It’s Christmas time again and you likely have some spare cash inside your wallets by the time you read this article. If you’re planning to upgrade your monitor, this is the right article to read. See, we’re seeing a lot of gaming monitors that brandish their refresh rates as their main selling points. But the question for the products is: are the refresh rates native or overclocked? Is native 180Hz better than overclocked 180Hz? Let’s find out more about this question before you decide to buy that sweet gaming partner of yours.
Native 180Hz vs Overclocked 180Hz?
Making A Choice
Let’s face it- gaming monitors are not cheap, especially here in the Philippines. A typical gaming monitor may cost you half or more than half a month’s wages so investing in one and choosing the right one is really something you should really ponder on. Aside from the price, one thing that most buyers consider in getting a gaming monitor is the refresh rate.
What Is Refresh Rate?
Refresh Rate is the rate of how many frames your monitor can produce in a single second. So a monitor with 60Hz refresh rate means that it can produce 60 frames per second. The higher the refresh rate, the smoother images appear. Also note that high refresh rates are not only dependent on your monitor as you should also have the hardware (processor, GPU) to produce those frames at blistering speeds.
You can check your current display’s refresh rate using this handy website: https://www.testufo.com/
Things To Consider
Some monitors market themselves as high refresh rate displays but are, however, hiding something underneath the marketing. See, some brands tend to market the maximum refresh rates their monitors can produce instead of the native refresh rates. While they do have the numbers to back up their claims, overclocked and native refresh rates are not the same thing.
Lifespan
As the name itself implies, overclocking the monitor forces the device to “max” itself out. This in turn grants a higher refresh rate at the cost of several compromises that include hardware lifespan. In a way, you are stretching the monitor’s capabilities and if done in an extended period of time, may end in an unfortunate black screen.
Sync Support
For most high-quality monitors, this is not a concern as syncing issues are pretty rare if the panel itself is of good or decent make. However, if you are on the opposite end, you’ll likely experience problems with syncing or in simpler terms, the monitor itself may have problems with communicating with your PC due to the overclock. This can be mostly remedied by reverting back to your monitor’s native refresh rate.
Image Quality
As you are pushing the panel to its specified limits, you may have some issues with the display. In some cases, images appear garbled and color integrity becomes an additional concern. In rarer cases, artifacts start to appear, signaling that your monitor is on the verge of going to the great beyond.
Panel Temperature
Having a warm toaster in front of your face is not a good experience. I had an overclocked monitor that acted as a heater when it’s on. Touching the panel and the backside felt weird as it was a first to experience a hot (not warm!) monitor. With that said, temperature is a major factor in the lifespan of electronics so better consider this as a major downside when playing with overclocked monitors that heat up a lot.
Is Native 180Hz Better Than Overclocked 180Hz?
Yes, Native Refresh Rates Are Better Than Overclocked 180Hz
Given the above reasons, a gaming monitor with native 180Hz refresh rate is way better than a monitor that can reach 180Hz when overclocked. Peace of mind is what I can say is the best reason to get a native one as you don’t have to wrestle with the fact that you are pushing your device to its limit. This is more nerve-racking if you have already exceeded your monitor’s warranty. To save you trouble and much heartache, best get a monitor with a great native refresh rate.
Some Options To Consider
ASUS TUF gaming monitors are currently on a roll recently. Given that ASUS is a renowned monitor brand with excellent panels, we can definitely say that the brand is a safe choice when it comes to gaming monitors. Consider the three recently released gaming monitors and see which one fits your needs:
- TUF Gaming VG27AQ3A (27-inch, 1440p, 180hz, 130% sRGB)
- TUF Gaming VG279Q3A (27-inch, 1080p, 180hz, 99% sRGB)
- TUF Gaming VG249Q3A (24-inch, 1080p, 180hz, 99% sRGB)
When asked for recommendations, the above monitors are what I usually propose to friends looking to replace their ailing monitors. TUF monitors have it great given that they have features that set them apart from the others:
- Variable Overdrive – the monitor itself adjusts its refresh rate, resulting in less ghosting and blurry images.
- Freesync Premium – a better version of Freesync. This adds additional benefits to the user in terms of producing better images at higher framerates.
- 1ms (GTG / Grey-to-Grey) – high GTG results to ghosting and the motion blur effect. The lower, the better.
Where To Buy
Interested in the above recommendations? Check them out on online shops and get them delivered to your place without the hassle using the links below:
- TUF Gaming VG27AQ3A (Shopee)
- TUF Gaming VG279Q3A (Lazada | Shopee)
- TUF Gaming VG249Q3A (Lazada | Shopee)
Conclusion
Buy Something That Lasts
As mentioned in previous paragraphs, buying a gaming monitor is not a light investment. Getting to choose one is somewhat a difficult task given that there are a lot of choices. However, it all boils down to price, quality, and warranty. If you see a high refresh rate monitor that is brand new and is priced disproportionately, better think twice. Panel quality should be considered and some brands really do outshine others in that regard. All in all, if you are after a gaming monitor with high refresh rates, just choose one that offers it natively. Don’t fall for the overclocked refresh rates and better check the boxes or better yet, ask the store directly before buying your own gaming monitor. Happy hunting!
Check out our review of the ROG Strix XG349C for a more sophisticated alternative to the above recommendations.
