Response Time/Refresh Rate vs Visible Framerate

[motorock503]

Hello All,

 

I am in the market for a new PC monitor! Right now I am gaming with an LG 2560x1080 @60 Hz IPS panel and I love it.

 

I am curious about something, though. I understand that my 60 Hz monitor will give me 60 frames per second and nothing more, and I understand that a 144 Hz monitor will give me 144 frames per second and nothing more. I am under the impression that a 60 Hz monitor will be equal to that of a 17(ish) millisecond response time monitor. If this is the case, then if I buy a monitor with an 8 ms response time, will I be looking at a monitor that will give me something like 120 frames per second? What about a 4 ms response time, how many frames per second will my eyes actually be seeing? Sometimes I see monitors listed with a response time and a refresh rate, is there anything I need to keep in mind in regards to the two? Any input would be greatly appreciated, thank you!

[Ya_Mi]

Response time is how long the pixel changes between color,slow response time can cause ghosting or trail behind fast moving images, generally faster response time is better but since there are no standard on how to measure it and every manufacturer measured it very differently from each other we tend to ignore that specs.

10ms response time can be equal or faster than 5ms response time from another manufacturer.

And it doesnt have anything to do with framerate.

[Oshino Shinobu]

Response time and refresh rates are entirely different things. Most response time statistics are meaningless for a variety of reasons. If you have a 144Hz monitor, you will see 144 frames per second (assuming your GPU is outputting 144 fps) regardless of the response time 

 

I'd advise reading the monitor technology FAQs/mythbuster by @Glenwing, stickied at the top of the displays subforum.

[Glenwing]

3 hours ago, motorock503 said:

I am under the impression that a 60 Hz monitor will be equal to that of a 17(ish) millisecond response time monitor.\

No, on a 60 Hz monitor a new frame is displayed every ≈17 ms. This is not the same as response time, which is the amount of time that it takes for the image to change (or for each pixel to change, since not all the pixels change at the exact same time).

 

Displaying a new image every 17 ms does not mean the image spends the entire 17 ms changing; you could refresh the image, all the pixels take 1 ms to change to their new color (1 ms response time) and then wait for another 16 ms. That would be 60 Hz with 1 ms response time. Faster pixel transitions reduce motion blur.

 

Response time and refresh rate are not really related at all.