Is there a way to change the screen refresh rate in Ubuntu?

Question

So, I know this question has been asked before: "How do I change my refresh rate?"

I've browsed sereral forums ad nauseam, and the response is always to use xrandr (duh.)

When I run xrandr, I get the following:

daniel@ZaphodU:~$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 8 x 8, current 1920 x 1080, maximum 16384 x 16384
DVI-I-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DVI-I-1 connected primary 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 531mm x 299mm
   1920x1080      60.0 +  144.0*   120.0     99.9     84.9  
   1680x1050      60.0  
   1440x900       59.9  
   1280x1024      75.0     60.0  
   1280x960       60.0  
   1280x800       59.8  
   1280x720       60.0  
   1152x864       75.0  
   1024x768       75.0     70.1     60.0  
   800x600        75.0     72.2     60.3     56.2  
   640x480        75.0     59.9  
HDMI-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-3 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-4 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-5 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

Everything looks good, but let's say I want to set my refresh rate to 120.0 Hz:

daniel@ZaphodU:~$ xrandr -s 1920x1080 -r 120.0
Rate 120.0 Hz not available for this size

What if I want to change to 60 Hz at 1280x1024?

daniel@ZaphodU:~$ xrandr -s 1280x1024 -r 60.0
Rate 60.0 Hz not available for this size

I've tried all of the resolution and refresh rates listed, and not a single one is available!

So how do I actually change my refresh rate? My monitor Asus VG248Q is capable of 50~144 Hz(V) according to the manufacturer's website. My graphics card is a Zotac GeForce GTX 970 4GB AMP! Extreme Core Edition. The two are connected via a DVI cable that was supplied with the monitor.

I dual boot Ubuntu 14.04 LTS with Windows 10, and Windows has no problem running at 60 HZ, 100 HZ, 120 HZ, and 144Hz. There's even a simple interface for changing this setting.

So, is there a way to change the refresh rate in Ubuntu?

Solution

Have you tried this?

xrandr --output DVI-I-1 --mode 1920x1080 --rate 120.0

Comments

[Tshilidzi Mudau]

Hi @Jared G, maybe you should edit your answer and add some information on what the command does, what do you think?