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Monitor ghosting is when strange images follow moving objects. This happens a lot when playing games or watching other fast-moving content. You might not notice ghosting when you’re just using your computer or playing slower-paced multiplayer games, but it can be annoying when you’re playing first-person shooting games, racing games, or even just quickly scrolling down a web page. Some displays may be more likely to show ghosting in certain situations, like when the scene is very dark. This can make shadows less clear and make large parts of the screen look smudgy.
Ghosting is annoying, and it may also cause your eyes to get tired if you play for a long time. Any kind of LCD panel, including monitors and TVs, can have ghosting. It happens more often on VA-type LCD panels, which are the most common kind used in TVs. Ghosting shouldn’t be a problem with OLED panels, but self-emissive displays may have a type of temporary (and possibly permanent) image retention on static elements like health bars or news tickers.
Do you play high-end video games with clear graphics and fast-paced action that look slow or broken on your screen? Afterimages and ghosting on a monitor can be a real pain. They can change your experience and ruin the quality of the picture, especially in scenes with a lot of action. If you have ghosting, it might feel like a ghost is trying to mess up your gaming PC time from inside the screen. Monitor ghosting is annoying, but you don’t need an exorcist to fix it. Instead, there are some easy and quick ways to stop ghosting.
Ways to Fix Monitor Ghosting
Check Monitor Refresh Rate
Even though your refresh rate is high, you’re still seeing ghosts? Then you should check to see if your screen is running at its highest refresh rate. By default, some monitors have a lower refresh rate. Here’s how to check your monitor’s refresh rate and change it:
- Click on the Windows “Start” button and open the device settings.
- Go to “System,” then “Displays.”
- Click on “Advanced Display Settings.”
- Look for the “Refresh Rate” option – here you can see and set the refresh rate at will.
Change Monitor Display Settings
Monitor ghosting can also be caused by settings that aren’t set up well. So, it’s a good idea to try different settings to see if they fix or lessen the problem. We suggest changing the following settings:
- Dynamic Contrast / Contrast Enhance
- Motion Smoothing
- Noise Reduction
- Perfect Clear
- Black Equalizer
- Motion Blur Reduction
- Dark Stabilizer
- Game Enhance Mode
Keep in mind that your monitor may call these settings by different names and may not have all of them. You can also play around with the “noise reduction” and “G-Sync” settings in the Nvidia control panel. If it’s AMD, try turning on and off “FreeSync.”
Turn On Overdrive
Turning on your monitor’s overdrive is the most common way to get rid of ghosting. With this setting, you can basically change how fast the response time is. Follow these steps to get to overdrive and turn it on:
- Open the View menu of the monitor. If you do not know how to do this, check the manual.
- In the menu, look for the “Overdrive” setting.
- Once this feature is turned on, you should be able to customize the level of overdrive.
- Gradually adjust the overdrive level. Use the Monitor Ghosting Test to verify results.
- Try different things until you get the best results (as little monitor ghosting as possible).
Invest in a New Monitor
If none of the above solutions work, you’ll probably need to buy a new monitor. The one you have now is either broken or doesn’t have a fast enough response time or refresh rate. When you buy a new monitor, you should look for these things:
Refresh rate: As a general rule, the refresh rate should be as high as possible. The screen will be able to show a new picture much more quickly. This makes the motion smoother and, as a result, makes ghosting less likely to happen. 120Hz should work fine, but 144Hz or higher is better if you want to use the monitor for intensive tasks like editing or gaming.
Response time: Response time works the other way around: the lower the number, the better. If you want to get rid of monitor ghosting for good and have the best gaming experience, get a monitor with a response time of less than 5ms.
Input Lag: Basically, this is how quickly your monitor registers actions. Again, the lower the price, the better. High input lag makes the game feel slow.
Inspect Monitor Cables
Cables that are broken or tangled up can cause a lot of performance issues and could even mess with your monitor. Check the wires that are connected for tears, bends, nicks, and kinks. You can also run your palm across each cable to check for problems you can’t see.
Even if you don’t see any problems, it’s a good idea to make sure you haven’t missed anything by replacing each cable with a new one. This can get pretty pricey, so if you can, it’s a good idea to borrow someone else’s. No matter if the cables are to blame or not, we strongly suggest buying some cable protection measures to make them last longer and make sure problems don’t happen.
Final Words
So here we conclude our article on how to Fix Monitor Ghosting. If you play online games on your desktop computer, ghosting is the worst thing that can happen. Even though the problem isn’t too complicated, it can cause a lot of trouble. But unlike the problem you have with artefacts, this one can be fixed without having to replace any hardware, like the monitor. Let’s look at the steps you need to take to solve the problem. And don’t forget to look at the best monitors for gaming to find the best deals. On PC monitors, ghosting and other image artefacts can be a real pain. They can ruin your experience and make the image quality worse, especially during scenes with a lot of action.