Setting refresh rate of my monitor connected to my new Acer Nitro 5 to 240Hz doesnt work

Kaktus
Kaktus Member Posts: 3 New User
in Nitro Gaming
Okay so here's my problem: My Acer Nitro 5 AN515-45 arrived yesterday. When connecting my 240Hz monitor (AOC AGON AG251FG) to the laptop (via HDMI, because my Nitro 5 only has an HDMI output) everything works out fine until I try to set the refresh rate of my monitor from 144Hz to 240Hz. Upon doing that, its screen goes black as if theres no signal until the change is automatically or manually reverted. I have tried and tested a LOT of things which I will list in the following:
- Although I'm using an "old" Nintendo HDMI cable, which i thought to be the issue, I tested its ability to transfer 240fps/hz by connecting the monitor to my previous PC via that HDMI cable and doing the UFO test which proved the cable to not be the issue (Nonetheless I will buy a new HDMI cable today because using a Nintendo one just feels wrong to me and maybe it might resolve my issue although it shouldn't)
- Yes, I've installed/updated every crucial driver I could think of and it didn't help
- I have tried turning off V-Sync in the 3D settings and played around with a few other settings in the nvidia control panel
- The issue also isn't connected to my monitor and the laptops screen having differing refresh rates because I tried setting each one to 60Hz while the other one was still at 144Hz, which worked out without any issue whatsoever
- Changing which of the screens is the main one also didn't resolve the issue.

This is overall very very frustrating as the acer Nitro 5 is my first PC able to output 240 fps this consistently so being forced to lock my 240Hz monitor to 144Hz would be extremely disappointing. I'm certain there's some solution to this since this issue shouldn't be a thing in the first place and I hope somebody more knowledgable than me can help me with this.

Answers

  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 45,080 Trailblazer
    Sorry, only the internal display is capable of higher refresh rates depending the the installed screen. The external HDMI display rate also depends on the external display but  with a maximum 144Hz. So you are already achieving the max HDMI 144Hz rate with your monitor.




    Jack E/NJ

  • Kaktus
    Kaktus Member Posts: 3 New User
    JackE said:
    Sorry, only the internal display is capable of higher refresh rates depending the the installed screen. The external HDMI display rate also depends on the external display but  with a maximum 144Hz. So you are already achieving the max HDMI 144Hz rate with your monitor.




    First of all, thanks for the quick answer.
    I've seen people somehow connect higher refresh rate monitors to laptops with lower Hz internal monitors, so is this a problem with the Acer nitro 5 itself or something else or is there absolutely no way to prevent the issue in my case?
  • mirh
    mirh Member Posts: 12

    Tinkerer
    edited July 2022
    I don't know what kind of awful automated reply was that. Your gpu can do whatever refresh rate it pleases, as long as the HDMI output still has the required bandwidth (and HDMI 2.0 can totally do 240hz in full hd).
    The problem is that according to the specs of your monitor, that only comes with HDMI 1.4. I doubt that it supports 4:2:0 chroma subsampling, so your only option seems to be an hdmi to displayport adapter.
  • Kaktus
    Kaktus Member Posts: 3 New User
    mirh said:
    I don't know what kind of awful automated reply was that. Your gpu can do whatever refresh rate it pleases, as long as the HDMI output still has the required bandwidth (and HDMI 2.0 can totally do 240hz in full hd).
    The problem is that according to the specs of your monitor, that only comes with HDMI 1.4. I doubt that it supports 4:2:0 chroma subsampling, so your only option seems to be an hdmi to displayport adapter.
    Thanks for answering, although I don't know what 4:2:0 chroma subsampling is, I can almost certainly assure you that HDMI actually isn't the issue because I've connected my old PC to the monitor with my new HDMI cable (supports 1080p 240Hz) and 240Hz surprisingly worked out perfectly fine for whatever reason? So the issue doesn't seem to be connected to neither the output/input nor the cable itself. I'm running out of ideas at this point but there has to be a solution, I'm sure. I suspect that it's somehow related to windows 11 since that's the only apparent difference between the laptop and my old PC. I hope you still have any idea on how to help me.
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 45,080 Trailblazer
    The AN515-45 has an HDMI version 2.1 port. While the GPU is capable of higher rates as is clearly shown on the internal screen, the highest external HDMI port rates so far in the specs is 144Hz depending on the monitor. So, as mentioned earlier, your monitor is already achieving the highest HDMI 144Hz reported by Acer in the specs. While there might be other HDMI monitors that can achieve higher rates with the AN515-45, 144Hz seem to be the highest reported so far for the AN515-45.

    Jack E/NJ

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