How to Change Refresh Rate on Your Monitor (Windows, Mac & More)
Your monitor's refresh rate controls how many times per second the screen updates its image — measured in hertz (Hz). A display running at 60Hz redraws the image 60 times per second. One running at 144Hz does it 144 times. That difference is visible: motion looks smoother, cursor movement feels more responsive, and fast-moving content appears sharper.
Changing this setting is straightforward once you know where to look — but the options available to you depend heavily on your hardware, operating system, and how your display is connected.
What Refresh Rate Actually Does
Every frame your GPU renders gets sent to your monitor. The refresh rate determines how often the monitor can accept and display a new frame. If your monitor maxes out at 60Hz, it doesn't matter if your GPU is pushing 200 frames per second — the display will only show 60 of them per second.
Higher refresh rates matter most in situations involving motion: gaming, video editing playback, scrolling through long documents, or simply moving windows around the desktop. At 60Hz, fast motion can appear slightly blurry or choppy. At 120Hz or 144Hz, the same motion looks noticeably cleaner.
Lower refresh rates aren't always a problem. For static work — reading, writing, spreadsheets — the difference between 60Hz and 144Hz is minimal. Some users deliberately lower refresh rate to reduce power consumption on laptops.
How to Change Refresh Rate on Windows
Windows gives you direct access to refresh rate settings through Display Settings.
Step-by-step on Windows 10 and 11:
- Right-click the desktop and select Display settings
- Scroll down and click Advanced display settings
- At the top, select the correct monitor if you have multiple displays
- Find the Refresh rate dropdown menu
- Select your desired rate and click Keep changes when prompted
The dropdown will only show refresh rates your monitor actually supports at the current resolution. If you're expecting 144Hz but only see 60Hz listed, check your cable type and connection — this is a common source of confusion.
How to Change Refresh Rate on macOS
On a Mac, the path runs through System Settings (macOS Ventura and later) or System Preferences on older versions.
On macOS Ventura or later:
- Open System Settings → Displays
- Select the display you want to adjust
- Click the Refresh Rate dropdown (this only appears if your display supports multiple rates)
- Choose your preferred rate
On MacBooks with ProMotion displays (M1 Pro, M1 Max, and later), the system uses adaptive refresh rate — automatically scaling between 24Hz and 120Hz depending on what's on screen. You can switch this off to lock a specific rate, but adaptive mode generally offers the best balance of smoothness and battery life.
Cable Type and Port Matter More Than People Realize 🔌
This is where many users hit a wall. Your monitor might support 144Hz, and your GPU might support it too — but if the cable between them can't carry enough bandwidth, you'll be capped at a lower rate.
| Connection Type | Max Practical Bandwidth | Common Refresh Rate Limits |
|---|---|---|
| HDMI 1.4 | ~8.16 Gbps | 1080p @ 120Hz, 4K @ 30Hz |
| HDMI 2.0 | ~14.4 Gbps | 1080p @ 240Hz, 4K @ 60Hz |
| HDMI 2.1 | ~48 Gbps | 4K @ 144Hz, 8K @ 30Hz |
| DisplayPort 1.2 | ~17.28 Gbps | 1080p @ 240Hz, 4K @ 75Hz |
| DisplayPort 1.4 | ~25.92 Gbps | 4K @ 144Hz, 8K @ 60Hz |
If your refresh rate options appear limited, switching to a higher-spec cable or using a different port (DisplayPort instead of HDMI, for example) often unlocks the full range your hardware supports.
Why Your Expected Refresh Rate Might Not Appear
Several factors can restrict what rates show up in your settings:
- Resolution is too high for the cable's bandwidth — dropping resolution may unlock higher refresh rates
- GPU driver is outdated — old drivers sometimes fail to detect a monitor's full capabilities
- Monitor is connected through a hub or adapter — many USB-C hubs and HDMI adapters cap bandwidth
- The monitor's own firmware or settings — some displays have internal settings that need to match what the PC expects
On Windows, you can also use Custom Resolution Utility (CRU) or your GPU's control panel (NVIDIA Control Panel or AMD Radeon Software) to manually add custom refresh rates — useful in specific cases where a monitor supports a rate that Windows doesn't automatically detect.
Refresh Rate vs. Frame Rate: A Key Distinction
Refresh rate is a monitor spec. Frame rate (FPS) is what your GPU produces. They interact but are separate.
Technologies like NVIDIA G-Sync and AMD FreeSync help synchronize the two dynamically, eliminating screen tearing when frame rate and refresh rate don't match. If you have a G-Sync or FreeSync-compatible setup, enabling those features in your GPU control panel can matter as much as the refresh rate setting itself.
What Changes Between User Setups 🖥️
The "right" refresh rate isn't universal:
- A competitive gamer on a 240Hz monitor wants every Hz enabled and will prioritize this above resolution
- A video editor working with 24fps footage may prefer 48Hz or 120Hz to align with content frame rates
- A laptop user on battery might drop to 60Hz to extend runtime
- A 4K display owner may find their GPU or cable limits them to 60Hz at full resolution, requiring a tradeoff
What your setup actually supports — and what tradeoffs make sense — depends on the specific monitor model, GPU generation, cable in use, OS version, and what you're doing on screen. Those variables determine which settings are even available to you, and which of those available settings is worth using.