Frames Per Second (FPS) vs Refresh Rate (Hz)

Both Frames Per Second (FPS) and Refresh Rate (Hz) are important values to understand for your PC gaming setup, and controlling the interaction between them can lead to a better gaming experience. In a perfect setup, you would have both of them running as fast as possible, perfectly synced synced at all times, but that rarely happens since games don’t typically run at a constant frame rate, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

FPS is frames-per-second, and it’s the number of individual frames your graphics card can generate each second. This value will vary depending on the GPU being used and the game being played, and what settings are being used (very high, medium, ray tracing, etc.). Once those frames are rendered by the GPU, they are sent to the monitor to be displayed, which is where hertz enters the conversation.

The word hertz refers to a display’s refresh rate, which is exactly what the name implies; how many times a second it can refresh the display with a new image. Most monitors default to 60Hz, so they show a new image 60 times in one second. If the monitor has a 120Hz refresh rate, it refreshes itself 120 times every second.

Where this becomes important for gamers is you don’t want these two numbers—FPS and refresh rate in Hz—to become too far apart. For example, you wouldn’t want to spend money on a GPU capable of 150 frames-per-second if you have a 60Hz monitor, as that will be a waste of money. You also wouldn’t want a 144Hz monitor if your GPU is only capable of running games at 60 frames-per-second. Ideally you want to pair your GPU with a monitor that can match or slightly exceed its refresh rate in the games you are playing most often.

Beyond trying to match your framerate with your monitor’s refresh rate you get into a rabbit hole of variable refresh rates, DLSS/FSR upscaling, and chasing the dragon of getting as much FPS as possible with the perfect level of visual fidelity for the ultimate gaming experience.

The best practice is to match any GPU upgrade with the refresh rate of your monitor, so if you have a 144Hz monitor and play at 1080p, look at GPU benchmarks and get a card that can run at that level of performance in the games you play. At the same time, if you have a 60Hz monitor and want to upgrade to a 144Hz model, make sure your GPU can handle it before you upgrade.

If you don’t want to go down that rabbit hole of figuring out how to perfectly match your framerate and refresh rate, the easiest solution is to enable V-Sync in games you play. This will lock the framerate and the refresh rate to 60Hz, which should be sufficient for most people in most games, assuming it’s not a fast-paced, competitive online shooter.

The only issue with V-Sync is your framerate has to be over 60 frames-per-second for it to run smoothly, and it will introduce input lag as the monitor will have to sporadically wait to display some frames to hit 60Hz all the time, so it’s not always a great experience and a lot of gamers don't like it.

For most people the best solution is to buy a monitor with a variable refresh rate, which means one with Nvidia G-Sync or AMD FreeSync, so it can run higher than 60Hz, and stay matched to your GPU’s framerate at the same time. However, detailing how to choose a refresh rate and pair it to a GPU that will work well in all games is by itself another rabbit hole, which we will be covering soon.