Refresh rate, response time and the specs that actually matter
A plain-language guide to reading a monitor spec sheet, so you stop paying for numbers that make no visible difference.
Nafis Rahman
Hardware Editor
Monitor marketing is a wall of numbers, and most of them are chosen because they look impressive rather than because you will notice them. Here is what to actually read on the spec sheet.
Refresh rate: 144Hz is the meaningful jump
Going from 60Hz to 144Hz is immediately obvious — the mouse cursor alone gives it away. Going from 144Hz to 240Hz is a real difference, but a much smaller one, and only if your graphics card can actually push those frames.
Buy the refresh rate your GPU can feed. A 240Hz panel attached to a card that manages 90 frames per second is money spent on nothing.
Response time claims are mostly marketing
The 1ms figure on the box is usually MPRT, measured with a backlight strobing mode that most people never enable. The number worth comparing is grey-to-grey, and even then panel technology tells you more.
A good IPS panel at 4ms GtG will look cleaner in motion than a poor TN panel claiming 1ms.
- IPS — best colour and viewing angles, the safe default
- VA — deepest contrast, mild smearing in dark scenes
- TN — fastest and cheapest, weakest colour
Resolution against screen size
At 24 inches, 1080p is sharp enough. At 27 inches it starts to look soft, and 1440p is the right pairing. 4K makes sense from 27 inches upward if you want extra desktop space or work with detailed images.
Remember that resolution costs frames: 1440p asks roughly 75% more of your graphics card than 1080p at the same settings.
The features worth paying for
Adaptive sync (FreeSync or G-Sync) eliminates tearing and is close to standard now — there is no reason to buy a monitor without it.
USB-C with power delivery is genuinely useful if you dock a laptop, and a built-in KVM saves a desk full of cables when you run two machines.
