this post was submitted on 22 Jul 2024
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Physically, the eye tops out at about 100 Hz; cones can't refresh their chemical faster than ~70 Hz but some effects with LCD (vs. CRTs line-by-line) increasing sensitivity.
But apparently, you can train your sensibility with computer work where you have to follow the mouse with your eye (CAD, artists, etc). I guess the neuron layer in the eye for preprocessing get optimized for smaller areas of sensitivity that way. Such trained people notice a stuttering in animations even if the focus is elsewhere, which is annoying.
At least, i'm not affected and can't tell the difference between 60 Hz and 30 Hz.
So in short, it depends. If you aren't bothered, look for other specs.
While the cones can only refresh at 70, your cones aren’t synchronized. You can “see” a lot higher.
That's the point with the neuron layer around the eye. It "compresses" the data, the optical nerve is a limited bandwith bus and the brain eats enough calories already. But like everything neuron, it's adaptable.
Damn, reading this from a CS POV really puts into perspective how efficient our brain is.
A faster refresh rate also means the image on screen is more up-to-date with what the computer is actually processing. Basically, it doesn't matter if the difference is perceptible in terms of image smoothness because the gap between your inputs and the response of the screen narrows significantly.
On the other hand... there was this registry tweak in Windows 7 taskbar' autohide feature, to make it snappier. Default was 400 ms for the animation and setting it to 300 made it noticeably faster. But setting it to 200 ms made much less of a difference, you could have set it to 0 too with the same result. Others might be more sensible to this but it taught me a lesson in how fast 0.1 second really is.
Now, 100 Hz aka 100 frames per second is 0.01 second per frame, reaction time somewhere in the range 250 - 350 ms aka 0.2 - 0.3 second and reflexes, which pro gamers extensively use, somewhat around 100 ms aka 0.1 second.
I don't think you miss much with a frame, neurons are slow.