"It does matter, but not as much as some would say, at least on modern units. The ones who talk about it are usually comparing to CRT refresh rates, which isn't apples to apples.
A 16ms response time corresponds to a 60hz refresh rate on a CRT, which most would say is the bare minimum acceptable value a CRT should run at. Most like to see at least 75hz (13ms) for gaming. But, LCD's don't refresh. Once a pixel is set, it stays that way until it's told to change. This is different from a CRT where a pixel has to get set every scan, or it blacks out. The time it takes to black out is the maximum refresh period you can run before the screen starts visibly flickering.
Since the screen isn't being refreshed on an LCD, there is no flicker of a screen returning to black then being refreshed. But, there can be a delay for a pixel that does need to change from one screen to the next. If that delay is too long, it won't be changed by the time the next pixel is changing, so you get a blurring effect while everything catches up. Years ago, this was horrendous. You could almost time it with a wristwatch. This is no longer the case.
Your TV runs at a 30hz (33ms) refresh rate. You don't see any flickering because the phosphors on the CRT are more persistent than they are with a typical computer CRT. But, even with this slow refresh and increased persistence, you don't see any flickering or blurring. The human eye isn't fast enough. It has it's own response times. You'll notice with pictures of TV screens, you'll see a bar across the screen in the picture. This is because the camera is fast enough that it sees the part of the picture that hasn't been drawn yet, and is returning to black. So, things are happening. You just can't see them.
So, there are some realities you can use to decide whether 25ms is a bad refresh or not. There are those who'll tell you it's too slow, and those (like me) who'll say you can't see it anyway at that speed. Once you get to a certain point, your own physiology makes any improvement a waste. Keep in mind the better specs cost more, and will cause opinions to shuffle in their direction regardless of reality. For another example of that sort of thing, look objectively and dispassionately at RAID on the desktop. "
Thats a post I found somewhere on the net.
So is respone time REALLY important like it was when first lcd's came out?
Does 25ms really mean horrible ghosting?
because there are cheapo 12ms lcds, and expensive 25ms lcd's out.
discuss.