FPS and Image Delay.. lag

if a game i play says it averages 100fps, do i net 97fps assuming my display has 3fps of lag? and if so, is that equal to 97fps from some other rig with a monitor that has 0 lag?

anyone?

idk what you are asking, but why do you care? if the games are playable then be happy is the rule of thumb

my monitor (3008WFP) has lag and i'm trying to figure out if it really matters. is monitor lag absolute or is it something you can compensate for?

i'm not sure how to explain what i'm thinking

I'm no expert, but I'd say that since input lag is the time it takes for the MONITOR to display the image the computer is sending it your proposed equation (100-3=97FPS) does not work. The computer will render the image at 100FPS regardless of the monitor.

If your monitor has 3FPS of input lag then it will always have it, regardless of what your computer is getting for a particular game.

The best way to see if this would be a problem would probably be to just play a game and find out.

The reason you have lag is because the 3008wfp has an upscaler built in that can not be disabled even at native res (it takes the image and tries to make it "better"). This is why i got rid of my xhd3000: I could not handle the mouse lag as my primary gaming display.

leftheaded,
You seem to have a slight misconception of 'lag'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Input_lag
Imagine your pc cables as streets and the images as cars:
With a CRTs the cars would zip through the cables with light speed and splat onto the glass screen without delay.
In your display there's a little policeman holding up the images checking tire pressure, ID ect. (resolution, scaling, color, whatever), so there will always be a queue of 3 standing still inside your monitor before being fired into the screen, holding up the rest which will arrive at the screen with 3 frames delay.
The cars will look the same coming onto the screen with or without lag, they'll just arrive at different times depending on the amount of congestion they went through.
The problem is, one image could carry the information 'warning someone wants to shoot you!' which could be held up until after the bullet is already to close to your scull to be dodged.
(if there was 208ms time for a reaction (slightly over average reaction time, hard to intercept but possible) the time window would be decreased to 160ms (impossible to dodge for an average person))
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaction_time
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminal_ballistics

And with your LCD there's likely a limit to 60 pictures per second so the 3008 will discard 1/3 of the images you send it. (actually that will happen before the signal leaves the PC which will send a 60Hz signal if configured correctly)

Lag and frame rate are completely separate things, but if you want to equate it with fps, 3 frames of lag feels more like 20 fps, except without the choppiness. Motion will still be smooth, but it feels less responsive. 2 frames feels more like 30 fps, and 1 frame feels like having vsync enabled. This is all assuming 60 Hz.

Just see it this way: While everyone with a lag-free screen is aiming for your head on frame 100, you are still walking around the corner with frame 97 on you screen. Even if you stop walking in the game, you are still going for three frames.

Basically, how late the screen is drawing the picture VS. what is actually happening in the computer.

it's definitely a nuisance in cod4. when i play on servers with kill cam enabled i always feel like they were "ahead" of me when i watch the replay. it's like their screen saw me, before my screen saw them. i'm not talking about visual reaction time. it literally looks like the time/events unfolded different from my original play

sooooooooooo....... now that we know that.

can i mitigate monitor lag or not? if i juice up my fps even higher can i minimize that "lag" i notice during the kill cam? OR do i have to switch displays to get rid of this?

thanks for all the help guys... really useful info here

You'll have to switch displays.

The only way you could change the lag of a monitor would be to rip it apart and change the controller board... changing the whole monitor will be a lot easier.

alright cool. i'm going to sell the 3008WFP and get something else. maybe the 3007WFP-HC? i really like large, high res displays... 1920, 24" is as small as i would go