Ghosting Test
Displays moving high-contrast test objects against customizable light, dark, and medium gray backgrounds to visually expose slow liquid crystal response times (ghosting / smearing).
- Track the moving object smoothly with your eyes across the screen.
- Inspect the trailing edge of the object for faint trailing shadows (ghosting).
- Switch between Dark, Medium Gray, and Light backgrounds to test different pixel luminance transitions.
- Increase velocity up to 1920 px/s to exaggerate trailing behavior.
What This Test Checks
- Liquid crystal pixel response time trailing (ghosting / smearing).
- Rise and fall transition lag behind high-contrast moving objects.
- Differences in pixel speed across dark, medium gray, and bright backgrounds.
- Behavior under various velocities (240 px/s up to 1920 px/s).
How to Perform the Test
- Smoothly track the moving shuttle or test object with your eyes.
- Inspect the trailing edge of the object for faint trailing smears.
- Cycle through dark, medium gray, and light backgrounds to evaluate various GtG transitions.
- Adjust monitor OSD Overdrive settings to find the optimal balance between ghosting and overshoot.
What to Look For
- Ghosting trail: A dark or faint shadow behind the object indicates slow pixel response time.
- Black smearing: Especially common on VA panels, where transitions from black take unusually long.
- Clean edges: Fast IPS, Fast VA, and OLED panels exhibit minimal to zero trailing behind moving objects.
Common Display Problems & Diagnostic Guidance
VA Panel Black Smearing
VA panels offer outstanding static contrast (3000:1 to 5000:1) but have notoriously slow dark-level transitions, causing dark scenes in games to smear visibly.
Ghosting vs Eye-Tracking Motion Blur
Ghosting is caused by slow pixels physically changing color. Motion blur is caused by your eyes tracking across static sample-and-hold frames. Even a 0ms OLED panel has sample-and-hold blur without high refresh rates or strobing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can ghosting be completely eliminated on an LCD monitor?
Good monitor overdrive tuning can minimize ghosting substantially. However, true zero-ghosting is only achieved on OLED/QD-OLED displays which feature near-instantaneous (sub-0.1ms) pixel transition speeds.
What is the best speed for testing ghosting?
960 px/s is the international display testing baseline standard for ghosting and pursuit-camera analysis.