And then you lot've purchased a monitor that offers a 120Hz or 144Hz refresh rate and plugged information technology in–great! But don't stop there. Your monitor may not actually run at its advertised refresh rate until you modify some settings and sort out your hardware.

Fix Your Refresh Charge per unit in Windows

Near importantly, y'all'll want to ensure Windows is really gear up at the advertised refresh rate and not a lower refresh rate, similar 60Hz.

On Windows x, head to Settings > System > Display > Advanced Brandish Settings > Brandish Adapter Backdrop. Click the "Monitor" tab, choose your monitor's advertised refresh rate from the "Screen Refresh Rate" list, and click "OK".

On Windows 7 or 8, right-click the desktop and select "Screen Resolution". Select your monitor (if you have multiple monitors) so click the "Advanced Settings" link. Click the "Monitor" tab and choose the refresh rate from the "Screen Refresh Rate" box.

If you don't see your monitor'south advertised refresh rate in this listing—or if you tin can't seem to become your monitor to stay configured at the advertised refresh rate—there'southward more than you need to practice.

Check Your Cables

Yous can't only employ any old cable and expect a high refresh rate. Some monitors may accept both HDMI and DisplayPort connections, merely may exist limited to a 60Hz refresh charge per unit when connected via HDMI. In this case, y'all'd need to apply a DisplayPort cable. Check your monitor's specifications or setup guide for more information.

Y'all don't only have to worry almost the type of cable, either–y'all have to worry about the cable itself.

If y'all're using DisplayPort, be sure y'all have a properly certified cablevision that'southward congenital to the DisplayPort specification. A properly manufactured, certified cable congenital for DisplayPort one.2 should work perfectly fine with DisplayPort 1.4. Unfortunately, at that place are a lot of poor quality cables out there, so a cable congenital and sold for DisplayPort 1.two may not work with DisplayPort 1.iv. There are also a few Reduced Bit Rate (RBR) DisplayPort cables on the market that will only support 1080p—simply make sure you don't have ane of those. Visit the official DisplayPort website for more information.

If you're using HDMI, you'll want to ensure you're using a "loftier speed" HDMI cable and not an older "standard" HDMI cable. All the same, you don't need an HDMI cable with Ethernet included. Visit the official HDMI website for more data.

When in doubt, use the cable your monitor came with. It should work–in theory. Unfortunately, inexpensive, depression-quality cables can as well cause problems. Your monitor's included cable might not even be good enough. We recently found that the included cable with an ASUS monitor couldn't provide a stable signal at 144Hz. Instead, the screen would occasionally flicker and the refresh rate would drop downwards to 60Hz until nosotros rebooted the computer. We replaced the cablevision with a higher-quality Accell DisplayPort cable and the monitor operated fine at 144Hz without any flickering or refresh rate drops.

Every bit always, make certain your cables are securely connected. If yous're experiencing a trouble, try unplugging the cablevision and plugging it back in to ensure a solid connection. A loose cable connection could cause problems.

More Troubleshooting Tips

RELATED: How to Update Your Graphics Drivers for Maximum Gaming Operation

Lots of other problems could cause your monitor to non function at its advertised refresh rate:

  • Your estimator's GPU isn't good enough. Integrated graphics or older discrete graphics might not support your monitor's refresh rate. Be sure your graphics card supports the monitor's resolution and refresh rate.
  • You demand to update your graphics drivers. Be sure to install the latest available version from NVIDIA or AMD'southward website.
  • Yous're attempting to run your monitor at a lower resolution. Select your monitor's native resolution–it may merely support the higher refresh rate at its native resolution and exist express to 60Hz at lower resolutions.
  • Yous're playing a game and that game has its ain integrated graphics settings. You lot may demand to select your monitor'south native resolution and the refresh rate of 120Hz or 144Hz in each game's graphics options menu or that game may utilise a lower refresh charge per unit.

Hopefully, after going through these steps, you'll detect that your monitor runs in its butter-smooth high refresh rate.

Image Credit: Lalneema

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