120Hz and 240Hz TVs will only display video in those refresh rates when post-processing is turned on. The additional frames are inserted by a "frame interpolation" engine inside the TV. When you connect a PC or game console to a TV it will either detect that fact and turn the post-processing engine off or you will have to turn it off manually (this is probably why your TV is only reporting 60Hz as an available refresh rate for your PC input). If you don't it will make games difficult to play because the post-processing engine causes a delay between the input and the display (it takes time for the post-processor to process the video stream, so there's output lag). In the case of 3-D TVs the higher refresh rate makes sense, because every frame needs to be displayed twice...once for each eyeball.

There are 120Hz monitors, but the higher refresh doesn't do much good unless you can actually v-sync the video output to the monitor to 120fps. That means you need a minimum of 120fps (not average) to avoid frame tearing. I'm guessing that a very small percentage of people have the CPU/GPU combinations that are able to do that with many modern games. I'm guessing that there just aren't enough people clamoring for it to make it worth the effort of supporting it at the moment.

If you could, would it really look that much different than 60FPS? Or is the only practical application for 3D gaming?

I can't imagine that it would make a huge difference. Most (non-3D) video content source is 24fps or 29fps or 30fps (thus the frame interpolation to simulate higher refresh rates on some TVs...even for 60Hz displays). The difference between TV or a movie and a video game is that TV and movies have motion blur, so when you see the frames in rapid succession it looks smooth (your brain processes the motion blur in the source material and blends the frames together nicely). When frames are rendered for a video game it doesn't "blur" the frames together, so a higher framerate is required to make the frames look like they're blending together smoothly. The threshold that most people seem to acknowledge as "smooth" is 60fps/60Hz. Some people argue that it still isn't, but it looks pretty smooth to me...especially when I'm distracted by actually playing the game. I wonder if the folks claiming that it isn't smooth enough are actually seeing 60fps minimum. If you v-sync to 60Hz and the game occasionally dips below 60fps it's not going to look completely smooth.

I can barely play games at 60Hz, I have to use 75Hz or I'll get a headache. <_<

Is that on a CRT? I found that I needed a higher refresh rate on a CRT because of flicker. LCD displays don't constantly re-draw the screen (no "scanning"), so the lower refresh rate isn't noticeable (to me, anyway).

LCD. I have no idea why but I seem to be able to see flicker much more clearly than most people. Back when I was working in retail (selling TVs) I could easily notice the differences between a 120Hz monitor and a 200Hz monitor. :shrug:

That's the way I am. We have a 120Hz Sony Bravia EX746 in the living room (LED 46") and mine is a 240Hz Sony Bravia HX740 (40" LCD) and I almost refuse to watch TV in the living room because it's not as clear or smooth as my TV, especially movies and sports.

That's frame interpolation, though. If you use that effect for playing games there will be lag because the additional frames are fabricated by the post-processing mechanism in the TV...they don't actually exist in the source material (the source material is only 24-30fps). Without that artificial smoothing effect TV and movies would look the same at 30hz as they do at 240Hz.

I actually hate frame interpolation in movies. It's only worthwhile for sports, IMO. The "smoothing" effect makes movies look like they were shot with a camcorder.


By the way, are you able to run games at a 75fps minimum or do you just live with the frame tearing? I can't stand frame tearing.

60fps is the absolute minimum for me. I'm not really happy with the fps unless it's 100+

I like Counter-Strike Source because I can run it with stable 300fps

I guess playing Bethesda games is a bit of a struggle for you then :laugh:

Yes it is :stare:

I honestly didn't play Oblivion for a year because I couldn't get it to run smoothly. It took me a year to realize that Oblivion will never run smoothly on any machine.