Is 75Hz Good For Gaming?

When it comes to gaming monitors, the refresh rate is one of the most important aspects, alongside the resolution of the display, its size, and other features.

However there are many different monitors that are capable of many different refresh rates, and in recent years there have been rapid advances in monitor technology, as well as a huge increase in the number of players demanding a higher refresh rate from real gaming monitors.

This has led to a surge in the popularity of high refresh rate monitors and massive competition between brands and manufacturers, which has made it somewhat difficult and confusing to determine which monitors are the best, and what frame rate is good for different types of gaming.

In this guide we’re going to look at refresh rates in depth, and discuss the major different benchmarks for frame rates and what will offer you the best performance, as well as good value for money.

Hz, Frame Rates, and FPS… What does it all mean?

One of the most confusing things about trying to shop for a good gaming monitor is the sheer number of different labels that describe the same function!

The important thing to remember when looking into gaming monitors is that its ‘Hz’ is equivalent to the number of frames it is capable of rendering per second, also known as its FPS capability, or frame rate. It’s actually really simple and once you know this it can make understanding all these different terms much easier, instead of being confused by all the different marketing language used to sell gaming monitors.

60Hz Gaming

For the longest time, 60fps gaming was considered the industry standard, and many games were made in this era that could only function correctly if being played at this frame rate.

While there are many examples of game physics being broken by incompatible frame rates, one of the most famous examples is The Elder Scrolls Skyrim, which is one of the most popular games of all time and has endured across so many generations of console and PC that it became apparent that when played on powerful PCs and high refresh rate monitors, the original versions of the game’s physics engine couldn’t function properly, as it was tied directly to the game’s frame rate (a big taboo and no no in good quality games development).

This exposes just how commanding 60Hz gaming was for a long time. Many developers couldn’t conceive of a world where high refresh rate gaming would arrive, at least not in the near future.

While 60Hz monitors still exist and many still make quite capable gaming monitors, they now dominate the budget area of the market as most gamers today have realised how much smoother gaming at high fps can be.

If your monitor is only capable of 60Hz, it can only physically display 60 frames per second, even if your monitoring software shows that you’re playing at a much higher frame rate.

75 Hz Gaming

75Hz gaming is a small step up from 60Hz and was a niche upgrade option for a while, however 75Hz was rapidly eclipsed by 120Hz and 144Hz monitors, which provide a much higher frame limit and offer much better value than 75Hz monitors.

While 75Hz monitors are definitely a little better than 60Hz options, it isn’t really enough of an increase to warrant looking at these monitors, and it isn’t a very popular option among the best brands and manufacturers today, who are mostly focused on 120 or 144Hz monitors or 60Hz budget options.

While 75Hz can be a small improvement and will improve your smoothness in gaming somewhat, it’s a negligible difference and it would be a much better option to go for a higher fps monitor, especially as components and games continue to move towards higher fps gaming.

120Hz Gaming

Gaming at 120Hz is the start of the truly high fps gaming range, and at this point games become noticeably more smooth and fluid. Shooters feel more responsive, and even slower paced games appear much more polished, as the higher frame rate allows games to take advantage of all the power the best modern componentry can provide.

At 120Hz you will see a visible difference in the quality of your gaming, and this can take some getting used to at first, however after a short time you will become totally used to gaming at a higher fps and trying to go back down to 75 or 60Hz will feel like you’re playing games in slow motion.

One of the big benefits of gaming at this FPS is there is much more room for your fps range to work with if you do encounter performance difficulties, meaning that you can drop 10 or 20 fps in demanding games and still see a noticeably better gameplay experience than if you drop 10 or 20 fps on lower quality monitors.

144Hz Gaming – The Pinnacle

In terms of gaming performance, 144Hz is the current standard for most serious gamers today, and this offers amazingly smooth gameplay and performance.

At one time this frame rate was only used by elite professional gamers at tournaments and competitions, however this has trickled down to mainstream gaming very quickly and now most games, particularly on PC, strive to take advantage of the hugely improved gameplay experience high fps can provide.

240z Gaming

The forefront of gaming monitors sits around this range, and while some claim that this sort of frame rate is unnecessary or that human eyes can perceive a difference at these refresh rates, it hasn’t stopped some manufacturers from pushing the boundaries even further.

What’s more, just a few years ago some people argued that people couldn’t tell the difference between 60Hz and 144Hz, however that was proven wrong, so who’s to say that 240Hz won’t become the new mainstream fps in a few years time!