What is the appeal of 120Hz?

I am told that gamers prefer the 120 Hz refresh rate over 60 Hz in playing PC games. What is about 120 Hz that makes it appealing for gaming?

It's just a smoother picture because of the higher framerate. Takes a beast of a system to run modern games even close to that, though, and alot of monitors can't even do it. Either way, I think it's overkill, because a solid 60fps is already beautifully smooth.

DAt smooth

Faster response, next to no input lag, next to no screen tearing.

Faster response, next to no input lag, next to no screen tearing.

kraken2109

Also, it's so smooth!!

If you find yourself playing games at a framerate of over 120fps, it's incredibly smooth and responsive. With FPS games it makes a huge difference at times, but not so much nowadays as it did with oldschool twitch-shooters like Q3. Even 85hz is pretty good, but 120 will be kinda "dreamy smooth." So smooth that your eyes will generate it's own motion blur like in real life, yet it even seems smoother than real life..

The only catch is that the game needs to update physics at over 60fps. It's not uncommon for some to only render physics at 60fps on older titles. There used to be a server-side command for that. It's probably autoamated nowadays.

You can turn v-sync off and avoid screen tearing.

It's a requirement for good 3D.

Thanks for the repsonses. What is "screen tearing" and what does it looks like (through an image)?

It's a requirement for good 3D.

-Unreal-

that was my first thought. 3d needs it

Thanks for the repsonses. What is "screen tearing" and what does it looks like (through an image)?

thom_maytees

Basically is when the display and the GPU are not synchronized.

To avoid it, you use Vsync, which synchronizes the frames produced by the GPU with the refresh rate from the monitor.

Thanks for the repsonses. What is "screen tearing" and what does it looks like (through an image)?

thom_maytees

This

That line in his face or chopped section that you see, the bottom of the frame doesn't line up with the top thefore it's tearing

Can you explain the appeal of CRTs for gaming?YoshiYogurt

+1 to NamelessPlayer on CRTs

When I first started gaming on LCDs.. I couldn't. It felt unbarably choppy and looked terrible on non-native resolutions. It still does, but I've adapted and I never change my resolution now. I find that the colors are more vibrant on LCDs, but there's infinitely more shades of contrast on CRTs.

+1 to NamelessPlayer on CRTs

When I first started gaming on LCDs.. I couldn't. It felt unbarably choppy and looked terrible on non-native resolutions. It still does, but I've adapted and I never change my resolution now. I find that the colors are more vibrant on LCDs, but there's infinitely more shades of contrast on CRTs.

thphaca

i play at 1024x768 at 122hz on my asus vg236h
runs great.
Sure it doesn't look pretty, but most QL players also play at low res'z like 800x600 and 1024x768 even on LCD'z.

Feels better imo than 1920x1080

There is no real reason to use a CRT anymore with these nice 120hz displays. Get dat smoothness. And the input lag I can't tell, I've used CRT displays and they just suck for everything that isn't gaming. They might do it maybe a 1% better, but I highly doubt it would change your accuracies. Not to mention in every tourny they use 120hz lcds.

however for old school gaming like PS2 and stuff, you pretty much want a 480p lcd or a tube tv, as I am sure every1 here already knows. Thankfulyl I have a 480p LCD spare, they are so rare now ;x