Question How do I enable 120Hz refresh rate?

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swchoi89

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Sep 9, 2013
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I have a rather older monitor S23A700D samsung monitor but I used to be able to display 120Hz on this (used to play on 120FPS before).

I went to the display settings but there isn't even an option to choose 120Hz. I'm capped at 60Hz.

I'm plugged in using HDMI cable to my new laptop (Ryzen 7 5800H + RTX 3060) and using my Samsung monitor as the primary (and the only display).
 
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igor_kavinski

Lifer
Jul 27, 2020
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swchoi89 said:
So something like this would be ok right? It's not my monitor that's not supporting the 120Hz through HDMI because it's old

Click to expand...
I don't think it would help since you already tried the PS5 HDMI cable and that is rated for 1080p 120Hz.

hdmi 2.0 can't reach 120hz at 1080

i hasve a nixeus vue 24 and it comes with hdmi 2.0. my pc(laptop) only has hdmi 2.0, no display ports. so i need to use 120hz. it is said that hdmi 2.0 can reach 1080p at 120hz, however, in my case, i can only reach 1600x900 to maintain 120hz, anything beyond is set to 60hz as seen by this gif ht...
linustechtips.com linustechtips.com

1654349971760.png

Maybe that will work for you too.
 
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swchoi89

Senior member
Sep 9, 2013
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igor_kavinski said:
I don't think it would help since you already tried the PS5 HDMI cable and that is rated for 1080p 120Hz.

hdmi 2.0 can't reach 120hz at 1080

i hasve a nixeus vue 24 and it comes with hdmi 2.0. my pc(laptop) only has hdmi 2.0, no display ports. so i need to use 120hz. it is said that hdmi 2.0 can reach 1080p at 120hz, however, in my case, i can only reach 1600x900 to maintain 120hz, anything beyond is set to 60hz as seen by this gif ht...
linustechtips.com linustechtips.com

View attachment 62556

Maybe that will work for you too.
Click to expand...
I just tried and doesn't work.

I tested 144Hz and my monitor tells me it's not optimal while I test out 120Hz, it doesn't show me any messages and just blanks out

I'm going to guess that my ancient monitor only supports 120Hz using DVI cable :(
 
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igor_kavinski

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Jul 27, 2020
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swchoi89 said:
I'm going to guess that my ancient monitor only supports 120Hz using DVI cable :(
Click to expand...
Do you have a friend with Xbox One X or Xbox Series S/X? Try your monitor with that. I gave my really old LG 3D monitor (bought in probably 2014) to a guy who wanted it for some time until he got a bigger TV. Now he's in a different city and I'm tired of asking him to give it back because it works flawlessly at 120Hz with his Xbox One X. If that works for your monitor, the issue could be that the HDMI port on your laptop is connected to the integrated graphics which is not supporting 120Hz.
 
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swchoi89

Senior member
Sep 9, 2013
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igor_kavinski said:
Do you have a friend with Xbox One X or Xbox Series S/X? Try your monitor with that. I gave my really old LG 3D monitor (bought in probably 2014) to a guy who wanted it for some time until he got a bigger TV. Now he's in a different city and I'm tired of asking him to give it back because it works flawlessly at 120Hz with his Xbox One X. If that works for your monitor, the issue could be that the HDMI port on your laptop is connected to the integrated graphics which is not supporting 120Hz.
Click to expand...
I wonder if your second part is correct.

How do I check if my monitor is using the integrated graphics over my actual graphics card?
 
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igor_kavinski

Lifer
Jul 27, 2020
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swchoi89 said:
How do I check if my monitor is using the integrated graphics over my actual graphics card?
Click to expand...
I can't find any schematics for your laptop. You would need to open up your laptop and look at the motherboard to figure out if the HDMI port is connected to the iGPU.

Your laptop has these ports:

1654353363289.png

One thing you could try is get a mini-DP to HDMI adapter or Type-C to HDMI adapter.


 
Zoozuu

Zoozuu

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Oct 21, 2020
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he said he used another cable from is PlayStation. did he say the PlayStation was able to get 120hz with that cable?
 
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igor_kavinski

Lifer
Jul 27, 2020
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Zoozuu said:
he said he used another cable from is PlayStation. did he say the PlayStation was able to get 120hz with that cable?
Click to expand...
PS4/PS5 high refresh rate support is abysmal. Sony can't quite get it to work. Xbox however leads in this area. Microsoft has put extra effort to make sure that HRR/VRR works. Proof is my really old monitor enjoying 120Hz display from Xbox.
 
Zoozuu

Zoozuu

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Oct 21, 2020
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I was asking if both cables are in fact low bandwidth..not the playstation. sigh..
 
Zoozuu

Zoozuu

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is he using it? last few console I've bought never even came with a cable. also a lot of people buy second hand stuff missing things. people just plug in whatever they have most of the time..

EDIT: also he said he got 120hz before with his monitor. I didn't see if he got 120hz with the PlayStation. can he test the monitor with the PlayStation?
 
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swchoi89

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Tech Junky said:
That should work if your GPU supports 120hz.
Click to expand...
On my laptop itself (the laptop monitor), it goes up to 240Hz, so unless it weirdly singles out 120Hz and jumps straight to 240Hz, then yea it should support 120Hz because it has RTX 3060.
 
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swchoi89

Senior member
Sep 9, 2013
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igor_kavinski said:
I can't find any schematics for your laptop. You would need to open up your laptop and look at the motherboard to figure out if the HDMI port is connected to the iGPU.

Your laptop has these ports:

View attachment 62558

One thing you could try is get a mini-DP to HDMI adapter or Type-C to HDMI adapter.


Click to expand...
I just tried using the USB - C to HDMI and it still does not work :(
 
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swchoi89

Senior member
Sep 9, 2013
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Zoozuu said:
he said he used another cable from is PlayStation. did he say the PlayStation was able to get 120hz with that cable?
Click to expand...
Oh I don't know if my friend's PS5 outputs 120Hz. I just assumed the HDMI cable that came with it is recent enough to rest it out
 
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igor_kavinski

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Yes, Sony doesn't skimp on cable quality, unless the retailer is taking out the Sony provided cable and replacing it with some cheap one.

Try mini-DP to HDMI, just to be sure.
 
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swchoi89

Senior member
Sep 9, 2013
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igor_kavinski said:
Yes, Sony doesn't skimp on cable quality, unless the retailer is taking out the Sony provided cable and replacing it with some cheap one.

Try mini-DP to HDMI, just to be sure.
Click to expand...
Nope.. not working

Ps5 isn't mine so I wasn't able to test it out. ran forbidden west 5 (?) but the game had abysmal FPS to begin with so I can't test it out but seems to have the 120Hz automatically set?
 
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igor_kavinski

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Are Radeon drivers installed on your laptop? If so, poke around a bit in the Radeon Catalyst control center or whatever it is called these days. See if you can find some useful setting that might help sort out this issue.
 
Zoozuu

Zoozuu

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sounds like a driver issue? what automatically set? do you mean you saw in the settings of the ps5 or settings on your pc?
 
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swchoi89

Senior member
Sep 9, 2013
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Zoozuu said:
sounds like a driver issue? what automatically set? do you mean you saw in the settings of the ps5 or settings on your pc?
Click to expand...
On PS5, which was telling me it was automatically set to 120Hz but I don't have anything to actually show me the live FPS measurement on the console.

When you say driver, you mean the NVIDIA driver? I think my driver is just about a month old, so let me update it and see if it works
 
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swchoi89

Senior member
Sep 9, 2013
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81
igor_kavinski said:
Are Radeon drivers installed on your laptop? If so, poke around a bit in the Radeon Catalyst control center or whatever it is called these days. See if you can find some useful setting that might help sort out this issue.
Click to expand...
Yea. no luck..

In my display settings, it does confirm that my monitor is connected to NVIDIA GeForce GTX 3060 Laptop GPU so I don't think it's using the integrated graphics
 
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igor_kavinski

Lifer
Jul 27, 2020
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igor_kavinski

Lifer
Jul 27, 2020
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Never mind above post.

1654360102556.png

Clearly states in the monitor manual that DVI-D is recommended for 120Hz. Guess you need to try something like mini-DP to DVI adapter.

1654360260897.png

See? Monitor HDMI port doesn't even support 60Hz at 1080p.
 
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