Whether you are a gaming person or a video editor, you want your monitor to be as smooth as possible. This is especially crucial for gamers since a higher refresh rate can make a difference in their performance.
We know that you can overclock desktop monitors, but what about laptops? In this guide, you will learn the following:
- How overclocking monitors work
- Can you overclock a laptop monitor
- Advantages of overclocking laptop screen
- Is it safe to do that
- What to do if your refresh rate is higher than FPS
- How to overclock a laptop monitor
Let’s begin.
Overclocking the laptop monitor explained
In simple terms, a display works by showing a series of images or frames at a fast pace, one after another. When you overclock any monitor, you actually increase its refresh rate.
The refresh rate tells us how often the display is “redrawn” every second. For instance, in a display with a refresh rate of 60 Hz, there’s actually a totally new image loaded into the display and shown every 1/60 of a second.
Refresh rate used to be crucial in preventing or minimizing display flicker, but since LCDs substituted CRTs, that is no longer the issue. Today, refresh rate has almost nothing to do with a perceived flicker in almost all LCD-based designs and much more to do with the perception of smooth motion in the displayed video.
Oh, and the 60 most common Hz rate is simply a holdover from the earlier TV standards – it no longer has anything at all to do with the power line frequency. There have been LCD monitors built for other rates, such as 72 Hz.
A monitor with 60Hz will refresh the image sixty times a second. This gets us to another question about frames per second or FPS. While 144Hz is the time a display can refresh an image in a second, 144fps is the time the processor can deliver frames to your screen.
Monitors with a high refresh rate feel extremely smooth, fluid, and responsive as more images mean the changes will be embraced fast.
Note that You CAN refresh the screen at faster rates than the response time would suggest; for example, it is certainly possible to design a display that refreshes at a 60 Hz rate yet has a response time of 25 ms. What this means is that the screen is being updated faster than the screen can conduct some transitions.
The refresh rate can automatically adjust itself according to the content. So a 60FPS video will run at 60Hz, and a 120fps game can run at 120Hz giving you an edge in gaming and at the same providing a great energy to efficiency ratio.
Can you overclock a laptop’s monitor?
Ok, well explained, but what about the laptop screen? Is it possible to increase its refresh rate?
You can overclock a laptop monitor in two ways; from your graphic card settings and by using the CRU tool. Some laptops may not be able to achieve this directly from graphic card settings. On the other hand, the CRU tool can overclock almost all laptop monitors.
If you set your refresh rate too high on modern LCD laptop monitors, you will most likely see a blank screen with a message stating that the refresh rate is out of range. Graphic glitches or the display resetting the connection to your computer as it loses sync are some other problems you could notice.
It isn’t as exciting as it once was. Setting the refresh rate too high on a CRT monitor could destroy the input circuitry, leaving you with a monitor that worked properly but couldn’t display a picture over that particular input.
All in all, I don’t think there’s much danger in giving it a shot, especially if you just increase the Hz in 5 increments.
Two years ago, one of my colleagues overclocked three 60Hz Dell displays to 72Hz, and all three struck a severe cutoff before reaching 75Hz, with messages like “signal out of range” or something similar. To do so, I looked up some timings for my monitor model on the internet and entered them into the Nvidia control panel to see how much Hz I could get.
If you can’t discover timings for overclocking your laptop monitor, it might not be worth your time to try because you won’t be able to obtain more than a few extra Hz without modifying them.
It’s also worth noting that having a custom refresh rate with a low highest common factor in comparison to conventional media frame rates can make things look choppy. Because of this, multiples of 12 or 15 Hz are frequently used.
If your monitor is 60Hz, choosing 72hz or 75Hz makes a pleasant improvement, and you can check if the higher refresh rate is operating properly using sites like Testufo.
Before going any further, I would check for overclocking information particular to your laptop.
Is it safe to overclock the laptop screen?
Overclocking a display can be beneficial at times and harmful at others. You can try lowering the resolution if you can’t get much out of an overclock in frequency, but I wouldn’t go too far down that rabbit hole unless you really want to.
Generally speaking, overclocking a laptop monitor above its default refresh rate is considered safe as long as you do it in small increments. Anything more than 10 Hz may reduce its lifespan and decrease color accuracy.
Keep in mind that if something goes wrong, you may have to replace a screen on your laptop, which is not something you want. Replacing a laptop monitor is not like changing the desktop one. Make a quick Google search and you will know exactly what I’m talking about.
If your laptop monitor is 60Hz and you want to increase it to 120Hz, you are much better at buying an external monitor. Otherwise, you may destroy a laptop. In that case, I dont think it is worth the risk.
On the other hand, if you do it right, there aren’t many drawbacks to overclocking the display. It’s just a digital signal, so if it’s out of frequency, it’ll either not work or produce artifacts, and that’s about it. I would note something here.
If you’re using a laptop, double-check that you’ve added display options rather than changing the default.
Let’s say you change your default one, and it’s no longer compatible. Because you can’t see anything, you’ll either need a factory reset or an external display to get back to where you were.
After that, reboot and experiment with your new custom display choices to see what works. Due to the resetting, the process takes somewhat longer on laptops than on desktops, but it’s still not that horrible and shouldn’t take too long.
Finally, I’d want to express it’s entirely up to you. It all depends on how nice your laptop’s display is. It could drag on for years, months, or even days. Underclock it if you notice any scan lines or strange errors. If you can, acquire a 75hz desktop monitor; they’re rather inexpensive, and you won’t have to risk your laptop’s monitor. You can even look for one on the used market.
What if your refresh rate is higher than FPS?
Nothing happens if the refresh rate is a multiple of the frame rate. For example, if your frame rate is 60 and your refresh rate is 120, each frame is shown twice. This achieves the same result as doubling the length of each frame.
Assume you have a video file encoded at 30 frames per second. Re-encoding it at 60 fps had no effect. Re-encoding it at 120 kbps had no effect. You’ll just end up with a bunch of duplicates of the same frame.
You’ll see strange stuttering if the refresh isn’t a multiple of the frame rate, because frames will be up for various amounts of time. This is also why an FPS of 45 on a monitor that refreshes at 60 feels so bad. It’s typically best to just set it to 30.
In the same way, you should only run a refresh at 120 fps if you can consistently provide 120 fps. The output will be uneven if you’re hovering around 100 frames per second.
Bottom line: if you can’t keep up with the refresh rate, use a “locked fps” on a divisor of it. If you can’t keep 120, switch to locked 60. If you can’t keep up with 60, try locked 30.
You can ignore all of this if you don’t mind the irregular frame times. However, the majority of individuals prefer an equal frame of time experience.
How to overclock a laptop monitor?
- You should already have an updated Intel driver from the second half of 2017. Note that you may have to make an update either from Intel or the manufacturer’s site.
- Download CRU here.
- Open CRU.
- Double click on your default resolution and copy these settings (dont worry if these numbers look complicated)
- Click ADD and paste the copied settings. At the bottom of the window, replace the 60 with something higher. My recommendation is to start with small increases (2-5Hz). Click OK and return to the main menu.
- Restart your computer.
- Go to Intel Graphics Setting. Click on Display settings and test your new refresh rate. Start with the smallest. In case you get a black screen, the changes will revert automatically in 10-15 seconds, so dont touch anything.
- Repeat the previous steps until you achieve as high a refresh as your laptop monitor can handle without a black screen and glitches.
Here is the video:
Final words
I have to note that some people may not be able to increase their refresh rate at all for various reasons. It could be your GPU, screen itself, or some other thing.
Also, bear in mind that all responsibility is on you. We dont take any responsibility for your actions. Always do your own research and decide if overclocking your laptop monitor is worth any risks.