need educating on refresh rate and frames per second please

[kaitlin4599]

so i need some educating please how does refresh rate and frames per second work? example if im playing say shadow of the tomb raider and my monitors native refresh rate is 1920x1080P at 60Hz but im able to run the game at a smooth 100+ fps how does it work? would upgrading to a higher refresh monitor benefit me or no this is where im confused? if im limited to my monitors 60hz why is the game pushing higher frame rates?

[Eigenvektor]

If the game engine runs at 100 fps, it means it produces a new image 100 times every second. The monitor running at 60 Hz means it only shows a new image 60 times a second. So you would benefit from a monitor that runs at >=100 Hz (e.g. max 144 Hz + AdaptiveSync). Right now you're not seeing all the images produced by the game engine.

 

If the game engine was running it 120 fps, and the monitor at 60 Hz, you would essentially only see every second frame. Depending on when the monitor redraws its image compared to when the GPU swaps its image buffer contents, your monitor might actually show half of one frame and half of another (tearing). This can e.g. be solved by VSync, where the GPU doesn't change its buffer until the monitor starts redrawing its contents (which may limit fps and may increase input lag, depending on whether triple buffering is used and how it is implemented).

 

Since 100 fps and 60 Hz are not evenly divisible, you should experience tearing pretty much all the time. This could be solved by a monitor that can run at up to 144 Hz, but then limits its refresh rate to 100 Hz using adaptive sync. That's basically the opposite of VSync. Instead of the GPU synchronizing its buffer swaps to the monitor, the monitor synchronizes its redraws to the buffer swaps (within its physical limits)

[dilpickle]

13 hours ago, kaitlin4599 said:

would upgrading to a higher refresh monitor benefit me

Yes