Monitor Response Time - Is It Really That Important in a Gaming Monitor?

By Kevin Oleary


If you've been searching for a computer monitor lately, you might have observed a lot of attention being given to one spec particularly: response time. Also called response rate or maybe latency, an LCD's response time apparently indicates how much quicker it can present moving pictures. Many of previous year's Lcds came with 16-millisecond (ms) response times--fast enough with regards to decent-looking Dvd playback, although with some ghosting along with distortion. Then again response times are falling, with Samsung and ViewSonic debuting Liquid crystal displays equipped with 3ms and 4ms response times much earlier this year, Liquid crystal displays would seem to become nearing the general performance provided by CRTs. But nevertheless , what do response time amounts basically mean?

A quicker response time is definitely better--it denotes how fast your screen can refresh a video image. If LCD's response time is just too slow, usually the display's pixels probably will not be effective to retain the data sent coming from the computer's graphics card, and you will observe ghosting and also a digital distractions as a consequence. But just considering the fact that a vendor advertises a fast response time doesn't suggest that the Lcd is going to work with moving images far better.

Response time means the time required for a Liquid crystal display pixel to change from completely active (black color) to fully inactive (white), then back to fully active once again. Numerous vendors, on the other hand, report their own LCDs' gray-to-gray response times. Pixels are rarely fully on or even off--instead they cycle between gray states, that is colors--and, in general, switching anywhere between gray states is notably reduced compared to switching between black and white.

On the other hand, a few also argue that measuring gray-to-gray response time is actually pointless, for the reason that manufacturers rarely inform where in the cycle they begin and finish their particular measurements. To help remedy this misconceptions, the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) intends to present a good specification standardizing response time way of measuring sometime in '06.

Today, in spite of this, manufacturers continually report the "fastest possible" response time, rather than the standard or even common response time that you and I would notice in every day use. And, sometimes suppliers can't decide precisely how really fast their own products are, as with ViewSonic's September 2005 announcement that its ViewSonic VX924 Lcd actually was built with a 3ms response rate rather than the recently declared 4ms rate.

In any case, while response time specs can help when shopping for a new monitor for viewing Digital video disks or gaming, we highly recommend testing the display screen yourself before purchasing. CNET does not formally test response times, but we judge game playing as well as Dvd efficiency with our own eyes, and that we suggest that you to do the same.

Here are some displays we've analyzed with relatively quick response times of 8ms or maybe less. Their efficiency in various video gaming tests varied substantially.




About the Author: