Next-gen console owners won’t get the best performance unless their TV has an HDMI 2.1 port to unlock their true 120fps potential.
Finding the best 120Hz 4K TVs isn’t difficult, because at present they’re exceedingly rare. A 120Hz refresh rate is a relatively common standard for HD and QHD gaming, but you need a TV with an HDMI 2.1 port to support it on 4K TVs. HDMI 2.0 remains the industry standard for even the most expensive 2020 televisions. Some premium gaming monitors have hit this spec in the past couple of years, but gamers have started scrambling for 4K 120Hz–capable televisions thanks to the recent arrival of the PS5 and Xbox Series X, both of which have the sheer power to hit that benchmark so long as your TV can support it. And with plenty of Black Friday TV deals to choose from, it’s a fantastic time to be in the market for a new television set. We’ve chosen the best TVs that balance gorgeous resolution and graphics with preserving as many frames as possible. Beyond 120Hz 4K performance, we’re only choosing TVs that the Techradar team gave glowing reviews. That way, you know other specs like color accuracy, upscaling tech, viewing angles and brightness are just as cutting-edge for regular TV watching as for gaming. We also look for other gamer-specific features like low input lag, Variable Refresh Rate, Auto Low Latency Mode and video sync modes like FreeSync and G-Sync, so you have all the tools you need for those next-gen gaming machines. With Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales events approaching fast, too, now is an excellent time to look for discounts on the best 120Hz 4K TVs, as they can often cost a bit more than the average 4K TV. Do refresh rates really matter enough to justify buying a new television set? We’d argue that without an advanced television, the upgraded hardware in your new Sony or Microsoft console becomes superfluous. All that power won’t translate into better performance unless your TV can support it. Hertz, or refresh rate, determines the number of frames that your television can display per second. Because both the PS5 and Xbox Series X can generate 120 frames per second (fps) in 4K UHD resolution, you need a television panel that works up to 120 Hertz to make that mode work. Your current 4K TV likely can only support 60Hz/4K. That worked perfectly well with the Xbox One X and PS4 Pro, both of which could hit 60FPS in 4K for some games. Yet if you upgrade to the latest console, your frame rate can’t substantially improve unless you play at a lower resolution like 1440p. So you won’t see the performance boost you might be expecting. With a higher max Hz in 4K, you’ll see a smoother and sharper output on the television with less nauseating motion blurring when you turn the camera quickly in-game. This is particularly handy for fast-paced shooters like Call of Duty where you need to turn on a dime and react quickly to threats. But the visual boost from increased frames isn’t limited to any one genre of game. That’s why we’d strongly recommend buying one of the televisions below if your budget can afford it and a next-gen console. HDMI 2.1 is a more powerful data transfer standard that improves your television’s capacity to handle high refresh rates and resolutions simultaneously. That said, this new standard also adds two other important gaming features by default: Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) and Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM). VRR is a tool that enables your TV to automatically adjust its Hz based on the output from your gaming console. While the Xbox Series X and PS5 offer a 120Hz 4K maximum, individual games’ frame rates will fluctuate and drop based on what’s happening on screen. The more frames you drop, the more tearing and stuttering you’ll see as the television tries to adjust.
