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144Hz monitors are the new standard in gaming, almost every streamer you watch and every eSports star you admire uses one. You are probably asking yourself whether a 144Hz monitor is actually worth it. The short answer is YES a 144Hz monitor is worth it. The long answer is quite more complicated than that and we believe a 144Hz monitor is “worth it” to some and a waste of money to others. Read below to find out what camp you belong to!
What is refresh rate?
Refresh rate is the speed at which your monitor can refresh itself every second and it is measured by Hz. So, if you own a 144Hz monitor, you will be able to notice up to 144 Frames per second (FPS). For that reason, buying a 144Hz screen is only recommended if your system can actually reach a stable 144 FPS at your game of choice.
144Hz monitors also have their downsides and their colors are usually a little duller than your normal 60Hz monitors. You can still purchase good looking displays that sometimes even surpass the quality of the 60Hz monitors but you will need to spend a lot more money and look for an IPS panel in order to achieve that.
As you can tell, 144Hz monitors are better than 60Hz monitors and they are an obvious upgrade, however, they don’t make such a big difference in MOBA games and the difference is usually much more noticeable in FPS games such as Overwatch and CS:GO. With that being said, almost all professional gamers regardless of genre use a 144Hz monitor. We believe that a 144Hz monitor will give you some sort of an advantage in almost every game you play.
From our personal experience, playing champions such as Ezreal in LoL or Widowmaker in Overwatch can really benefit from the extra frames per second. We find ourselves connecting more headshots as widow or Hanzo and identify that annoying Blitzcrank hand and avoid it just in time.
What to look for in a 144Hz monitor?
Resolution
Most 144Hz monitors will come in the normal 1080p resolution (our recommendation). 4K 144Hz monitors are generally way too expensive and actually feel less responsive than their 60Hz counterparts. When it comes to the actual screen size we recommend 24″ monitors since they are the perfect compromise between size and quality. With that being said, we have also used 21″ and even 19″ 144Hz monitors that did the trick.
Response time
Every 144Hz monitor comes with a response time that will allow you to utilize the full 144 frames per second. However, a monitor with less than 3-4ms will feel a lot more responsive than something like a 10ms monitor. That’s why we highly recommend you to pick a 1ms monitor as it will allow for the smoothest gaming experience and give you a big advantage when you game.
Other
You should also be concered about motion blur and color quality. These factors are generally very unnoticeable and taken care by the manufacturers. BenQ and ASUS are probably your best bet when it comes to gaming monitors and you won’t experience any negative motion blur effects or dull colors with their monitors. But, even when you purchase from the big brands we highly recommend you to get an IPS panel monitor as they generally display much more vibrant colors.
Verdict
If you have made it this far you probably already know that a 144Hz monitor is generally better than a 60Hz monitor. With that being said, we believe a 144Hz monitor is only worth it if you are playing fast paced games such as CS:GO, Overwatch, LoL and Dota 2. However, if you play slow-paced games such Hearthstone or other strategy games, a 144Hz monitor is the worst financial decision you can make.
To finish we would like to thank you for reading this article and we hope you have learned something new! Remember to stick to the big brands and keep your new monitor safe!
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