60Hz vs 120Hz for movies and gaming?

[Chris1047]

Hi guys,
I'm buying new LED TV, which I'm gonna use mainly for movies and games on my PC and only thing I can not decide is whether I should invest in 120Hz or whether 60Hz refresh rate is okay these days.
Thanks for any advice

 

[Vexillarius]

60Hz is completely okay and still the standard. 120Hz or 144Hz is a nice extra.

Keep in mind that you need a lot of computing power to actually run games at 120Hz. Movies won't run at 120Hz at all, since they have a fixed framerate.

 

[Chris1047]

60Hz is completely okay and still the standard. 120Hz or 144Hz is a nice extra.

Keep in mind that you need a lot of computing power to actually run games at 120Hz. Movies won't run at 120Hz at all, since they have a fixed framerate.

Yeah, I know. My PC can not run any of my games at 120FPS (BF3 at 50-60FPS). But I've been searching on forums for quite a few hours now about the refresh rate and still don't know if the 120Hz panel has any meaning for me. Some people say that the difference is noticable even when browsing the web or in the desktop.. like it's more smooth. But you're saying that 120Hz for movies and games (I can not run over 60FPS) doesn't have any real meaning, right?
PS: I am going for this TV http:// , is it okay?

 

[Vexillarius]

I have a 144Hz monitor myself and the effect on the desktop is only noticable for a few minutes, after that I get used to it. Switching back to 60Hz is the same, it seems a little sluggish for a few minutes and then I get used to it again. It's not worth spending extra over in my opinion.

With movies there's no difference at all, no. If you can't run games at more than 60FPS then there's no difference there either.

Using a TV as a monitor has its pros and cons. A big screen is nice, but the pixel density is lower and you usually have to be much farther away from a TV than from a monitor. The response time on a TV is also typically worse than a monitor's. It's up to you if having a nice big screen weighs up to the cons.

 

[Chris1047]

Well I want a big screen to watch my movies and play my games on and I will be sitting like 1,5-2 metres away from it and for the speed of TV i tried to find one with low input lag (the Sony I posted above has 25-30ms, which is good, I think). But I will keep my 24'' Monitor for usual work on PC and use the 40'' TV for gaming and movies. Anyway, thanks for sharing your opinion.

 

[bystander]

A higher refresh rate does help a little, even if you aren't getting the FPS. However, it won't be at all helpful on an HD TV, when used with a PC, as it won't operate with a PC at 120hz. The main differences, if you actually get a 120hz monitor, is it does refresh twice as fast, which reduces tearing, and decreases latency a tad (most noticeable in mouse tracking). This applies even without 60+ FPS, though the biggest differences do come with higher FPS as well.

 

[Chris1047]

A higher refresh rate does help a little, even if you aren't getting the FPS. However, it won't be at all helpful on an HD TV, when used with a PC, as it won't operate with a PC at 120hz. The main differences, if you actually get a 120hz monitor, is it does refresh twice as fast, which reduces tearing, and decreases latency a tad (most noticeable in mouse tracking). This applies even without 60+ FPS, though the biggest differences do come with higher FPS as well.

And how come that with 120Hz monitor it does refresh twice as fast and with 120Hz HDTV doesn't? Both connected with HDMI cabel and same resolution.

 

[bystander]

A higher refresh rate does help a little, even if you aren't getting the FPS. However, it won't be at all helpful on an HD TV, when used with a PC, as it won't operate with a PC at 120hz. The main differences, if you actually get a 120hz monitor, is it does refresh twice as fast, which reduces tearing, and decreases latency a tad (most noticeable in mouse tracking). This applies even without 60+ FPS, though the biggest differences do come with higher FPS as well.

And how come that with 120Hz monitor it does refresh twice as fast and with 120Hz HDTV doesn't? Both connected with HDMI cabel and same resolution.

Because the monitor is NOT connected with an HDMI cable. Instead, you use a Dual Link DVI-D cable, or DisplayPort. Only the GTX 980 and 970's even support HDMI 2.0 if I'm not mistaken, which is what it takes to get 120hz. That also means you need an HDTV with HDMI 2.0, which would be quite rare if there are any yet. This HDMI problem may change in the near future, but it'll take TV's and video cards to support HDMI 2.0.