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Does Your LCD Play Catch-Up To Your Mouse?

Posted by timothy on from the it-wants-to-eat-your-pointer dept.

Dishes of Ryan writes "I fell in love with the idea of an LCD monitor, so I ended up buying a nice, shiny Dell 2001FP. However, nowhere, and I mean *nowhere* did I read about LCDs having an input lag on them. For instance, if I scoot the mouse across the screen, there is a noticeable delay between when I move the mouse and when the cursor moves. To prove it to people, made a video showing exactly what I mean. You can almost forget being king of the hill on twitch FPS games like Unreal Tournament. Are there any other Slashdotters out there that are as annoyed as I am? What did you do?"

10 of 691 comments (clear)

  1. Need a different monitor by AKAImBatman · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No offense, but you need to get another monitor. I notice no "lag" between my iBook and CRTs, nor do I notice any lag on my new 17" KDS for my desktop. Having developed a few video games and GUIs, I have a fairly well trained eye. I can see the problem in the video, but I see no such problem on my systems.

    Conclusion? Dell buys parts from the lowest bidder. Ergo, they are the lowest quality. Therefore, you need a better monitor.

    Sorry.

    --
    Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
    1. Re:Need a different monitor by Spy+Hunter · · Score: 4, Insightful
      I have this monitor, and it causes no lag on my machine. Dragging windows is just as instant as it is on a CRT, and most games are quite responsive. I'll admit I haven't put it side-by-side with a CRT, but I am quite sensitive to mouse lag (I refuse to use a USB mouse on my machine because for some reason it causes noticable lag, perhaps due to dodgy USB hardware/drivers).

      P.S. This monitor is awesome and I would recommend it to anybody. Great for gaming, watching movies, anything.

      --
      main(c,r){for(r=32;r;) printf(++c>31?c=!r--,"\n":c<r?" ":~c&r?" `":" #");}
    2. Re:Need a different monitor by ZenShadow · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Funny, I feel the same way about CRT's as you do about LCD's. One of the following is probably true:

      (a) You've been running the panels in non-native resolutions. Yes, a 1600x1200 LCD does like like absolute shit at 1280x1024.

      (b) You've been using a poorly adjusted VGA-connected LCD panel. I have had analogue panels where I couldn't get rid of the ghosting (though my 15" Multisync 1530v looks fine). DVI makes all the difference in the world. The 21.3" Samsung that's sitting next to the multisync looks better than any monitor ever could.

      Fuzzy? Not on your life. Oh, and turn that ClearText crap off. It'll help. A lot.

      --ZS

      --
      -- sigs cause cancer.
  2. What is this, a newsgroup?!?!? by coupland · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Since when was /. an online PC troubleshooting forum? Any doofus knows LCD screen don't suffer from "lag" -- why doesn't he call Dell or ask on a newsgroup, not take out an article on the front page of Slashdot???

  3. Re:Something just occurred to me. by Joe+Tennies · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'll have to say BS on this. My suggestion is to borrow a second CRT and hook it up the same way. Most likely the lag will still be there. I have no idea what OS as the video is down. My answer is to upgrade the video drivers and check for some stupid setting being messed up.

  4. Re:I bet "Dishes of Ryan" was using a USB mouse... by Andy+Dodd · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I have never seen lag attributable to a USB mouse.

    In face, USB mice typically lag LESS than PS/2 mice because they update their position far more often.

    The option in games isn't "REDUCE MOUSE LAG", it's "SMOOTH MOUSE", which is specifically designed around the problem of mice with low update rates (namely PS/2 mice, and in some cases REALLY crappy USB mice can have a slower update rate than a PS/2 mouse but it's RARE.)

    --
    retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
  5. Re:Um, no. by kzinti · · Score: 4, Insightful

    My guess is that there is something wrong with the video drivers, or the mouse drivers, or some other part of his computer that's causing these problems.

    If I remember the specs I saw when I was shopping for an LCD monitor about 18 months ago, LCD update rates are characterized in tens of milliseconds. The ones I was considering were in the 20 to 28 ms range. That's between one and two screen refreshes at 60 Hz. That's fast enough not to be noticeable.

    If the monitor were causing the mouse to have a noticable lag, then everything else would appear to lag too. The guy needs to do some other tests - if he brings up a window and types, do the characters appear to be delayed too?

    I'm with you - I think it's his mouse driver or some sort of strange interaction between the mouse driver and something he installed with the new drivers.

  6. It's the mouse, stupid! :) by mrshowtime · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I have owned several Dell displays and have had no problems. I HAVE had lot of problems with "mice" over the years. In fact I had to replace my first generation Intellimouse optical wireless as it just did not work well with my new system. I would put the blame on the mouse, more than the LCD screen. It's amazing that this obviously minor problem has gotten so much attention: I.E. try another mouse before filming yourself and complaining to the entire internet community. Heck, I was having problems all around till I unplugged my bluetooth adapter.

    --
    "Jeremy, you need to get to an internet cafe and cut and paste some appropriate sentiments about me from the world wide
  7. Front page? by AyeRoxor! · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I submit articles about the chips in "missile defense" systems being faulty, and they're shelved. Someone incorrectly configures their cheap monitor and it makes front page? WTF?

    Here's the amazing answer: If it sucks, take it back.

    Shit.

  8. To answer all your questions... by Dishes+of+Ryan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    First of all, thank you, everybody, for taking a look at this. I received a characteristically Slashdotty wealth of "you're an idiot" replies, and a good number of "I didn't read the full article and/or watch the video so I'm jumping to conclusions" replies as well. =) Those of you that read the article and offered your genuine insight, thank you.

    It's all fine, though. I'd like to answer a few randomly culled questions here, and also summarize what I've found based on all the feedback so other potential LCD owners can get a better feel for what they're up against.

    1. It's not the mouse. If you look at the video (which many of you probably couldn't), you'll see that I have a dual-head setup that includes a CRT. It's lightning-quick responsive on the CRT.
    2. As I mentioned in the full article, even when I use a single head setup with just the LCD, the same lag is present. And to those that guarantee switching to a single head CRT on the system will show the same lag. I've tried that in the past, and, again, the CRT is lightning-quick.
    3. I'm running at the native resolution (1600x1200) with things like ClearType off, running over DVI. For that matter, if I do switch it to a non-native res, it still exhibits the same level of lagginess. Same goes with switching it to analog. Same lag.
    4. I've used this LCD with many different computers (laptops, other desktop machines) and the problem replicates itself on every machine, regardless of OS or drivers.
    5. I've seen the same lag on every LCD I've ever seen or used, although the problem is not as great as this one. Examples are my laptop, work computers, family computers, etc. If you think that you don't have a lag, you probably do (compare with a CRT), but you're probably blessed with one that is minimal enough to not be immediately perceptible. My laptop is much more useable for things like games because the lag isn't nearly as bad.
    6. People that use this LCD for gaming that claim they have no problems, I'd suggest you try switching back to a CRT for a comparison. The "feel" will likely immediately clue you in to the difference.
    7. It's not the driver, as guaranteed as you'd like to say it is. I've tried every driver on the planet. Also, see #4 above.
    8. Others recognize this to be an issue as well, with their 2001FPs and others. Some of the comments say that they hate LCDs for this very reason. A good number of people who primarily game have returned their LCDs because it messes them up on games like CS or Unreal Tournament.
    9. To those that think I should have taken this to a troubleshooting forum on Dell or elsewhere, there was apparently an issue posted about it on Dell's site. Someone's solution was to bring it down to a 1280x1024. See #3. Other than Dell's site, I was unable to find mention of it anywhere else, even though, yes, GIMF.

    The overall summary, which you may or may not agree with is: Most LCDs are laggier than CRTs (I'd be jumped in an alley if I went as far as to say *all* LCDs are, but I try to avoid sweeping generalizations). Do your own tests, and come to your own conclusions. If you're a gamer, be careful. And lastly, my Dell 2001FP may in fact be one of the laggiest LCDs in existence, *or* I just received a defective unit.

    Thanks again, everybody, for the replies. I hope this helps some people. I know that I at least saw one person in the comments that learned something new, although it was, in fact, for something unrelated to the immediate post. =)