MAY 2020 • TECH ADVISOR 101input lag and response time. If you plan to play PC
gamesonyourTV,definitelydigaroundin your
HDTV’soptions to see if it has this feature.
Refresh rate
Another factor that may affect performance is a
display’s refresh rate. Refresh rate is the number of
times a display ‘refreshes’, or re-draws, its image each
second. Most modern displays have a refresh rate of
60Hz, which means they refresh their image 60 times
per second. But you’ve probably also seen higher-end
gaming monitors and HDTVs with higher advertised
refresh rates – 120Hz, 144Hz, or even 240Hz. This can
be misleading, however, because a computer monitor
with a 120Hz refresh rate may not be the same as an
HDTV with a 120Hz refresh rate.
The reason for this is because the content people
watch on a television is produced at either 24-, 30-, or
60fps. The content people view on a computer monitor
can be very different – many games can output frame
rates higher than 60fps if you have a powerful enough
graphics card.
An HDTV with a high advertised refresh rate may use
post-processing technology to achieve that rate, such
as by creating additional frames to upscale content, or
by adding black frames between each frame to prevent
image blur. The good news is that this probably won’t
make a difference if you’re not playing PC games at
very fast frame rates. But if you have a PC designed for
the best possible gaming experience, hooking up an
HDTV instead of a computer monitor likely means that
you’re not getting the most out of your machine.