Faster Monitor Response Time Causes Ghosting?

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1

I had recently purchased a pair of MSI MAG27C6F monitors (I know, not exactly high end gaming monitors, but the price was right) and noticed they have an option in the settings to change the response time separate from Windows refresh rate. I set it to “fastest” and noticed that I get really bad ghosting around solid objects (never characters, strangely enough).

This was really evident when I was standing outside Earthcrawler Mines and was turning to face the big rocks just north of it, I could see a very deep (almost black) shadow following the contours of the rocks when I would turn around and I started noticing it on other things.

After playing with settings in nVidia control panel, Windows, and in game, I hit the reset option on the monitor and it went away. I then tried changing different options and found it was the response time being set to “fastest” that did it.

Any ideas why? I mean, the issue is fixed, I’m just curious at this point.

2

Pixel overdrive does have one caveat: You don’t want to overdo it. Turning your pixel overdrive up too high can create unwanted visual artifacts through a phenomenon called inverse ghosting or overshoot. The pixel tries to transition too quickly and ends up overshooting the correct value, creating a “halo” or “inverse ghosting” effect of bright discoloration around onscreen objects.

3

As battlecruisr said, it definitely sounds like pixel overdrive on the display itself.

For instance, this monitor I’m using is a 144hz display, but it also allows for it to be overclocked to 165hz. Windows sees refresh rates the all the way to 165hz. If I use it at 165, it thankfully still looks fine on this specific display, but on another screen of mine, it will cause ghosting issues.

I recommend you look your exact model up and read the fine print because the refresh rate they advertise likely has some fine print specifying that it’s an overclocked mode.