Updated at: 04-05-2022 - By: Leo Hall

When the world’s first 360Hz gaming monitor was unveiled in 2020, most gamers would have contemplated upgrading to a 360Hz monitor.

It’s understandable that a gaming display that provides a smoother experience than 144Hz and 240Hz monitors is enticing.

Is it really worth it, given how much it costs? Several elements come into play. The benefits and cons of a 360Hz monitor will be laid out in this post to help you decide if it’s worth the investment.

A Quick Refresher On Refresh Rates

Refresh rate is the number of times a monitor refreshes the image displayed each second, expressed in Hertz (Hz) For example, a 60Hz monitor refreshes its display 60 times per second, or 16.67 milliseconds each image.

If you plan to primarily use your computer for simple tasks like typing and viewing the internet, a fast refresh rate is of little benefit.

High refresh rates make a tremendous difference in PC gaming, however. It allows you to react more quickly by making it easier to switch between images. Competitive shooters like Valorant and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive are especially well-suited to this kind of performance boost.

Yay: The Pros Of 360Hz Monitors

If you play a lot of first-person shooter games, racing games, and other fast-paced games, a 360Hz monitor will provide you a better gaming experience.

Because your monitor’s image refreshes more frequently – every 2.78 milliseconds, to be exact – you’ll be able to react to changes on the screen more quickly, which could improve your gaming performance.

A 360Hz monitor isn’t going to make you a god-tier esports player overnight, but it does give you an advantage in the hardware department.

As long as you have smoother performance from a 360Hz display, you probably don’t care that much if the visual quality drops.

This is great news, because IPS panels, which have better colors and wider viewing angles than TN panels, are currently available on 360Hz monitors. Because of this, you’ll be able to enjoy a high refresh rate while still getting excellent picture quality.

Nay: The Cons Of 360Hz Monitors

Even for individuals who can afford the most up-to-date PC hardware, a 360Hz panel isn’t worth it for a variety of other reasons.

To begin with, only a small percentage of the general public is able to discern between 144Hz, 240Hz, and 360Hz refresh rates. With a 60Hz monitor, it’s easy to perceive the change in refresh rate, but if you’re coming from a monitor with an already high refresh rate, it may be harder to tell the difference.

An illustration would be: The image is redrawn every 4.17 milliseconds on a 240 Hz monitor. There’s only a 1.4-millisecond gulf there. The difference is 4.16 milliseconds on a 144Hz monitor.

Some competitive players certainly benefit greatly from the small changes in milliseconds. However, they are insignificant to the ordinary gamer. A 360Hz monitor’s smoothness may not be noticeable to you if you can only distinguish the difference between 144Hz and 240Hz.

In order to really experience 360Hz monitors, you must have precise gaming preferences and a powerful PC.

If you play a lot of strategy games, RPGs, and other slow-paced games, a 360Hz monitor is a waste of money. It’s best suited to competitive games where graphics are less critical.

Your PC must also be able to consistently generate at least 300 frames per second. You are wasting your money if you buy a 360Hz monitor when your PC can barely handle 100 frames per second in the games you play.

As a last point, your choices for a 360Hz monitor are still limited, and they will cost you at least $500, which is a lot of money for most people.

There are currently 360Hz monitors on the market that use IPS panels. However, compared to 144Hz monitors, which offer an excellent balance between picture quality, performance, and price, your selection of screen size and resolution is far more limited.

Should You Buy A 360Hz Monitor For Gaming?

There are a lot of ifs when it comes to 360Hz monitors, as we discussed at the outset of this post.

A PC that can reliably deliver at least 300 frames per second is required for most competitive shooter games.

Do you value speed over visual quality, and are you willing to pay a hefty price for a 1080p display?

Even if the difference between a low refresh rate display and a high refresh rate monitor is slight, can your eyes tell the difference?

A 360Hz display is a no-brainer if you can affirmatively answer “yes” to all of the preceding questions.

If you’re upgrading from a 60Hz monitor, consider 144Hz monitors first because they’re less expensive and come in a wider variety of styles. In the meanwhile, we advise you to hold off on upgrading your 240Hz display, as the change is negligible.

Refresh Rate Explained

There is a maximum refresh rate for each monitor, which is expressed in hertz (Hz) (Hz). Visual distortions known as screen tearing can occur when this pace is exceeded with any type of digital input source — for example, a game. A common cause of these rips is the fact that most monitors are designed to run at a fixed refresh rate, which allows numerous frames to be displayed on the screen at the same time.

So, if you’re playing a shooter and something doesn’t seem quite right, there are a number of possible explanations. It’s possible that your new ASUS TUF Gaming VG279Q1A monitor is just set to a lower refresh rate than it should be.

Now that we know what Hz on a display implies, let’s see how standard and high refresh rates differ in practice.

A Standard vs. High Refresh Rate Comparison

Every monitor has a maximum refresh rate, however not all of them are the same. 60Hz is the industry standard for gaming monitors, indicating that the screen will update at a rate of 60 frames per second. Your monitor refreshes at a rate of 60 times per second when you’re playing a first-person shooter (FPS). Screen tearing occurs when it can’t keep up with rendering all 60 frames in a second. In order to avoid this, most gamers use v-sync, which instructs the graphics card to provide new data only after the monitor has finished refreshing itself. Not all tears are eliminated, but the appearance of them is greatly reduced.

By displaying two times as many still pictures per second, high refresh rate monitors (those with refresh rates greater than 144Hz) aim to alleviate this issue. A smoother gaming experience is made possible by the graphics card’s increased number of data points.

The same logic applies to 360Hz displays. This is why the refresh rate is so high in the first place; it just runs more times per second than other monitors.

Fast-paced games like shooters make the difference between regular and high refresh rates obvious, while MOBAs don’t achieve 144fps frequently enough to noticeably affect anything over that refresh rate.

What is Screen Tearing?

When the display and the graphics card are out of sync, the screen tearing occurs. Attempts to push more images onto the screen than the monitor can handle will result in all of them being displayed at once.

Screen tearing occurs as a result of visual overlap, which gives the illusion that objects in the game are getting closer or further away from you. Most of the time, this occurs as you travel quickly through a busy area in a first-person shooter, but it may also occur in games with far fewer moving parts since new frames are continually being produced. Some people, even with the best computer and monitor, can still notice the occasional stuttering of the screen.

This video from The Tech Chap shows how tearing becomes more noticeable when the action heats up on a 60Hz panel. The player is thrown off by the noticeable pauses in between frames, which results in an unsettling experience. Since the frames are not being displayed in sync, screen tearing or several images showing on the screen all at once are the outcome. To put it another way, the graphics card is churning out more data than the monitor can handle.

Because each frame – that is, each individual image – is displayed consecutively at twice the pace, screen tearing is less noticeable when running the same sequence on a higher refresh rate monitor (in this example one with a 120Hz refresh rate). As a result, the graphics card is ready to process the next frame as soon as the previous one is completed. the outcome? A more seamless gaming experience, which you may notice more or less depending on how fast-paced a game is.

Advantages of A 360Hz Monitor

Smooth and Responsive Gaming Experience

The smoother and more responsive gaming experience can be achieved by using a 360Hz monitor instead of a lower refresh rate panel. Refresh rates of screens allow your graphics card to produce more frames per second (FPS) and smoother action overall, as the screen refreshes more frequently. When it comes to competitive online games like Overwatch or League of Legends, a greater refresh rate might make all the difference in winning or losing.

360Hz Eliminate Motion Blur

Motion blur is a problem that many gamers have to deal with, and it can degrade your gaming experience. This happens because the screen cannot update itself as soon as it should. A high refresh rate monitor, like 360Hz, eliminates any potential motion blur difficulties caused by frame rendering speeds that are less than acceptable.

More Accurate Representation of your Graphics Card’s Performance

Your graphics card’s performance can be judged more accurately in comparison to other players’ when you have a refresh rate that is above average. Benchmarking software like 3DMark or Unigine Heaven (both of which provide benchmarks with support for a variety of monitors, including ones with high refresh rates) can sometimes cause your results to be distorted due of the refresh rate of your monitor. But this isn’t a problem with a 360Hz display since its refresh rate is over double that of cheaper models.

Most fast-paced games at 1080p can run at 240-300 frames per second on the RTX 3080 graphics card. You can get the most out of the GeForce RTX 3080’s gaming performance by using a high-refresh rate display with it.

Perfect for competitive Gamers

There are gamers who need to react rapidly, therefore this is a great option. The faster you can react to what’s going on the screen in games like Call of Duty, the better your chances of winning. A small advantage in games where winning or losing depends on a split-second decision could make all the difference in the outcome of your next game.

Disadvantages of A 360Hz Monitor

It’s Expensive

In comparison to displays with lesser refresh rates, a 360Hz model’s primary drawback is its high price (unless you get lucky with your Black Friday deals). Having a high refresh rate monitor can be a blessing while playing online competitive games like The Witcher 3 or Assassin’s Creed, even though they may not give any further benefits when playing single-player campaign style titles like these.

Not Worth It for Slow Paced Games

The benefits of a 360Hz monitor aren’t worth it if you’re playing games with few action sequences, like Civilization 6 or Stardew Valley.

FAQS:

Does 360Hz make a difference?

The refresh rate of a 360Hz monitor

Is a 360Hz monitor worth it for gaming?

With a PC configuration that can consistently offer more than 300 frames per second, a 360Hz display is a worthwhile investment. When the world’s first 360Hz gaming display was unveiled, those of you who care about performance were probably considering making the switch.

What is the point of 360Hz?

A 4K/8K graphics card or gadget that can produce 360 frames per second of movement to show an advantage at this frame rate.

Conclusion:

What’s left to decide is whether or not you should get one. It all depends on how much responsiveness is important to you in your gameplay. If you’re a competitive gamer who likes to play at a quick speed, a high refresh rate monitor is a must. Any gamer who prioritizes responsiveness above graphical fidelity in their gaming devices will find them excellent here.

Even if you’re mostly interested in playing single-player games or occasionally connecting to the internet to play Red Dead Redemption 2 or Battlefield 1, this isn’t the ideal purchase for you. There are better uses for the money you’d have spent on a 360Hz monitor, such as spending it on a higher-quality graphics card.

Another consideration is if your gear can handle a monitor with a higher refresh rate, such as 360Hz. Even if your graphics card is powerful enough to consistently produce more than 240 frames per second, it’s unlikely to be worth the investment if your monitor is limited by the capability of your hardware. Even yet, if you’ve got a powerful computer and you’re fed up with your present monitor, a 360Hz model may be the best option for you.