Monitor Flat

What is an ideal response time and contrast ratio on a flat panel monitor for gaming?

I'm in the market for a new flat panel monitor. I primarily use my computer for gaming. What is an ideal range for response time? What should I be looking for as far as contrast ratio goes? Thanks!

Ideally you want a response time below 4ms. Response time will determine the amount of 'lag' your monitor gets. The more lag your monitor has, the more time it'll take for you to respond.

So how low you'll need also depends on the type of game you're playing. FPS games, fast real time strategy games will require a faster (smaller) response time.

Technically your eyes can only see about 30 frames per second. That's about 33ms. However, a lot of people notice lag with 12ms response time monitors, which shouldn't be noticed! So why?

Most LCD manufacturers 'hard sell' their products. When they say 12ms, that's the SMALLEST they could get. For example, if a player scored 10 goals in 1 game, their agent might sell them as "a player who scored 10 goals in 1 game."

But that doesn't mean that player will score 10 goals in every game! That was under a certain situation. Maybe the opposing team sucked (in LCD terms, certain programs). Maybe they had home court advantage (in LCD terms, ideal temperature).

Summary: Manufacturers often give you the BEST response time, not the AVERAGE response time. It'd be best to compare the averages but the manufacturers don't give you that, so you should go with the lowest best and hope the average is good.

An easy way to remember 'response time' (lower/higher) --- how long will it take the monitor to 'respond' to an action? How long will it take you to 'respond' to an action? This should help you remember whether lower or higher is better.

In comparison, CRTs (the older, fat monitors) have a response time of nearly 0ms.

Contrast Ratio --
Again manufacturers give you the best possible, not the likely/average contrast ratio. Still, usually higher is better.

Contrast Ratio determines the amount of colour differences you'll see. Higher Contrast Ratio = more colours.

Between the two, response time is always more important for fast gaming. But having high contrast ratio means you'll be able to see more shades of colours.

---