Should I buy a 120hz monitor?

[TheDarkPassenger]

I have the Nvidia GTX 770 2gb and a 60hz monitor and was wondering if I should get a 120hz monitor to game on and use the 60hz as a second screen, eg. web browser etc?

Will my graphics card handle it? Will it get too hot?

note: I wont be playing on both monitors, only on the 120hz monitor.

 

[Suztera]

You won't suffer a huge frame drops, it's doable.
However, you will only benefit the 120Hz if your fps goes above 60fps else it simply like a 60Hz monitor.

 

[TheDarkPassenger]

You won't suffer a huge frame drops, it's doable.
However, you will only benefit the 120Hz if your fps goes above 60fps else it simply like a 60Hz monitor.

The 770 should be able to push 120fps though, shouldn't it?

 

[Suztera]

You won't suffer a huge frame drops, it's doable.
However, you will only benefit the 120Hz if your fps goes above 60fps else it simply like a 60Hz monitor.

The 770 should be able to push 120fps though, shouldn't it?

It depends on the games you play, the game settings and the resolution.

 

[oxiide]

Will my graphics card handle it? Will it get too hot?

It will get as hot as your card ever gets at 100% load, though perhaps more frequently. Run a stress test with no framerate cap, and you will see how hot your video card gets at a sustained 100% workload. Provided that temperature is safe, though, there's no reason to be concerned.

Your video card will run hotter in games that your 770 is capable of running faster than your current Vsync cap, because it will be reaching 100% load more often. 100 FPS (@ 100% load) is going to generate more heat than 60 FPS (@ 50% load, or whatever it is).

Games where you are currently barely running at 60 FPS will not be any hotter than they ever were, because you'll still be at 60 FPS. Your card was already running that game as fast as it could, so having a higher framerate ceiling won't make a difference.

 

[TheDarkPassenger]

Will my graphics card handle it? Will it get too hot?

It will get as hot as your card ever gets at 100% load, though perhaps more frequently. Run a stress test with no framerate cap, and you will see how hot your video card gets at a sustained 100% workload. Provided that temperature is safe, though, there's no reason to be concerned.

Your video card will run hotter in games that your 770 is capable of running faster than your current Vsync cap, because it will be reaching 100% load more often. 100 FPS (@ 100% load) is going to generate more heat than 60 FPS (@ 50% load, or whatever it is).

Games where you are currently barely running at 60 FPS will not be any hotter than they ever were, because you'll still be at 60 FPS. Your card was already running that game as fast as it could, so having a higher framerate ceiling won't make a difference.

Ahh okay..
I play LOL @ 60fps without any frame rate drop ( i know it's not a very demanding game but..) and was just wondering if i will notice a difference when using a 120hz monitor with 100+ FPS etc.

 

[oxiide]

Will my graphics card handle it? Will it get too hot?

It will get as hot as your card ever gets at 100% load, though perhaps more frequently. Run a stress test with no framerate cap, and you will see how hot your video card gets at a sustained 100% workload. Provided that temperature is safe, though, there's no reason to be concerned.

Your video card will run hotter in games that your 770 is capable of running faster than your current Vsync cap, because it will be reaching 100% load more often. 100 FPS (@ 100% load) is going to generate more heat than 60 FPS (@ 50% load, or whatever it is).

Games where you are currently barely running at 60 FPS will not be any hotter than they ever were, because you'll still be at 60 FPS. Your card was already running that game as fast as it could, so having a higher framerate ceiling won't make a difference.

Ahh okay..
I play LOL @ 60fps without any frame rate drop ( i know it's not a very demanding game but..) and was just wondering if i will notice a difference when using a 120hz monitor with 100+ FPS etc.

Exactly, LoL is a pretty low-demand game from what I understand. Your video card can certainly manage pretty high framerates in that game well beyond 60 FPS, so yeah, it will definitely be warmer than it is currently.

But like I said, provided its cooled appropriately, there's no reason to think it will be an "unsafe" temperature. Chances are your 770 is at an unnecessarily low temperature in that game at 60 FPS, leaving you plenty of headroom.

 

[jaguarskx]

The GTX 770 will not work any harder with a 60Hz or 120Hz monitor. It will render the same amount of frames regardless of the monitor that it is connected to. The limiting factor is the monitor itself.

If the GTX 770 is capable of rendering 90FPS when playing LoL, a 60Hz monitor will only display 60FPS of the 90FPS. On the other hand, a 120HZ will display all the frames rendered by the GTX 770.

You can click on the following link for some game benchmarks for the GTX 770. The test rig uses an Intel Core i7-3770K @ 4.6 GHz.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_770/7.html


Generally speaking, the higher the FPS rendered, the more likely you can see a difference. I think the general consensus is that a 120Hz monitor would be worth it if the GPU can render at least 90FPS.

 

[oxiide]

If the GTX 770 is capable of rendering 90FPS when playing LoL, a 60Hz monitor will only display 60FPS of the 90FPS. On the other hand, a 120HZ will display all the frames rendered by the GTX 770.

I was answering under the assumption his 60 Hz monitor would be used with Vsync or otherwise capped to avoid tearing, so moving to 120 Hz (uncapped) would also mean running many games at higher framerates as well.

But yeah, that's a fair point, refresh rate is beside the point. Turn off Vsync and you'd see the same GPU temperature regardless of the monitor attached to it.