Refresh rate test

Find out whether the Hz on the box is the Hz you're actually getting.

What the refresh rate is

How many times per second the screen redraws itself. 60Hz means sixty times. The higher it goes, the smoother a moving cursor, a scrolling page, or a game looks. Monitors are sold on that number — 120Hz, 144Hz, 165Hz — and yet plenty of them end up running at 60Hz on the owner's desk. The figure on the box and the figure you're getting right now are two different things.

Before you start

Stay on this tab while it measures. Frames stop being drawn when the page is hidden.
On a laptop, plug in the power. Battery saving modes drop the refresh rate on their own.
With more than one monitor, move this window onto the screen you're testing first.

Measures the gap between the frames your screen actually drew, over a few seconds, and works the rate back out. Stay on this tab while it runs.

Results stay on this screen and are not saved.

Not sure what the result means?How to check a monitor's refresh rate

If it comes in below spec

Far more often the cause is the connection or a setting than the monitor itself. Working through these in order clears up most cases.

Check the operating system first. On Windows: Settings → System → Display → Advanced display, where the refresh rate is a dropdown. On macOS: System Settings → Displays, under refresh rate. If it says 60Hz there, that setting is your answer, not the hardware.
Check the cable. High resolution at a high refresh rate needs a cable rated for it, and an older HDMI cable often can't carry more than 60Hz at 4K. Try the cable that came in the box, or switch to DisplayPort.
Check which port you used. On some monitors the ports don't all support the same maximum. The manual lists them individually.
Update the graphics driver. On an out-of-date driver the higher refresh modes sometimes never appear in the list at all.

What this number is, exactly

The test times the frames the browser actually drew, so the result belongs to the display currently showing this window. Drag the window to another monitor and you'll get a different answer.

If you look away mid-measurement, or something heavy runs in the background, a single frame can arrive very late. The calculation uses the median rather than the mean so one stalled frame can't drag the result down. But if a number still looks wrong, keep this tab visible and run it again.

A result with decimals is normal. A 144Hz panel reading 143.9Hz is measurement noise, not a fault.

ReturnCheck doesn't rule on this

This screen shows you a number; it doesn't decide whether that number is acceptable. If it doesn't match the spec, work through the list above, and if it still doesn't, write down the reading along with what you already tried and take that to the retailer or the manufacturer. Do that while the return window is still open, not after it shuts.

Checking a whole machine?

Run every browser check in one flow instead of opening them one at a time.

Start the full check

Keep going with another checkTouch test