[SOLVED] Response times: is it mostly ghosting, or do you see what actually happens in the PC with some delay?

[Uliui]

Hi.

So, I'm trying to buy some low-mid range laptop, not marketed for gaming, because these are expensive, and I don't even need a high end processor and GPU.

First of all, it's really hard to get to know about laptop screens' response times, because having so many components listed at once, they never go that much into detail.

But according to a laptop reviews site that performed some testing, they found out that in one that's very similar to mine (same brand and series), the response time from black to white is 29.2ms and from 50% grey to 80% grey, it's 37.6ms.

So as far as I know, this is bad. And with the limited information available about screens on laptops, I could see that it's a bit hit or miss, like, some low range laptops with cheap, low quality, low resolution panels have better response times, but overall, most laptops are bad on this aspect, unless they're high end or marketed for gaming.

I mostly play an old game that can run on most processors and isn't really graphics intensive, but fast reaction times are important on it.

So, I wanted to know what the effects of such a response time are. I'm not completely sure how it works. If it's mostly just some ghosting but you see everything in real time, or at least you see how the pixels start changing in real time but see the "final result" with a bit of delay, I guess can deal with that, but it'd be a bit problematic if I literally perceived what happens on the PC 30ms later.

Thanks for the responses and sorry if it's a silly question or common knowledge, but it's not clear to me.

 

[QwerkyPengwen]

the response time will just affect the visuals in ways like ghosting.
It has no bearing on input latency.

Refresh rates and frame rates together can effect reaction times though as you may already know, but with a low end laptop as you are describing, all you'll get is 60hz which means that even if the game is running at more than 60fps, you aren't actually getting any more than 60 of those frames displayed per second at any given time so all those extra frames are mostly useless, except that if you are OK with screen tearing, you can run a game at more frames than the monitor can display, and due to the extra frames per second, the frame times go down internally and this can result in lower input latency.

Honestly though, you would have a better G2G response time from a basic old HDTV lol.

But yeah, most likely some kind of ghosting may happen, but it won't affect your input latency.
however, if the ghosting is bad enough, it can affect your ability to perceive whatever is happening on screen in a prompt enough manner which will impact your reaction time.

That's all I really have to share on the matter without going into super fine detail about response times vs. input latency vs. refresh rates vs. frame rates.

 

[QwerkyPengwen]

Oh, and I guess I got lost in what I was saying lol, no. The response times don't have anything to due with display latency either since there is no post image processing being done before the visuals reach the display.
Unlike an HDTV with the supposed 120hz/240hz mode that takes the image that is incoming and does a post processing effect on it to make it appear to be smoother or higher frame rated, and this post processing effect means that what you are seeing on your TV isn't happening in real time, and you will notice it when gaming on say a console due to you pressing a button and waiting for the image on screen to react, but of course won't notice it when watching things like sports that you have no input on and are just viewing.

The visual latency of a display actually displaying the content it is being given when it comes to monitors and built in screens on laptops has never been so bad that you actually notice it at all for as long as I can remember, so I think you'll be fine in that regard.

 

[Uliui]

So from what I understood from your explanation, I was mixing up input latency with reaction times, and I'll see everything in real time, but just with a little bit of ghosting, as in, the transition from one color to another will be a bit more noticeable because it'll take longer.

Thanks for your detailed response, I appreciate it! I'll leave this open just for another day just in case someone wants to add something else.