If you play video games on your PC, you have probably heard all about 144Hz and 240Hz monitors. If you have been using a standard 60Hz display so far, it is difficult to know whether switching to 144Hz or 240Hz is a good idea.

60Hz vs. 144Hz vs. 240Hz monitor-what is the difference?

The "HZ" used in the display description is used to describe its refresh rate. The higher the Hz, the higher the refresh rate of the screen. For example, a 60Hz display refreshes the image 60 times per second, while a 144Hz display refreshes the image 144 times per second.

But what does this mean for real-world use?

Essentially, a higher refresh rate will mean that the image you see is updated faster. This is very useful for action games or competitive games where every millisecond is important.

The working principle of the refresh rate is similar to the working principle of frames per second in video games, but there are also differences.

The number of frames per second explains how many frames are rendered on the graphics card per second, and the monitor refresh rate explains how many times your image is actually updated on the monitor.

So, if you have 300 frames per second in the game, but use a 60Hz monitor, the picture displayed to you will basically be 5 times less "updated" than the possible picture.

For this reason, unless your graphics card can reliably run at 60 frames or higher, moving to a new monitor with a better refresh rate is not worth it. You can easily check the frames per second of the game on the system using different utilities.

Some people exclaimed that their eyes can only see a certain number of frames per second. This is simply not true, and most of it has been debunked as a myth. The way our eyes work is not the same as the way a monitor works, so it is difficult to measure how many "frames" we can see per second.

What we know is that those who have used a 144Hz monitor can agree that they can see and feel the difference when playing games.

In fact, the most significant difference is when 144Hz users move to 60Hz monitors - many users who are using 144Hz monitors mentioned that they can see everything from video games to cursor speeds on the desktop, and when returning to 60Hz Feeling dull.

Another important thing to remember is that the display technology typically used for high refresh rate displays is not the best choice for overall display quality and color accuracy.

If you care about the appearance, please choose a high-quality 60Hz monitor. If you care about performance, frame rate and gaining a competitive advantage, you should choose a monitor with a higher refresh rate.

For ordinary users, the difference is not as obvious as competitive game players. For gamers, these small differences play an indispensable role in winning competitive games, especially FPS games like CS:GO, Valorant, Overwatch, Battlefield, Fortnite and PUBG.

The quality of the image will not be improved, but the fluency of the movement will be improved. A 60Hz monitor will display 60 different images per second, and a 120Hz monitor will display 120 different images per second. In other words, Hz is the refresh rate and has nothing to do with improving graphics.

Likewise, this means that 120Hz and 144Hz displays provide gamers with an opportunity to make 60Hz displays more responsive.

Should you upgrade from 60Hz to 144Hz

We have now reached a point where it is fairly easy to buy or build a computer that can run video games at 120 or fps or more. In fact, most e-sports games on PC can receive up to 300 frames per second on high-end machines.

If you can reliably run the game you are playing at 120 frames per second or more, then upgrading to 144Hz is worthwhile, but you should only consider choosing if you are concerned about improving performance.

144Hz monitors are most commonly used in games such as "Counter Strike". In games such as Global Offensive or League of Legends, every extra frame and micro-motion is important.

Here is a checklist to consider before upgrading.

• You want to gain a competitive advantage
• You don't mind losing a bit of color accuracy or the display quality of movies and games for better performance.
• Your computer can run the game at more than 100 frames.

Obviously, the higher the resolution of your monitor, the more powerful graphics card you will need to get these higher frame rates. Currently, there is no graphics card that can pump more than 60 frames with super settings on a 4K monitor. You have to wait until the new NVIDIA GTX 11xx series cards come out at the end of 2018.

However, you can still protect the future by buying a monitor that can handle higher frame rates, so that if you decide to upgrade your graphics card in the future, your game will benefit greatly.