100Hz bad for the eyes?

[dynasty]

I was just wandering if going to 100Hz from stock 60 is bad for the eye's? I have been at 100Hz forever, but lately my eye's have been hurting after a couple minutes of use. Thanks

 

[Alptraum]

I would say it depends on the monitor. I have had some monitors that looked better at a lower refresh (say 85 instead of 100) at the same rez. I would recommend playing around with your settings some and seeing what looks best to you as opposed to just going to the highest refresh rate possible and not experimenting with others.

 

[drpootums]

i'd go with 85hz

 

[Pete]

Odds are it's your video card's DACs that look better at a slightly lower res.

100Hz isn't strictly nec'y, it just presents a theoretically more stable image than a lower refresh rate. As long as you're above 85Hz, you should be OK, IME. So try lowering your refresh to 85Hz and see if things aren't easier to see. If not, consider buying a video card with an eye toward analog ("VGA," or DB15 output) signal quality, like Matrox (basically all of their cards) or ATi (avoid the 9500/9700, or at least their "rolling lines"-plagued DB15 out [you can use a DVI-VGA adapter, but you lose the ability to use dual CRTs]).

Or turn up the ambient/room lighting, or turn down the monitor's brightness. Or take more and frequent breaks from staring at the monitor, if you're overdoing it. Or use the occasional eye drop.

But an LCD is likely your best bet for a comfortable image. It has no redraw to strain your eyes, but I think there are the *rare* few who don't care for the fluorescent backlight's 30Hz "refresh."