FragTek
New member
This little snippet is courtesy of XS.
The Truth About Response Times:
The problem with response times is that companies quote their monitor's with the best possible response time and not its average response time.
This is further complicated by the fact that response times on different panels means different things.
Currently, these are the different LCD panels on the market:
* TN
* S-IPS
* PVA/MVA.
Depending on the type of panel, there can be large differences in the monitor's response time.
Response times are measured on how fast a pixel changes from black to white or grey to grey.
Traditionally, a 25ms S-IPS LCD panel works as fast as a 16ms TN panel for the wide range of black to light grey.
Only when a pixel is going from pure black to pure white was the 16ms TN panel actually faster.
On the other hand, a PVA or MVA monitor advertised at 25ms when going from black to white may very well need 80ms to transition from black to grey!
Since then, TN panels have been pushed to the lowest response times of any other panel... the fastest ones today rates at 4ms.
TN panels have become the "gamer's panel" for some time because it sacrifices colour representation, image quality and viewing angles for the best response time possible. All these panels display 6-bit colour, which unlike the other panels, means poorer colour quality.
This isn't a problem in games as the 6-bit spectrum offers more than enough colour accuracy to match even the most graphically demanding game out there. However, for watching movies, picture editing or even general desktop use, the difference from these panels to the S-IPS and PVA/MVA is noticeable.
S-IPS panels typically offer good viewing angles with accurate 8-bit colour representation. Screen contrast, however, remains poorer than other panels.
With recent advances in TN and PVA/MVA panels, these screens have been left behind as they remain slower than TN panels and offer less visual quality than PVA/MVA panels.
Latest news within the industry suggests these panels will soon be discontinued.
Traditionally, PVA/MVA panels on the other hand are famed for deep black levels, superb contrast ratios and 8-bit colour... all at the expense of speed.
Recently, however, MVA panels have made a huge technological leap with the development of very fast 8ms panels. The average response times on this panels are better than 8ms TN panels.
PVA panels are commonly seen on older & larger LCD displays. Although they offer similar colour and picture quality as a MVA panel, they haven’t improved significantly in terms of response time. Recent reviews suggest that the fastest PVA panels rated at 16ms fail to show signficant improvement in response time over older 25ms PVA panels
When you consider that the PVA/MVA panels retain their great image quality and perform better at the same refresh rate, these panels are likely to soon phase out both the S-IPS and TN panels.
Here is a graph comparing one of the fastest panels from Samsung's TN panels vs. AU Optronic's 8ms MVA panel.
This essentially compares TN vs.MVA at 8ms, not Samsung vs AU Optronic
-Chart from THG; modified by Turok-
The Truth About Response Times:
The problem with response times is that companies quote their monitor's with the best possible response time and not its average response time.
This is further complicated by the fact that response times on different panels means different things.
Currently, these are the different LCD panels on the market:
* TN
* S-IPS
* PVA/MVA.
Depending on the type of panel, there can be large differences in the monitor's response time.
Response times are measured on how fast a pixel changes from black to white or grey to grey.
Traditionally, a 25ms S-IPS LCD panel works as fast as a 16ms TN panel for the wide range of black to light grey.
Only when a pixel is going from pure black to pure white was the 16ms TN panel actually faster.
On the other hand, a PVA or MVA monitor advertised at 25ms when going from black to white may very well need 80ms to transition from black to grey!
Since then, TN panels have been pushed to the lowest response times of any other panel... the fastest ones today rates at 4ms.
TN panels have become the "gamer's panel" for some time because it sacrifices colour representation, image quality and viewing angles for the best response time possible. All these panels display 6-bit colour, which unlike the other panels, means poorer colour quality.
This isn't a problem in games as the 6-bit spectrum offers more than enough colour accuracy to match even the most graphically demanding game out there. However, for watching movies, picture editing or even general desktop use, the difference from these panels to the S-IPS and PVA/MVA is noticeable.
S-IPS panels typically offer good viewing angles with accurate 8-bit colour representation. Screen contrast, however, remains poorer than other panels.
With recent advances in TN and PVA/MVA panels, these screens have been left behind as they remain slower than TN panels and offer less visual quality than PVA/MVA panels.
Latest news within the industry suggests these panels will soon be discontinued.
Traditionally, PVA/MVA panels on the other hand are famed for deep black levels, superb contrast ratios and 8-bit colour... all at the expense of speed.
Recently, however, MVA panels have made a huge technological leap with the development of very fast 8ms panels. The average response times on this panels are better than 8ms TN panels.
PVA panels are commonly seen on older & larger LCD displays. Although they offer similar colour and picture quality as a MVA panel, they haven’t improved significantly in terms of response time. Recent reviews suggest that the fastest PVA panels rated at 16ms fail to show signficant improvement in response time over older 25ms PVA panels
When you consider that the PVA/MVA panels retain their great image quality and perform better at the same refresh rate, these panels are likely to soon phase out both the S-IPS and TN panels.
Here is a graph comparing one of the fastest panels from Samsung's TN panels vs. AU Optronic's 8ms MVA panel.
This essentially compares TN vs.MVA at 8ms, not Samsung vs AU Optronic
-Chart from THG; modified by Turok-
