Monitor Motion Blur Test

Press Full Screen and track the moving patterns with your eyes. Five patterns — pursuit bars, moving blocks, multi-speed, scrolling text, and a high-contrast edge — reveal how cleanly your panel handles motion, and whether what you see is blur or ghosting.

New to this? Here’s the plain-English version.

What this test is

Moving patterns you follow with your eyes to see how blurry things get when they move across your screen.

How it helps you

It tells you whether motion looks crisp or smeary — and, crucially, whether a higher refresh rate or a quick settings tweak would fix it.

What we’re checking

Whether moving objects blur uniformly (normal for LCDs) or leave a trailing ghost (a fixable setting, or a genuinely slow panel).

Speed4x

Track the bars with your eyes. Sharp edges = good; a smear or shadow = motion blur.

Track the sweeping bars with your eyes (do not stare at a fixed point). On a fast panel the vertical edges stay sharp; sample-and-hold blur softens them into a smear. Raise the speed to make blur more obvious.

Press F11 or Full Screen · ← → patterns · Esc to exit

How to Run the Test

The key technique: follow the moving object with your eyes, the way you would track an enemy in a game. Staring at a fixed point hides sample-and-hold blur entirely — it only appears when your gaze is in motion.

1Go fullscreen. Press Full Screen for the most accurate evaluation, and track the moving object with your eyes rather than staring at a fixed point.
2Test each speed. Cycle the patterns and speeds. Slower motion shows sample-and-hold blur; faster motion reveals pixel-response ghosting.
3Check the trailing edges. Are edges sharp, or do they smear into the background? Is there a dark shadow following the object or a bright halo ahead of it?
4Try your overdrive levels. Change the OSD overdrive setting while the test runs to see its direct effect on trailing.

Motion Blur vs Ghosting — Not the Same Thing

These terms get used interchangeably, but they are different phenomena with different fixes. Telling them apart is the whole point of this test.

Motion blur (sample-and-hold)

A uniform softening as your eyes track motion, because the panel holds each frame for its full duration. Present on every LCD, even one with 0ms response. Reduced by higher refresh rate or a strobe backlight.

Ghosting (slow response)

A dark or coloured trail behind the object, worst on dark-to-grey transitions (hence VA). Depends on the specific colours moving. Reduced by overdrive tuning, not refresh rate.

What Affects Motion Blur

Refresh rate

The biggest factor. 60→144Hz is dramatic, 144→240Hz meaningful for competitive play, 240→360Hz marginal. Confirm yours with the Hz test.

Response time (GtG)

Slow grey-to-grey (VA at 4–12ms on dark transitions) shows dark trailing even at high refresh rate. Tune it in the ghosting test.

Strobe (ULMB/DyAc/ELMB)

Flashes the backlight between frames to erase sample-and-hold blur — at the cost of brightness and (usually) simultaneous variable refresh rate.

Reading the Test — What You See

What you see	Cause	Fix
Sharp edges, no trail	Excellent motion clarity	None needed
Dark smear behind object	Ghosting — slow pixel response (common on VA)	Increase overdrive
Bright halo ahead of object	Overdrive overshoot — set too high	Reduce overdrive
Uniform blur, no trail	Sample-and-hold — normal on all LCDs	Higher refresh rate / strobe
Persistent blur at all speeds	Slow panel + low refresh rate combined	Panel upgrade for high-motion use

A bright white corona leading the object always means overdrive is too aggressive — drop it one level and retest. Uniform blur with no trail is normal LCD behaviour and only a higher refresh rate or strobe mode will improve it.

Motion Blur FAQ

What causes motion blur on monitors?+

LCD motion blur has two causes. Sample-and-hold persistence — the display holds each frame for its full duration, so your eyes register a blur trail as they track motion. And pixel response ghosting — pixels switching too slowly, leaving a coloured or dark smear. The first affects all LCDs and is reduced by higher refresh rate; the second depends on GtG speed and overdrive.

What is the difference between motion blur and ghosting?+

Motion blur is sample-and-hold — a uniform blur present on all LCDs regardless of response time, reduced by higher refresh rate or a strobe backlight. Ghosting is slow pixel response — a coloured or dark trail behind moving objects, reduced by overdrive tuning or a faster panel. Both show in this test, at different speeds and for different reasons.

Does refresh rate affect motion blur?+

Yes, directly. Each frame is shown for 1/Hz seconds — 16.7ms at 60Hz, 6.9ms at 144Hz, 4.2ms at 240Hz. Shorter display time means a shorter blur trail as your eyes track movement. Going from 60Hz to 144Hz is the single most impactful upgrade for motion clarity.

How do I reduce motion blur on my monitor?+

For sample-and-hold blur: raise the refresh rate, or enable motion blur reduction (ULMB/DyAc/ELMB) if supported. For ghosting/trailing: tune the overdrive setting in your OSD — use this test to find the level that minimises trailing without introducing overshoot coronas.

What is ULMB / motion blur reduction mode?+

ULMB (Ultra Low Motion Blur), DyAc (Dynamic Accuracy), and ELMB (Extreme Low Motion Blur) are strobe backlight technologies that flash the backlight off between frames, mimicking CRT persistence. This removes most sample-and-hold blur at the cost of some brightness and — on most monitors — the ability to run variable refresh rate at the same time. It is most beneficial at 144Hz and above.

Can I have blur but no ghosting (or vice versa)?+

Yes — they are independent. A fast IPS panel at 60Hz shows minimal ghosting but visible sample-and-hold blur. A slow VA panel at 144Hz shows reduced blur but visible dark trailing on dark scenes. That is why identifying which artifact you see determines the right fix.

Is motion blur a defect I can return the monitor for?+

Sample-and-hold blur is inherent to LCD technology, not a defect — it cannot be returned. Excessive ghosting that no overdrive setting can tame may indicate a genuinely slow panel, which is a spec limitation rather than a fault. If motion clarity is critical, choose a high-refresh panel with a strobe mode or an OLED.

Related Monitor Tests

Refresh Rate Test

The biggest lever on sample-and-hold blur

Ghosting Test

The overdrive-tunable trailing artifact

Response Time Test

The GtG speed behind ghosting

Checking a whole new panel?

Run the dead pixel test and browse the full monitor test suite.

Monitor Pixel Test All Monitor Tests