John Paul M. Joaquin Tech 06.20.2022 18:Jun PM EDT

Monitor Ghosting — What Is It and How Can It Be Fixed?

A monitor is one of the most important pieces of hardware for any desktop computer. With it, you can see what you're doing digitally and on the world wide web, allowing you to play games, watch videos, and work.

Gaming monitors give this function one step higher, allowing users to view things with them at a must higher quality and frame rate compared to the ones used in everyday life. If the monitor at your workplace is a family car, then a gaming monitor is a specialty car like a Lamborghini Gallardo or a Toyota Supra.

However, some monitors aren't compatible with certain computer specifications and would manifest these incompatibilities through some problems. One of those problems is called monitor ghosting.

Monitor Ghosting - A Quick Definition And What Causes Them

Monitor Ghosting is a monitor issue mostly found in LCD monitors when an image artifact appears as a trail of pixels behind a moving object, almost like a motion blur, according to HP. This trail is typically seen as a trail left behind by dark or black areas of a picture, video, or video game whenever they are moved.

Driver Easy also mentioned that monitor ghosting could also materialize as a previous image frame remaining on the screen for a few seconds when you've moved to the next image frame, an image's blurriness, or discolored images.

This issue could be a game-breaker for gamers as it would be especially distracting due to the trails covering up the display whenever a character or the camera moves.

However, unlike similar effects like image retention or monitor burn-in wherein an image is retained on the display even if the image was already removed, ghosting does not cause a permanent effect on a monitor.

The cause of monitor ghosting could be simply the screen's refresh rate, which refers to how often the screen displays a new image. For instance, a 60Hz refresh rate means that the monitor refreshes itself 60 times per second.

Another factor is the monitor's response time or the time it takes for a monitor's pixel to shift between colors.

As such, if you have a low refresh rate and a high response time or vice versa, monitor ghosting will be a guaranteed issue.

How To Fix Monitor Ghosting

If you see monitor ghosting in videos and video games or in online tests such as the popular tool, UFO Test, you'll have to start with the basics to fix it.

The first is to check if the cables that connected the monitor power supply and PC are firmly plugged in and intact. Finding a damaged cable is the best-case scenario wherein money is involved as changing them would only require a replacement, which comes cheap.

If the cables are firmly plugged and intact, the next thing you should check is the monitor's display settings. You can adjust the monitor's display settings to achieve a higher refresh rate or a slower response time to match what your PC needs.

TekPip mentioned that some monitors have a setting called "overdrive" that controls refresh rate and response time. Setting this too high, low, or off to match your computer's needs is a good solution as well.

Updating your PC's graphics driver can also work if the cables are intact, and changing the refresh and response rate doesn't solve the ghosting issue.

Finally, if all else fails, prepare to return the monitor back to the store you bought it from and ask for a replacement or a refund.