Gaming Monitor - IPS, Response Times

[Havoc2510]

Hello all,

I currently have an AOC I2369Vm. Its a 23" IPS panel with a 5ms response time. I've had this monitor for a while, and even though it is a 60Hz monitor, playing games locked at 60fps can still produce screen tears and its driving me crazy! Plus the monitor has had a dead pixel since the day I bought it which is so annoying (minor case of OCD here )

Anyway I saw a really good deal on the Dell Ultrasharp U2414H the other day, which has fantastic colour accuracy and a great design but has an 8ms response time.

So I guess the question is: how much does response time actually affect real world gameplay and what could be causing the tearing on my current AOC.

(I have overclocked the AOC to 72Hz and the tearing is less noticeable but it is still there)

Thanks in advance

 

[jay2tall]

Screen tearing happens when the graphic card puts out frames that don't entirely match up with the refresh rate on the display. Having a higher refresh rate can help smooth this out a little. VSYNC is supposed to get the graphics card output to match the display fresh rate, but they don't entirely match up causing tearing yet again. This is why Nvidia made G-Sync. This matches frame per frame, but it's new technology and only a few displays out there have it and are relatively expensive. None of which are IPS. I've found the Nvidia setting called "Adaptive V-Sync" helps a lot. This runs VSYNC on if you are over 60FPS, but turns it if it dips under 60FPS. I've noticed when it teeters on the edge of 60FPS with VSYNC on it sometimes tears really bad, so VSYNC allows it to dip a little. You can try it.

Back to your question on refresh rate. The rated refresh rate on a monitor is what they internally tested this at and is never a real world number. some 8ms displays have better real world refresh rates then ones rated at 2ms. I have a Dell 24" professional rated at 5ms, but it's black to white 5ms. Not the gray to gray most are rated at. So really the gray to gray rating is going to be much higher. I think it's used as a marketing gimmick anymore. A newer 8ms display is going to be fine for gaming. Just look for reviews and see if anyone has any negative feedback on gaming performance. Also, refresh rate won't affect tearing, it would only affect imagine ghosting in games. This is where you move quickly and it looks like a slight trail behind an image as you move. I haven't seen this being noticeable in any modern LCD. I had an OLD Samsung 17" LCD back in the day that had issues with this, but that was like 10 years ago.

 

[Havoc2510]

Screen tearing happens when the graphic card puts out frames that don't entirely match up with the refresh rate on the display. Having a higher refresh rate can help smooth this out a little. VSYNC is supposed to get the graphics card output to match the display fresh rate, but they don't entirely match up causing tearing yet again. This is why Nvidia made G-Sync. This matches frame per frame, but it's new technology and only a few displays out there have it and are relatively expensive. None of which are IPS. I've found the Nvidia setting called "Adaptive V-Sync" helps a lot. This runs VSYNC on if you are over 60FPS, but turns it if it dips under 60FPS. I've noticed when it teeters on the edge of 60FPS with VSYNC on it sometimes tears really bad, so VSYNC allows it to dip a little. You can try it.

Back to your question on refresh rate. The rated refresh rate on a monitor is what they internally tested this at and is never a real world number. some 8ms displays have better real world refresh rates then ones rated at 2ms. I have a Dell 24" professional rated at 5ms, but it's black to white 5ms. Not the gray to gray most are rated at. So really the gray to gray rating is going to be much higher. I think it's used as a marketing gimmick anymore. A newer 8ms display is going to be fine for gaming. Just look for reviews and see if anyone has any negative feedback on gaming performance. Also, refresh rate won't affect tearing, it would only affect imagine ghosting in games. This is where you move quickly and it looks like a slight trail behind an image as you move. I haven't seen this being noticeable in any modern LCD. I had an OLD Samsung 17" LCD back in the day that had issues with this, but that was like 10 years ago.

Thanks for the response I undestood most of that except when you were talking about black to white and grey to grey. When you say the grey to grey will be much higher do you mean lower? Sounds like a stupid question I know but I would have thought that performing a complete colour change (black to white) would take longer than grey to grey. Anyway thanks for the help; I had no idea what Adaptive Vsync was for until now!

 

[jay2tall]

The 1 or 2ms refresh rates you see are usually gray to gray. It would be a faster response time compared to black to white. Changing color is even longer, which is what you really care about anyway.

 

[Havoc2510]

The 1 or 2ms refresh rates you see are usually gray to gray. It would be a faster response time compared to black to white. Changing color is even longer, which is what you really care about anyway.

Awesome, thanks