Press the Windows icon key from your keyboard.
• Type – Display in the search text field.
• Select Display from the results displayed.
• Look for the Refresh Rate section.
• Select the refresh rate option from the drop-down menu.
• The screen will display the refresh rate in Hz.

How to Find Refresh Rate on Mac OS Console

There will be different ways to find out the refresh rate value for the Mac OS console:

• Select Apple menus
• Click on System Settings / Preferences (You will find System Settings in newer versions of mac OS based devices)
• Click on the Displays option
• Click on pop-up menus and select Refresh Rate
• Refresh Rate will be displayed in Hz (Hertz)

How to Change Refresh Rate

• Right-click anywhere (except any icons) on your screen.
• Select & click on the display settings option.

• Click on the Advanced Display Settings link.
• The advanced display settings page will appear.

• Under the Display Information section.
• Click on Display adapter properties for the Display 1 link.
• A window will appear displaying monitor and graphics properties.
• Click on the Monitor tab.
• You will find the Monitor Settings section.
• Look for the Screen Refresh Rate drop-down.
• You can select the drop-down to change the highest refresh rate available.

The refresh rate depends upon various factors, as explained below:

#1) CPU Speed: The processor installed in the CPU plays an important role as Intel Core i7 – 12700F, and AMD Ryzen 9 9950X are powerful and come with a high speed of around 5 GHz. Processor speed depends upon its architecture, cores/threads, clock rate and size of the cache, thermal design power, and the count of transistors.

For creating presentations or documents and web searching 1.6GHz of processor speed is sufficient, 2.5 GHz speed is required for the quad-core processor, and 3.8 GHz speed is essential for exceptional gaming, animation, movie, or video editing experience.

Ryzen 7 to 9 series from AMD or Intel’s Core i7 to i9 are the best processors for a high-end gaming experience.

#2) GPU: Graphics processing units (GPU) are hardware components also known as video cards designed for graphical uses such as processing digital images, and computer graphics and facilitating features like animation in video and gaming and non-graphics use like mining of cryptocurrency and neural networking.

You can select your GPU from Intel, Nvidia, and AMD to help design work related to graphics, and effects like animation and videos.

Higher specifications of GPU like 6 GB of Memory are preferred for 1080 pixels of games, RAM memory speed determines how fast RAM of GPU will function, with the power consumption of up to 75 watts, overclocking abilities and deep learning super sampling (DLSS) are few features that enhance refresh rate.

#3) Monitor: Offers wide area viewing angle, around four times (4x) pixels compared to FHD i.e. 3840 x 2160 UHD, picture in picture (PIP) giving easy and quick screen splitting and Picture by Picture (PBP) displaying twice input as compared with a single PC.

In addition, USB-C connection helps send high-volume business data quickly by connecting securely between devices, multiple ports for connecting with multiple devices like USBs for charging, headphones, speakers, and LAN ports for data transfer.

#4) Screen Resolution: The number of pixels spread both vertically and horizontally across the screen is called resolution. A higher value of resolution results in sharp, crisp image quality.

For low-cost budget monitors screen size is 1366 x 768 (HD), laptop and desktop monitors usually come in 1920 x 1080 (Full HD), 2560 x 1440 (QHD) offers perfect resolution for gaming, high-end premium screens 7680 x 4320 pixels used for capturing high-resolution images in cameras, playing games, viewing advertisement and videos for social media.

#5) Pixel Per Inch (PPI): Pixel or dots spread across a square inch of your monitor screen. A higher pixel density results in crisp-quality images. Screen size is inversely proportional to pixel density. The smaller monitor screen has more pixel density for sharp images and smooth lines.

• 720 pixels for HDTV broadcasting
• 1080 pixels for smartphones, video games, streaming videos
• 4K for commercial TV, internet streaming, and projection of videos
• 8K for UHD TV, broadcast cameras, and monitors for computers and TVs.

#6) Aspect Ratio: For real-life image viewing for an exceptional experience, the proportional ratio of the width of the monitor to the height of the monitor – e.g. 4:3. The aspect ratio of 16:9 is more recommended for monitors for gaming, high definition TV, or laptop for enhanced performance.

Relationship Between Frame Rates and Refresh Rate

The frame rate for the screen is the number of images displayed per second, whereas the refresh rate of the screen is how often the image gets refreshed on a screen in a second.

Higher frames displayed in seconds (fps) result in a higher refresh rate (Hz), enhanced response, and smoother movement. It is important to synchronize the frame rate and the refresh rate.

Benefits of Changing the Display Refresh Rate

Changes in refresh rate will reduce

• Blurred motion and problems like screen tearing.
• Fatigue and strained eyes, flickering off the screen while browsing.
• Save power consumption and reduce energy spent while displaying images on the screen.

Dynamic Refresh Rate

Windows 11 has developed a novel feature – a dynamic refresh rate based on user actions carried out when the refresh rate gets automatically adjusted. DRR will enhance battery life and experience while inking, browsing, and gaming.

Dynamic Refresh rate will stabilize the consumption of power and device performance. It ensures smooth scrolling in Microsoft Office for Windows 11, and inking in software applications like Adobe Acrobat, Illustrator, Snip and Sketch, and Microsoft applications like Edge, office, sticky notes, To Do, Whiteboard, Photos and Draw board PDF.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

Screen refresh rate plays an important role when a computer monitor is primarily used for playing games with exceptional images displayed.

In this article, we have discussed various methods to check the refresh rate of your computer monitor. We have discussed what other factors may depend on a higher refresh rate.