Track the moving high-contrast target across dark, mid and light grey backgrounds to spot ghosting, VA dark-level smearing and overdrive inverse ghosting (overshoot), then pick the cleanest overdrive setting on your monitor.
Your Response Time & Overdrive Recommendation
Selected observation
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What this monitor response time test checks
When an object moves across your screen, each pixel has to twist its liquid crystals from the old shade to the new shade before the next refresh arrives. If a 144 Hz monitor refreshes every 6.94 ms but its pixels take 14 ms to finish changing from dark grey to mid grey, the previous frame lingers as a visible trail called ghosting. To speed pixels up, monitors apply a higher voltage pulse called Overdrive (labelled Response Time, Trace Free, AMA or SmartResponse in your monitor's menu). Too little overdrive leaves blurry trails; too much overdrive pushes pixels past their target shade and creates a bright neon outline called inverse ghosting (overshoot).
Before you start
Warm up the monitor for at least 15–20 minutes. Liquid crystal viscosity is temperature-dependent; a cold room makes response times noticeably slower and exaggerates ghosting on both IPS and VA panels.
Confirm your display is running at its full native Hz using our refresh rate test. Hold-type eye tracking blur at 60 Hz looks blurry even on a 0.03 ms OLED panel.
Open your monitor's on-screen display (OSD) to the Overdrive / Response Time setting so you can flip between Normal, Fast and Fastest while watching the moving target.
How to run the test
Set speed to 960 px/s and background to Mid grey. Smoothly track the top moving target across the screen with your eyes (do not stare at a fixed spot).
Switch through each Overdrive level in your monitor's OSD. Look at the left (trailing) edge of the dark, white and blue bars.
Switch the background dropdown to Dark grey to check whether deep blacks leave a long dark shadow (common on VA panels), then switch to Light grey to make sure your chosen overdrive mode doesn't produce a bright white halo.
Select what you observed above to generate your overdrive recommendation and downloadable report.
How to read your results (ghosting vs inverse ghosting)
Optimal overdrive (usually "Normal" or "Fast")Transitions finish inside one refresh window without dark trails or bright halos.Under-driven pixels ("Off" or slow VA panel)Dark shades take 15–30 ms to clear, leaving a dark shadow behind moving objects.Over-driven pixels ("Extreme" / "Fastest")Excess voltage overshoots target brightness, creating an distracting bright corona.
Brand
OSD Setting Name
Best All-Around Setting (60–240 Hz VRR)
Setting to Avoid (Marketing "1 ms" Trap)
LG UltraGear
Response Time
Fast (or Normal at 60 Hz)
Faster
ASUS ROG / TUF
Trace Free / Variable OD
60 (or Level 3)
100 / Extreme
Dell / Alienware
Response Time
Fast
Super Fast / Extreme
Gigabyte / MSI
Overdrive / Response Time
Picture Quality / Balanced / Fast
Speed / Fastest
BenQ Zowie
AMA
High
Premium (at lower frame rates)
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When results can be misleading
Staring at a fixed point vs eye tracking: Sample-and-hold displays only produce motion blur when your eyes smoothly follow the moving object. If you stare at the center of the screen while the target flies past, your retina smears the image differently.
Variable refresh rate (VRR) at low fps: An overdrive setting tuned for 165 Hz often overshoots badly when a demanding game drops to 65 fps. Test your chosen overdrive setting on both the Native lane and the 60 fps lane.
Pursuit camera shutter speed: If you photograph the target with a phone to document ghosting, move the camera sideways along with the target so the white sync tick marks at the top of the lane stay vertical and unstreaked, using a shutter speed around 4 divided by your refresh rate (e.g., ~1/30 s at 120 Hz).
Response time test vs related tests
Pixel response time affects motion blur, not how quickly your mouse click registers—to test signal latency, use our input lag test. To make sure your browser is actually receiving every frame at high Hz, check the refresh rate test. And if colors shift when you lean left or right, check your panel's off-axis behavior in the viewing angle test.
Frequently asked questions
Why do almost all gaming monitors claim "1 ms response time" if they still ghost?
Manufacturers measure that 1 ms figure on a single best-case grey-to-grey transition with overdrive cranked to the maximum "Extreme" or "Fastest" setting—a mode that produces severe inverse ghosting (bright halos) in real games. Across all transitions at a usable overdrive setting, a good Fast IPS panel averages 3.5 to 6 ms GtG, a VA panel averages 6 to 18 ms (slowest on dark shades), and only OLED panels achieve true ~0.1–0.3 ms transitions.
What is the difference between GtG and MPRT?
GtG (Grey-to-Grey) measures how long a pixel takes to transition from one shade to another (typically 10% to 90% luminance). MPRT (Moving Picture Response Time) measures how long a frame remains visible to your eye—it is determined by refresh rate and backlight strobing (ULMB, DyAc, ELMB), not just liquid crystal speed.
Why does dark text smear when I scroll on a dark-mode website?
That is classic VA black-level smearing. Vertical Alignment (VA) panels have high 3000:1 contrast because their crystals block light tightly on pure black, but stepping out of 0% black to 10–20% dark grey takes 20 to 35 ms. Raising overdrive one notch or slightly increasing your monitor's Black Equalizer / Shadow Boost lifts pure black into a faster transition zone.
Should I turn on backlight strobing (ELMB / DyAc / MPRT)?
Backlight strobing flashes the backlight off while pixels are transitioning, dramatically sharpening fast motion at 120 Hz+. However, it locks brightness lower, disables variable refresh rate on many monitors, and can cause eye strain for flicker-sensitive users.
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