Setting Your Refresh Rates with HzTool

In order to achieve the best flicker free display you want to set the refresh rate for your video card as high as your monitor will allow. However the facilities provided by windows is less than handy for making sure that your refresh rate is set correctly in every resolution that your computer is likely to change to while playing games and using your 3D glasses. The process of setting your desktop to one resolution, changing the refresh rate and then selectecting the next resolution can get very tedious and is really a big waste of time.  Lucky for us Stefan Berglind has created a utility called HzTool which allows us to set all our refresh rates in one easy to use interface.  To install HzTool you simply unzip it into the directory of your choice and run the executable.  I usually unzip it to my apps directory on my d drive and then have a shortcut in my utilities folder on the desktop for when I want to run it and check my refresh rates.  Here is what you will see when you run HzTool:

Usage
To use HzTool to set your refresh rates you simply make sure your driver is selected correctly at the top and then set the refresh rate at each resolution that you will likely use to Optimal and then click the save button on the bottom right hand side of the app.

However before using HzTool you should make sure that your monitor is correctly being identified by windows by looking at the Monitor tab in display properties

If the monitor is set to unknown then most refresh rates won't be available to you to set and if it is identified incorrectly you could set the refresh rate too high which in turn could damage your monitor.  So check to make sure its correctly identified.  If you don't find the correct monitor in the list of available monitors when you click change then search the manufacturers web site or contact the manufacturer on which driver to use.

Setting your refresh rate correctly will help you get the most enjoyment with the least amount of flicker and eyestrain especially when teamed up with a set of 3D glasses.

Links:

HzTool Homepage

HzTool 1.4 hztool14.zip 244 kb

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