Is it worth it to upgrade to a 120 Hz monitor?

For the longest time I have been using a 29" 1080P Vizio TV as my computer monitor. It's cheap, it will do 1080P, and it works fine. However, recently I have been considering if it's worth it to upgrade to a 120 or 144Hz. monitor for gaming. I mostly play MMORPG games and some FPS games. Ultimately it looks like I will be trading screen size (29" vs 24") for a faster refresh rate, and I am wondering if it's really worth that.

I have also been looking at 120Hz. TVs since they are cheap, but from what I understand pretty much all 120Hz. TVs are actually only 60Hz. that create synthetic frames, they are not true 120Hz like computer monitors, correct?

Yes the monitors are real 120Hz, the TV use regenerated frames or led generation to get 120Hz. If your having choppy gaming the 120Hz Monitor may help, what are your FPS during gaming?

wingman99 said:

Yes the monitors are real 120Hz, the TV use regenerated frames or led generation to get 120Hz. If your having choppy gaming the 120Hz Monitor may help, what are your FPS during gaming?

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It depends on the game. Honestly, I keep V Sync on so most of the time it's just pegged at 60 FPS. I have two GTX 660s in SLI overclocked though, which should be enough to get 100+ FPS @ 1080P on a lot of games though.

Just quickly looking through old benchmarks for the gtx 660 @1080p, and taking into account that sli scaling is anything but perfect, I'd say you could push towards 120hz on medium settings for games that are 3-5 years old.
Whether image quality settings and screen resolution or higher refresh rate (potentially smoother experience) are more important is a personal choice.
I personally prefer the former, but the choice is yours. If your games seem choppy enough to bother you and you know it isn't a problem of graphics horsepower, certainly consider going to 120/144hz (but you might need more horsepower anyway).

GearingMass said:

Just quickly looking through old benchmarks for the gtx 660 @1080p, and taking into account that sli scaling is anything but perfect, I'd say you could push towards 120hz on medium settings for games that are 3-5 years old.
Whether image quality settings and screen resolution or higher refresh rate (potentially smoother experience) are more important is a personal choice.
I personally prefer the former, but the choice is yours. If your games seem choppy enough to bother you and you know it isn't a problem of graphics horsepower, certainly consider going to 120/144hz (but you might need more horsepower anyway).

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What about if I upgrade to a GTX 970 and overclock it? Is there any benefit to going from SLI GTX 660 to single 970?

SPL Tech said:

Is there any benefit to going from SLI GTX 660 to single 970?

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Less power usage, lower heat, higher VRam. In terms of FPS, I would think it do a bit better according to some benchmarks

You have less trouble with games using a single card, also more consistent performance. I think my EVGA GTX 970 is awesome I use V sync 60FPS 1080p with no gaming trouble I play first person shooters.

On thing is your 2 GTX 660 only has 2GB of memory and that will cause hitching in games. What problems do you notice?

wingman99 said:

You have less trouble with games using a single card, also more consistent performance. I think my EVGA GTX 970 is awesome I use V sync 60FPS 1080p with no gaming trouble I play first person shooters.

On thing is your 2 GTX 660 only has 2GB of memory and that will cause hitching in games. What problems do you notice?

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I dont notice any problems, other than SLI doesent work well in a lot of games.

SPL Tech said:

I dont notice any problems, other than SLI doesent work well in a lot of games.

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Well that sounds like a good reason to go with GTX 970, it makes gaming so much nicer then worrying about profiles or trouble with SLI working well in a lot of games.