Monitor Response Times Explained!

Have you ever been gaming and noticed a mysterious blur trailing behind your foes? That’s not a pesky poltergeist meddling with your aim at crucial moments, nor a glitch in the Matrix. In fact, it’s probably something to do with your monitor response time!

In this article, we’re going to explain all the different types of monitor response times and how they can affect your gaming!

What Are Monitor Response Times?

Monitor response times measure the time it takes for each pixel on your screen to change colour. When spread across your whole monitor, this can simulate what looks like movement in your favourite video games, whether it’s avatar actions or the physics of in-game objects being displaced.

As your character moves across the screen, each pixel must change to depict this happening in a fraction of a second. It’s a lot of work! Each frame is like a new (virtual) reality, with fresh backgrounds to colour, perspectives to shift, and depth perceptions to artfully render.

It’s easy to credit a gaming graphics card for the gorgeous visuals. However, the pixels on our screens play a huge role in bringing our favourite titles to life.

Measured in Milliseconds

Modern monitors measure response rate in milliseconds. With the content we consume these days featuring blazing-fast frame rates, displays need super-fast response times to keep up. As such, you can enjoy a 60 FPS YouTube video as well as a competitive shooter at hundreds of frames per second with super crisp detail.

If response times are too slow, then ghosting can occur, even if your gaming PC is otherwise a good’un. This is when you briefly see the faint outlines of recently moved in-game items or witness that blur trail behind your enemies we mentioned earlier. The pixels have to keep up to mitigate distortions.

Standard monitors usually achieve 10-30ms response times. However, for high-performance gaming displays, these expectations can be whittled all the way down to as low as 0.03ms for super smooth gaming. Still, it all depends on your monitor, your purposes (users of workplace PCs don’t really need to worry about it), and what type of response time we’re measuring!

Your Guide to High Refresh Rate Monitors

There are plenty of other factors to consider when choosing a gaming monitor. Refresh rate is one of them, and our guide explains how it can enhance your play as well.

GtG, MRPT, and BtW

Monitor response time is something of an umbrella term. Many versions of this technology fall under it.

You may have heard (or read) a few funny acronyms relating to response times; GtG, MRPT, and BtW. They’re similar technologies, just zeroed in on different goals.

GtG

GtG stands for Grey-to-Grey. This focuses on how fast a pixel can alternate between different shades of grey, and how well it can sustain a sharper image on-screen.

On the face of it, this can seem a little weird. Your gut instinct might tell you it’s not providing the full picture (pun intended) if a wider spectrum of colours isn’t also being assessed. Red to green might seem a little more impressive, right? Well, grey-to-grey is more difficult to pull off because it’s shifting the values of Red, Green, and Blue. By comparison, switching Red to Green is just turning the former off and the latter on. As such, GtG is a better marker of quality.

Ultimately, what’s being measured is how quickly the pixels can change colour. The faster the better. 1ms GtG is the best, while anything under 8ms is considered good. This data is indicative of how well ghosting will be reduced in your gaming. Fast-paced action will be smoother and more responsive.

MPRT

MPRT is the acronym for Moving Picture Response Time. It analyses how long each pixel is visible on your display when in motion, aiming to reduce motion blur.

GtG and MPRT are sort of like two peas in a pod. Their values are typically balanced equally. A slow GtG and fast MPRT invite ghosting. Going the other way, a slow MPRT speed with a fast GtG will create a sharp image but tons of blur on-screen during fast-paced gameplay. As such, both benefit from a synchronous interplay.

To mirror the optimal performance of GtG, a 1ms response time is advised, but anything under 4ms is considered good. Once again, you generally don’t want to exceed 8ms if you’re set on top-tier gaming performance.

BtW

While it used to be the standard, Black-to-White (BtW) response times have taken a backseat to GtG. That’s not to say this metric is now defunct, but it is less common.

BtW doesn’t work the same way as GtG, either. It measures the time taken for pixels to transition from white to black. However, this is less like monitoring a slight transition and more akin to measuring off and on states, like with Red to Green values.

As such, the results of BtW response time measurements are slower. They can even reach double digits! Compared to GtG, then, the results of BtW don’t always accurately present what a gaming monitor’s response time is capable of.

So, BtW’s days in the sun have pretty much ended. Womp, womp.

Speeding Up Monitor Response Times

You’re not necessarily saddled with your monitor’s default response times. There may be things you can do to bump it up!

Some modern monitors let you speed up the response time. To find out if you can, look in your on-screen display (OSD) settings. These are usually accessible with physical controls on your monitor, which can be located along an edge of your display, or even on the back. Poke around in your manual or on the online product page if you need help navigating your make and model.

If you’re rocking a gaming monitor, it may come equipped with a Low Input Lag Mode. This can drastically bring down processing delays and give a bit of a boost to them good ol’ response times!

Explore these options if possible. Clarity is key whether you’re blasting noggins online or speeding around the racetrack, so don’t let response times become one of the issues holding back your gaming.

The Future of Monitor Response Times

Technology is constantly evolving. So, what can we expect from response times in the future?

ClearMR is an open-source motion blur benchmark from the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA), designed for monitors and other products with embedded display panels. Using the Clear Motion Ratio (CMR) metric, the ratio of clear to blurry pixels is analysed and divvied up into one of 11 ClearMR performance tiers. For example, ClearMR 9000 is a CMR range with 85-95 times more clear pixels than blurry. The higher the CMR number, the better and less blurry the image quality.

The full breakdown of performance tiers can be found below.

ClearMR Tier	CMR Range
ClearMR 3000	2500 < CMR < 3500
ClearMR 4000	3500 < CMR < 4500
ClearMR 5000	4500 < CMR < 5500
ClearMR 6000	5500 < CMR < 6500
ClearMR 7000	6500 < CMR < 7500
ClearMR 8000	7500 < CMR < 8500
ClearMR 9000	8500 < CMR < 9500
ClearMR 10000	9500 < CMR < 10500
ClearMR 11000	10500 < CMR < 11500
ClearMR 12000	11500 < CMR < 12500
ClearMR 13000	12500 < CMR

By their own admission three years ago, VESA announced they intended their ClearMR programme to “replace Motion Picture Response Time (MPRT) and other methods of blur characterisation.” GtG would fall under that, too.

The tech industry is driven by development, and VESA is well-known as an interface standards body for displays and other consumer electronics. They also dabble in designing monitor mounting systems. So, they know their stuff, and their assertions are nothing to scoff at.

It seems like the current standard will be around for a while longer, though. No further rumblings of change yet!

Need to Upgrade Your Monitor?

Does your monitor have underwhelming response times? Instead of letting the resentment build, take a look at our stock of displays here at Overclockers UK. Perhaps an upgrade is on the cards!

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