what is the Hertz setting?

[Selso2109]

What does the reset setting on the monitor do? My monitor's max is 120 hz what should I put mine at? I have it at 85 right now.

 

[SneakyStuff]

leave it at 85, your eyes will thank you, and you won't notice the difference.

 

[yhelothar]

Set it as high as your monitor can handle without going blurry or out of sync...

 

[nycxandy]

It's the amount of times your monitor refreshes the picture per second.

 

[imported_michaelpatrick33]

definitely go as high as your monitor can support. Anything under 72hertz your eyes can detect as flicker and/or fuzziness. Then comes headache and eyestrain and bleary eyes. The higher the hertz (draws per second) the better you eyes will do. LCD monitors are different than CRT's so don't think a 60hertz LCD is necessarily worse than a 120hertz CRT. They are apples and oranges when it comes to that. Match the highest refresh rate your graphics card can handle to the most comfortable and highest setting for your monitor as long as it is over 72hertz.

Example: My 19inch (18inch viewable) CRT I usually leave at 1024 x 768 at 100hertz (my 9600pro can handle that) Large monitors usually look better with higher resolutions because the lower resolutions become magnified and the themes become impractical. Unfornunately, with the higher resolution comes lower refresh rates generally. A 21inch CRT usually has an optimal resolution of 1600 x 1200 and hopefully the refresh rate is 72 to 100hertz. The better the monitor the higher the refresh rate. Of course if you have a monitor (CRT) capable of 1600 x 1200 at 32bit (really 24bit usually but that is another thread) and 100hertz refresh rate but your graphics card only has a 72hertz refresh rate at that resolution you will have to use the lower number.

 

[Nebor]

Also remember that just because your monitor can do 1600x1200 @ 100hz, or higher, doesn't mean your video card can put out a decent picture at such a high resolution\refresh rate. It takes a lot of driving power for signals like that, and consumer grade graphics cards just don't have it. You'll notice blurriness when you've exceeded your video card's capabilities.

 

[Shad0hawK]

Originally posted by: Selso2109
What does the reset setting on the monitor do? My monitor's max is 120 hz what should I put mine at? I have it at 85 right now.

different resolutions run at diff speeds, for example: many monitors will run at a lower refresh rate the higher the res you set it. a monitor that will do 120hz@640x480 may only do 100 or 85@16x12

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: Nebor
Also remember that just because your monitor can do 1600x1200 @ 100hz, or higher, doesn't mean your video card can put out a decent picture at such a high resolution\refresh rate. It takes a lot of driving power for signals like that, and consumer grade graphics cards just don't have it. You'll notice blurriness when you've exceeded your video card's capabilities.

I've found that in the majority of cases, it is the monitor and the cabling that holds you back, not the video card, but I suppose it depends on the quality of the video card and monitor in question too. But at least spec-wise, theoretically, most video cards can handle resolutions and refresh rates way beyond most consumer-grade (as opposed to true workstation-grade or medical-grade) monitors. But some cards aren't built with high-enough quality components for them to perform properly up to their max specs. NVidia-based cards are kind of famous for this "issue". I would recommend Matrox or ATI for high-res 2D myself. Also, the Voodoo3 and Permedia2 cards that I've used, were pretty decent in high-res 2D as well. But the Matrox still beats them overall.