MSI's new 24-inch gaming monitor hits a sizzling 600 Hz and has me wondering how many Hz you genuinely need

Remember when 144 Hz seemed pretty slick? I mean, it wasn't that long ago, was it? Well, get a load of this 600 Hz beast from MSI.

The MSI MPG 242R X60N will be showcased at CES next week according to TFT Central, and its appeal will be all about that wild 600 Hz refresh. The rest of the package, the TN panel tech, the 24-inch size and the 1080p resolution are not exactly the stuff of gaming dreams, after all.

Of course, this monitor is aimed squarely at esports. So, stuff like 4K res, ultrawide aspect ratios, huge panel sizes and HDR sizzle aren't really the point. What you want is absolutely minimal latency and a compact panel that allows you to see everything that's happening on screen.

What you want, therefore, is the highest refresh possible on a 24-inch screen, something even faster than the likes of, say, the 540 Hz Asus ROG Swift Pro PG248QP.

All that said, as refresh rates climb higher, the returns arguably diminish. We are surely already at the point where there's no benefit in terms of visual smoothness of this 600Hz Hz panel over a 500 Hz alternative. But what about latency?

There will be ever so slightly less input lag at 600 Hz than 500 Hz, that's an undeniable fact. So, the real question is at what point does the latency reduction essentially become invisible to human perception.

On that note, we'll take the 5th. Personally, in the past I'd probably have said the difference above 240 Hz or so was getting close to imperceptible. But I must concede really serious esports types do seem to benefit from even faster panels.

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Eventually, we will surely get to the point where higher refresh is of no truly tangible value. But we'll have to wait and see where that dividing line eventually lands.

In the meantime and getting back to this MSI panel, arguably slightly unexpected is the inclusion of USB-C connectivity with 98 W of power delivery. That's a handy feature for productivity and ergonomics, less so for gaming.

Using a laptop is a little implausible when you're trying to achieve the very highest frame rates. And even if you do, you'll need more than 98 W to keep a high performance gaming laptop powered.

For now, we have no specs in terms of metrics like brightness, contrast, viewing angles, color coverage and all that jazz. But as a TN panel, you wouldn't expect much from those aspects. It's just not what a high-refresh TN monitor does well.

Oh and for the record, the response is rated at 0.5 ms, which is excellent for an LCD panel, albeit miles behind the 0.03 ms typically claimed for OLED monitors.

Pricing has yet to be announced, but the MPG 242R X60N isn't expected to go on sale until at least April. So, it's a case of wait and see for now. But it will be very expensive for a 24-inch TN monitor, that's for sure.

Best gaming monitor: Pixel-perfect panels.
Best high refresh rate monitor: Screaming quick.
Best 4K monitor for gaming: High-res only.
Best 4K TV for gaming: Big-screen 4K PC gaming.