Very confused about 144hz and monitors in general

[Dresgeve8710]

Been researching for a while, but come up with more and more questions as I go. Trying to decide on a monitor, but haven't bought one in literally over 10 years. I ran higher end laptops for a while because of school, then about 2-3 years ago built a desktop (i5 4670k, GTX 770, etc) for gaming on a Vizio E550i. It works great, and I haven't had a complaint. Now I just want to move back to using a desk for kbm gaming and leave the Vizio for flight sims and controller based games.

I'm not a hardcore gamer, just an old timer who grew up PC gaming with friends and now just plays for fun, everything from Witcher 3 to old C&C games. A lot of the things I've read saying "144Hz or bust" also talk about "pro level" gaming in CSGO, which I don't do (Counter-Strike was my game when CS 1.5 was a thing 😛 ). I'd like to keep it budget friendly under $300, so I can hopefully upgrade my GPU to maybe a 1070 or so pretty soon, and I do want at least a 24" screen. Would I really benefit from a 144Hz monitor, or would money be better spent on maybe 1440p or something (not sure how my current GPU would like that, only having 2 gigs of VRAM)? I've been at 60Hz for a long time because of laptop displays and TV's, and really haven't been bothered... So is 144Hz really worth it for someone like me? I wish I could see them ahead of time, but the few displays we have in stores here are set to horribly made demos that make a $1000 screen look worse than the CRT I had in high school.

 

[techgeek]

Well I'd say if you are satisfied with 60Hz now, I'm not sure you'd miss out on a 144Hz screen. Low refresh rates (50 / 60Hz) were a bigger deal in the days of CRT's because many people were sensitive to the refresh, which in turn was exasperated by fluorescent lighting.

One reason to go with a high refresh rate might be if you have a graphics card (like the 1070 you mentioned) that can handle high framerates in the games you play and you want to leave Vsync on. On 60Hz most people (not just pros) are sensitive to the input lag created by Vsync, but at 144Hz, the input lag is more than halved and you still benefit from no tearing.

 

[Dresgeve8710]

I don't know if it tells too much, but I generally leave Vsync off because of the input lag (left it on in a few recent games, oddly, but generally I make sure it's off completely. I've always found it to be an issue.), and I do notice at least some screen tearing as a result. Not enough for me to be unhappy, but it IS noticeable. Maybe I'm more picky than I think, but have simply never witnessed the alternative 😛

 

[techgeek]

So if you like Vsync off, you might actually appreciate a faster refresh monitor. Vsycn on on a 60Hz monitor can add up to 16.67mS of latency (1/60) whereas on a 144Hz panel the maximum latency would be 6.9mS. You could theoretically enable Vsync to eliminate tearing and enjoy low latency. However it only works when your graphics hardware can update the monitor at is full refresh rate, if the framerate falls, you won't get tearing, but the latency will be more noticeable, though the same could be said about low framerates and Vsync on.

So that is really the theme I guess, you really only need a high refresh monitor if your graphics hardware is capable or rendering framerates that high (or at least consistently much higher than 60FPS) otherwise you won't see the benefit.

 

[Faux_Grey]

It's of no use to you (as you have a GTX 770)

But since I've got a 144hz screen, I must also say, 120FPS+ or bust.

I could recommend getting a 1080p 144hz screen if you plan on upgrading your graphics card anytime soon (GTX 1070).

But if you're keeping the GTX 770, Don't bother with 144hz screens.

 

[Dresgeve8710]

That's probably my answer, and the one I was leaning towards. I do really enjoy PC gaming, but I dont have the desire to sling nearly as much money at it as I did in highschool (I sling too much at motorcycles as it is lol). So it's likely to be a while before I move on to a new GPU, especially because this one is still doing quite well despite Its age. I don't hit 120+ very often in modern games, but it keeps it above 60 which has always kept me happy. The other thing that occurred to me is that these days I do mostly flight sims, which I'll continue to do on the Vizio at 60Hz. Moving to a 144Hz at the desk may spoil me just enough to ruin that, haha. I can also get two 24" monitors for about the price of one cheaper 144, and considering I use three monitors at work I'm definitely going to miss having at least two 😛

So I'm gonna be the old guy stuck in the past. Thanks for clearing this up for me guys!