HZ vs FPS – What’s the Difference and How Does Each Affect Your Game?
If you’re trying to optimize your setup so that you have the best possible experience while playing a game like CS:GO, you will need to learn a few things. One of these is the difference between HZ vs FPS. There’s a very clear definition of each, and they both affect your gaming capabilities in subtle ways. In this guide, we’re going to cover exactly what each of these means and does so that you’re informed for when you come to improve your setup.
The difference between HZ (Hertz) and FPS (frames per second) is that HZ is the refresh rate of your monitor, while FPS is how many frames are being shown per second. The higher each of these is, the better the visual experience of your game will be.
HZ vs FPS – What’s the Difference
In this section, we’re going to go through both HZ and FPS in detail. This will give you a good understanding of what each one is and what it does.
Understanding HZ
HZ is the refresh rate of your monitor. The higher the number, the higher the refresh rate. HZ won’t always improve your FPS, but it will make for a smoother experience. There’s generally a set HZ for each monitor, and your computer will try to meet that in every game it runs. In a game like CS:GO, that should be quite easy given that the game isn’t particularly intensive.
You can buy monitors at 50Hz, 60Hz, 144Hz, 244Hz and even as high as 360Hz. Each of these provides a sequentially better refresh rate. The more times that your monitor is refreshing, the better your visual experience will be. It means that the visuals on-screen will be more up to date with the data that’s being received. The lower the HZ, the less up to date your image will be.
Imagine this scenario: A you’re holding an angle as CT and a T peaks you for a milli second and instant headshots you. Not, your thought is that the T is cheating but that might not be true. The truth could be that your opponent has a 360Hz monitor (with equal or more FPS) while you’re sitting at 60Hz. That gives your opponent plenty of time to react before you even see him. Unfair, arguable… But there’s nothing else to do than to upgrade your monitor.
Note that 244Hz should be considered higher-end and you don’t have to go higher than that while playing CSGO.
Understanding FPS
FPS is the number of frames being shown within a single second (frames per second). The higher the number of frames you can see in that second, the better the quality of your visuals. Your eyes might not be able to see every single frame, but that doesn’t matter. The more frames there are in a second, the smoother the overall experience is.
Think about it like this. If you’re looking at your screen and see the images stuttering, then the frames being shown in a single second must be low. Increasing that rate makes the visuals look smoother. It can even go as far as making the images look more realistic.
You can increase your fps by improving your settings!
HZ and FPS Together
While you might think that you can increase your FPS by pushing your HZ up, that’s not true. Your FPS can be 144 with a 60Hz monitor but the low monitor Hz will result in you not getting the full potential of those 144 FPS.
Likewise, most console developers will aim to support a certain FPS in their games. On low-end, that is 30-60 FPS, while on high-end machines, it’s 60+ FPS. This is because they have rigorously tested their games on all types of hardware and know how well they can run. By guaranteeing and limiting the FPS to 30 or 60, the developers ensure that a game will always look as good as they were able to make it.
On a PC, you can choose to not limit your FPS. In some cases it might be a good case to limit the FPS cause this can decrease the chances of getting spike drops. However, if you’re not experiencing any spike drops then just let your PC run at unlimited FPS.
Finally, a monitor can also limit the FPS you’re seeing. For example, showing 60 FPS on a 144HZ monitor will still show you 60FPS because that rate is limited by the monitor. Swapping this to 144 FPS on a 60HZ monitor will still show you 60FPS because it’s limited by the monitor.
Once you’ve upgraded your monitor to play CS:GO in the best way possible, pick up some skins new skins from Lootbear so that you can appreciate them with high fidelity visuals, making them look better than they ever have before.