Well, as a casual gamer, I’m not surprised to come across this question. In most gaming platforms, you will come across this question because most of the monitors available today come with a response time of 5ms. As a result, this article aims to give you some insight into whether 5ms response time is good or not for gaming. But what is response time anyway? In simpler terms, it’s the time your display monitor takes to change from one color to another. More than often, response time is associated with the pixels of your display monitor. Modern monitors these days change the pixels swiftly before displaying an accurate image on the screen. With the little said, it’s easier to confuse between a monitor’s refresh rate and its input lag. These are completely different from the response time. Besides that, the response time is always measured in milliseconds (ms).
As a general rule, you need a monitor with a quick response time for a fluid gaming experience. This translates to a faster monitor capable of reacting to change as quickly as possible, especially if you are into a fast-paced game. However, it’s always advisable to use a monitor with a slower response time when gaming (lower response times means it should be quick). You will get a better gaming experience with a monitor with a 2ms response time compared to one with 5ms. This, however, should not be interpreted that a 5ms response time is not good for gaming – instead, for gaming purposes, a monitor with at least 8ms response time is very okay too!
Is 1ms vs. 5ms Noticeable?
When it comes to gaming, choosing the right monitor is really frustrating. It is very hard to tell the difference between a 1ms and a 5ms display monitor. You are not, however, to confuse input lag with response time. Input lag refers to the time it takes for a monitor to display input commands like from a mouse and a keyboard.
Try getting into the market scouting for different monitors, and you will be surprised about lots of misinformation about 1ms and 5ms monitor response times. Since it’s a matter of milliseconds between the two, it’s likely that you won’t be able to tell the difference between a 1ms and a 5ms monitor.
During the old times, monitors used to come with an 11 to 15 milliseconds response time, while these days, most monitors come with a response time of 5ms or less. Technology has provided manufacturers with a cutting edge where the use of TN panels is likely to guarantee a faster response rate. However, it’s worth noting that TN panels are not all that good; they can have a poor viewing angle and poor color accuracy.
Unlike experienced gamers, most regular guys are highly likely to fail to tell the difference between a 1ms and 5ms response time. If gaming is your major concern, it’s important to consider factors such as the refresh rate, viewing angle, monitor brightness, and color accuracy.
Is 5ms 60Hz Good for Gaming?
It’s worth noting that a 5ms is still likely to have blurs, and it does not matter whether you use a 60Hz monitor or a 120Hz monitor. Check out this really helpful article I wrote on if 60hz is good enough for gaming.
Since you will barely be able to tell the difference between different response times, a 5ms 60Hz will still be okay for gaming. On the monitor, it takes approximately five milliseconds for the pixels to be correctly drawn each time.
Wow! I bet that that took you some time. There is more to the gaming world other than the response time. Be wise to consider all the factors before spending big bucks to purchase a monitor. In gaming, performance is everything!
Is 5ms Response Time Good for Console Gaming?
Choosing the right monitor for console gaming might prove to be a headache! There are some key aspects that you should consider when choosing the monitor, and it’s very essential that you exhaust all of them before dropping your money on one.
Getting a monitor with the lowest response time ensures that images displayed from the console are not ‘ghosted’ to leave you with clear and better quality. When gaming from your gaming console, you need a monitor which is capable of handling all the pixels sent by the console’s graphic processing unit. Therefore, a 5ms response time monitor for console gaming is good and will work perfectly. However, this is likely to be met with resistance from some gaming enthusiasts who insist on monitors with 1ms due to faster responses.
Is a 5ms Response Time Bad?
No. A 5ms response time is not bad at all. As a matter of fact, if you are a casual gamer, a 5ms response time is quite enough for your simple shooting or racing gameplays. Most people don’t understand that a 5ms response time is faster than your body’s reflexes!
However, for a casual gamer used to playing fps games with a 1ms monitor, you are likely to find it difficult to adjust to a 5ms standard display monitor. Competitive games like EA Sports, however, need better displays for better game performance.
Is 5ms Ping Good?
Ping often refers to a network utility or signal sent out across the network to another computer which in turn also sends its own signal back. However, in the world of gaming, ping refers to a network’s latency between a gamer’s computer and the game server or another peer-connected gamer.
For a gamer, a ping of approximately 45 ms is acceptable. Well, if you are still lost, then let’s put it this way. A 5ms ping is good, actually very good for a smooth and fluid gameplay compared to a monitor with more than 100ms ping. Besides, there is nothing more frustrating than playing online with your friends, and your game starts lagging. This might be as a result of a high ping! There are several reasons why you might experience a high ping (contributes to lagging). These are your internet service provider quality, inadequate bandwidth, geographical location, internet connection speed, and how your firewalls are configured.
