Bought an expensive high refresh gaming monitor recently? Oh, yeah! But still unable to get the max. 144hz experience out of it?
Not to sober, there are some quick ways to fix your issue with the refresh rates. I have all figured it out and will help you get it done for your monitor too.
Even if you have a monitor with a high refresh rate getting the most out of it depends upon your PC configuration and optimization of the graphics card settings.
I have shared all the actionable ways one-by-one below that you can use to achieve the desired 144Hz performance from your monitor.
Every step shared below is crucial, and I urge you to read them carefully.
Let’s go…
How to Set the Monitor to 144Hz Easily
Monitors with refresh rates 120Hz and 144Hz are monitors with incredibly high refresh rates. They are the gold standard when it comes to gaming.
You get a higher, clearer, picture-perfect visual output from these monitors.
Nowadays, the 1080p HD monitors also come with a 144Hz refresh rate and don’t cost you much.
While buying one such takes no more time than handing over the bill and getting it to your desk, activating the high refresh rates is something that most get stuck with.
The problem would be your monitor, even if it were advertised for a refresh rate of 144Hz it doesn’t start to deliver it suddenly when you unbox, plug and press the start button. To achieve that refresh rate, you need to connect your monitor with the required cables and calibrate the settings to 144Hz output.
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Here are the steps to set your monitor to 144Hz
Step 1: Ensure the hardware are compatible
Being expensive doesn’t always guarantee a higher refresh rate.
Though there are hundreds of expensive monitors from various brands available in the market, not all of them have the feature to overclock to 144Hz.
Before getting a new monitor, the first thing you should make sure is whether it supports a refresh rate higher than 60Hz or not.
You can figure it out from the monitor specifications. Ensure that the refresh rates mentioned there are more than the typical 60/65Hz and a range of 122-144Hz.
Apart from this, you may encounter some doubts like “is it must to have a graphics card?” “If my monitor specifications say it can deliver, why can’t it do it alone?”
Let me help you with your doubts.
Yes, it is okay if you do not have a graphics card attached to your PC. Still, you can enjoy the visuals at 144Hz refresh rates, but the condition is your motherboard must have a high-end next-gen processor, eg. Intel i7 with a display port on its input/output ports.
The other way around: although you have a graphics card that doesn’t have a dedicated display port and is performing poorly, then you won’t be able to set your refresh rate to 144Hz.
To avoid all these hiccups, ensure your device has a dedicated display port, graphics card drivers are up to date and required monitor specifications.
Step 2: Make sure your monitor is connected to the PC using a display port connector
In the previous step, as I gave you a hint about the need for a display port here, it comes to play. You have to make sure that both of your devices are sharing the same display port connector.
Neither the VGA cables nor the HDMI does support the high refresh rates, and hence they are grossly incompatible.
Another thing you should look for is the quality of your cable being used. Having cheap cables from local markets is a great idea, but it doesn’t give you the expected output. So, it is always better to buy a good quality cable following the manufacturing standards.
Step 3: Tweaking the Windows settings to set the desired refresh rate
When you have successfully moved on from the first two steps, then this is the last step of our process to enable the 144Hz range in your PC.
This step largely depends upon the OS you are using.
The steps are as following:
For Windows 10 Operating System:
- From the Start Menu, Go to Settings.
- Click on System in settings.
- Tap on the Display tab.
- Then move to Display adapter properties to the Monitor tab.
- Here, select 144Hz from the Screen Refresh Rate dropdown window.
- Click Apply and then OK. Voila! You’ve successfully enabled the 144Hz refresh rate for your monitor.
For Windows 7/ Windows 8 Operating System:
- On your desktop right-click on a blank area and select screen resolution.
- Choose advance settings
- Click on the refresh rate 144Hz and hit OK.
Now, it is done. Your monitor is set to 144Hz.
Step 4: Configuring graphics card settings for 144Hz refresh rate
If you are having issues with your graphics card configuration, here are some solutions for them.
For Nvidia cards:
- Open the Nvidia driver menu.
- Navigate to Change Resolution tab being shown under the Display settings.
- Right to the Resolution window you will see the refresh rate dropdown—select 144Hz from there.
For AMD cards:
- On your desktop right-click and go to Display Settings.
- scroll to Display adapter properties
- Then head to List All Modes under the Adapter Information window
- Select the preferred refresh rate, e.g. 144Hz.
Boom, you are done!
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Final words
Having the right cable is as important as having an expensive monitor. It will help you enjoy the resolution at the Set Monitor To 144hz full frame rate. So, always keep the quality of your connectivity cable on priority.
Sometimes even after you’ve configured the settings to enable 144Hz refresh rate suddenly, you may face outages. This issue is mostly due to the version upgrades from graphics drivers; they reset the settings to default. Hence, you should double-check the settings after a driver upgrade.