Everything About [Computers :: Display]

Units of Measure

The response time of various display types refer to how quickly the diode/gas/plasma can change from one color to another. Specifications of these displays actually have a series of 'response times', with the single most important time referring to an all black to all white and back again (if I remember right). When you see a manufacturer say it's an x ms monitor, this rule is what it's referring to.

SOoooooooooooooo...... what's the purpose of having a low response monitor? Simple, it directly relates to the 'refresh' of the screen's picture. Earlier versions of lcd's for instance could NOT show very fast motion w/out the 'ghosting effect'. The ghosting effect is quite literally a ghosted image which hasn't dissipated yet. A good example is the 'Mouse Trails' you can set in Windows for your cursor.

Purchasing Implications

Q: Well now, how does this affect purchasing decisions on your video card?
A: Really, it doesn't... not at all.

Instead of affecting graphic quality, it limits what 'types' of graphics you can display without ill effects. Therefore, high response monitors would *only* be suitable for business applications, web browsing, etc. You'd basically be limited to not showing action motion or video.

Now that we know it doesn't affect your GPU purchases, what's the recommended latency?

Well, being that games are by far the single most intense form of video/graphix due to the jerking nature of movement, it's recommended that your display be at minimum an 8ms monitor. Infact, if it's 8ms or less, U can rest assure it will handle your games without consequence.

Challenges

LCD's & Plasmas in particular have some steep challenges compared to their older CRT brethren. Other challenges include contrast, grey-to-black, backlighting, MTBF life expectancy, dead pixels, burnt images, & plenty of others. For years, we've taken CRT's abilities for granted...