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Chapter 11, Hardware
#94 Optimize Your Refresh Rates
HACK
These options enable the most common actions you will want when you
insert new media into your computer.
HACK
#94
Optimize Your Refresh Rates Hack #94
Reduce eyestrain by fine-tuning your monitor’s refresh rates.
Many of you reading this book spend a lot of time in front of a computer at
work, at school, or in your home. As you rack up hours in front of the whir-
ring machine, your eyes take the brunt of the physical effects of your com-
puter use. Most people see flicker on their monitors when the monitor
refresh rate is lower than 72MHz. This flicker causes eyestrain, headaches,
and general fatigue. This hack explores how you can tune your X configura-
tion to optimize your picture’s quality and its refresh rates. But beware, using
excessive refresh rates that your monitor does not support can potentially
cause physical damage to the monitor in the same way revving an engine too
high can destroy your engine. Although this is less common with modern
monitors, you should be cautious when experimenting with this hack.
Find Out More About Your Monitor
To get the best use from your monitor, you need to determine its optimum
refresh rate. You can do this by gathering some information about your
monitor, running that information through a web-based tool that can deter-
mine your optimal settings, and then entering those settings in your X con- ...