Our New Monitor Testing Is The New Gold Standard

Our old monitor test bench doesn't paint the full picture of monitor response times. The tests missed important information such as inverse ghosting, red phosphor trailing, overshoot, and small pixel-level details that, in aggregate, become a much bigger nuisance. Our updated pursuit pattern validates user experiences we've long seen reported and confirms the data collected from our response time testing. Plus, while other patterns exist in the testing sphere, none are as detailed as ours.
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:17 Motion Blur Overview
3:16 The New Pursuit Pattern
4:47 Red Phosphor Trailing
5:39 The VA’s Worst Nightmare
7:15 Overshoot
11:11 Motion Clarity
11:54 Pursuit Photography
12:48 Conclusion
For more details about our testing process, check out our article:
www.rtings.com/monitor/learn/...
Join our team: grnh.se/d8765e317us

[@BillyONeal]

Monitors Unboxed: We include cumulative deviation in our results RTINGS: Hold our beer

[@GewelReal]

Better late than never lol

[@darudesandstorm7002]

They both copied Aperture Grille, and have thankfully acknowledged his pioneering contributions to this much better method.

[@anomyymi0108]

HUB didn't come up with this method btw kzbin.info/www/bejne/g5O9hpqBpd-Hd5I

[@BillyONeal]

@anomyymi0108 they certainly didn't come up with it but they're one of the few outlets to use it so extensively

[@iliasvelaoras3038]

monitors unboxed: we will never ever review dell

[@flyingpj]

All of you do a phenomenal job, it is all very appreciated!

[@RTINGScomRD]

We do our best 💪

[@4headgaming448]

This is amazing! I’m so glad that people are finally beginning to listen to Blurbusters and take motion blur seriously. The more awareness, testing and advocacy there is, the more likely these manufacturers will continue to make these improvements mainstream.

[@rickystafford7433]

this is why you just buy a high refresh rate OLED and forget about the rest

[@anabang1251]

Exactly. This is the same reason >60Hz monitors got popular in the first place. More and more people realized how much better high refresh rate can be so the manufacturers were pressured to deliver better and better displays at lower costs.

[@doltBmB]

blur busters are nvidia shills who want 1000 fps the real solution is scanning displays instead of sample and hold

[@4headgaming448]

@doltBmB I assume by scanning displays you mean impulsed or strobed displays? Impulsed displays are indeed great, but a LOT of improvement is needed before they could truly compete with the raw hz method. A lot of people who are sensitive to flickering report having issues with impulsed displays. VRR is an absolute nightmare to try and work with while keeping a constant perceived brightness. And if still using LCDs, response time and optimal overdrive tuning is still a massive concern. Raw hz has all the benefits and none of the drawbacks of impulsing so long as you can actually drive the frame rate (which is getting easier with smarter rendering) If you’re referring to something else or if there are more breakthroughs happening with impulsing, I’m genuinely curious. I have really, really tried to love impulsed displays but each time I’ve come crawling back to fast sample and hold displays with VRR.

[@doltBmB]

@@4headgaming448 no I mean scanned displays, like how CRT's scanned one line at a time. flicker is only visible at 60hz, even 75hz is going to be super smooth let alone 120, 144 etc.

[@jumpman1213]

This video has got to be the cleanest, the most concise representation of the persistence blur. Fantastic job!

[@camryhsalem5139]

Love RTINGS my favorite testing academy.

[@aggies11]

Abby's presentation is wonderful. A video like this could be very boring, but kept it energetic while also understandable.

[@tristanwegner]

Most scientific testing for end consumers I know. great job

[@MrBottleNeck]

As someone who made a thesis that was partially about your site, I'm just glad I don't have to translate this change to customer-friendly-level of comprehensible. Seems like a really great and needed change, but I imagine all the new graphs will be quite the jungle to get through

[@EhNothing]

Thanks rtings and Abby. Your data is the most useful thing on the web to differentiate monitors. Your videos deserve way more views.

[@RTINGScomRD]

Thank you for watching and for the kind words! 😄 This new test should be much more helpful to people to differentiate between monitors!

[@TonyOstrich]

Have you considered automating the movement of the camera? It seems like it shouldn't be that difficult to get some kind of linear motor that would do the trick.

[@jdib]

Calculating speeds for different sizes and resolutions of monitors would be somewhat difficult at scale.

[@gamingmarcus]

@@jdib It literally isn't difficult and you could create a single formula for this.

[@dtibor5903]

​​@@jdibyes very difficult... basic excel and some basic math is hard...

[@GeekProdigyGuy]

​@@jdibcalculating the speed seems trivial? I would imagine the harder parts would be putting the camera at the right distance/height and calibrating the motor to sufficient precision - probably sub-millimeter drift per run is needed.

[@jdib]

yall roasted me, got me feeling bad

[@stevenwilliams5546]

Phenomenal job with the testing, looking forward to the data. PS: love the engaging style of the video, it seems like over the last few months ya'll have made an effort to make videos more entertaining to watch. Keep it up!

[@RTINGScomRD]

Thank you for the kind words! 😄

[@nonProfitJoeRo]

I appreciate the continued evolution of your test suites and the addition of monitors to rtings tests. Keep up the great work!

[@RTINGScomRD]

Thank you very much for the kind words! 😄 We'll never stop looking to improve our tests to help people💪

[@evl619]

Burn-in tests on those new 32" 4K oled monitors, please~

[@RTINGScomRD]

On our test we have: The Dell Alienware AW3423DWF, LG 27GR95QE-B, and Samsung Odyssey OLED G8/G85SB S34BG85! You can see some of the results from the first 10 months on those monitors at the bottom of this page: www.rtings.com/tv/tests/longevity-burn-in-test-updates-and-results

[@evl619]

@@RTINGScomRD Ya, but now both LG and Samsung claim thier latest "Gen 3" panel is more durable. Love the responsive test and I know OLED gonna dominate on those, but zero shadowing on a dirty canvas isn't any better, no?

[@Matt-nv2qg]

@@RTINGScomRD those aren't the new 32" ones for FY24, please add those.

[@GewelReal]

​@@Matt-nv2qgpay them then

[@jolness1]

@@evl619they’ll burn in. Might take a tiny bit longer but if burn in was a problem before, it still will be.

[@aBucketOfPuppies]

Wow, I'm a huge fan of your site, but I'm only learning today that you have a KZbin channel! Great work as always

[@trbdann2]

I've never bought a monitor without checking RTINGS before!

[@Psythik]

I don't buy *any* electronics without checking RTINGS first!

[@jadedgpu]

Love data. 🥰

[@RTINGScomRD]

You're going to LOVE this new update then!

[@xard64]

It's nice to see how far the testing for monitor motion has come. I wonder how well the old "king of motion clarity" CRT handles this kind of testing...

[@thrafkroos]

this is invaluable work you guys do, thank you RTINGS team for the hard work!!!!

[@theSato]

The "Trivial Pursuit" line was fun and clever, props to the writer (or her) on that one. God bless you and Hardware Unboxed for being the driving force of better Monitor reviews. (I appreciate RTINGS' other categories as well, although I have to wonder if the Toaster category is justified over other things not yet covered hahaha)

[@Melchirobin]

Love this new testing. The video suggestion I have is about how to understand all the data published. Most people will understand Red is bad and Green is good but what does it mean and why should you care about it. Just go through a monitor review and talk about each chart that is mentioned and why it is significant. I do not belive there is a video on this yet, the descriptions do a decent job but having a video showing the differences between Gree, Yellow and Red would help a lot.

[@RTINGScomRD]

Thank you for the valuable feedback!

[@michaelseitz8938]

I love how much thought you put into testing and that you reveal the flaws of TV manufacturer's "image quality enhancements". One thing I missed about the background strobing was measuring flicker and lowered brightness. My olde Samsung Q90 offers BFI, but I would never use it because the image flickers like crazy.

[@PPedroFernandes]

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why RTings is absolutely unmatched in product testing

[@MarioGoatse]

There's quite literally no competition for RTINGS, and this is why. It's like the 1998 Chicago bulls playing against Chicago School For Blind Amputees basketball team

[@UnofficialSno]

This is amazing, thank you Rtings

[@FlorinArjocu]

This is like the EuroNCAP safety tests. Add a few more tests and the former 5 stars car barely gets 2-3 stars. It will be the same with monitors after this new test.

[@OmegaBlack999]

Thanks, Abby! What a fantastic update to your testing methodology. Between you guys and your peers at monitors unboxed, we have some amazing information on monitors and televisions now. I really appreciate all the effort you all put into your data. And I really enjoy you as a host. You seem to actually understand your data, and you have a great personality. This is quality content. Thanks again, guys! I look forward to the next one. In fact, idk how I missed this one bc I keep notified about this channel.

[@esper0122]

Good job for sharing such technical informations into fun and easy to understand video. You guys are really awesome 🙌

[@_Wake_Up_If_U_Can]

Well done. Made many of the terms used in monitor reviews easy to understand. Reminds me of when it is my turn to make my wife and I some espresso. Just like many monitors, I frequently over shoot the shot (let the machine push water through the grind until it is clear instead of turning it off while it is milky colored). My 20oz cup can only hold 3 shots mixed with half and half. If I over shoot the shot it takes more room and I can only fit two thus decreasing my morning pick me up experience similar to how low quality monitors decrease the gaming experience. Keep up the great work team Rtings! You are one of my trusted sources of information. Wrote this dry dad joke comment to show support for the team and help with the algorithm.

[@RTINGScomRD]

Haha as a fellow espresso lover, I can understand the struggle 😂 Thank you for watching and the comment! 😄

[@DrakonR]

Great job! Making Canadians proud.

[@ImpressleySnipes]

This is fantastic. Looking forward to the rest of the videos. I would also be interested to see a video of 2 people with different personal speed perception rates comparing notes......

[@anabang1251]

I love what you do for us enthusiasts! Keep it up

[@HazewinDog]

This is great. I always felt like those motion tests were difficult to gauge, but wow... this is a night and day difference. Love it! I'd definitely love to work at Rtings if it wasn't for the fact that I live across the pond! :)

[@adamcern2501]

This is so awesome, rtings! You're doing god's work on motion clarity testing, something not a lot of people even knows is a thing you should look out for! Thank you!

[@IV-A]

Damn damn damn. This is a quality video. KZbin is full of people speaking about refresh rate and response time without any meaning or understanding.

[@GFClocked]

Nice. This is exactly what I wanted!! Thank you

[@RTINGScomRD]

So glad to hear that! 😄

[@just_nyashka]

Great update on the testing methodology!

[@RTINGScomRD]

Thank you, glad you liked it! 😄

[@Photo-Jay]

I saw you guys are using DSLR cameras for the pursuit testing. Now with Global Shutter being available on a consumer non-cinema camera (sadly only the Sony a9III currently), it would make more sense to discount any effects of rolling shutter being present within the image. Now I know that mechanical shutters remove this rolling shutter as a factor, but their problem is the fact that they introduce an effect called shutter shock, blurring the entire image as a result. This is why a motionless electronic shutter setting would be best, and would complete this new test bench of yours. Another thing is, you might want to opt for something like longer macro telephoto lenses (or just straight-up telephoto lenses) capturing images of displays always causes color issues as they capture problematic things like moire patterns and other such oddities. Especially now that your new logo can eek out all sorts of overshoot artifacts, you want to use a lens that has the least amount of distortion (field curvature for focus consistency, barrel or pincushion distortion also needs to be non-existent as much as possible, and also a lens that has chromatic aberrations optically controlled for by the glass lens elements natively, as you have high contrast edges in your test pattern). For this macro lenses are usually constructed in something call an APO-Chromatic fashion, where most distortion is kept to as minimal as possible. Lastly, you need lenses that are sharp across the entire frame as much as possible. It goes without saying you'd want all portions of the test pattern captured with as much clarity as possible to highlight actual differences with motion performance.

[@dtibor5903]

You are clearly a beginner and all of those are absolutely irrelevant and does not affect the test image in any significant amount.

[@playmaka2007]

Ahh yes, I understand some of these words... Please keep doing what you're doing, best reviews in the game and it's not even close. I've trusted you guys on every single high end display purchase I've made and you've never steered me wrong.

[@RTINGScomRD]

Hahaha😂 Thanks for the kind words, we're glad we were able to help! We're hoping people find this huge new monitor update to be helpful as well 😄

[@playmaka2007]

@@RTINGScomRD Absolutely, we'll all learn a lot from this.

[@colbypartridge7942]

This is fantastic! Hopefully testing like this pushes panel manufacturers in the right direction!

[@Duraltia]

Instead of doing the Panning of the Camera manually - Couldn't you whip up a Camera Rig on a suitably long Linear Rail with a Stepper Motor doing it for you with the speed of the motion based on the speed of the Animation and the physical width of the Screen? Have one Dial on the Stepper Controller enter the Width of the Screen and hit the Go Button to let it rip with a second Dial perhaps allowing for minute - just in case - adjustments. Could easily make it portable by powering it from a USB-C Connection allowing for it to be hooked to a Power Bank while still providing a Stationary Solution.

[@noer0205]

Love your work!

[@MikeKasprzak]

This is awesome. Thank you Abby and co.

[@RTINGScomRD]

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it 😄

[@TheCreatorMatt]

I'm interested in RTINGS testing LCD image retention again. I've bought 40+ monitors over the past year and all of them had image retention. Some of it permanent. The Apple studio display is plagued with it. I had it repaired 3 times and within 10 minutes it's always back just from watching youtube.

[@aeropb]

Very impressive, keep up the good work.

[@boringtextreviews]

Keep up the good work!

[@sfranz5413]

More data about display lag is great. I wish we had more data about INPUT lag. For the types of games I play, input lag is the big differentiator. Most monitor companies don't list this information; it seems to be taken for granted.

[@uninfamous]

This is sick! Will this new video be released to the public?

[@guillem8913]

This is awesome, keep it up!

[@lavavex]

im just here to figure out what monitor i need to get next...

[@RTINGScomRD]

👀

[@Zach_Films]

Great work! You guys need a motion controlled slider though

[@ThePwig]

I love the deep dive long form nerds you can find on KZbin. Thanks for this channel

[@RTINGScomRD]

Thank you for watching! 😄

[@thecwwshow8036]

RTINGS is so underrated.

[@nitroxide17]

This is super impressive!

[@wraithwrecker_]

Fascinating stuff. As always, Abby is a great host and presenter.

[@nimbulan2020]

Love to see these improvements. Personally what I'd really like to see though, is testing whether monitors exhibit hot plug disconnect behavior since it's infuriating to deal with on a multi-display system and can be difficult to find out which models do it.

[@Alex-fy7sc]

RTINGS are the best!!!!!!!

[@RTINGScomRD]

😄😄

[@sknaumov]

Rtings reviews are superb, thanks guys for you efforts! But one thing that is gaining attention seems to be missing - contrast ratio measured with certain level of ambient light. In this situation OLEDs no longer have infinite contrast and some of them are even worse than LCDs. Could you add it to your test methodology?

[@FuIIDiveVR]

You guys are catching up to the Chinese channels for level of detail in the reviews. Awesome work!

[@arthur78]

Amazing. RTINGS is the MVP

[@Dia1Up]

The more I learn about monitors, the less I understand

[@RTINGScomRD]

It's a whole world on its own! We're trying our best to explain this as best and clearly as possible 😅

[@tommysheal]

i always go to rtings for monitor/tv reviews. you guys are the pros!

[@MikkoHiiri]

This is brutal, I love it!

[@mako9673]

Good stuff.

[@Collin_J]

Abby slayed this presentation, nice work y'all

[@dancovich]

The improvements on overdrive testing alone are amazing. I have a Samsung Q80T and gaming at 120Hz in gaming nose mode in unusable due to how strong the overdrive is - something I would've liked to know before getting it to game at 120Hz.

[@seefeel2043]

Brilliant!

[@GaryVirta]

nice Keychron!

[@dvlmc]

I'd be interested to see you guys cover the dough spectrum black at some point. The company is sketchy still but at the very least you can buy at b&h nowadays so that becomes less of a concern. Just curious what the glass actually does to the image more than anything else, because if it's good for the image then ideally other manufacturers will give it a try in the future.

[@RTINGScomRD]

We actually ordered the monitor in March 2021, but we cancelled our order in February 2023 since we never received it after multiple delays and no expected arrival date!

[@LutraLovegood]

This new testing methodology can fit so many motion blurs! Is it going to be available to the public? I'd love to try on my monitors. They're VA but the newer, faster one handles the VA torture test much better. The TN image looked almost perfect, though I can't tell exactly since it was on screen for only five seconds and only on a small section of the image.

[@RTINGScomRD]

We plan to, but have to figure a few things out first! So it’s a “yes” we’re just bot sure in the timeline. Hopefully sooner rather than later though!

[@loldatfunny]

great stuff

[@theftking]

Tbh rtings was already the gold standard

[@CTRLerSupport]

This is awesome.

[@RTINGScomRD]

Thank you so much! 😄

[@chadwolf3840]

It’s a crime you guys only have 37k subs with this sort of analysis. Only a matter of time before you guys get to linus levels.

[@alexandergrace]

In certain games, like Apex with those reds on greys you REALLY see it. I have always disabled overshoot for years. Just because you can do this doesn't mean you should haha.

[@Ranguvar13]

Rtings is great for lots of categories but I’ll be watching closely to see if you can match the excellent TFTCentral for monitors. Thanks!

[@RTINGScomRD]

👀

[@ToTheGAMES]

AWESOME!

[@hamzashaikh9310]

Any plans to add oled steamdeck to the new display testbench ?

[@PumatSol]

Only comment I would have is regarding the new color volume test for HDR - many OLEDs have aggressive dimming at high APL, it may be important to account for this by measuring color volume at different window sizes to see how APL affects the color performance

[@noer0205]

Would love to see the AOC 24G2 (both BOE and Panda panel version) review have it's testing Methodology updated to this new and massively improved version! Was a very popular monitor in th 24" value segment for a long time :)

[@RTINGScomRD]

👀

[@ebiooo]

12:40 i wonder why it isn't automated, it's possible to put a motor on it and make a code so that it slows down if it's too fast and vice versa right?

[@Anna_Rae]

Abby is a treasure 💖

[@NoizeeFreed]

It would be fun if you reviewed a monitor of eache technologie to be able to compare them and se hot it evolved overtime, like doing a CRT, plasma TV, CRT projector and so on.

[@RTINGScomRD]

👀

[@BTD12SA]

Could you guys do a review on the aoc 24g4/24g4x (same panel) thanks!

[@RTINGScomRD]

👀

[@Smegheid]

Is there any reason to believe that vertical motion of an image is handled by a display identically to horizontal motion? The test exercises the latter, but doesn’t consider the former. For that matter, it also assumes that right to left motion is the same as the tested left to right. We don’t talk about scanlines any more, but digital screens still don’t update all pixels instantaneously at the same time. There’s still a somewhat analogous mechanism to screen updates that has a bias in its direction, and I’m wondering if there are artifacts incurred by moving the image in a different plane. Obviously it would be hard to come up with a camera setup for the vertical case, but it could be eyeballed by turning the screen 90 degrees and then checked with the existing rig. The results may or may not be interesting, but that’s the point of testing, after all.

[@geoffnaylor3734]

Could you do this testing on TVs as well as monitors?

[@RTINGScomRD]

👀

[@eatbuckshot]

I wonder if it'll help to use a camera with a global shutter such as the latest sony A9 III when getting those images

[@iz723]

RTings is what LTT Labs wishes it was.

[@iMoooDey]

love the website cause of all the data. and your videos. just a small note, leaning forward while presenting something doesnt look that good from our point of view :) either have your stuff where they are and point where you want or be next to the stuff you want to point at that way your not leaning.

[@RelakS__]

Is the test itself available for anyone in the same way as the UFO tests? I did not see any link. In the article I saw only a 4K size pattern.

[@Egleu1]

Are any of your test patterns available to the public to try? I'm particularly interested in the purple and green motion blur one. Also please consider including these tests for TVs as well.

[@LutraLovegood]

Same, I want to try them on my monitors since they're probably never going to be tested since one is a philips and the other has been discontinued ages ago.

[@pillar.1]

same, i want to test my monitors just for the sake of it lol

[@RTINGScomRD]

Not yet! We plan to, but have to figure a few things out first! So it’s a “yes” we’re just bot sure in the timeline. Hopefully sooner rather than later though!

[@cyxceven]

Love it. Now if only the UIs, remote controls, and user experiences of these display devices got the same sort of scrutiny and improvement.

[@evernard4792]

Is there any chance that you guys can post a video/ moving test image similar to blurr busters ufo, so that we can fine tune the overdrive of our monitors/ see how good they are?

[@RTINGScomRD]

We plan to, but have to figure a few things out first! So it’s a “yes” we’re just bot sure in the timeline. Hopefully sooner rather than later though!

[@artysanmobile]

There is a very good reason content creators and quality control techs are provided $40k reference monitors. They are literally ubiquitous in broadcast network use. If I could afford it, my displays would all be of very high specification. That screen is your entire interface to the computer. Akin to the tires on your car. You can only create work output as good as your display.

[@x3d0sx]

I dont understand anything but still, cant stop watching xD

[@RTINGScomRD]

😂

[@scsitransfer]

My question is, why is manual tracking required at all? You could attach the camera rail to a potentiometer that would then cause the image to always be in sync with the current camera position on the screen, Then you attach that to a stepper motor controlled belt to control the camera movement entirely hands free at a pre-defined speed. Voilà, precise motion blur target tracking even Abby can handle.

[@sermerlin1]

Rtings: "Hey look our new shiny display testing methodology! Ain't it just awesome?" Monitor/TV companies: *excessive sweating* I hope this monitor testing is moved onto TV testing as well... Integrate it into the motion testing of TVs... To get better understanding which TVs are best for big screen gaming (since for movies specifically a lot of TVs get a pass if their color/contrast presentation is on spot (good saturation, accurate EOTF tracking, gamma etc...) as for movies each frame is shown for 41ms since movie/show FPS is 23.976 so even with 10/15ms pixel response, motion will still be pristine lol).

[@micnolmadtube]

Will this test image make its way to bb so we can test our own monitors superficially at least?

[@grey4980]

After seeing the "VA's Worst nightmare" I'm curious if it's equally as bad on most monitors with that panel and how noticeable it is day-to-day. These new standards are brilliant

[@BillyONeal]

Most VA is pretty consistently awful at transition times like this with the notable exception of the recent ish high end Samsung panels. The tradeoff for these problems is increased contrast ratio, with VA able to hit ~4000:1 vs IPS ~1000:1. Particularly in HDR scenarios those extra 2 stops of dynamic range can matter! (Samsung appears to have worked around the problem in those high end panels by making the overdrive algorithm understand these differences to drive these slow transitions harder)

[@GewelReal]

Only high-end Samsung VA's are free of those issues. Everything else is god awful to down right horrendous

[@BTD12SA]

13:27 Keychron Q8 👀

[@qwewer6]

Please don't forget to update the Dell G2724D, Thanks

[@RTINGScomRD]

It's on our list!