Rog swift: What is the point of setting the refresh rate to anything below 144Hz?

tokuma128 · Mar 8, 2015

Hi all!
The title says it all, but I recently got the rog swift and I don't understand the merit of setting the monitor to anything less than 144Hz. I assumed G-sync will kick in if I am not getting enough FPS in gaming and deliver a smooth experience, so what is the point of ever switching to 60Hz?

Sorry for being ignorant, but I don't really understand the purpose of being able to switch refresh rates. Does it matter when watching movies for example? Thanks in advance.

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jubatuss · Mar 8, 2015

I haven't noticed a difference while watching movies, but I would guess that at least one of the reasons for switching the rate is that it takes much less power from the computer. If one had low-grade pc but a high grade monitor, the PC might not have power to run the monitor @ 144hz.

bishopi5 · Mar 8, 2015

yah i agree, some people cant run the game at 144+ fps, but they can run it at 100+, therefor the 100hz setting would look unreal and be MUCH better then 60hz, where as the 144hz setting will feel sluggish

wiad · Mar 8, 2015

There is no point or usefulness to setting your monitor's refresh rate to 60 Hz over 144 Hz. If your monitor is capable of 144 Hz then run it like that at all times. Similarly a 60 Hz monitor is capable of running at 50 Hz as well as 30 Hz but there is no practical use for these options. It is the same as being able to set your monitor to 720p when it is capable of 1080p. You have the OPTION to set it to a lower resolution but you are just losing graphical fidelity with absolutely no advantages.

bishopi5 · Mar 8, 2015

no you are wrong, in games, if you have the game set @ 144hz and you are not getting those frames, it will feel sluggish, or laggy, its hard to explain, you're fps is not keeping up with the monitor, which is why most good monitors have options now, from 80 > 100 > 120 > 144, if you can only pull 100fps in game, the 100hz setting will feel much better then 144hz, or 120hz for that matter

tokuma128 · Mar 9, 2015

jubatuss :

Thanks for the quick reply jubatuss. I guess I can understand the low grade pc idea. What exactly do you mean by not have power to run the monitor at 144hz, because I don't think I have enough "power" to bring out best out of this monitor.

tokuma128 · Mar 9, 2015

wiad :

Wiad thanks for the reply. I was on the same mindset as you as well..... I really do not see the advantages in lowering the resoltuon.

tokuma128 · Mar 9, 2015

bishopi5 :

Bishopi5, thank you for the reply. I don't have too much knowledge about monitors, but if I set the refresh rate to 100hz for example, does that cap the FPS at 100 FPS, meaning that even if my system is capable of achieving 144 fps, it won't allow me to go over 100 fps? What is the advantage to limiting this?

If I set to 144 Hz and dip under 144 fps, isn't the purpose of G-Sync to prevent the sluggishness and lag?

jubatuss · Mar 9, 2015

Your rig definitely has enough kick to run 144hz flawlessy. G-Sync is meant to do the same as vertical sync (limiting fps to the same amount of hz on your monitor) except it doesn't create input lag. Advantage of limiting fps to the hz on your monitor: it removes screen tearing.

Some computers might have the problem to run games at high enough fps on max resolution and 144 hz. If you lower hz -> higher fps (because it gives less load to your GPU). Same can be achieved by lowering the resolution or disabling anti-aliasing etc. If you have a beast machine which can run games at max settings with decent fps while keeping 144 hz, there is absolutely no point lowering the settings.

bishopi5 · Mar 9, 2015

tokuma128 :

bishopi5 :

Bishopi5, thank you for the reply. I don't have too much knowledge about monitors, but if I set the refresh rate to 100hz for example, does that cap the FPS at 100 FPS, meaning that even if my system is capable of achieving 144 fps, it won't allow me to go over 100 fps? What is the advantage to limiting this?

If I set to 144 Hz and dip under 144 fps, isn't the purpose of G-Sync to prevent the sluggishness and lag?

no ur fps in game will not be affected, it just caps the monitors refresh rate to 100, which means if u are only pulling 100 frames in game u are not wasting any frames

wiad · Mar 9, 2015

bishopi5 :

If you get lower fps than your refresh rate then your monitor will just redraw the frame again and while all advantages will be lost from a 144 hz monitor it won't cause any ill effects such as lag. Let's say that you are getting 30 fps on a 60 hz monitor. That means that your monitor has to redraw twice before it gets a new frame. A 60 hz monitor refreshes every 1/60 of a second. That means that the total time before you get a new frame displayed is 1/30 of a second. Now let's look if you got 30 fps on a 144 hz monitor. That means that your monitor will refresh 4.8 times before it recieves a new frame. It refreshes every 1/144 of a second and therefore the total time before you get a new frame displayed is 1/30 of a second. It doesn't matter if you have 60 hz or 144 hz, the time for a new frame to appear will be the same and therefore you will get no additional lag and there is no point to lowering the refresh rate of your monitor.

bishopi5 · Mar 11, 2015

this "lag" i speak of isn't actually lag, and is why i said its hard to explain, if i cap my fps @ 100, while running 144hz, games feel horrible... but if i change my monitor to 100hz, they don't ? vise versa aswel, I and many others assume this is why the option is there

jubatuss · Mar 11, 2015

In the situation that you have lower fps than hz on monitor, I would imagine the game feels horrible because:

say you have 100 fps and 144 hz. The ratio is 2:3 (roughly). This means that every other image will be drawn twice, and the 2 other images will be drawn once. So basically you draw once, once, twice, once, once, twice, etc. Thus leading to not so smooth experience.

This isn't 100% certain info, but by logical thinking this is what happens.

cst1992 · Mar 11, 2015

wiad :

bishopi5 :

If you get lower fps than your refresh rate then your monitor will just redraw the frame again and while all advantages will be lost from a 144 hz monitor it won't cause any ill effects such as lag. Let's say that you are getting 30 fps on a 60 hz monitor. That means that your monitor has to redraw twice before it gets a new frame. A 60 hz monitor refreshes every 1/60 of a second. That means that the total time before you get a new frame displayed is 1/30 of a second. Now let's look if you got 30 fps on a 144 hz monitor. That means that your monitor will refresh 4.8 times before it recieves a new frame. It refreshes every 1/144 of a second and therefore the total time before you get a new frame displayed is 1/30 of a second. It doesn't matter if you have 60 hz or 144 hz, the time for a new frame to appear will be the same and therefore you will get no additional lag and there is no point to lowering the refresh rate of your monitor.

You're forgetting that it's a G-Sync monitor.

cst1992 · Mar 11, 2015

jubatuss :

That's something known as juddering. It does hamper viewing experience.

bystander · Mar 11, 2015

Judder isn't an issue when in G-sync mode. There really is no reason to use less than 144hz in G-sync mode, with a few rare exceptions, such as a game like Skyrim, which has a game engine that doesn't behave correctly past 60 FPS, but even then, a FPS limiter will fix that.

Using a lower hz is only useful for ULMB mode while using V-sync (ULMB doesn't work with G-sync). It is better to have a hz that you can reach in FPS consistently while using ULMB. 85hz is available on some of them, and that is a very useful hz if you are using ULMB and are playing a game with minimums dropping near 85 often.

bishopi5 · Mar 11, 2015

haha i failed to see the G-SYNC part... fail

cst1992 · Mar 12, 2015

@bystander I agree.
If FPS is lower than 144, GSync will take care of that anyway.

Rog swift: What is the point of setting the refresh rate to anything below 144Hz?

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