The benefits of the 144hz monitor are often a long debate. Of course, the best way to see the advantage of the 144hz is to try it in your video games.
A high refresh rate improves visual comfort and smoothness, but the question remains whether you will have a real advantage in terms of aiming in your favorite FPS games? If you’re just wondering if the 144hz monitor improves your aim, then we have the optimal answer for you.
The advantages of 144 Hz monitors
The 144hz monitor offers a high refresh rate which is very practical when it comes to fast-paced and competitive games, particularly the FPS type. It provides you with multiple advantages that contribute to the improvement of your aim in multiplayer shooters:
- Significant reduction of motion blur
- Reduction of latency/Input lag
- Ghosting reduction
- Reduction of the image tearing effect
In general, you gain a visual comfort that helps you in fast shooting games. You will be able to distinguish moving objects more easily and your eye will be able to focus more accurately on your target, which will improve your aim. But how exactly this happens?
Reduction of motion blur
At 60hz, when you make a very fast movement, the viewfinder may become so blurred that you lose sight of it. Even if it lasts only a few milliseconds, it will be a disadvantage for your comfort when you are aiming.
With a frequency of 144Hz, this phenomenon will be almost no longer present; generally speaking, the motion blur is greatly reduced. And when playing competitive FPS games, this visual comfort gives you a real advantage when aiming.
Note that the motion blur differs at 15 fps, 30 fps, and 60 fps. Even if it is less present at 60 FPS, it still exists and at 144 Hz it will be almost unperceivable. It is this visual comfort that you will gain with a high refresh rate, which will also help you to aim better.
Latency Reduction/ Input Lag
At first, it is necessary to understand that 144hz PC screens are relatively modern and integrate better quality electronic components and therefore a lower latency or Input Lag. Then, there is a very simple fact; 144 frames per second, it requires 1,000 milliseconds to display 144 images, in other words, 7 ms per image, which is really interesting.
Here is the latency (Input Lag) of a 60hz and a 144hz PC monitors generated by the number of frames per second:
60 Hz: 17 ms Input Lag
144 Hz: 7 ms Input Lag per frame
Note that this is only about the latency of the PC screen. For total latency, you must add the other hardware components available in the system: mouse, processor, graphics card, and finally the PC monitor. And since each peripheral is not perfectly synchronized, you must also add the Latency Synchronization.
In any case, we can’t deny the fact that a 144hz monitor plays a key role in reducing input lag, allowing you to enjoy smooth gameplay and more accuracy when it comes to aiming.
Ghosting reduction
The advantage of a 144hz monitor is also to reduce ghosting. The more images you have per second, the more the visual gap between each displayed image is reduced. Although a higher frame rate provides better motion clarity, if pixels cannot switch from one color to another (response time) in a timely manner with these frame rates, you will experience visible ghosting.
That’s why opting for a 144 Hz monitor is useful when it comes to reducing the ghosting and improving your aim in a way that allows you to avoid missing your moving target because of the ghosting issue.
Here’s a video from NVIDIA showing CS:GO running on different refresh rates (monitors) on GeForce RTX 2080Ti with a 240 Hz monitor:
Reduction of the image tearing effect (screen tearing)
Another advantage of 144hz monitors is the reduction of the image tearing effect. In fact, it’s like reducing the Ghosting effect, the higher the number of frames per second, the more the gap between the images and therefore tearing is reduced. Tearing reduction enhances speed and reaction time, enabling you to improve your aim.
Note that the most effective way to reduce this problem is to use FreeSync or G-Sync technologies; hopefully, the 144hz monitor supports them. Both solutions will help to better synchronize the system that produces the images and also reduce latency.
The 144hz monitor as an ideal choice for competitive multiplayer games
All the details mentioned above about the advantages of the 144hz monitors in terms of aiming can prove their worth and usefulness only in competitive multiplayer games, where every tiny detail matters in order to get many frags and avoid being killed.
Let’s recall a scenario that happened to many players when they play competitive shooting games; you have encountered an enemy player, you started exchanging fire, but you couldn’t shoot him down, especially when he is moving quickly. In most cases, if you were doing this while using a 60hz monitor, you would be shooting at a target that isn’t even there because your screen doesn’t refresh the images fast enough to follow the fast-moving target.
This can have a negative impact on both your Aim and kill score in competitive FPS games, especially if your opponent has a better monitor than yours! Therefore, a 144hz is a must if you want to improve your aim and to experience better responsiveness and full immersion in the game.
Note that in order to use a high frame rate, your FPS (frames per second) must also be high. So make sure you have a CPU/GPU that is powerful enough for the frame rate you are seeking.
If you are still not convinced that a 144hz monitor can improve your aim, then you just need to give it a try and compare between it and a 60hz monitor. You will certainly experience the difference quickly!
Thanks to the smoother animations, the visual comfort, and the fast response time that a 144hz monitor offers, you will be able to better identify and track your targets. And when you make micro-corrections to your aim to adjust the height of your shots, the fluidity of the animation allows you to increase the accuracy of your shots and therefore hit your targets more effectively.
If you need useful tips about how to improve your aim in FPS games, check out this article https://verticalbullet.com/mouse-accuracy-get-better-at-aiming-in-any-fps-game-pc/