144Hz vs 165Hz Monitor – Which One should You choose?

A monitor is essential in today’s gaming world if you want to enjoy the gameplay of the games you play. This is because a monitor is the one that displays the image of the game on the screen, so you can enjoy every aspect of the game itself. Generally, you don’t need to worry if you use a laptop for gaming because the laptop already has a monitor attached. If you use a PC, though, you will need to buy a monitor separately, and they are not cheap. For this reason, you should be aware of what you need from the monitor in order to avoid selecting the wrong model. Spending money on a monitor that isn’t suitable with your needs will be a waste.

When buying a monitor, you should consider color quality, resolution, refresh rates, connectivity, and a many other factors. In order to lower the price that you need to spend, you should focus on the specific aspects you require and give up the other aspects that you don’t really need. Buying a monitor that has the best option on every aspect will be quite expensive.

You may learn more about the refresh rates battle of gaming monitors in this article, particularly on how a 144Hz and 165Hz display compare to each other. There are many different types of displays on the market today, starting from low to high refresh rate. Basically, monitors that are used for office purposes only require the lowest refresh rates, which is 60 Hz. This means they can only display 60 images per second. However, this is not enough for gaming purposes, especially for first-person shooters and other competitive games like CS:GO, Valorant, and Call of Duty Warzone. For the smoothest and most responsive gameplay possible, a high refresh rate monitor should be able to help competitive players by showing the maximum number of images per second. Not only that it is it visually pleasing, it is also allowing them to reach their maximum performance in the game.

So, what makes the two types of monitors different from one another, and which one is superior? Everything you need to know can be found here to help you choosing the one that suits better for you.

Performance

The 165Hz monitor is supposed to perform better than the 144Hz monitor on paper. The 21Hz difference means the 165Hz displays 21 more images per second than the other. Therefore, it should be able to show motion on the screen more smoothly than the 144Hz monitor. However, the implementation is not always what we expected. Based on the experiences of users, they show that it is difficult to see the differences when comparing at high framerates. Anything faster than 60 frames per second will be difficult to notice. In the end, there will not be much of a difference between the two sides if the games are played at the maximum frames per second, which are 165 and 144 frames per second. The only time having a higher refresh rate monitor (which in this case is a 165Hz monitor) is beneficial is in competitive scenes when you need the best in every aspect to win the competition. It is not worth replacing your 144Hz display to the 165Hz one if you are a casual gamer since you will not see much of the difference.

Price

Prior to buying a monitor, you should also consider about the price. Generally speaking, the more money you have to spend, the better performance you get from the display. However, that depends on the manufacturer since different companies set their own price for their products. Additionally, better components are usually installed in higher-end display models. The price of the monitor will also be determined by this factor. As per market research, a few monitor models with both refresh rates were compared side by side and it shows that the price difference is not that far. This means that despite the fact you don’t need a better monitor at this moment, it is wise to invest in one if you have extra money to spend on it.

Computer Specifications

Ultimately, one of the most important factors to consider is the specifications of your computer. This is to understand if buying a 144Hz or 165Hz monitor is necessary. While gaming, you can check the highest framerates per second your PC can run with your preferred graphics settings with the game benchmark. If not, you can see reviews on YouTube about the benchmarks from specific games with similar PC specifications like the one you own. Once you know the maximum and average framerates your computer can operate at, you can choose which monitor is worth buying. If your PC can run games at refresh rates greater than 144 frames per second, you might want to choose a higher-refresh rate display. If your system can only function at a frame rate of less than 100 frames per second, it is not worth getting a 165Hz display since you will not be able to get the best potential performance out of the monitor itself, which will result in a bottleneck.

Purpose

In the end, the most crucial factor is the reason for your purchase of a monitor. Although it is understood that those searching for a monitor with refresh rates higher than 60Hz is for gaming purposes, you still need to determine it yourself. Any display above 60Hz is already overkill if you are only using it for things like video editing, viewing movies, or other simple tasks. Gaming, on the other hand, will be better if you are playing in a monitor that has higher refresh rate than 60Hz. Although it is not necessary, it is always good to have a better specification than what you really need at the moment, just in case you have a future plan to have an upgrade on your PC.

Before deciding to buy a 144Hz or 165Hz monitor, consider all the related aspects above. You should select a choice once you are satisfied with all of those aspects. Subjectively, a 165Hz monitor is a better option because the components are often better, and the price difference is not as much. If your budget is tight and you are unable to get a higher-quality monitor, 144Hz should provide a similar gaming performance which you should not worry about.