Is My Monitor Really Running at 144Hz?

Buying a 144Hz monitor does not mean you are getting 144Hz. Windows and macOS default new displays to 60Hz, so a large share of gaming monitors quietly run at less than half their rated speed. This measures what yours is actually doing.

Measured Refresh Rate -- Hz

Frame Time -- ms

Measuring… give it a few seconds to settle.

The box sweeps left to right at your display's frame rate. On a high-refresh panel the motion looks smooth; at 60 Hz you will see visible stepping.

Motion is paused because your system is set to reduce motion. The reading above still measures your display correctly — turn off “reduce motion” in your accessibility settings to compare the animation too.

Reading around 60? Your panel is almost certainly fine. In most cases the rate was never enabled in display settings, or the cable in the box is HDMI 1.4 and cannot carry 144Hz. Both fixes are below and take about a minute.

How to Use This Test

Open this page on the monitor you want to verify. On a multi-monitor setup, drag the browser window onto that screen first — the reading follows the window, not the primary display.
Wait three to five seconds. The first measurement window is discarded because page-load work skews it downward.
Compare the measured value against the rating on the box. Anything from about 137Hz up confirms a 144Hz panel is working.
On a laptop, run it plugged in. Many laptops force 60Hz on battery to save power.

Why Your 144Hz Monitor Shows 60Hz

In order of how often each one turns out to be the cause:

The refresh rate was never enabled. This is the single most common reason. Windows sets 60Hz by default when a display is first connected, and it does not prompt you to change it.
The cable cannot carry it. HDMI 1.4 tops out near 1080p at 120Hz and 1440p at 60Hz. Monitors frequently ship with exactly this cable even when the panel needs DisplayPort to hit its rated speed. If 144Hz is missing from the settings list entirely, suspect the cable or port before anything else.
The monitor is wired to the wrong GPU. On a desktop with a discrete graphics card, a cable plugged into the motherboard's video port runs through the integrated GPU, which often caps the rate. The port should be on the graphics card itself, lower down the case.
The laptop is on battery. Power management drops many high-refresh laptop panels to 60Hz when unplugged.
Display drivers are stale. A fresh Windows install uses a generic display driver until you install the NVIDIA, AMD or Intel package, and the generic one may not expose the full rate list.

How to Set Your Refresh Rate

Windows 11

Open Settings → System → Display.
Scroll down and click Advanced display.
Pick the monitor from the dropdown at the top if you have more than one.
Set Choose a refresh rate to the highest value offered, then confirm when prompted.

Windows 10

Right-click the desktop and choose Display settings.
Click Advanced display settings, then Display adapter properties.
Open the Monitor tab and pick the rate from Screen refresh rate.

macOS

Open System Settings → Displays.
Hold Option and click Scaled to reveal every supported mode.
Choose the highest value in the Refresh Rate dropdown.

NVIDIA and AMD control panels

If Windows still will not offer the rate, set it at the driver level. In the NVIDIA Control Panel, go to Display → Change resolution and set the refresh rate there. On AMD, open AMD Software → Settings → Display. Some panels also need an overclock or Overdrive toggle switched on in the monitor's own on-screen menu before the top rate appears at all — this is common on models advertised as, say, "165Hz (OC)".

What This Test Cannot Tell You

Refresh rate is only one part of how a monitor feels, and the browser can measure exactly one of them. Be aware that this test does not measure:

Response time (how fast pixels change colour, in ms) — this causes ghosting and smearing, and needs a high-speed camera to measure properly.
Input lag — the delay between your mouse moving and the screen reacting.
Variable refresh rate (G-Sync, FreeSync). With VRR active the measured value can fluctuate, since the display is deliberately matching the frame rate rather than holding a fixed one.
Whether the panel is genuinely capable of the rate versus interpolating frames. Marketing numbers like "Motion Rate 240" on TVs are not true refresh rates.

Checking a Used or Second-Hand Monitor

Refresh rate is one of the easiest specs for a seller to get wrong, honestly or otherwise — a model line often spans 60Hz, 144Hz and 165Hz variants that look identical from the outside. Run this test on the seller's own machine before you hand over money, then spend another minute on the dead pixel test and, if the panel is OLED, the burn-in test. The full sequence is in our used monitor checklist.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does my 144Hz monitor only show 60Hz?

Almost always because the higher rate was never switched on — Windows and macOS default new displays to 60Hz. If 144Hz is not offered at all, the cable or port is usually the limit: HDMI 1.4 cannot carry 1440p at 144Hz, and reaches 1080p at 144Hz only with reduced-blanking timing that not every monitor and GPU pairing offers, so DisplayPort or HDMI 2.0 is the reliable route. On a laptop, an external monitor wired to the integrated GPU can also be capped.

Is a browser-based refresh rate test accurate?

Accurate enough to distinguish 60Hz from 144Hz, which is the question that matters here. The test counts frames the browser renders, and that count is capped to the display's refresh rate. Expect a reading slightly under the nominal figure — 141 to 144 on a 144Hz panel is normal.

Do I need DisplayPort for 144Hz?

Not necessarily, but it is the safest choice. DisplayPort 1.2 and later handles 1080p and 1440p at 144Hz comfortably, and HDMI 2.0 manages it too. HDMI 1.4 is the usual culprit, topping out near 1080p at 120Hz and 1440p at 60Hz.

Does a high refresh rate drain laptop battery?

Yes, typically 10 to 20 percent more than 60Hz, because the panel and GPU both refresh more often. Many laptops drop to 60Hz automatically on battery, which is why this test may read 60Hz unplugged and 144Hz while charging. You can watch the effect with the battery test.

My monitor is 165Hz but the test reads 144Hz. Is something wrong?

Usually the top rate needs to be unlocked in the monitor's own on-screen menu — look for an Overclock or Overdrive setting — and then selected again in Windows. Panels sold as "165Hz (OC)" ship at 144Hz by default.

Support Check A Device

If you find our free tools helpful, consider supporting us! Your contributions help us keep the site running and ad-free.

Buy Me a Coffee