The number above is measured, not read from a settings file: the browser fires one requestAnimationFramecallback per frame your display actually shows, and the median gap between callbacks is your active refresh rate. That distinction matters — I once spent a week gaming at 60 Hz on a brand-new 144 Hz monitor because Windows had quietly defaulted the panel to 60 after a driver update, and nothing about the picture screamed "wrong." Below: what refresh rate really controls, why the measured number can differ from the box spec, and how to unlock the rate you paid for.
What refresh rate actually means
Refresh rate is how many times per second your display redraws the whole picture, measured in hertz. A 60 Hz panel redraws every ~16.7 ms; a 144 Hz panel every ~6.9 ms; a 240 Hz panel every ~4.2 ms. It is a property of the display pipeline — panel, cable, GPU output, and OS setting together — which is why the active rate can silently be lower than the number on the spec sheet.
Refresh rate is not frame rate. The display redraws at a fixed cadence whether or not the GPU has a new frame ready. A game running at 47 fps on a 144 Hz monitor still refreshes 144 times a second — some refreshes just repeat the previous frame (or tear between two, without vsync). Variable refresh rate (VRR) technologies like G-Sync and FreeSync exist precisely to let the panel wait for the GPU instead.
How this page measures it
The test asks the browser for an animation callback on every displayed frame, discards the first ~20 warm-up frames (page paint and JIT noise), then samples 240 frame intervals. The headline number is 1000 / median interval, snapped to a common panel rate (60, 75, 120, 144, 165, 240…) when it lands within 4% — because a healthy "143.9 Hz" reading on a 144 Hz panel is measurement jitter, not a slower monitor. The raw measured value stays visible in the details table.
The late frames metric counts intervals that took at least 1.5× the median — frames the browser missed. On an idle machine this should be near 0%. A high percentage usually means CPU/GPU load (close the video render in the other window), not a display problem.
Measured 60 Hz on a high-refresh monitor? Check these in order
- OS display setting. Windows: Settings → System → Display → Advanced display → refresh rate dropdown. macOS: System Settings → Displays. This is the cause in most cases — high-refresh is rarely the default.
- The cable. HDMI 1.4 cannot carry 1440p at 144 Hz; many monitors only reach their full rate over DisplayPort. If the OS dropdown does not even offer the high rate, suspect the cable or port first.
- Laptop power profile. Battery-saver modes commonly drop a 120 Hz panel to 60 Hz. Plug in, or disable dynamic refresh rate.
- Multi-monitor mixups. The browser window inherits the refresh rate of the display it sits on. Drag this tab onto the monitor you want to test and run it again.
- Browser or OS throttling. Low-power mode, video playback offload, and some compositor settings cap rendering below the panel rate even when the panel is configured correctly.
Does higher Hz actually matter?
60 → 120 Hz is the jump almost everyone perceives: scrolling, cursor motion, and window dragging visibly smooth out, which is why flagship phones standardized on 120 Hz panels. 120 → 240 Hz is perceptible mainly in fast motion tracking — competitive shooter players measurably benefit; spreadsheet users do not. Past 240 Hz the returns shrink to frame-latency margins that matter at the esports level. If you are choosing hardware: a good 144 Hz panel is the sweet spot for most people in 2026.
Refresh rate also pairs with your display's other properties — resolution and pixel density set how sharp each of those frames is. Check your screen resolution and device pixel ratio alongside the Hz reading, and if motion still feels bad at a confirmed high rate, measure your network latency — in online games, network delay is felt as "lag" far more often than display delay.
Common questions
How do I check my monitor's refresh rate?
The reading on this page is a live measurement: the browser schedules one callback per displayed frame via requestAnimationFrame, and the median interval between frames gives the active rate. To see (or change) the configured rate: Windows Settings → System → Display → Advanced display; macOS System Settings → Displays; or your GPU control panel. The two can differ — the OS setting is the ceiling, this page shows what is actually being delivered right now.
Why does my 144 Hz monitor show only 60 Hz?
The most common causes, in order: the OS display setting is still on 60 Hz (a fresh Windows install often defaults there), the cable tops out (older HDMI can't carry 144 Hz at your resolution — use DisplayPort), a laptop is in battery-saver mode which halves the panel rate, or the browser window sits on the wrong monitor of a multi-display setup. Fix the setting first; it is the culprit far more often than the hardware.
Does a higher refresh rate matter outside gaming?
Yes, but with diminishing returns. Scrolling, cursor movement, and window dragging feel visibly smoother at 120 Hz versus 60 Hz — that is why phones and laptops moved to 120 Hz panels. Beyond ~144 Hz the improvement is mostly relevant to competitive gaming, where lower frame latency has a measurable effect. For office work, 60 → 120 is noticeable; 240 → 360 is not.
What is VRR (G-Sync / FreeSync) and does it affect this test?
Variable refresh rate lets the panel sync to the content's frame rate instead of a fixed clock — eliminating tearing without vsync lag. During this test a VRR display typically runs at its maximum rate because the page renders continuously, but some systems drop the compositor to a lower rate when nothing demands more. If the number looks low, wiggle the mouse during the test or check whether a power-saving profile caps the desktop rate.
How accurate is a browser-based refresh rate test?
Within a fraction of a Hz on an idle machine — the median frame interval is a robust estimator, and this page discards warm-up frames and pathological gaps. Two honest caveats: a heavily loaded CPU/GPU makes the browser miss frames (you will see it in the late-frames percentage), and browsers throttle background tabs hard, which is why the test restarts when you return to the tab.
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