There may be many reasons why you may want to change your screen refresh rate. For example;
- You may not be getting the monitor’s advertised refresh rate
- You may have more than one monitor, and one may have a higher refresh rate, and you want the monitors with two frequencies to display the same refresh rate a
- Your computer screen might be flickering or have an unstable display, causing eye strain.
- You are an avid gamer and require a higher refresh rate, like 144hz, 240hz or even 480hz
While your pc may select the refresh rate on its own, at times, you may have to adjust the system setting manually if the default setting is not accurate.
If you are looking for a way to change the refresh rates on your monitor, you will find this article helpful. But first, let’s understand why the monitor’s refresh rate is important.
Explaining refresh rate
The refresh rate, usually measured in hz, is the number of times an image refreshes on the screen in a second. A lower refresh rate would cause the screen display to flicker, and the image may be compromised.
While a standard refresh rate of 60hz is suitable for regular tasks, if you are a pc gamer and want the screen to quickly display new images on a high-resolution screen, you may need a 144hz refresh rate or higher.
Changing monitor’s refresh rate in Windows 10
If you want to check and change refresh rate in Windows 10, here is what you need to do.
Right-click your desktop page to go to the display settings. Click on advanced display settings and choose a display from the drop-down menu. Now you need to click display adapter properties and click the monitor tab. Once you click the monitor tab, you can select the screen refresh rate from the drop-down menu.
Here’s an awesome video tutorial on how to do it:
Changing monitor’s refresh rate in Windows 7 or 8
To change the monitor’s refresh rate in Windows 7 or 8, right-click on your desktop to open monitor settings and click on screen resolution. Now click on advanced settings and go to the monitor tab to select your desired value from the refresh rate drop-down menu.
I don’t see the advertised refresh rate; what to do?
If you do not see your monitor’s advertised refresh rate in the advanced display settings, you may need to check your cable. For a higher refresh rate, you need a good-quality DisplayPort cable. However, if you have an HDMI cable instead of DisplayPort cables, you need to ensure that the monitor is connected through the high-speed HDMI cable.
Also, check if you have the latest available version of the driver updates. New driver updates are introduced to fix errors and improve compatibility of the computer’s GPU and improve congruence between hardware and operating system.
So, for optimal performance and to improve the lower refresh rate of your monitors, you need to ensure you have updated monitor and graphics card drivers.
