Framerates and Refresh Rates

Framerates vs Refresh rates:

Whenever a GPU renders the 3D environment and rasterizes a snapshot of a game environment it produces a "frame". This is a still image at a single point in time in the game. Similar to how movie frames are played in sequence in order to create the illusion of movement, frames produced by a GPU are immediately sent for display on the monitor, and the GPU moves on to producing the next frame, over and over again, creating a smooth gaming experience.

Monitors have a set "refresh rate". Every monitor has been engineered to refresh the image on the screen a specific amount of times per second, known as it's "Hertz" (Hz). A monitor that can refresh the image on it's display 60 times per second has a refresh rate of 60hz. The refresh rate is independent of the framerate, in that, no matter what kind of GPU is connected to a monitor, there will be no change in the refresh rate.

Your GPU produces your framerate. Refresh rate is determined by your monitor.

Framerates depend on:

The GPU.

GPUs process the graphics of a video game. The GPU has to render the 3D environment, rasterize it to your monitor's resolution, perform any post processing, and send it via display cable to the monitor. The number of frames produced per second is called the framerate, measured in frames per second (FPS). Generally, the more frames that are produced in a second, the smoother the experience.

Producing frames is computationally demanding, especially at higher resolutions where there are more pixels to raster. Lower resolution = less compute power needed. Higher resolution = more compute power needed. This is why, when framerates are low, people may lower the resolution. Less work is needed at a lower resolution per frame, which means the GPU can produce more frames in the same amount of time.

Refresh Rates depend on:

The Monitor.

Monitors have a set refresh rate they operate at. They do not change refresh rate unless set to a different refresh rate in your operating system, or if they equipped and enabled with variable refresh rate (VRR) technologies.

Whenever a monitor "refreshes", it draws the last frame that was sent from the GPU. The image is drawn by the pixels of the monitor row by row from top to bottom. The top row of pixels change colors to start producing the new image, and when that row is complete, the second row begins, and so on. This process is done incomprehensibly quickly until all rows on the monitor are drawn.

Once the frame is displayed by a monitor, it refreshes, and starts the next frame with the same process. This refresh rate is a physical rate at which the monitor can draw the image on screen using pixels. Monitors with high refresh rates (HRR monitors) are more responsive, can draw more images each second, and can provide a smoother experience.

Rates at Different Rates

Differing Frame and Refresh Rates

Whenever a framerate is much higher or lower than a refresh rate, one may experience screen tearing.

This occurs when the monitor receives a new frame from the GPU in the middle of the drawing process. It begins drawing the new frame, while every row prior to the current is of a previous frame. This results in half or a portion of the image being one frame, and the other portion being a different frame, split with a horizontal line. This line is the "tear".

Vertical Sync

One way to combat screen tearing is to enable Vertical Sync (V-Sync). This makes the GPU wait until the monitor is done completing the drawing process until it sends the next frame to be displayed. This will virtually eliminate screen tearing, but will add latency (lag), since the next frame must wait for the drawing process to complete on the previous frame. Enabling this will also prevent your GPU from producing more frames than your monitor's refresh rate.

Adaptive Sync / VRR

Adaptive sync, also known as variable refresh rate (VRR), is another solution to screen tearing. Adaptive sync was GPU brand specific until recently. Now, any GSync or FreeSync display can use adaptive sync with an AMD, Intel, or Nvidia graphics card.

Adaptive sync allows the monitor's refresh rate to match the GPU's framerate, as long as the framerate stays within the adaptive sync range. This both eliminates screen tearing, and reduces latency greatly compared to V-Sync. If you have not enabled this yet, do so!