what is input lag?

[TechStuey05]

what is input lag and should I be concerned about it when I buy a new monitor? I see this word thrown around alot around here and was curious what the word meant. Is this mostly with larger monitors in the 23"+ category or do smaller ones suffer from the same thing? Does input lag effect games? thanks alot stu

 

[xenogears]

Input lag means your mouse pointer is trailing your action slightly. Like if you started your mouse from one corner of the monitor and then dragged it to the other corner, you would have reached that corner with your motion slightly faster than the arrow moves there. Someone can probably explain more about it.

 

[Sluuut]

I recently updates the article about Input Lag on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Input_lag

Input lag is a phenomenon experienced in relation to LCD displays, as known at this point the only TFT panels which are experiencing Input Lag are overdrive panels. These include: S-PVA, S-MVA, and Overdrive TN. It seems that S-PVA panels have more Input Lag then S-MVA panels. IPS, S-IPS and AS-IPS panels do not or almost not have Input Lag.

While the response time of the display is usually listed in the monitor's specifications, there is often a delay between an operation being performed and the corresponding image being displayed on the screen.

This property is particularly irritating in relation to online gaming. Since it is a complex problem not related to ghosting or other side effects of the display itself, but instead the speed of communication between a graphics card, the monitor, and the operation of the keyboard and mouse by the user.

The cause of this Input Lag has not been found specificly yet. Some people claim that when a person is not running native resolutions on the TFT, the monitor has to calculate and use some algoritm to scale-up the picture. Input lag may decrease when running in navite resolution, or increase when running in other resolutions.

Is Input Lag noticeable? It depends on the monitor, some have around 10 miliseconds Input Lag, some have 40 or even 60 miliseconds. Some people say it's very noticeable, others claim to have gamed on CRTs for the last few years and now have a TFT with Input Lag but do not notice it.

There are ofcourse other factors that may increase the notice of Input Lag, for instance the type of game you are playing on your monitor. For instance, WOW (World of Warcraft) should be good playable on such a monitor, while CSS (Counterstrike Source) online, won't be.