Why do gaming laptop displays have excessively high refresh rates?

[Deleted member 568892]

I have a gaming laptop with a 144hz screen but the GPU can only run new titles at an unstable 60fps. I don't see the point of having such a great screen when the GPU can't keep up.

 

[FAST6191]

High refresh is mostly a marketing tool so they can spend $50 more on a panel and sell it onto you for $300 over the equivalent without it. Also way cheaper than buying in high resolution screens, which are also of more limited use when even a clunking desktop replacement as they would have once been known is not going to top more than about 21 inches.

That said external graphics cards are a thing, you might well be able to play older games, it will likely mean buttery smooth scrolling in a text document/web browser if said software is there to handle it, those that claim they get a headache from low refresh things might dodge that one. Back on marketing it also means you will go back in a few years as the games can't get close to it where others might keep a normal 1080p60 thing for many more years.