144hz monitor only getting 60hz according to NVIDIA Control Panel

[karanoz]

As the title says, the new monitor I have which is a BenQ XL2720 which Im currently using a Display port 1.2 on my GTX960.

I do believe whilst I was using a DVI I had 144hz but now I only have 60, is this due to that cable not supporting 144, or could there be another reason?


Thanks.

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

It's the cable, you need DisplayPort 1.3 cable for 144Hz.

 

[eredwethrin]

Hey, so I ran into this as well.

TL;DR: Had to set 144hz through the OS screen resolution/advanced settings/monitor before nvidia control panel would recognize 144hz as an option. Cables may not be the limiter despite what people often say.

Detail:
I had thought I'd configured everything to 144hz properly, but today I was looking into my settings and found out it was running at 60hz! I'm on a displayport cable so that should not be a problem. And actually I'm getting very mixed messages from the internet about whether varying cables runs at 144hz or not. I'll talk about that more below.

When I went into the nvidia control panel it capped me at 60hz. Super odd. Went into customize and tried to force 144hz. Created a ton of artifacts and tearing. Figured if it isn't recognizing above 60hz, may be the OS.

Went into (in windows 7) the Screen Resolution page, then went into Advanced Settings. If you click on the Monitor tab at the top, you can see the available refresh rate options. For some reason mine was at 60hz (I swear I adjusted that when I first hooked up the monitor). So I set that to 144hz, closed and reopened the Nvidia control panel, and bam: 144hz not only available but selected.

OK, so a brief speculative bit on the cables. I think there is different default behavior for different cable types. For example: If I have a displayport cable plugged in, until I set the screen to 144hz in the OS, the nvidia control panel wanted to treat my monitor like a TV (UHD, HD, SD). Once I set to 144hz, it appropriately recognized and provided me with a set of different PC options I could select. For DisplayPort and DVI 144hz is clearly possible, but I needed to set the hz at the appropriate level first. From the brief bit of reading I did, DisplayPort 1.2 will handle 1080p at 144hz without difficulty. If you are going for 4k or even 1440p, you may not be able to hit 144hz.

Hope this is helpful.

 

[Glenwing]

It's the cable, you need DisplayPort 1.3 cable for 144Hz.

This is complete nonsense. Even the very first version of DisplayPort is capable of 1080p 144 Hz, you certainly don't need DP 1.3 or even DP 1.2.

Hey, so I ran into this as well.

TL;DR: Had to set 144hz through the OS screen resolution/advanced settings/monitor before nvidia control panel would recognize 144hz as an option. Cables may not be the limiter despite what people often say.

Detail:
I had thought I'd configured everything to 144hz properly, but today I was looking into my settings and found out it was running at 60hz! I'm on a displayport cable so that should not be a problem. And actually I'm getting very mixed messages from the internet about whether varying cables runs at 144hz or not. I'll talk about that more below.

When I went into the nvidia control panel it capped me at 60hz. Super odd. Went into customize and tried to force 144hz. Created a ton of artifacts and tearing. Figured if it isn't recognizing above 60hz, may be the OS.

Went into (in windows 7) the Screen Resolution page, then went into Advanced Settings. If you click on the Monitor tab at the top, you can see the available refresh rate options. For some reason mine was at 60hz (I swear I adjusted that when I first hooked up the monitor). So I set that to 144hz, closed and reopened the Nvidia control panel, and bam: 144hz not only available but selected.

OK, so a brief speculative bit on the cables. I think there is different default behavior for different cable types. For example: If I have a displayport cable plugged in, until I set the screen to 144hz in the OS, the nvidia control panel wanted to treat my monitor like a TV (UHD, HD, SD). Once I set to 144hz, it appropriately recognized and provided me with a set of different PC options I could select. For DisplayPort and DVI 144hz is clearly possible, but I needed to set the hz at the appropriate level first. From the brief bit of reading I did, DisplayPort 1.2 will handle 1080p at 144hz without difficulty. If you are going for 4k or even 1440p, you may not be able to hit 144hz.

Hope this is helpful.

The NVIDIA control panel is separated into two sections, TV (UHD, HD, SD), and if you scroll down, there is a "PC" section, which sometimes contains a second listing for native resolution (for example 1920x1080), which will have your 120 Hz/144 Hz options available there. People have the same problem using some 4K monitors, only 30 Hz will be available in the "UHD" section, you need to scroll down to the PC section to find the 60 Hz option. It depends on how the monitor's EDID is organized, so this peculiarity won't show up with all monitors.

As for DisplayPort cables, the conflicting information is due to some confusion about cable certifications. The DisplayPort standard does not have different tiers of certifications. Cable manufacturers do not send a cable to VESA and come back with a "DisplayPort 1.1 certification" or a "DisplayPort 1.2 certification" for their cable. There is only one certification, and any cable that passes that certification is a certified DisplayPort cable, simple as that. There aren't any other official distinctions. However some people have misinterpreted "all DisplayPort cables are tested to the same certification" to mean "all DisplayPort cables are the same". DisplayPort cables are not all the same, because the majority of DP cables on the market have not been certified by VESA. Cheap DP cables may fail at high-bandwidth formats. And it's not because "they're only certified for DP 1.1 speeds", it's because they aren't certified, period.

 

[eredwethrin]

It's the cable, you need DisplayPort 1.3 cable for 144Hz.

This is complete nonsense. Even the very first version of DisplayPort is capable of 1080p 144 Hz, you certainly don't need DP 1.3 or even DP 1.2.

Hey, so I ran into this as well.

TL;DR: Had to set 144hz through the OS screen resolution/advanced settings/monitor before nvidia control panel would recognize 144hz as an option. Cables may not be the limiter despite what people often say.

Detail:
I had thought I'd configured everything to 144hz properly, but today I was looking into my settings and found out it was running at 60hz! I'm on a displayport cable so that should not be a problem. And actually I'm getting very mixed messages from the internet about whether varying cables runs at 144hz or not. I'll talk about that more below.

When I went into the nvidia control panel it capped me at 60hz. Super odd. Went into customize and tried to force 144hz. Created a ton of artifacts and tearing. Figured if it isn't recognizing above 60hz, may be the OS.

Went into (in windows 7) the Screen Resolution page, then went into Advanced Settings. If you click on the Monitor tab at the top, you can see the available refresh rate options. For some reason mine was at 60hz (I swear I adjusted that when I first hooked up the monitor). So I set that to 144hz, closed and reopened the Nvidia control panel, and bam: 144hz not only available but selected.

OK, so a brief speculative bit on the cables. I think there is different default behavior for different cable types. For example: If I have a displayport cable plugged in, until I set the screen to 144hz in the OS, the nvidia control panel wanted to treat my monitor like a TV (UHD, HD, SD). Once I set to 144hz, it appropriately recognized and provided me with a set of different PC options I could select. For DisplayPort and DVI 144hz is clearly possible, but I needed to set the hz at the appropriate level first. From the brief bit of reading I did, DisplayPort 1.2 will handle 1080p at 144hz without difficulty. If you are going for 4k or even 1440p, you may not be able to hit 144hz.

Hope this is helpful.

The NVIDIA control panel is separated into two sections, TV (UHD, HD, SD), and if you scroll down, there is a "PC" section, which sometimes contains a second listing for native resolution (for example 1920x1080), which will have your 120 Hz/144 Hz options available there. People have the same problem using some 4K monitors, only 30 Hz will be available in the "UHD" section, you need to scroll down to the PC section to find the 60 Hz option. It depends on how the monitor's EDID is organized, so this peculiarity won't show up with all monitors.

As for DisplayPort cables, the conflicting information is due to some confusion about cable certifications. The DisplayPort standard does not have different tiers of certifications. Cable manufacturers do not send a cable to VESA and come back with a "DisplayPort 1.1 certification" or a "DisplayPort 1.2 certification" for their cable. There is only one certification, and any cable that passes that certification is a certified DisplayPort cable, simple as that. There aren't any other official distinctions. However some people have misinterpreted "all DisplayPort cables are tested to the same certification" to mean "all DisplayPort cables are the same". DisplayPort cables are not all the same, because the majority of DP cables on the market have not been certified by VESA. Cheap DP cables may fail at high-bandwidth formats. And it's not because "they're only certified for DP 1.1 speeds", it's because they aren't certified, period.

Thanks for the additional information Glenwing! Good to know.

 

[Hadrian Briggs]

I too have a 144 monitor with a gtx1080 ti.
Yet I let windows choose my native resolution with is 1080 60htz.
This does me find because fallout 4 and skyrim se run perfect at this refresh rate.
If I am playing gta 5 or any other games, I simply select 144 on the in game menu and get full 144.
You don't need over 60 for a Windows environment.
144 can be selected when needed.
The monitor will simply switch between automatically.