In summary:
- PCWorld reports that Windows 11 now supports refresh rates exceeding 1,000Hz, with potential for displays reaching up to 5,000Hz in future updates.
- This advancement benefits gamers by reducing motion blur and input lag, while display manufacturers are reportedly developing 2,000Hz monitors for release by 2030.
- The update also includes enhanced fingerprint reader performance, Voice Typing in File Explorer, and improved power management for USB4 docking stations.
Windows 11 finally supports displays with refresh rates of over 1,000Hz — even if such displays haven’t largely advanced past the drawing board.
On Thursday, Microsoft released Windows 11 Builds 26100.8106 and 26200.8106 to the Release Preview Channel, which include explicit support for monitors that can report refresh rates higher than 1,000Hz. Blur Busters’ Mark Rejhon took credit, and indicated that the maximum refresh rate might be as high as 5,000Hz.
Anyone in the PC gaming community understands that PC gaming is a constant tradeoff between higher resolutions and detail levels, increased framerates, increased display refresh rates, and AI frame generation which affects how many frames are actually seen by the player. Syncing the display refresh rate to the number of frames generated by the GPU is ideal; otherwise, artifacts like screen tearing occur. Motion blur is a separate visual artifact, but which decreases as the time in which the frame is actually drawn (frame time) decreases as well. Higher refresh rates mean lower frame time (and less lag).
What Microsoft is doing is raising the ceiling for higher refresh rates, which generally cap out at about 500Hz or so. (Tom’s Hardware found a 1,080-Hz display at the end of 2025, though that frame rate was only achieved at 720p.)
In any event, Blur Busters applauded Microsoft’s addition, and claimed that display manufacturers had 2,000Hz displays in the pipeline for delivery by 2030. The site also cited an (unconfirmed) message from a contact at Microsoft who said that 5,000Hz support may be added to Windows 11 24H2 and later. At 1,000Hz, Blue Busters says, motion blur virtually disappears on 1080p screens like tablets; at 10,000Hz, it vanishes for “wide-FOV retina resolution” screens.
Other features arriving in Windows 11
The new Windows update also includes the ability to send USB4 docking stations (the generic equivalent of Thunderbolt 4 docks) into a super-low-power sleep state while the PC is sleeping, saving you power, and doing a better job of preserving screen rotation if you have a monitor set up in portrait mode.
Other improvements include improved performance with fingerprint readers, the ability to rename a file in File Explorer via Voice Typing, and more consistent device cards in the Settings menu. Smart App Control (SAC) on or off without needing a clean install, too.
Author: Mark Hachman, Senior Editor, PCWorld
Mark has written for PCWorld for the last decade, with 30 years of experience covering technology. He has authored over 3,500 articles for PCWorld alone, covering PC microprocessors, peripherals, and Microsoft Windows, among other topics. Mark has written for publications including PC Magazine, Byte, eWEEK, Popular Science and Electronic Buyers' News, where he shared a Jesse H. Neal Award for breaking news. He recently handed over a collection of several dozen Thunderbolt docks and USB-C hubs because his office simply has no more room.