144Hz vs 120Hz vs 60Hz Monitor?

[teflon66]

Building my first gaming PC and was just wondering if I should get a 144Hz, 120Hz, or 60Hz monitor. What are the pros and cons of each? I also heard some people saying that you need to get very high fps if you wanna get a 144Hz or 120Hz monitor, is that true? Thanks for any help!

 

[damric]

You get less tearing and overall better looking picture for going above 60Hz, but not everyone can notice it.

It's true, in order to take advantage of that refresh rate, you need a powerful gaming rig that can match FPS. You need both a powerful CPU and a powerful graphics card to do this. But you can compensate the graphics card's performance by turning down detail settings a bit. You are mostly out of luck if your CPU chokes on the game engine.

 

[BrandonYoung]

As damric mentioned, in order to fully utilize a 120/144hz display, your graphics card needs to produce a similar number of FPS. If you can't get above 60 fps, higher than 60hz display wont make a difference. However, if you can display 120/144 FPS, using a 120/144hz display will make a world of difference. This is of course assuming you are playing fast action games, Starcraft at 144hz vs 60hz probably wont make much of a difference. But any FPS game, or game where fast action happens on screen, high refresh rates (120/144hz) can make a HUGE difference. FPS games such as Call of Duty, Crysis, Farcry, etc.. can benefit vastly from high refresh rate displays. Some people claim they cannot tell the difference going above 60Hz, in my opinion it can make games seem more realistic. Going from 30 to 60 FPS is similar to going from 60 to 120 FPS (assuming your display can keep up).

If you can perform at 120/144 FPS, and you play high action FPS/Racing style games, to truly appreciate your computers speed, get a display that can match it.

 

[teflon66]

One 970 or 980 certainly wouldn't be able to play on a 144Hz monitor on max settings for AAA games, so would a 970 in SLI be able to? I do play FPS games and I really want a high refresh rate.

 

[Knicks2012]

One 970 or 980 certainly wouldn't be able to play on a 144Hz monitor on max settings for AAA games, so would a 970 in SLI be able to? I do play FPS games and I really want a high refresh rate.

Depends on the resolution you want to play at. You gonna go for the standard 1080p or would you move up to 1440p or even 4k? Need alot of dough to make a 4k 60 fps pc that probably wouldnt be maxed out. Maxed 1440p in Far cry 3 only gets you 60 fps with 970 sli.

 

[damric]

Perhaps if you get an idea of your total budget for everything, then you can play around on pcpartpicker.com. That site really helps for brainstorming builds.

 

[BrandonYoung]

I would rate FPS above visual quality, especially in high action titles. I would sacrifice some quality for FPS. A single GTX 980 will be able to provide 144 FPS/Hz in most all titles assuming you are willing to sacrifice some visual quality (such as FSAA). I doubt you will miss the visual quality at 144 FPS/Hz. You will most certainly miss the FPS if you are able to display it.

 

[Knicks2012]

You are looking at $2k if you want a good 970 sli PC. Heres something I put together quickly to give you an idea of what you are looking for. You could definitely bring down the costs or get better parts.

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/9JpvhM
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/9JpvhM/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($279.99 @ Micro Center)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($28.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VII FORMULA ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($290.54 @ NCIX US)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($135.88 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($104.99 @ Adorama)
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($71.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB ACX 2.0 Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($329.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB ACX 2.0 Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($329.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: NZXT H440 (Black/Red) ATX Mid Tower Case ($115.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: EVGA 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($104.99 @ NCIX US)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.75 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: Asus VG248QE 144Hz 24.0" Monitor ($264.99 @ Adorama)
Total: $2147.97
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-16 23:20 EST-0500

 

[teflon66]

Thanks for creating this build man, it helps a lot. I'm unsure whether or not to get a 1080p or 1440p monitor, but I definitely want 144Hz, and want to play games maxed or almost maxed. Btw, I heard that those 970s had some problems, and that the Gigabyte G1 970 was the best, but it is bigger. Could the Gigabyte 970s even be used in SLI, or are they just too big? Also, do you think that a 1080p 144Hz would be better than a 1440p 60Hz monitor? But again, thanks for the help, I want my make my first gaming PC to be a beast.

 

[BrandonYoung]

I would personally choose 1080p@144Hz over 1440p@60Hz if game play is #1 priority. If you do light gaming, and a lot of web, reading, various apps, etc, perhaps 1440p@60Hz would suit you better, and still function quite well on gaming (You can always turn down your resolution to increase performance in games).