Refresh rates/Motion blur
Motion blur Persistence times speed.
An LCD or OLED without backlight strobing holds each frame lit for the whole refresh interval. When your eye follows something moving, that still frame smears across your view by the distance the object travels in one interval.
Blur in pixels is the interval in milliseconds times the speed in pixels a second, divided by 1000. At 60 Hz the interval is 16.67 ms, so an edge moving at 960 pixels a second smears about 16 px. Doubling the rate halves the smear. This is arithmetic, not a measurement: pixel response time, overdrive and backlight strobing change what you see, and a web page cannot measure any of them. The glossary entry for motion blur gives the short definition.
The monitor motion test and the motion clarity test move their patterns at 960 pixels a second below 240 Hz and at 1920 from 240 Hz, so a frame still moves at least four pixels at 360 Hz. The table gives both: the figure at the test's own speed, and every rate at 960 for a fair comparison.
Blur by refresh rate
| Rate | Persistence | Blur at 960 px/s | Test speed | Blur at test speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 60 Hz | 16.67 ms | 16 px | 960 px/s | 16 px |
| 75 Hz | 13.33 ms | 12.8 px | 960 px/s | 12.8 px |
| 120 Hz | 8.33 ms | 8 px | 960 px/s | 8 px |
| 144 Hz | 6.94 ms | 6.7 px | 960 px/s | 6.7 px |
| 165 Hz | 6.06 ms | 5.8 px | 960 px/s | 5.8 px |
| 240 Hz | 4.17 ms | 4 px | 1,920 px/s | 8 px |
| 360 Hz | 2.78 ms | 2.7 px | 1,920 px/s | 5.3 px |
| 480 Hz | 2.08 ms | 2 px | 1,920 px/s | 4 px |
How the industry rates blur
VESA's ClearMR "provides a clear numerical value based on the ratio of clear pixels to blurry pixels", in tiers "from ClearMR 3000 up to ClearMR 9000".
Source: VESA, checked 29 October 2026VESA states that "CMR replaces Motion Picture Response Time (MPRT) and other methods of blur characterization", and that "Backlight strobing is disabled during testing in order to establish a level playing field".
Source: VESA, checked 29 October 2026
Questions
- Why does a higher refresh rate reduce motion blur?
- On a panel that holds each frame lit for the whole refresh interval, a moving object your eye follows smears across the distance it travels in one interval. A shorter interval means a shorter smear: blur in pixels is the interval in seconds times the speed in pixels a second.
- Does this measure my monitor's response time?
- No. The blur figures here are arithmetic from the refresh rate. Pixel response, overdrive and backlight strobing change what you see, and a web page cannot measure any of them. The monitor motion test lets you judge the result by eye.
- Should I trust a 1ms MPRT figure?
- Read it with care. VESA, which now rates motion blur with ClearMR instead of MPRT, turns backlight strobing off when it tests so that strobed and unstrobed displays are compared on the same footing. A figure such as 1ms MPRT does not say on its face whether strobing was on.
- Why is the blur at 240 Hz shown larger than at 144 Hz?
- Because the motion tests move their pattern at 1920 pixels a second from 240 Hz and at 960 below it. At the same speed, 240 Hz blurs less than 144 Hz. The table on this page gives every rate at 960 pixels a second for a like-for-like comparison.
More reference pages