no such thing as refresh rate. unless someone can prove otherwise.
I think there is still a frame clock -- the pixels are not updated willy-nilly. The display updates at each period of the refresh clock according to whatever is in the buffer in the display at the time just like with a CRT. The buffer gets updated according to how fast the graphics can be processed (or at the same rate as the display's refresh rate if vsync is on).
The new Sharp Aquos D92 line that should be in customer's hands within a month has 120Hz image refresh rate.
Now, on a CRT, the ray is scanning one pixel at a time, line by line. So most of the time what you see either the "pixel" (which is a combination of red green and blue spots of the phosphor material) glowing from the spot being illuminated for a short time by the electron, or you see a pixel that is not illuminated (I don't know how fast it fades, so I don't know the amount of time it is not illumniated vs illuminated). As a result on a CRT you see the flicker. It is true on an LCD every pixel is always displaying something, and that they change only when told but never go off unless black is being intentionally displayed. That's why you guys are saying the LCD seems "smoother." Yes the pixel does not fade like a CRT for that time between scanning.
If you don't believe that there is a frame clock, consider the bus between the display and the graphics controller. The bus is not large enough to accomodate instantaneous transitions for all pixels -- you would need however many bits for color depth for every single pixel to be able to do that. So there is a clock, and between clocks all the data is translated from a bitmap (I guess) into something that makes sense for the hardware over a grid, and at the clock rate you get the toggling all at once (best case design).
what you could do, thinking about it, is process each pixel in a scan just like with a CRT, and that would maybe eliminate the need for a frame clock? But well, it's up to the designer.. So, who knows what you're getting with any particular technology? Some displays might have some kind of processing going on with an image such that the algorithm relies on multiple pixels, or even say the white balance of the entire image -- you'd definitely see a frame clock for displays like that.
I am just as confused as anyone when it comes to what you're getting with these new displays, and the marketing lingo so far isn't very revealing.