Are Low Refresh Rates Bad for the Eyes?

suwalski asks: "Often when I go over to someone's house to help them with 'computer stuff' (translation: free support), I notice that many people who don't know better still use 60Hz as their refresh rate. XP seems to automatically tune higher, but for the others, I immediately bump it up, because it hurts my eyes. They say they don't see the difference. Am I right to assume that low refresh rates that make my eyes water are not healthy? If people don't notice the low refresh rate, does it still damage their eyes? Anyone know of any studies or papers?"

Yes, yes they are.

[Anonymous Coward]

CRTs flash and then rely on the eye to hold the frame inbetween updates. When these updates get too infrequent we see the flicker and it can be painful to the eyes. When the updates at at about 30 frames/sec we don't see the flicker any more, but people often still get headaches and other eye strains because the flicker is still there regardless of whether we can see it. 30hz is unacceptable, 60hz is better, but 3x or 4x... anything higher is preferable to lessen the flicker. With 60hz expect eye fatigue.

Flatscreens are another matter. They hold the colour consistantly. There is no problem with flicker, only bluring.

First post you mother fucking sp0rks.

Yep

[legLess]

Low refresh rates hurt my eyes badly - 60 is awful after just a couple minutes. I can see a little difference between 85 and 100, but only retroactively (i.e. 85 doesn't bother me). I used to run the network for a large architecture firm, and many of these people - although they drafted in AutoCAD all day long - saw nothing wrong with 60Hz. Some of them noticed that 85 or 100 was better, but I think many of them just acclimated to 60, not realizing anything better was possible.

On another note, Windows users should check out RefreshForce [pagehosting.co.uk], which automatically sets the highest possible refresh rate every time you (or a game, or other app) switches resolutions or color depths in Windows. I run it on a couple machines wit no trouble.

My Optitions Advice

[Trevelyan]

This may seem a strange concept, but I asked my optition this (as opposed to /.) =)
He said to make sure that the refresh is above 75Hz if not more, the higher the better (well my current monitor is doing 64.9 =/)
And yes it is the low refresh that is hurting your eyes. One way to spot exceptional bad refresh to look just over the top of the monitor, if you can see it flicker then the refresh is way too low.