LCD Refresh Rate
Posted: Thu Mar 28, 2024 5:53 pm
It's mostly a pointless thing on an LCD display, it's only emulated for synchronization purposes (it's inherent in how software talks to a display). It's not going to make your display look any better, there's no shimmering or scan lines. It's only if vsync comes into play (we generally don't mess with horizontal sync, it's inherent in the mode). So for games, that might be significant if you want higher framerates without tearing, or if you want Vsync to be a higher frequency/framerate.
For desktop use, it doesn't make one lick of difference for me personally, because I don't use compositors or vsync anything (and I'm talking about Xefuckingleven here, not Wayland or Windows... I hate compositing desktop window managers). Without compositors (or stupid menu animations etc.), everything just snaps into place even on older hardware. You'd be hard pressed to find a video with a higher framerate than 60 fps too (I don't have tearing). Most would be 30 or less.
I can change my refresh rate instantly, with
(there's actually more going on than just that, though. xrandr is a front end, you could put in any arbitrary number and xrandr would change to the closest, supported mode, which is known by X11 from your EDID info)
I could tell X11 to use 165 Hz with a bit of config dropped in xorg.conf.d, or at the command line when starting it (passing options to xinit), however, it's pointless. If I run into a game (that doesn't itself have a refresh rate mode setting, most don't) where I'm not happy with vsync on, or off, I might set that natively first before launching the game, but so far I still like a smooth 60 Hz Vsync in most games, and Far Cry 6 works best for me with it's own refresh rate setting of 165 Hz and Vsync and any framerate limiting settings, Off. So far I've had no real need to run my display at 165 Hz.
The only thing that does for me, is cause a mode switch when I drop down to my amdgpu framebuffer console. An annoying delay of half a second or so. (It's the same mode as X11 otherwise)
For desktop use, it doesn't make one lick of difference for me personally, because I don't use compositors or vsync anything (and I'm talking about Xefuckingleven here, not Wayland or Windows... I hate compositing desktop window managers). Without compositors (or stupid menu animations etc.), everything just snaps into place even on older hardware. You'd be hard pressed to find a video with a higher framerate than 60 fps too (I don't have tearing). Most would be 30 or less.
I can change my refresh rate instantly, with
Code: Select all
xrandr --rate 165
I could tell X11 to use 165 Hz with a bit of config dropped in xorg.conf.d, or at the command line when starting it (passing options to xinit), however, it's pointless. If I run into a game (that doesn't itself have a refresh rate mode setting, most don't) where I'm not happy with vsync on, or off, I might set that natively first before launching the game, but so far I still like a smooth 60 Hz Vsync in most games, and Far Cry 6 works best for me with it's own refresh rate setting of 165 Hz and Vsync and any framerate limiting settings, Off. So far I've had no real need to run my display at 165 Hz.
The only thing that does for me, is cause a mode switch when I drop down to my amdgpu framebuffer console. An annoying delay of half a second or so. (It's the same mode as X11 otherwise)