Almost half of IEM Rio Major players used a Zowie XL2546K monitor with a refresh rate of 240 or 300 hertz. That’s a lot. CS.MONEY Blog tries to answer why esports athletes need such fast screens and whether the high-Hz refresh rates can be advantageous in CS:GO.
What the Hertz?
Your monitor displays a certain number of images every second. Frame rate appearance frequency, like any frequency, is measured in Hertz, aka Hz. Today even the cheapest PC monitors have a refresh rate of 60Hz or higher. However, as already mentioned, most pros use screens with a much higher refresh rate (RR). Here, for comparison, we will talk about monitors with 60 Hz and 144 Hz frequency rates. All things discussed in these two types would also be true for 240/300Hz monitors comparison.
Lower Latency
Reduced latency between frame outputs is the most obvious benefit of 60+Hz RR screens. Let’s do the maths and calculate the time between each frame: to do this, just divide one second by a refresh rate. Here’s the latency for 60 Hz and 144 Hz, respectively:
- 1/60 = ~16.7 ms
- 1/144 = ~7 ms
Best consider it as an input lag. The transition from 60 Hz to 144 Hz reduces the latency by 2.5 times. But do not be deceived: 10 milliseconds is very little. The vast majority of gamers won’t even notice if their mouse suddenly gets that much of an input lag, so lower latency isn’t a big deal for 144+ Hz screens.
Smoothness… SMOOTHNESS!
As we discussed framerate above, it was more about the rate part. Now, let’s pay attention to the frames. Here’s the catch: human eyes are an “analogue” device; we perceive the world as a seamless stream. But each frame is just a static picture, and our brain glues these static frames in a continuous video. And the more often the frames change, the smoother the picture will be. Thus, the monitor’s increased refresh rate will make the picture you see smoother. Noticeably.
Promo code GameChanger Hub: AT1TZX.
This smoothness is more than just pretty. Each additional frame on your monitor will give you more information about the environment. The smoothness makes it easier to aim. Need more proof? Here’s a study made by Nvidia: How Higher Frame Rates Can Give You An Edge In Games. They talk about how the number of frames per second can affect a player’s performance in video games. Considering this, 144+Hz monitors are superior for competitive FPS titles, such as CS: GO.
Less Blur and Ghosting
If you have googled the best video settings for CS:GO at least once, you might have noticed that all these guides strongly recommended keeping the Motion Blur setting disabled. Apparently, it is unsuitable for CS:GO because blurring frames worsens how players percept everything around them. But here’s the thing: when your eyes follow an object on a monitor, an enemy, they also experience motion blur, but the one naturally installed into our optical drive. You can try this UFO test if you don’t believe us.
And the higher the refresh rate of the monitor, the more precise the UFO can be seen in the test. This UFO is a great example of an object that needs to be tracked in motion. Like, for example, an opponent in CS:GO. This is yet another obvious advantage of increasing a monitor’s refresh rate.
FPS and Refresh Rate
Clearly, 120Hz, 144Hz, 240Hz, and 300Hz refresh rate monitors have obvious advantages over 60Hz displays. But what about the hardware? In order to unleash the potential of high refresh rate screens, you need a GPU that can deliver at least the same number of frames per second. That is, for 144 Hz, you need to have at least 144 frames per second in CS:GO.
Good news: even relatively ancient GPUs like GTX 1060, which will soon hit seven years old, easily reach 300 FPS in CS:GO. This means that even a five-year-old PC will do just fine with a monitor used by Major players.
Good news, Part 2: 144 Hz monitor prices have long dropped to the level of 60 Hz screens. They differ only in $30-$40 in most cases. Quite a small overpay for a noticeable visual boost.
Let’s sum everything up. Does a higher refresh rate give you an edge in games? Yes, it does. Getting a 144 Hertz monitor will be a legit performance jump for any player. Still, such an advantage won’t become a game-changer. If your aim is bad or you don’t know how no nade properly, no “s1mple’s monitor” will fix it. However, even in this case, playing with an increased refresh rate will feel better.
By the way, speaking of game-changers, we’re currently conducting an event on our GameChanger Hub, where you can win prizes in skins for completing different tasks. Don’t miss out!
