To achieve truly smooth video playback or gaming in Windows, syncing refresh rates is not optional — it’s essential. Outdated refresh rates can lead to screen tearing, stuttering, and a less responsive experience. A higher refresh rate can lead to a smoother experience, particularly when gaming or watching videos.

Disable Display Power Saving Features

This article is meant for general guidance on Windows display settings. At this point, you understand how to change the refresh rate, but it’s equally important to understand why doing so can transform how your system feels. This is because the new driver correctly identifies the monitor’s supported capabilities and passes that information to Windows.

This window contains all the hardware components Windows recognizes. Before jumping into updates, it helps to first see how old your current driver really is. Windows includes a secondary way to access display capabilities. This is where many users stop and assume something is wrong with the monitor itself, but the truth is usually much simpler. You bought a 144Hz monitor, but all you see is 60Hz. Windows may briefly flicker as the screen resets itself, similar to changing resolution.

Updating the driver can instantly solve refresh rate issues. That’s where refresh rate settings quietly reside—important, but not immediately visible. Before we dive into Windows settings, it helps to pause and understand what refresh rate actually represents. The refresh rate determines how many times per second your display updates the image.

If you still don’t see the higher refresh rate even in the Monitor tab, then the issue is not with your display—it is likely related to your graphics driver. You might see all your monitor’s supported refresh rates listed here. Many people cannot see higher refresh rates right away, even if the monitor supports them. Windows sometimes defaults to a safe, lower refresh rate, especially after updates, driver resets, or connecting a new monitor.

Intel (Arc / UHD Graphics):

  • Below, I’ll share exactly what I did to make several games run smoother on my PC without directly boosting my average FPS.
  • Whatever the reason, adjusting the refresh rate is one of those small changes that can have a surprisingly big impact.
  • Remember that achieving the best refresh rate setting may require a combination of proper drivers, cables, and configurations.
  • Ensuring you have selected the correct display prevents confusion.
  • Whether you are a casual user or someone who works on a computer for long hours, a smoother screen is always a more enjoyable one.

Yes, but only if it’s HDMI 2.0 or 2.1 and your cable and monitor both support it. For example, Plex on Windows with Direct Play enabled can trigger your display to switch from 60Hz to 24Hz when playing a movie — no manual input needed. For media apps like VLC or MPC-HC, enable “Display Refresh Rate Auto-Switch” or use MadVR with frame rate matching enabled. These steps give you true hardware-level control, often more accurate than Windows defaults.

So if your FPS drops below or above that range, you may experience tearing or stuttering for a moment. The 5800X3D’s massive L3 cache made a big difference in keeping frame times consistent, especially in CPU-bound competitive games like Valorant. In my experience, upgrading to the 5800X3D helped improve 1% and 0.1% lows significantly across most titles, even though my old 5900X had more cores and advertised higher boost clocks. For instance, if you’re averaging 200 FPS, but your 1% lows are hovering around 80, that means one out of every hundred frames takes over twice as long to render. Unlike your average FPS, the 1% and 0.1% lows represent the average of your lowest frame rates while gaming.

How To Change Monitor Refresh Rate In Windows 11 & 10 – Full Guide

If you’re using a Windows 11 laptop to watch videos and often do so while the device is on battery power, you can adjust the settings to either improve video playback or the battery life. So, you can find various settings in Windows itself that can help adjust the video playback on these apps. There’s nothing wrong with pushing your hardware to its limits, but do that without overlooking other factors like consistency and responsiveness, since they can easily make or break your experience. It reduces render queue latency by preventing your GPU from pre-rendering too many frames, which helps your inputs reach the screen faster. Even if your FPS is high and frame pacing is consistent, delayed responses between your keyboard or mouse inputs and what happens on screen can make the game feel sluggish. Even when my frame rates dipped from 160 to 95, motion still looked smooth and consistent instead of feeling stuttery.

  • This is where many users stop and assume something is wrong with the monitor itself, but the truth is usually much simpler.
  • Use the highest refresh rate for gaming, but match frame rate for video playback (e.g., 24Hz for movies).
  • Note that the VRR feature in Windows 11 primarily targets DirectX 11 full-screen games that might not natively support this technology; it acts as a complementary solution rather than a replacement for existing technologies.
  • If you’re using multiple monitors with mismatched refresh rates (e.g., one 144Hz and one 60Hz), you’ll likely see playback stutter or drag.

The game might still not feel smooth because of poor frame pacing, microstuttering, and inconsistent responsiveness. It has no ads, intuitive and clean UI, great variety and decent 1080p content, which are things the many streaming websites do not have. Note that the VRR feature in Windows 11 primarily targets DirectX 11 full-screen games that might not natively support this technology; it acts as a complementary solution rather than a replacement for existing technologies. Always ensure that your monitor supports either G-Sync or FreeSync.

Once this configuration is complete, the VRR feature will be active through Nvidia G-Sync, and the settings app will reflect that it is supported. If G-Sync is not activated, the VRR option may appear disabled in settings. The following guide provides detailed steps to enable VRR, either through the settings or via graphics card configurations. She has reviewed laptops and desktops for over 6 years, focusing on performance, design, and user experience. Sneha is a hardware reviewer and technology journalist. Keeping your graphics drivers updated and using proper cables reduces the chances of such resets.

Steps to Roll Back Windows 11 PC to Previous State Using Point-in-Time Restore

When the refresh rate is higher, the transitions between images look far smoother. However, since hardware acceleration is not always stable, turning it off may sometimes help result in smoother playback. It’s also worth limiting your frame rate slightly below your monitor’s refresh rate to keep latency consistent and prevent the render queue from backing up. However, if your frame rates exceed your monitor’s refresh rate, enabling VRR won’t make a difference, so it’s worth capping your FPS to stay within the supported range.

Misconfigured refresh rates are among the top 5 reasons we see playback complaints in our diagnostics lab. Mismatched refresh rates between dual monitors are often the culprit. Use the highest refresh rate for gaming, but match frame rate for video playback (e.g., 24Hz for movies). For example, if you’re watching 24Hz movie content on chicken road game online a 60Hz screen without any sync mechanism, frames get unevenly spaced, causing judder. If your monitor’s refresh rate doesn’t match the content you’re watching or the game you’re playing, you’ll face stuttering, tearing, and motion judder.

What Is a Refresh Rate Monitor?

It’s crucial to distinguish VRR from Dynamic Refresh Rate (DRR), another feature available in Windows 11 that optimizes battery life on laptops by adjusting refresh rates dynamically based on on-screen content. Windows updates, GPU driver resets, and monitor reconnections can all cause your refresh rate to return to default settings—sometimes 60Hz. A higher refresh rate often means smoother animations, cleaner movement, and a more pleasant desktop experience. Change these settings to get a smoother video playback experience. If you’re using multiple monitors with mismatched refresh rates (e.g., one 144Hz and one 60Hz), you’ll likely see playback stutter or drag.

They work as long as your frame rates stay within the monitor’s supported VRR window. Minimizing background processes, using an FPS limiter, enabling game mode, and keeping your GPU drivers updated can also help reduce frame time variance. As a result, you’ll experience subtle hitches and microstutters that break perceived smoothness, especially when you move your mouse around. Below, I’ll share exactly what I did to make several games run smoother on my PC without directly boosting my average FPS. That’s why it’s important to look beyond the average frame rates and focus on what actually affects perceived smoothness.

Understanding Refresh Rates

Or you simply noticed that your screen doesn’t look as sharp and lively as it used to. There are moments in everyday computing when a simple visual change makes the entire experience feel more fluid. Key changes in the latest Dev and Beta Insider build include a console-style Xbox experience on PC, point-in-time restore, and UI refinements. Depending on the application you use to watch videos, there are different ways by which you can disable hardware acceleration. Windows 11 also lets you adjust the graphics settings for individual programs, like your media-playing apps.

Maybe you are trying to make games feel smoother or reduce screen flickering. You can change the settings to make the OS prioritize performance, resulting in smooth video playback. You can also follow some of these tips to get smoother video playback on your Windows 11 PC. As much as I love chasing higher frame rates, I have to admit that those numbers alone don’t always make games feel smoother.

Tip 2: Change the graphics settings for media apps

Common values include 60Hz, 75Hz, 120Hz, 144Hz, and even 240Hz or 360Hz for high-end gaming displays.

When you open it, you often find the refresh rate options that were not visible before. You simply click the dropdown and choose the highest supported refresh rate. At this moment, you might see a drop-down menu labeled “Choose a refresh rate”. A screen refreshes itself multiple times per second. Whatever the reason, adjusting the refresh rate is one of those small changes that can have a surprisingly big impact.