How to Enable Your Monitor's Full Refresh Rate (Windows & Mac)

New high-refresh monitors frequently default to 60Hz. The hardware is fine — the setting isn't.

This happens because the operating system picks a mode it knows is safe for whatever cable and port it detects, and never revisits the choice. Nothing warns you. The monitor's own on-screen menu often reports the incoming signal, which is the fastest way to confirm you're being shortchanged before you touch any settings.

Windows 10/11

1. Settings → System → Display.
2. Advanced display.
3. Under Choose a refresh rate, pick the highest value.
4. If the max isn't listed, see "If it's missing" below.

Two things people miss here. First, with more than one monitor connected, the refresh rate applies per display — use the picker at the top of Advanced display to select the right one and set each individually. Second, on laptops, Windows 11's dynamic refresh rate and battery saver can both hold the internal panel at a lower rate while unplugged. Test on mains power before concluding anything is broken.

macOS

1. System Settings → Displays.
2. Click Refresh Rate and choose the highest option (on some displays, holding Option while clicking the Scaled resolution options reveals additional modes).

On some external monitors the available rates depend on which resolution you've selected, so set the resolution first, then look at the refresh menu again. On Apple laptops with ProMotion, the built-in display shows an Adaptive option — that's correct and should be left alone; it ramps to the panel maximum when content demands it.

Confirm it worked

Open the Refresh Rate Test. It should read close to your panel's rating (a 144Hz panel typically measures approximately 143-144).

A small shortfall is normal. Browsers measure frame delivery, so a reading a fraction under the rated number just means the timing isn't perfectly exact. A reading of 60 when you asked for 144, or 120 when you asked for 240, is a real problem. If the number bounces around wildly, close background apps and video playback and try again — screen recording software and hardware-accelerated video can both pin the measurement down.

If the high rate is missing

• Cable/port: high refresh at high resolution needs DisplayPort or HDMI 2.1. Swap a cheap or old cable.
• Bandwidth: dropping resolution or color depth may unlock a higher rate — check your cable's spec first.
• GPU drivers: update them and set the rate in the NVIDIA/AMD/Intel control panel too.
• Adaptive sync: enable G-Sync/FreeSync so the rate tracks your frame rate.

The bandwidth question, concretely

Refresh rate, resolution and color depth all draw from one budget. Exceed it and the mode simply doesn't appear in the list.

• HDMI 2.0 (18 Gbps) — enough for 4K at 60Hz, or 1440p at high refresh. Not enough for 4K at 120Hz.
• DisplayPort 1.2 (21.6 Gbps) — comfortable at 1440p 144Hz, 8-bit; the common ceiling on older GPUs.
• DisplayPort 1.4 (32.4 Gbps) — reaches 4K at 120Hz and beyond once compression is in play.
• HDMI 2.1 (48 Gbps) — 4K at 120Hz with 10-bit color, no compression needed; the port consoles rely on.

Treat those ceilings as rough guidance rather than guarantees: the exact mode a pair of devices will negotiate also depends on color depth, chroma subsampling and whether both ends implement the optional parts of the spec.

Display Stream Compression (DSC) lets DisplayPort 1.4 and HDMI 2.1 carry modes that wouldn't otherwise fit. It's visually lossless in practice, but both the GPU and the monitor have to support it, and some monitors expose it as a menu option under a name like DSC or a numbered DisplayPort version — turn it on if a mode you expect is missing.

Turning on HDR or 10-bit color eats bandwidth too. If the 144Hz option vanishes the moment you enable HDR, that's the budget, not a fault.

Other things that quietly cap you

• A DisplayPort cable that isn't certified for the version it claims. Cheap cables fail at high bandwidth by dropping to a lower mode or blanking intermittently.
• A dock or KVM in the chain. Many pass through less bandwidth than the ports at either end — connect directly to the GPU to test.
• A laptop where the HDMI port is wired to the integrated GPU while the discrete GPU drives only the internal panel.
• Windows scaling and resolution set to something non-native, which can expose a different mode list.
• Long HDMI runs. Beyond a few meters, passive high-bandwidth cables get unreliable.

Once it's actually running

A correct refresh rate changes what your other tests mean. Motion clarity is now a panel property rather than a settings mistake, so re-run the Ghosting Test to judge overdrive, and use the Screen Tearing Test to check whether your sync setup is doing its job. If tearing appears, Screen Tearing, V-Sync, G-Sync, and FreeSync explains which option to use for your hardware.

Wondering whether the jump was worth it at all, or whether the next step up would be? Refresh Rate Explained: 60 vs 120 vs 144 vs 240Hz covers what each tier actually buys you.

Set the rate, verify it in the test, then check your games and video players separately — some apps carry their own refresh setting and will happily run at 60 on a 144Hz desktop.