Frame rate comparison. Full, half, quarter, side by side.
The question behind every high refresh purchase is whether you can see the difference. This reads your rate and shows the same mark moving at that rate, half of it and a quarter of it, so the difference is in front of you rather than argued about.
One check
- Frame rate comparison
One check after another, with your progress along the top and a plain verdict on each. Nothing you show the camera or say into the microphone leaves this page.
What it measures
Measured here, not assumed.
- Three rows
- The full rate, half and a quarter, at the same speed of 960 pixels a second. The lower the rate, the larger each step and the wider the blur.
- Blur
- At 60 Hz a mark at this speed blurs by about 16 pixels; at 120 by 8; at 240 by 4. Doubling the rate halves it.
- Steps
- At a quarter of your rate the mark visibly jumps; that is the stutter a low frame rate makes even when every frame is on time.
If it fails
The usual failures, and what fixes each.
- All three rows look the same
- The screen may be running below its rating. Run the refresh rate test, which names the cause.
- The top row stutters
- Frames are arriving unevenly. The frame pacing test scores it and the fixes are there.
- You cannot see a difference between the top two
- At high rates the difference shrinks; at 240 against 120 it is 4 pixels of blur against 8, which many eyes read as a small gain. That is a true result.
Where a browser stops
What it cannot tell you.
- The rows can only go as high as your screen. A 60 Hz screen shows 60, 30 and 15; to see 120 against 60 you need a 120 Hz screen.
- This is the browser's frames, not a game's, and a game adds its own rendering time.
- Persistence blur is shown; pixel response is not, because a page cannot measure it.
Privacy
Nothing leaves this page.
The camera and microphone are read on this page and stopped as soon as they have been measured. The clip you can play back lives in the browser's memory and is discarded when you leave. The location check discards the position. The internet test sends random bytes to this site and nothing else. The result is stored nowhere unless you ask for it by email, and then only the fact that an email was sent is kept.
Questions
Frame rate comparison, answered
- Can you see the difference between 60 Hz and 144 Hz?
- Yes, on a moving object you follow with your eyes: the 144 Hz one is sharper and moves without visible steps. This test shows it on your own screen if the screen can do both rates.
- Is 240 Hz worth it over 144 Hz?
- The blur falls from about 7 pixels to 4 at this speed, and the steps get smaller. Some see it clearly, many see a little. Look at the top two rows and decide with your own eyes.
- Why does the bottom row jump?
- Because at a quarter of the rate the mark moves four times as far each frame. That is stutter from a low frame rate: every frame is on time and the motion still steps.
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