Q. What is refresh rate, and can you see the difference between 60Hz and 120Hz?

Apple’s first touchscreen MacBook Pro, announced on 28 October, lists a spec you also see on phones and gaming monitors: a refresh rate that ranges from 10Hz to 120Hz. So what exactly is refresh rate, and can you see the difference between 60Hz and 120Hz?

The short answer: refresh rate is how many times per second a screen redraws its picture, so a 60Hz screen draws a new image about every 16.7 milliseconds (ms) and a 120Hz screen about every 8.3 ms. The difference shows when things move fast, as in scrolling and games, and hardly at all on a still page. And if a video or game produces few frames, a faster screen cannot make it smoother.

What does refresh rate mean?

Motion on a screen is a series of still pictures swapped very quickly. Refresh rate counts how many times per second the screen redraws that picture, in hertz (Hz), meaning times per second. In Microsoft’s example, a 60Hz display updates 60 times a second.

Why 60? NVIDIA explains that early TVs ran at 60Hz mainly because the US power grid uses 60Hz alternating current, and PC monitors later inherited the standard.

How big is the difference between 60Hz and 120Hz?

One second is 1,000 ms, so 60Hz means a redraw every 1,000 ÷ 60 ≈ 16.7 ms and 120Hz every 1,000 ÷ 120 ≈ 8.3 ms. A 120Hz screen changes the picture twice as often, and each picture stays up for half as long.

Picture an icon crossing a 1,200-pixel-wide screen in one second. At 60Hz it jumps 20 pixels with each redraw; at 120Hz it moves 10 pixels at a time, so the motion looks more continuous. Your input also has to wait for the next redraw: counting the screen alone, the worst-case wait drops from about 16.7 ms to 8.3 ms.

Intel describes 144Hz as a considerable improvement over standard 60Hz monitors and 240Hz as a popular high-end option. Here is how common rates compare:

Refresh rate	Time between redraws	Where you often see it
60Hz	about 16.7 ms	The long-time standard for monitors and TVs
90Hz	about 11.1 ms	PlayStation VR2 virtual reality headset (90 or 120Hz)
120Hz	about 8.3 ms	Top rate of Apple’s ProMotion devices
144Hz	about 6.9 ms	High-refresh gaming monitors
240Hz	about 4.2 ms	High-end gaming monitors

What is the difference between refresh rate and frame rate?

Frame rate (fps, frames per second) is how many new images a video or game, through the graphics processing unit (GPU), produces each second; refresh rate is how often the screen draws. A screen can only show the frames it receives. If the content runs at 30 fps, a 120Hz screen still gets only 30 real new frames a second and usually shows each one four times. Intel agrees: a 144Hz monitor fed 30 frames per second is not using its higher refresh rate.

The numbers should also divide neatly. Film speed was standardized at 24 frames per second in 1927, according to Britannica, and on a 60Hz screen 60 ÷ 24 = 2.5, so frames alternate unevenly between three redraws and two. For video work, Apple suggests a matching rate such as 48Hz for 24 fps.

Games have a different problem: frames arrive unevenly. NVIDIA explains that a frame landing mid-redraw leaves a visible tear line, while making the GPU wait for the screen (vertical sync, or V-Sync) causes stutter and input lag. Variable refresh rate (VRR) lets the screen wait for the GPU instead, which is how NVIDIA’s G-SYNC, FreeSync from AMD (Advanced Micro Devices) and Adaptive-Sync from VESA (the Video Electronics Standards Association) work.

When can you actually see 120Hz?

Most often when the screen follows your hand. Microsoft says a higher refresh rate makes scrolling and using a digital pen more fluid and natural, and reduces motion blur and screen tearing in games. Introducing ProMotion on the 2017 iPad Pro, at up to 120Hz, Apple said Apple Pencil became more responsive, with 20 ms of latency.

Text and still photos don’t change, so faster redraws show nothing new, and how much people notice varies with the person and the content.

Still, “the eye can’t see past 60Hz” is not quite right. Flicker is commonly reported to vanish at 50 to 90Hz, yet in a 2015 Scientific Reports study, with sharp edges on the display, the median of ten viewers saw flicker artifacts until the rate passed 500Hz. What the eye catches depends on what it is looking at.

How do you check or change your refresh rate?

Redrawing more often costs power, and Microsoft notes that a lower refresh rate can extend laptop and tablet battery life, so some devices change the rate on the fly. ProMotion ran from 10Hz to 120Hz on the iPhone 13 Pro in 2021, and Apple credited a new 1Hz refresh rate, with other power-saving technologies, for the iPhone 14 Pro’s Always-On display in 2022, the first on an iPhone. Windows 11’s Dynamic Refresh Rate (DRR) adjusts the rate automatically on displays that support VRR and at least 120Hz.

To check or change it yourself, per Microsoft’s and Apple’s support pages:

• Windows 11: Start > Settings > System > Display > Advanced display shows the current rate; pick another next to Choose a refresh rate.
• Mac: Apple menu > System Settings > Displays, then the Refresh Rate pop-up menu. On 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with Apple silicon, ProMotion is the adaptive option up to 120Hz.
• iPhone: Settings > Accessibility > Motion > Limit Frame Rate caps ProMotion models at 60 frames per second.

What does 10–120Hz mean on the new MacBook Pro?

Apple says ProMotion on the new MacBook Pro’s PROLED XDR display runs “from as low as 10Hz for better power efficiency” up to 120Hz for content in motion. At 10Hz the screen redraws once every 0.1 seconds.

ProMotion at up to 120Hz has been on the MacBook Pro since 2021; what is new is touch, a first for the Mac. Apple says the touch sensor is built into the display panel rather than layered on top, which reduces latency. How closely the picture tracks a fingertip also depends on how often the screen redraws. Apple has not published a latency figure, so the feel will be clearer after the 6 November release.

In short

Refresh rate is how many times per second a screen redraws: about every 16.7 ms at 60Hz and every 8.3 ms at 120Hz. You notice the difference when things move, not on still content or when the video or game supplies few frames. The new MacBook Pro shifts between 10Hz and 120Hz to stay smooth in motion and save power when still.