Display Test LabCheck your Hz

144Hz vs 240Hz

144 Hz vs 240 Hz shortens each frame from 6.94 ms to 4.17 ms. You see the gain only when your PC holds 240 fps and your panel's pixels keep up.

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Speed, px/s

Press Play. We check your refresh rate first, then the shapes start moving.

240 fps

144 fps

Verdict

144Hz vs 240Hz in numbers

144Hz vs 240Hz: frame time, blur, load and more for each rate
144 Hz240 Hz
Frame time, ms6.944.17
Motion blur at 960 px/s, px6.74.0
Least input lag, half a frame, ms3.472.08
Shows evenly, fps2424, 30, 60, 120
Pixels a second at 1440p, millions531885
Cable for 1440p, oldest versionHDMI 2.0 or DisplayPort 1.2HDMI 2.1 or DisplayPort 1.4
Cable for 4K, oldest versionHDMI 2.1 or DisplayPort 2.1 (UHBR20)DisplayPort 2.1 (UHBR20)
Common onGaming monitorsEsports monitors

Pick 240 Hz if

  • your PC holds close to 240 fps in fast games
  • your panel’s pixels finish changing within a 4.17 ms frame, as on the OLED where RTINGS measured 0.6 ms
  • you also play at 60 or 120 fps: 240 is a multiple of both, so motion stays even

Pick 144 Hz if

  • your graphics card stays near 144 fps
  • you’d rather have 1440p: at 144 Hz it asks about as much of your graphics card as 1080p at 240 Hz
  • you game on a PS5, an Xbox Series X|S or a Switch 2, none of which goes past 120 Hz

Motion

144Hz and 240Hz side by side

At 1920 pixels a second, the speed RTINGS uses for its motion photos, the shape jumps 13.3 px each frame at 144 fps and 8 px at 240 fps. Both play at real speed on a screen at 240 Hz or faster. At 240 Hz the 144 fps one stutters slightly, because every three of its frames have to share five refreshes, and at 360 Hz both do. On a 144 Hz monitor both play 5x slower, and on a 60 Hz one 12x.

What studies found

Qin and Zhu found players scored no better at 240 Hz than at 144 Hz, in a 2024 preprint not yet peer reviewed. It’s the only study here that measured play at both rates. As a ratio the step is small, 1.67 times, and gamers in the 2026 study on human eye FPS could not reliably tell apart even 144 and 360 Hz, a 2.5 times step.

Hardware

What 240Hz needs

  • A frame rate to match. Each frame has to be ready in 4.17 ms. Below 240 fps the extra refreshes show nothing new, so RTINGS says to check your graphics card first. Frame generation fills the gap for your eyes but not for the controls.
  • Fast pixels. RTINGS measured a total response time of 0.6 ms on the ASUS ROG Swift OLED PG32UCDM Gen3 and 7.1 ms on the Dell SE2426HGS, both 240 Hz monitors. The Dell’s pixels take longer than a 240 Hz frame to change, so its motion stays blurrier. Blur Busters finds refresh steps far more visible on OLED, and the ghosting test shows the trails on your own panel.
  • A link with the bandwidth. 1440p at 240 Hz needs DisplayPort 1.4 or HDMI 2.1. 1440p at 360 Hz needs HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 2.1 or Display Stream Compression (DSC). RTINGS warns that DSC can bring artifacts and stop NVIDIA’s DSR and DLDSR from working.

Steps

165Hz vs 240Hz

From 165 Hz the step is 1.89 ms per frame. The choice is often between a 1440p 165 Hz monitor and a 1080p 240 Hz one, though 240 Hz also comes in 4K, as on the Alienware AW3225QF that RTINGS reviewed.

  • Sharpness. 1440p has 1.78 times the pixels: about 109 per inch against 82 on a 27-inch screen, by the PPI calculator. RTINGS points out that trading resolution for refresh rate costs text clarity.
  • Load. 1440p at 165 Hz is about 608 million pixels a second and 1080p at 240 Hz about 498 million, so the sharper monitor is about 22% more work for the graphics card, not less. The GPU stress test loads your graphics card in the browser and shows its frame time.
  • Judder. 165 is not a multiple of 24, 30, 60 or 120, so film, video and console frame rates judder at a fixed 165 Hz unless variable refresh takes over in a game. 240 is a multiple of all four, and RTINGS calls 240 Hz and faster judder-free most of the time.

240Hz vs 360Hz

From 240 to 360 Hz each frame gets 1.39 ms shorter, 4.17 ms against 2.78 ms, a ratio of 1.5. Lag can fall with it: at best a monitor adds half a frame, by the rule in the frame rate comparisons, so 2.08 ms at 240 Hz and 1.39 ms at 360 Hz. The step pays off only in games that already run well past 240 fps. RTINGS has reviewed a 480 Hz monitor, the ASUS ROG Swift OLED PG27AQDP, and LG opened US orders for its 1000 Hz UltraGear 25G590B in August 2026. By the ratio rule on 120Hz vs 144Hz, 480 Hz is a bigger step up from 240 Hz than 360 Hz is: 2 times against 1.5.

Questions

Is 240Hz worth it over 144Hz?

For most players the gain is small. It pays off in fast games that your PC holds near 240 fps, on a panel whose pixels finish changing within a frame. With a graphics card that stays near 144 fps, the faster monitor has little new to show.

Can a 144 hertz monitor run 240 fps?

The game can render 240 fps, but the monitor still shows at most 144 new frames a second. With V-Sync off, frames that arrive mid-refresh are shown in part, which is screen tearing; with V-Sync on, the game is held to 144 fps.

Should I get 1440p 144Hz or 1080p 240Hz?

Both ask about the same work of your graphics card: 1440p at 144 Hz is about 531 million pixels a second, 1080p at 240 Hz about 498 million. You're choosing between sharper text at 1440p and shorter frames at 240 Hz.

Is 160hz better than 240Hz?

No. A frame lasts 6.25 ms at 160 Hz and 4.17 ms at 240 Hz, so 240 Hz holds each picture a third less time and blurs moving objects a third less, as long as the game keeps up. 160 Hz does ask your graphics card for a third fewer frames.

Does 60 FPS look worse on a 240Hz monitor?

No. 240 is exactly four times 60, so each frame stays up for four refreshes and motion stays even. It looks no better either: the blur you see follows how long each picture stays up, and at 60 fps that is 16.67 ms on any screen with no strobe mode on.

Is 240hz overkill for PS5?

For the PS5 alone, yes: it sends at most 120 Hz, as do the Xbox Series X|S consoles and the Switch 2. A 240 Hz monitor does no harm, since 240 is a multiple of 120 and 60, but 4K at 120 Hz needs HDMI 2.1 and PS5 VRR needs HDMI Forum VRR support on the monitor.

Sources

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