Question Does a 120 monitor refresh rate do anything if a PC can only push 90fps?

[Caveman]

As the title says... My assumption is that one should never dump in additional monitor money for a system that can't push the frames to the refresh rate. Yes?

And... Is there ever a time when a higher refresh rate actually hurts the experience?

 

[aigomorla]

if your videocard can not push out the refresh rate on the monitor, the high refresh rate is pointless.

Example A.
You got a pathetic IGP which can only push out 27fps on a 120hz 4k.
This is a complete waste of that panel, because technically your only pushing out 27hz refresh rate.
So in that explaination, you are not even pushing the monitor anywhere what its capable of.

Example B.
You got a glorified RTX 4090 pushing 500 fps on counter strike source.
You have a glorified samsung neo G8 pushing 240hz.
In this case your videocard is so massively overpowered, it will drive the full potential of your panel.
Given your panel will only display 240fps out of the 500 your videocard is pushing, things like Gsync or Freesync will rate limit the card to match the panel so tearing does not occur.

In Example B, you have the proper setup, while in Example A, you will have a bad experience especially with the tearing and stuttering you will notice from the low fps.

Ideally you want to pair your max FPS ability on your vide card with the appropriate panel.
So if your card can not drive whatever your trying to drive at 60fps, you probably to stay with a 60hz monitor, unless you intend to upgrade to a faster gpu somewhere in the future, or your a competitive FPS player, and play with low settings to try to get the highest fps possible.

 

[Caveman]

So in example B, is this to say that the VRR technology (gsync, freesync) only works when your graphics card is exceeding the frames of the monitor? Can it also help sync in situations like example A?

 

[Jaskalas]

VRR tech has minimum refresh rates.
And they vary by a wide margin.

Anything above the minimum and below or equal to the maximum is ideal.

 

[Leeea]

So in example B, is this to say that the VRR technology (gsync, freesync) only works when your graphics card is exceeding the frames of the monitor? Can it also help sync in situations like example A?

No.

See:
https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/i-bought-a-samsung-neo-g8.2608359/post-40886878

to understand how variable refresh rate works

 

[Leeea]

As the title says... My assumption is that one should never dump in additional monitor money for a system that can't push the frames to the refresh rate. Yes?

No.

You might end up playing a multiplayer game with your friends, like counterstrike, where you get 400 fps. Or Fortnight. Or you upgrade your video card.

Your monitor is a hard cap on refresh rate.

---------------------------------

The real problem is your over focusing on refresh rate. It is not a particularly important metric. On this page:

Samsung Odyssey G7 C32G75T Review

The Samsung Odyssey G7 C32G75T is a 240Hz, 1440p gaming monitor. It's part of Samsung's 2020 Odyssey gaming lineup, and it's one of few monitors available in two...

www.rtings.com

The three charts titled "Response Time @ Max Refresh Rate" are far more important.



or in this video, the comparison at minute 6:52:

Spoiler: hide media link

The manufacturers advertised response time is just false advertisement, and is completely irrelevant. Your going to need to look at what a 3rd party measured it as.

And... Is there ever a time when a higher refresh rate actually hurts the experience?

Yes. But it is a non-VRR edge case.

In the rtings charts above, they provided one chart at 120 Hz to demonstrate this.



If your a bit clueless, this video is a good place to start:

 

[Trefugl]

One additional point - if you're not using VRR and choose to still use VSYNC (to avoid frame tearing), then having a higher refresh rate does give you more/higher FPS intervals to lock on to. You're FPS is locked at the max refresh until your GPU can't perform, and then it drops by a factor of 1/N (1/2, 1/3 ...)

An example probably explains it better:

for 60Hz monitor with VSYNC - You're locked at 60FPS, but then it drops to 30FPS if your GPU can't keep up. It goes 60 / 30 / 20 /15 ...
for 120Hz monitor with VSYNC - you have 120 / 60 / 40 / 30 / 24 ..
for 144Hz monitor with VYNC - you have 144 / 72 / 48 / 36 ...

That all assumes you don't have VRR (Freesync/Gsync) - if you did, then none of that matters and your refresh rate will match your FPS until you reach to minimum refresh rate of your particular monitor.

Personally, I don't want to go back after switching to VRR, but I have an ancient GPU, so maybe life it different when you can actually push out some high frame rates.