News

Sep 04, 2023

What Is Monitor Ghosting and How Do You Fix It?

Is your monitor displaying visual artifacts? Don't head straight to the trash heap. There might be a way to fix it. Looking at video artifacts while gaming is any gamer's nightmare, and monitor

Is your monitor displaying visual artifacts? Don't head straight to the trash heap. There might be a way to fix it.

Looking at video artifacts while gaming is any gamer's nightmare, and monitor ghosting is one that tops the list. Not only does ghosting make gaming distracting, but it also affects how you consume content.

So, what do you do when a silhouette of delay follows your every move when you play your favorite FPS title?

Do you rush to the monitor service team to get the issue resolved, or is there something that you can do to fix monitor ghosting on your own?

Monitor ghosting is a visual defect seen on monitors while playing fast-paced games or viewing content with expeditious action. This fast-paced nature of the content causes the pixels on the screen to give up— causing a shadow/trail of the object to be seen behind it. So as the name suggests, monitor ghosting is a visual defect that causes a ghost trail of the object to be visible behind it.

But why do the pixels on your display give up, and why does monitor ghosting occur? To understand why ghosting happens, we must understand how a display works and how data is sent from your CPU/GPU to the display.

You see, your GPU/CPU is responsible for creating the visuals you see on your screen. Once created, the CPU/GPU sends this information to your monitor based on its refresh rate. The monitor then collects the information and displays the visuals on the screen.

Therefore, if your monitor has a refresh rate of 60 hertz, information on the visuals is sent to the display every 16.6 milliseconds. Once the information is received, the monitor gets to work and starts manipulating the millions of pixels on the screen to display the received images.

This brings up the next question, how does the monitor change the images displayed on the screen every 16 milliseconds? Each of the millions of pixels on your monitor comprises sub-pixels consisting of three colors: red, green, and blue. A pixel can display any color using these three colors by changing its sub-pixel brightness. To do this, monitors use liquid crystals.

Liquid crystals are special compounds containing molecules whose orientation can be changed by applying a voltage. This change in orientation changes the amount of light that can pass through the liquid crystal. Due to this change, the brightness of each sub-pixel can be changed, and the monitor can display any image on the screen.

But there is a catch here: although the monitor can change the brightness of each pixel, the liquid crystals take some time to react to the change in the voltage, and this delay is known as the monitor's response time. Therefore, if your monitor has a response time of 20 milliseconds, then the liquid crystals on your monitor take 20 milliseconds to react to the changes in voltage. This delay causes ghosting on your monitor.

As explained earlier, if your display has a refresh rate of 60 hertz, then new information reaches the display every 16 milliseconds. That said, the liquid crystals in the display can't react to the information so fast, as they have a response time of 20 milliseconds. Due to this, your monitor shows a shadow of a fast-moving object as the liquid crystals have not changed the brightness levels, and part of the older image is still visible on the monitor.

We have taken the example of a monitor with a 60-hertz refresh rate, and as the refresh rate goes up, the response time of the liquid crystals plays a more crucial role. Therefore, ghosting can increase if you have a monitor with a high refresh rate.

Now that we know why ghosting happens, we can look at ways to solve it. That said, before trying to fix the issue, it's important to understand that every monitor in the market uses different types of liquid crystal technology, offering different advantages and disadvantages.

Broadly speaking, monitors use three types of liquid crystals: Twisted Nematic (TN), In-Plane Switching (IPS), and Vertical Alignment (VA). Each of these liquid crystal technologies offers different response times.

TN panels offer the lowest response time—being the most responsive, while VA panels are the slowest. IPS panels are somewhere in between the two when it comes to response time.

Therefore, if you look at it, each monitor will offer different levels of monitor ghosting based on its technology. So, if you are planning to buy a new monitor and don't want to fall prey to monitor ghosting, it's best to test the monitor for ghosting using the UFO test.

If you are satisfied with the results of the test, you can go ahead and buy the monitor. If not, we advise you to keep looking.

But what do you do if your monitor shows these visual artifacts? Don't worry; we have a set of solutions to help you solve monitor ghosting.

Your GPU creates the visuals you see on screen. If there is an issue with how these graphics are created or sent to the display, you are bound to see some ghosting on your screen.

Hence, it is a good idea to update the GPU drivers on your system before blaming the monitor for the ghosting issues you are seeing.

In addition to this, you should also update the drivers on your system, as it could also solve the ghosting issues you are experiencing.

The cable connecting your monitor to the system is responsible for transmitting all the video data to the monitor. So, if the cable is damaged, you are bound to get some video artifacts while you game on your monitor.

Therefore, it is advised that you check the wire for any physical damage or fraying of the cables. If you find any external damage, then simply changing the cable could solve the problems that you are facing.

In addition, you can also look at the connectors on the two ends, and if they show signs of corrosion or are damaged in some way, it's best to replace the cable itself.

If you are using an HDMI cable for connecting to your display, it is advised to shift to a display port as it offers better video quality when compared to HDMI.

All the wireless devices you have connected to your system use radio waves to communicate with one another. In some cases, these waves can interfere with the signal sent over the video cable and cause ghosting.

So, if you have a lot of wireless devices connected to your system, you can disconnect them one at a time and see if it fixes the issues you are facing. Not only this, but you can also try to move around the devices that are connected to your system and see if ghosting reduces.

As explained earlier, a higher refresh rate can increase monitor ghosting. So, if you want to reduce ghosting, you can decrease the refresh rate on your system. Doing this will give the pixels on your monitor more time to react, reducing ghosting.

When it comes to display settings, you can tweak video settings to reduce ghosting. Right from contrast ratios, gamma levels, brightness values, and shadow correction to color values, your display allows you to make several changes to improve display quality.

Although changing these parameters does not reduce ghosting at a physical level, these changes can reduce the amount of ghosting visible on the screen. For example, decreasing the contrast ratio can reduce the ghosting you see, as the difference between the brightest and darkest pixels is reduced.

As explained earlier, your monitor uses voltages to change the orientation of liquid crystals. Pixel overdrive increases this voltage so that the response time of the liquid crystals is reduced.

Most monitors offer three different intensities for pixel overdrive, and selecting the right one can help reduce ghosting drastically. That said, increasing pixel overdrive can cause inverse ghosting as the increased voltage can cause the pixels to overshoot the colors they are supposed to show.

If you have tried everything listed above and feel that the ghosting on your monitor hasn't reduced, it is best to contact the technical support team for your monitor.

In some cases, a damaged video port could cause ghosting, and such defects can only be fixed by changing the video decoding hardware on your monitor.

Introducing a visual defect that follows fast-moving objects, monitor ghosting is a video artifact that makes your gaming experience less rewarding. That said, ghosting is not a permanent defect like pixel burn-in, and it can be fixed by tweaking the settings on your system/display.

Not only this, modern gaming displays come with overdrive technology that is designed to fix ghosting. So, if you are tired of monitor ghosting, tweak your monitor settings, but if that does not fix the issue, you might need to get a new monitor.

Nischay is an Electronics and Communication engineering graduate with a knack for simplifying everyday technology. He has been making tech easy to understand since 2020, working with publications like Candid.Technology, Technobyte, Digibaum, and Inkxpert.In addition, Nischay loves automotive technology and has been working as an Engineer with Stellantis for the last two years. He has adept knowledge about the features that makes today's cars safer and easier to drive.