The Dark Side of LCD Overdrive : Input Lag

jmke · 9th February 2009, 16:06

Faster is always better. Thanks to that simple philosophy, LCD pixel response times have been driven down to puny proportions in recent years.

Today, even the slowest panels are rated at 16ms or better and deliver adequate response for all but the most fanatical PC gamers. High performance screens, meanwhile, now trade low single-digit millisecond blows in the battle for fast response dominance.

That’s the good news; the bad news is that the quest for ever lower pixel response times comes with a pair of undesirable side effects: input lag and inverse ghosting. Superficially, the two appear to be unrelated, but they share the same underlying cause. The culprit is a response-enhancing technique known as overdrive.

Also common to both input lag and inverse ghosting is a rather murky cloud of controversy. Some sneer at the idea that input lag even exists, while others argue that while it may exist, only pedants with a penchant for pointless whining could possibly notice it.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/mon...of-overdrive/1

9th February 2009, 17:30

Was a very interesting article... much more informative to use a timer to measure lag versus attempting to photograph loading during games.

60ms input lag is an interesting number. Average broadband person's ping latency is 60ms.

jmke · 9th February 2009, 17:51

which means dead before you see the enemy, and than you call the other "cheater"

9th February 2009, 23:00

those news are so old:

http://www.behardware.com/articles/6...-crts-yes.html

Its so old the first 0 input lag sceens are out for some time (those aren't errors, they were tested with the timer method):

http://www.digitalversus.com/duels.p...&p2=3215&ph=12

Inverse ghosting is being tested by prad for over a year too.

jmke · 10th February 2009, 00:05

old or not, the fact that it still exists today in the newest products is proof that the media has had no effect on it yet, so more publicity on this defect is much appreciated

10th February 2009, 04:38

Yep. It's not something most think about when they see those ultra-affordable TFTs, even though they plan to game on them.

10th February 2009, 08:46

The phenomenon is not limited dependent on the price of LCDs. Samsung and Dells VA models are among the worst.

9th February 2009, 16:06	#1
jmke Madshrimp Join Date: May 2002 Location: 7090/Belgium Posts: 79,021	The Dark Side of LCD Overdrive : Input Lag Faster is always better. Thanks to that simple philosophy, LCD pixel response times have been driven down to puny proportions in recent years. Today, even the slowest panels are rated at 16ms or better and deliver adequate response for all but the most fanatical PC gamers. High performance screens, meanwhile, now trade low single-digit millisecond blows in the battle for fast response dominance. That’s the good news; the bad news is that the quest for ever lower pixel response times comes with a pair of undesirable side effects: input lag and inverse ghosting. Superficially, the two appear to be unrelated, but they share the same underlying cause. The culprit is a response-enhancing technique known as overdrive. Also common to both input lag and inverse ghosting is a rather murky cloud of controversy. Some sneer at the idea that input lag even exists, while others argue that while it may exist, only pedants with a penchant for pointless whining could possibly notice it. http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/mon...of-overdrive/1 __________________

9th February 2009, 17:51	#3
jmke Madshrimp Join Date: May 2002 Location: 7090/Belgium Posts: 79,021	which means dead before you see the enemy, and than you call the other "cheater" __________________

10th February 2009, 00:05	#5
jmke Madshrimp Join Date: May 2002 Location: 7090/Belgium Posts: 79,021	old or not, the fact that it still exists today in the newest products is proof that the media has had no effect on it yet, so more publicity on this defect is much appreciated __________________

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
DDR2 price drop has a dark side	jmke	WebNews	0	25th January 2010 12:09
Darth Vader To Bring The Dark Side To USB Drives WorldWide	jmke	WebNews	1	11th November 2009 09:07
The Dark Side of the Cloud: Sidekick Customers Lose All Their Data	jmke	WebNews	6	14th October 2009 06:00
Overburning: An Intro to the Dark Side	jmke	WebNews	0	5th June 2009 16:21
Input Lag and You: Dell 2408WFP report	jmke	WebNews	0	24th October 2008 10:56
Sharp Introduces Full Hd 1080p Aquos Lcd Tvs Optimized For Gaming	jmke	WebNews	1	18th January 2007 22:47
The Dark Side of HDCP - Why is My PS3 Blinking?	jmke	WebNews	0	18th January 2007 22:26
Q4'04 LCD Desktop Monitors Rise 26% Q/Q Reaching $8.2B in Revenues	jmke	WebNews	0	30th March 2005 11:47
The Dark Side of P2P File Sharing	Sidney	WebNews	0	2nd December 2004 02:26
Matrix Orbital MX411 20x4 USB LCD @ V-H	jmke	WebNews	0	23rd May 2004 14:56

9th February 2009, 17:30	#2
Kougar Posts: n/a	Was a very interesting article... much more informative to use a timer to measure lag versus attempting to photograph loading during games. 60ms input lag is an interesting number. Average broadband person's ping latency is 60ms.

9th February 2009, 23:00	#4
Rutar Posts: n/a	those news are so old: http://www.behardware.com/articles/6...-crts-yes.html Its so old the first 0 input lag sceens are out for some time (those aren't errors, they were tested with the timer method): http://www.digitalversus.com/duels.p...&p2=3215&ph=12 Inverse ghosting is being tested by prad for over a year too.

10th February 2009, 04:38	#6
Kougar Posts: n/a	Yep. It's not something most think about when they see those ultra-affordable TFTs, even though they plan to game on them.

10th February 2009, 08:46	#7
Rutar Posts: n/a	The phenomenon is not limited dependent on the price of LCDs. Samsung and Dells VA models are among the worst.