When it comes to PC gaming, performance is everything. Even the most visually impressive games can fall flat if they fail to run smoothly. Thankfully for gamers, there are many different ways to tune your rig for peak performance. One of the simplest and least expensive methods is upgrading your monitor. Many gamers shy away from high-performance monitors because they assume they will drop their FPS in exchange for better visuals. This is a fair assumption given that most gaming monitors have response times of less than 10 milliseconds and almost no lag time between frame updates. Unfortunately, this article will not be able to dispel these common concerns with good news about monitors and fps in general.
Does Monitor Affect Fps?
Monitors do not affect FPS. This is because monitors only display the images that are being outputted by the GPU. The FPS is determined by the number of frames that the GPU can output per second. So, if you have a monitor with a high refresh rate, it will display more of the frames that are being outputted by the GPU, giving you a smoother gaming experience. However, if you have a low-refresh rate monitor, it will not be able to display all of the frames that are being outputted by the GPU, resulting in a lower FPS.
What Is Fps And Why Should You Care?
- Frame rate is the number of frames that are rendered per second.
- Frame rate is measured in frames per second (FPS), which refers to the number of images displayed on a monitor in 1/60th of a second.
- The number of frames displayed per second is a factor that affects how fast your computer can perform certain actions and how smooth you experience gameplay on a screen with a high refresh rate.
- Higher frame rates ensure smoother gameplay, while lower frame rates can cause stuttering and jittering, which results in choppy or poor-looking visuals.
- FPS is generally determined by the graphics card being used, although there are some exceptions depending on the game and monitor you’re using.
- If your PC’s graphics card can’t keep up with the action, it will drop frames, which will cause choppy gameplay or even freeze-ups during intense moments (ie: explosions). Depending on how many frames are dropped from your computer, the game may slow down or even stop altogether.
- Higher frame rates can result in lower power consumption, which can be a huge benefit when you’re trying to save money on your electric bill.
The Importance of Frame Rate
How FPS Affects the Game
The first thing you should know is that frame rate doesn’t just affect how smooth the game is. It also affects the way it looks. For example, a game with 30 fps will appear to be more fluid than one that runs at 60 fps because of how smoothly it moves. Higher frame rates can also make games look more realistic, which can help you enjoy a game more when you’re just sitting on your couch.
How Resolution Affects FPS
Your monitor and resolution are directly linked to your FPS (frames per second). The higher resolution you have, the fewer frames your monitor displays per second. This means that if you have a high-resolution monitor and play at a lower resolution, your FPS will drop even though everything looks fine in real life. If you want to avoid this problem altogether, consider getting a monitor with a higher refresh rate (usually 120Hz or 144Hz). This will ensure that your monitor displays at least one full frame every second, which will prevent your FPS from dropping.
How To Increase Frame Rate Naturally
While you can’t increase your frame rate by increasing your resolution, you can achieve the same effect by reducing the number of frames displayed per second. This will result in a smoother game and a noticeably better gaming experience. The only downside is that this may make it more frustrating to play due to how quickly the game moves, but this is usually not an issue unless you’re playing on very high-end hardware.
How To Reduce Frame Rate Naturally
Reducing the number of frames displayed per second will increase FPS, but it won’t necessarily make things look smoother or more realistic like increasing fps would. However, it might provide a slight boost in visual quality, especially if you have a lower-end GPU or older PC hardware. This is also a good solution if you want to play on high-end hardware but don’t want to spend a lot of money.
How Resolution Affects FPS
The resolution of your monitor affects your FPS.
Surprisingly, the resolution of your monitor does not have a direct correlation to how many frames per second (FPS) you’ll be able to achieve in-game. In fact, there are some games that can run at higher resolutions but still experience a drop in frame rate. To put it simply, if you want to increase your fps, you’re going to need more than one monitor.
Resolution Affects Frame Rate More Than GPU Power
When it comes to gaming performance, there is a direct correlation between the power of your graphics card and the responsiveness of your monitors. However, this doesn’t mean that the higher resolution of a monitor is going to make up for this difference in power. In fact, high-end monitors are often able to run at resolutions much higher than their lower-resolution counterparts with equal or better visual quality because they have less lag time between frame updates and more memory bandwidth available for use.
4K Monitors Are the Best for Gaming
More pixels mean more information and better detail. This is why 4K monitors are the best choice for gaming. While they can be more expensive than 1080p monitors, you will be able to see much more detail in your game thanks to their high resolution. If you’re unsure if you should upgrade to a 4K monitor, check out this article on the benefits of 4K gaming monitors.
V-Sync Is a Game Killer
V-Sync is a feature you’ll want to turn off in every game that supports it. If you’re new to gaming, you might be thinking, “But I don’t want my monitor to lag!” This is exactly why you need to turn V-Sync off. You’ll never see the full potential of your graphics card if V-Sync is enabled. Without it, your GPU will constantly have to draw frames from your monitor and send them to the display in order for them to be displayed on the screen. This means that in many games, rendering will never be done on the GPU instead it will always be sent back out of the GPU through sync and then sent back into the GPU again when they are displayed on the screen. At this point, your GPU isn’t doing anything important other than sending out frames for display. The only time that rendering happens on your GPU is when there’s a lag in your monitor where the GPU has to draw more frames and send them back to the monitor.
You Need More Than One Monitor for Gaming
If you’re planning on playing games on two or more monitors, you’ll want to make sure that all of your monitors are running at the same resolution. This can be a bit tricky depending on how many resolutions your monitors support, but it’s something you should be able to figure out easily with a little bit of research. If not, then you might want to consider buying one high-end monitor that supports 4Kor 5K resolutions and then hooking up multiple 1080p or lower-resolution monitors to it for gaming.
Monitor Specifications to Consider
Refresh Rate
Refresh rate is the number of times your monitor can update its image in a single second. The refresh rate determines the smoothness of your games and how quickly you can react to onscreen events. For example, if you have a monitor with a refresh rate of 60Hz, it will refresh the screen 60 times per second. A monitor with a 120Hz refresh rate will update the screen 120 times per second. This means that when you play games that are more than 30FPS, such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS: GO), you’ll notice less lag between frame updates because each frame is displayed 60 times per second instead of 30FPS.
Response Time
Response time is another important specification for monitors that affects fps and reaction time in-game. You should look for monitors that have response times under 10ms if you want to avoid lag issues while gaming. In addition to avoiding lag, lower response time also reduces blur and ghosting. Ghosting occurs when you move the mouse rapidly over a textured surface, such as a wall or a table, and see pixelated images of the texture while the rest of your screen is clear. Blur occurs when you move the mouse rapidly with the screen in motion. This can cause you to see ghosting on moving objects and textures in your game.
Pixel Density
Pixel density refers to how many pixels are on each inch of your monitor’s display. A higher pixel density means sharper images and less blurring during fast-paced gaming because there are more pixels on each line of text or image. You should look for monitors with at least 100 pixels per inch (PPI) if you want to play games that require fast reaction time and quick movements, such as CS: GO or Overwatch. If you don’t need high-quality visuals, then a lower PPI is fine because it will not affect performance when gaming.
Conclusion
If you play PC games, you need to prioritize frame rate above all else. This is especially true if you’re playing online against other people, where any delay in your connection gives your opponents an unfair advantage. A high-end gaming monitor will provide the best possible experience in terms of visual quality and frame rate. This will ensure your games look as good as they possibly can while maintaining the optimal level of responsiveness. All that’s left is to choose the right monitor for your rig. There is no single gaming monitor that ticks all the boxes for every gamer. Instead, you will need to determine which monitor specifications are most important to you and select the monitor that best fits your needs.
