60Hz vs 120Hz

A 120 Hz screen can show a new frame every 8.3 ms, a 60 Hz screen every 16.7 ms, so moving objects blur half as far. Press Play to see both on your own screen.

Last updated September 27, 2026

Speed, px/s 480 960 1920

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

120 fps

60 fps

Verdict

60Hz vs 120Hz in numbers

60Hz vs 120Hz: frame time, blur, load and more for each rate
	60 Hz	120 Hz
Frame time, ms	16.67	8.33
Motion blur at 960 px/s, px	16.0	8.0
Least input lag, half a frame, ms	8.33	4.17
Shows evenly, fps	30, 60	24, 30, 60, 120
Pixels a second at 1440p, millions	221	442
Cable for 1440p, oldest version	HDMI 1.4 or DisplayPort 1.2	HDMI 2.0 or DisplayPort 1.2
Cable for 4K, oldest version	HDMI 2.0 or DisplayPort 1.2	HDMI 2.1 or DisplayPort 1.4
Common on	Standard monitors, most phones, console performance mode	Phones, TVs, consoles, laptops

Pick 120 Hz if

you play on a PS5, Xbox Series X or Switch 2, in games with a 120 fps mode
you scroll and read a lot: text your eyes follow blurs half as far
you watch films on a TV: a true 120 Hz panel shows 24 fps evenly

Pick 60 Hz if

you mostly watch or play at 60 fps, which a faster screen can only repeat
your graphics card stays near 60 fps, leaving a faster screen little new to show
battery matters more on your phone: Samsung’s Standard setting drops Galaxy phones to 60 Hz to save it

Motion

60Hz and 120Hz side by side

Moving 960 pixels a second, every 120 fps frame steps 8 px and every 60 fps frame 16 px. A 120 or 240 Hz screen shows both exactly. On a 60 Hz screen both play 2x slower, because it has no room for 120 frames a second, and a 144 Hz screen shows neither evenly. How much sharper 120 Hz looks depends on your panel: Blur Busters estimates about 1.1x clearer on a laptop LCD without overdrive, 1.5x on a desktop gaming LCD and the full 2x on a fast OLED.

60 fps vs 120 fps in games

The PS5, Xbox Series X and Switch 2 run 120 fps modes in games that offer them, once you turn on their 120 Hz output setting. The refresh rate test lists where that setting is on each console and checks that it took. The studies on human eye FPS split on whether faster frames help you play. Toth and colleagues found better aim above 60 Hz; Qin and Zhu found no difference in scores from 60 to 240 Hz.

This step saves 8.3 ms a frame. Going from 30 to 60 fps saves twice that, 16.7 ms, and going from a 120 Hz TV to a 144 Hz monitor only 1.39 ms.

Devices

Phones

Apple rates the iPhone 17’s screen at up to 120 Hz. Samsung’s guide says Galaxy phones drop to 60 Hz when Motion smoothness is set to Standard, which saves battery. Even on a 120 Hz phone, the browser can keep web pages at 60, and then the comparison above measures 60 and plays slowed down.

TVs

The number on a TV box can be higher than the rate the panel runs. Samsung’s Motion Rate is 120 on a 60 Hz TV and 240 on a 120 Hz one. LG’s version is TruMotion, Vizio’s is Effective Refresh Rate and Sony’s is MotionFlow XR. RTINGS says to find the real rate on the spec sheet. A true 120 Hz TV shows 24 fps films evenly, repeating each frame 5 times, or 4 times after dropping to 96 Hz. It can also interpolate 60 fps sports, which a 60 Hz TV can’t. A 60 Hz TV’s variable refresh range is also narrow: below about 48 fps it can’t use Low Framerate Compensation, and the picture tears.

60Hz vs 144Hz

On a PC monitor the usual step up from 60 Hz is 144 Hz. Each frame drops from 16.7 ms to 6.9 ms, a 2.4 times step; from a 75 Hz monitor it drops from 13.3 ms. 144 Hz handles 60 fps badly: 5 frames share 12 refreshes, held for 3, 2, 3, 2 and 2 of them, so video and 60 fps games both judder. In games, G-SYNC or FreeSync remove that judder by refreshing when each frame arrives, as RTINGS explains. Slow pixels can blur 144 Hz motion anyway, which RTINGS finds on many office monitors, and the ghosting test shows the trail on yours. Windows can leave a new monitor at 60 Hz, and on many monitors the HDMI port can’t do 144 Hz, so check the Windows setting and your cable.

Questions

Does 60Hz vs 120Hz really matter?

Yes, whenever the picture moves: each frame is held half as long, so motion your eyes follow blurs half as far and scrolling text is easier to read. For a 60 fps game or video it matters little, since the faster screen can only repeat those frames.

Can humans see the difference between 60Hz and 120Hz?

Yes, in motion: at 960 px/s an object your eyes follow smears 16 px at 60 Hz and 8 px at 120 Hz. In RTINGS pursuit photos of one TV at both rates, the 120 Hz text is significantly clearer. On a still screen the two look the same.

Which FPS is best, 60 or 120?

120, on a screen that runs at 120 Hz or faster and in a game that holds it. A 60 Hz screen still shows at most 60 new frames a second, however many the game renders.

Does 120 FPS make you better?

It can. In a 2026 study by NVIDIA and the University of Limerick, gamers aimed more accurately and destroyed targets faster at 144 and 360 Hz than at 60 Hz; 120 Hz itself was not tested.

Is 4K 60Hz better than 4K 120Hz?

No. 4K at 120 Hz shows the same detail with frames half as long, if your console or graphics card renders 120 fps at 4K. It also needs a faster link: HDMI 2.0 stops below 70 Hz at 4K, so 4K at 120 Hz takes HDMI 2.1 or DisplayPort 1.4 on both ends.

Is 60Hz ok for gaming?

For most players, RTINGS says, and it's the lowest rate RTINGS suggests for PC gaming. The cost is lag: by RTINGS' measure, the least a 60 Hz monitor can add is 8.33 ms, against 4.17 ms at 120 Hz.

Is it worth upgrading from 60Hz to 144Hz?

For PC games that reach 144 fps, yes: each frame is 9.7 ms shorter. The monitor shows 144 new frames a second only when the game renders 144, so a graphics card stuck near 60 fps leaves it little to show. Consoles stop at 120 Hz and drive a 144 Hz monitor as a 120 Hz one.

Sources

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