I was asked on a server tonight how I could possibly be getting 120 fps for cod4. I was asked what the refresh rate was on my monitor and how could my fps be greater than that. Also, I was asked how it could make a difference when the human eye can only see X amnt of frames a second.

I had no real answers for this other than pointing out that somebody had asked me how my new pc was and I said I hit 120 fps steady for cod 4.

I checked my refresh rate for my old Dell monitor and it had been set for 60. I've now got it set for 85. After restarting the computer I actually seem to notice a difference. Instead of a window "appearing" I now see it's last few moments of growth, so it "expands" from nothing intead of appearing.

i gamed for just a minute or so, but didn't really see a difference there.

Anyway, if my max fps can only equal my refresh rate, I'll set my max fps for that and call it a day until I get a new monitor.

Can anyone help me out with this?

Well, Chris, you are on to something that most people miss. Everyone is always so concerned about pushing the most pixels onto the screen, by getting the best GPU and the best CPU, but they forget one of the biggest constraints of all - the monitor and the eyeball.

This could turn into a very technical discussion, but I'll keep it basic.

If you are using an LCD monitor, you are interested in a much smaller number, the response time. This measures how long it takes an LCD pixel to go from solid black to white and back to black again. With your old cathode ray tube, you wanted a high refresh rate, but with the LCD, you want the smallest response time you can get. Obviously, the GPU and the CPU are incredibly important as they push the pixels to the monitor, but don't overlook the monitor when building your screaming gaming machine.

If you want to learn more, here is a great explanation of the issues involved:

http://www.tweakguides.com/Graphics_8.html

Thanks Hamma. I actually looked at that page before posting, lol. This is an 8 year old CRT, by the way.
Also, the difference I thought I was seeing appears to actually be an upgrade that just happened to coincide with my changing the monitors Hz. It's pretty cool. New windows are slightly transparent at the top, now, like a frosted gel put onto an overhead projector, or something...