I just had this thought pop into my head: Why is the max FPS rate for computers only 60Hz?

I have a 240Hz TV, and now they're making 480Hz TVs, why hasn't the computer industry taken advantage of the higher refresh rates capable with modern TVs and monitors?

Some of you might say "Ahh well once you reach 60Hz it doesn't get much better and kind of plateaus." Well you obviously haven't watched any sports on a 240Hz TV, talk about a clear picture? It's just downright insane. Imagine getting at least 120FPS on some games, it would be unreal. I mean it might take a lot of power to get a game up to 240Hz, however it's entirely plausible if you Crossfire or SLI a few high end GPUs. Imagine having 4 HD 6990s Crossfired and playing something like Battlefield 3 without the refresh rate locked at 60Hz.

Just a thought, what do you guys think? Am I ranting about something that's already possible and I just haven't noticed it yet?

The refresh rate isn't a limitation of the computer, it's based on the monitor. And they do have 120hz/240hz monitors.

I'm OK happy with my ancient TV and only 60 Hz computer monitor. Don't they already have 240 Hz computer monitors?

They have 120 Hz monitors, they're called 3D monitors. There are also CRTs but they melt your eyes.

120 Hz monitors are cool and all but most people don't have powerful PCs and even a top of the line PC won't run many new games at 120 FPS.

Honestly, because for most of us, the difference between 60, 120, 240, and 480 hz is a number not substantial quality.

I use a CRT as my main monitor and my eyes seem to be fine.

1. Humans do not see in "frame rates" - human vision instead relies on a continuous stream of information.
2. Trying to get even older games to run at 60+ FPS can be difficult, let alone modern games that tax high-end systems. Hell, trying to get Oblivion to run in a consistent 60+ FPS can be a nightmare.
3. Broadcast TV, even HD broadcasts, are generally 60 Hz at the highest (sometimes as low as 30 Hz, then each frame is displayed twice to give 60 FPS). Not even close to 240 Hz. It's mostly a gimmick.

For video games:

Graphical quality.
Display resolution.
Frame rate.

Pick two of the above unless you want to spend a ton of money on high-end GPUs.

Most people pick the first two because after 60 FPS the frame rate hits a serious point of diminishing returns.

I used CRT's for years and years and my eyes are still firm and unmelted.

Typical consumer LCD's are at 60. Why they are locked in like this/they chose that one I don't know the tech reason for (I assume LCD tech doesn't allow for being able to utilize more than one hz setting at a time, unlike CRT's). Even with CRT's, one typically had it set for 60hz...tho some people liked it at higher, odd settings for whatever reasons. I used to use 72hz sometimes. heh

Actually this has been refuted by a British woman who had brain defects. Her case proves that our brain actually inteprets vision in frames. The woman's case was that her brain interprets visions far too slow, such that she could see people suddenly jumped in her face, and the presence of a train disturbs her a lot. I'm not sure if it was medical science channel or national geographic, it's been more than 5 years.

I have mine set to 120hz because it makes fast paced shooters like Quake feel a lot smoother.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persistence_of_vision

There's a number of people with brain defects who experience that kind of vision. Being a defect unique to those people I can't see how it's supposed to prove anything on how the human eye works.

Well when I use 120hz on my TV, I can barely play my Xbox 360 games. There is barely any smoothness to it and it becomes very choppy when I try to turn the game camera in any direction. So it's almost impossible to play FPS games. It happens with movies sometimes too.

Uhh... brain defects does not indicate anything about vision except the effects of the brain defects on vision. Using a person with a brain defect to demonstrate how vision works is less then ideal, and will probably also give you wrong information.

Vision is stills interpreted by brain. Without a brain to translate what it is, nothing matters. It's not how lights travel we're talking about, it's about how lights are being processed inside human brain.

You eyes can accept continues light signals, but it stills fall down to your brain to decide how to read it. When the brain reads it frame by frame, it's fps we're talking about.

I have achieved over 1000FPS on some older games with my system with Vsync off. 60FPS is really fine, (actually I would be happy to max all games at 60FPS)

Crysis 2 with DX11 and High Res textures maxed at 5760x1080 runs around 15FPS with a single 6970. Thats a $350 GPU. In order to hit even 60FPS on some games it would be $700 or so. Most people dont want to spend over $700 on their GPU's alone. (Though I understand most people are not running at that high res)

I personally prefer quality settings over FPS level. Anything above 25 for most games is playable for me.

You have to realize it's that person's brain, and that alone, that handles the vision that way. It's a fact that a functional human brain handles the vision in a continuos stream of information and it has been demonstrated repeatedly.

Plasma HDTVs are 600Hz btw.

Forgot about those

Anyways it was just a thought, I'm fine with 60Hz, just thought it was be pretty cool if I could set my GPU to allow some games to go over 60Hz. :shrug:

On windows 7: Screen Resolution -> Advanced settings -> Monitor -> Refresh rate then select what you want.

Also note: it will only show you refresh rates your monitor supports. That doesn't mean those are the only refresh rates possible though.

I tried doing that but it only shows 60Hz, even though I have a 240Hz TV.

Its not going to. The graphics card limits to 60Hz on DVI, HDMI and Display port. (85Hz on VGA).

Because over 40fps I can't tell the difference. At all.