The refresh rate dropdown moved between Windows 11 and 10 — it's set per monitor rather than system-wide, and it only ever lists the rates your monitor and cable can actually carry. Here's exactly where to find it in both versions, how to give a second or third screen a different Hz, and why dropping the rate can save real battery on a laptop.
Quick answer: Windows 11 — Settings → System → Display → Advanced display, pick the monitor, set "Choose a refresh rate." Windows 10 — Settings → System → Display → Advanced display settings → Display adapter properties → Monitor tab → "Screen refresh rate." Only rates your monitor and cable support will be listed. Read on for multi-monitor setups and the battery-saving case for going lower.
Same setting, different depth depending on your Windows version:
Changing it takes effect immediately — the screen blinks once and comes back at the new rate. No restart, and under a standard user account, no admin prompt either.
Refresh rate is a per-display setting, not a system-wide one — a 144Hz or 165Hz gaming monitor and a 60Hz second screen can run side by side without either one limiting the other. In Windows 11's Advanced display page, the monitor picker at the very top is the part people miss: pick the second screen first, then set its Hz, or you'll keep editing the primary display by mistake. Windows 10 does the same thing through a separate "Display adapter properties" dialog per display number.
| Setup | What to do | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Gaming monitor + office monitor | Set each one's Hz independently in Advanced display | The office screen gains nothing from 144Hz and just draws more power |
| Laptop + external monitor | Check the laptop panel separately — externals often default higher | Internal panels are frequently capped lower than what an external can do |
| Want it to switch itself, not re-set by hand | PowerDoze one-click switcher, per monitor | Faster than re-opening Advanced display each time — see below |
Yes, and it's one of the more measurable power levers on a laptop. A higher refresh rate means the GPU renders more frames per second even at idle — Windows itself, moving a cursor, a static desktop — and the panel redraws that many more times, both of which draw more power continuously, not just under load.
The jump from 144Hz or 165Hz down to 60Hz is the single biggest step — that's where most of the fixed per-frame overhead lives. Going from 60Hz to something lower saves comparatively little, because the baseline cost of driving a display at all doesn't scale down linearly. If you're trying to stretch battery life on a flight or in a meeting, 60Hz is usually the practical floor worth bothering with.
Best for: High-refresh gaming laptops running on battery away from a game. Note: The saving is real but modest next to screen brightness and CPU limits — treat it as one lever among several, not the whole plan.
Same mechanism, different symptom: a GPU rendering fewer frames per second generates less heat, which means a quieter fan on a laptop under light load — idle desktop use, browsing, writing — where the display refresh is actually a meaningful share of what the GPU is doing.
Best for: Quieting fan noise during light desktop use, not gaming. Note: Under a real gaming or render load the GPU is already working hard regardless of Hz, so the heat difference from refresh rate alone shrinks.
The rate you want isn't showing up in the dropdown at all? That's almost always the cable or the port, not a Windows setting — see the FAQ below for the three usual causes.
PowerDoze's Displays tab lists every connected monitor with its real name where possible — an EDID-resolved "DELL U2720Q" instead of Windows' generic "PnP Monitor" — and shows every Hz that display actually supports. Click one to switch instantly: no digging through Advanced display, no picking the right monitor from a dropdown first, no admin prompt. It reads and writes refresh rate through the same Win32 display APIs Windows Settings itself uses, just surfaced as one click per monitor instead of several menus deep.
Honest note: This is a faster manual switch, not automation — Windows' own Advanced display page does the same underlying job, PowerDoze just gets you there in one click per monitor instead of three menus. Not yet built: automatically changing Hz when you switch power modes (drop to 60Hz on battery saver, jump back on performance) isn't wired up today — this is a one-click action you trigger yourself, not a rule you attach to a schedule.
Settings → System → Display → Advanced display, then pick a monitor and set "Choose a refresh rate." Only the rates your monitor and cable actually support show up in that dropdown — you can't type in an arbitrary number.
Settings → System → Display → Advanced display settings → Display adapter properties for Display N → Monitor tab → "Screen refresh rate." It's a smaller dropdown than Windows 11's, but it's the same underlying setting.
Yes. Refresh rate is set per display, not system-wide. In Windows 11's Advanced display page, use the monitor picker at the top to select each screen and set its Hz independently — a 144Hz gaming monitor and a 60Hz second screen can run side by side with no conflict.
Yes, measurably on a laptop. A higher refresh rate means the GPU renders and the panel redraws more often per second, which draws more power. Dropping from 144Hz or 165Hz to 60Hz is the biggest single step; going from 60Hz to lower rates saves less because most of the fixed overhead is already gone.
Three usual causes: the cable — HDMI 1.4 and some older HDMI 2.0 cables cap out below what DisplayPort or HDMI 2.1 can carry; the GPU port you're plugged into, if your graphics card has both DisplayPort and HDMI outputs with different maximum rates; or Windows hasn't picked up the monitor's full EDID capability list yet, which a driver update or a different cable usually fixes.
Not with Windows' own settings — there's no built-in way to trigger a Hz change automatically. PowerDoze adds a one-click switcher for each display's available rates, with no admin prompt and no restart. Automatically switching Hz when you change power modes isn't built yet; today it's a manual one-click action, not a rule you attach to a schedule.
Want every connected monitor's refresh rate one click away instead of three menus deep in Settings? It's free, works on multi-monitor setups, and needs no admin prompt.
Download free for Windows 10/11See also: How to change when Windows goes to sleep · Schedule power plans by time · All features