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NeroAugustus

macrumors member
Nov 20, 2019
46
42
Got my MBP, currently in dark mode and while I can definitely say the screen is slower than my 1440p 144hz gaming monitor, I don't think my ghosting can be called extreme at all.

To make sure I'm not being crazy I took the white dots on colored backgrounds someone made in this thread, moved the picture around at the same time on my MBP and my monitor, and while there is definitely a difference it's really nothing crazy.

I don't think I'm just insensitive to it because my XPS 15 9550 had so much ghosting I upgraded because of it.
 

redheeler

macrumors G3
Oct 17, 2014
8,423
8,844
Colorado, USA
People keep saying that a fast refresh rate is only good for gamers, and yet my iPad has 120hz refresh rate, so..

What is disappointing is these MacBooks have a custom LG display made specifically for them, when by all accounts there are exceptionally better panels with better ppi, color accuracy, resolution, and refresh rate made available to any OEM like Acer, Asus, Razer, etc. It doesn't have to be a gaming laptop to use a phenomenal screen.
The off-the-shelf panels are 16:9. MacBook Pro uses the (arguably superior) 16:10 aspect ratio. I don't want to see Apple switch to 16:9.
 

Sanpete

macrumors 68040
Nov 17, 2016
3,695
1,665
Utah
People keep saying that a fast refresh rate is only good for gamers, and yet my iPad has 120hz refresh rate, so..

What is disappointing is these MacBooks have a custom LG display made specifically for them, when by all accounts there are exceptionally better panels with better ppi, color accuracy, resolution, and refresh rate made available to any OEM like Acer, Asus, Razer, etc. It doesn't have to be a gaming laptop to use a phenomenal screen.
Don't recall anyone saying it's only good for gamers, but that is the main market for a 4K 120Hz screen. It costs more and uses more power, directly or indirectly. Gamers are willing to make that tradeoff, but probably not for a machine that isn't otherwise up to that level for gaming.

Similar points apply in some degree or other to other higher-refresh screens, but I'm sure costs and power requirements will come down.
 

impulse462

macrumors 68020
Jun 3, 2009
2,086
2,872
idk why people are clamouring for a 4k screen on a laptop. all it will do is destroy battery life, and with the current 16" (and previous 15" display) resolution you can't even tell the pixels apart from working distance.

however, for people who edit video for a living, i can see how a < 4k resolution display is less than ideal. i would consider getting an external display. i realize that the laptop is super expensive and that shouldnt be necessary but i'm gonna guess apple made some concessions for it so that battery life could be better.
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Don't recall anyone saying it's only good for gamers, but that is the main market for a 4K 120Hz screen. It costs more and uses more power, directly or indirectly. Gamers are willing to make that tradeoff, but probably not for a machine that isn't otherwise up to that level for gaming.

Similar points apply in some degree or other to other higher-refresh screens, but I'm sure costs and power requirements will come down.
I work in image processing and there are some people who really like using high refresh rate displays. honestly though for me I haven't really minded it as long as im at 60Hz. although ive never used a higher refresh rate than that...maybe its something where once you use a higher one you can't go back
 

false_

macrumors newbie
Dec 10, 2019
4
4
Part of it absolutely is once you've used 120hz+ daily for any and all tasks, going back to 60hz feels terrible even at the desktop, watching your mouse move.

I'm moreso than anything simply suggesting that in all aspects, this screen should be significantly better than what's shipping, bare minimum in these 50ms response times. The tech is there. AUO and LG make phenomenal IPS panels with sub 30ms transitions that run at high resolutions at high refresh rates. You can set a screen to run at 60hz same as you set it to run at 48 same as you set it to 120, and you could get the same retina effect by just downscaling a 4k screen same as apple does this one, no?
 
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StONE_ROdGEr

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 23, 2019
89
74
I have a 165hz monitor and 4ms response time. 60hz is fine for this laptop screen, but >30ms is insane. It makes a 60hz screen feel slow.
 

sat24

macrumors regular
Sep 2, 2019
230
146
I noticed something: When changing the screen brightness, the ghosting gets worse when setting down the brightness. The attached pictures show 1/3, 1/2 and full screen brightness. Captured with Pro Camera at 1/8s.
Woh, this is very good info. Can’t wait to test this out when I get home!
 

sat24

macrumors regular
Sep 2, 2019
230
146
Part of it absolutely is once you've used 120hz+ daily for any and all tasks, going back to 60hz feels terrible even at the desktop, watching your mouse move.
Forget about high refresh rate screens - even my Surface Book 2 with a 60Hz screen does a WAY BETTER job compared to the 16". The fact right now is that the 16" just has a panel that's either 1) not tuned properly (firmware upgrade maybe?) and/or 2) just plain inferior.

I sincerely hope that Apple is taking note (even tho they havent acknowledged anything related to ghosting - yet) and making modifications to the panel in future batches. This is a non-standard panel, so it may take some time, but as long as they are doing it, I am willing to return my unit and repurchase.
 

x-evil-x

macrumors 603
Jul 13, 2008
5,577
3,234
I highly doubt Apple will update the screens in these at all before the release of next years model. I give it a 5% chance
 

Viamusic10000

macrumors regular
Dec 11, 2019
239
99
I saw the video of the op and if the op's video is what the ghosting is I dont really see a big difference between that and other macbook's Ive used. I have a 2012 and a 2013 pro in my house and both look the same. I doubt apple will change anything with the screen
 

sat24

macrumors regular
Sep 2, 2019
230
146
I noticed something: When changing the screen brightness, the ghosting gets worse when setting down the brightness. The attached pictures show 1/3, 1/2 and full screen brightness. Captured with Pro Camera at 1/8s.
I tried this just now on my 16". Unfortunately even at FULL brightness, I see unacceptable amount of ghosting. In fact, brightness seems to make no difference.

I will retry in a little bit once the unit warms up (I had left it turned off in a fairly cold room which was at 69degF). In my previous tests, it appears that the problem gets better once the unit has been running for a little while.
 

Viamusic10000

macrumors regular
Dec 11, 2019
239
99
I tried this just now on my 16". Unfortunately even at FULL brightness, I see unacceptable amount of ghosting. In fact, brightness seems to make no difference.

I will retry in a little bit once the unit warms up (I had left it turned off in a fairly cold room which was at 69degF). In my previous tests, it appears that the problem gets better once the unit has been running for a little while.
Could you post a video?
 

sat24

macrumors regular
Sep 2, 2019
230
146
LG. you can check yours by typing this in terminal ... "ioreg -lw0 | grep "EDID" | sed "/[^<]*</s///" | xxd -p -r | strings -6"

Mine is LP160WT1-SJA2

LP...... means LG.
Here's mine - LP160WT1-SJA1.

Interesting yours says 2 at the end, while mine says 1. Perhaps yours is the 2nd version of the panel? What is your manufacturer date (mine is 2019-10-24)? And does the display show ghosting? Thanks in advance.
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I just bought a 16", am using it directly next to my 2015 15" Jesusbook ?...

Zero difference in ghosting.
Nice. Can you please post the following:

1) Manufacturer date (you can get it from the coconutBattery app)
2) Screen version. You can get it by running the following in Terminal:
ioreg -lw0 | grep "EDID" | sed "/[^<]*</s///" | xxd -p -r | strings -6

Thanks much!
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I highly doubt Apple will update the screens in these at all before the release of next years model. I give it a 5% chance
We are talking a revision with (hardware) bug fixes, not an entire new panel.
 

WickedPorter

macrumors 6502
Sep 28, 2012
290
233
Manufacture date 11-11-19
LP160WT1-SJA1

It either doesn't exist on my machine, or I'm not very sensitive to it...

 

sat24

macrumors regular
Sep 2, 2019
230
146
Manufacture date 11-11-19
LP160WT1-SJA1

It either doesn't exist on my machine, or I'm not very sensitive to it...

I highly doubt that a video like that will show the ghosting effect being described here.

Instead, do this:

1) On this forum page (white text on black background), fix your eye on a particular line of text.
2) Scroll the page using the trackpad (smooth scrolling), WHILE KEEPING YOUR EYE ON THAT SAME LINE OF TEXT.
3) Scroll up and down

Do you notice the "streaking" of the text on which your eye is focused on? Like as if the white text is wet paint.
 

WickedPorter

macrumors 6502
Sep 28, 2012
290
233
I highly doubt that a video like that will show the ghosting effect being described here.

Instead, do this:

1) On this forum page (white text on black background), fix your eye on a particular line of text.
2) Scroll the page using the trackpad (smooth scrolling), WHILE KEEPING YOUR EYE ON THAT SAME LINE OF TEXT.
3) Scroll up and down

Do you notice the "streaking" of the text on which your eye is focused on? Like as if the white text is wet paint.

Agree on the video, but there are quite a few requests in this thread for them so figured I'd do my best... :)

The video does a pretty good job of showing exactly what I'm seeing though. There is a little bit of ghosting/tearing, but only when scrolling very fast... even then I can still read the word I'm fixated on while scrolling. [ETA]: The video is actually a little bit worse-looking than actual/live. The original 4K60 video on my iPhone looks slightly better than the youtube processed version.

Regardless, this appears to be the same model number of panel with a later/newer manufacture date. If my machine is better than others, then I'm crossing my fingers for others that there is a software/firmware update that can fix it...

Nick/WP
 
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x-evil-x

macrumors 603
Jul 13, 2008
5,577
3,234
I highly doubt that a video like that will show the ghosting effect being described here.

Instead, do this:

1) On this forum page (white text on black background), fix your eye on a particular line of text.
2) Scroll the page using the trackpad (smooth scrolling), WHILE KEEPING YOUR EYE ON THAT SAME LINE OF TEXT.
3) Scroll up and down

Do you notice the "streaking" of the text on which your eye is focused on? Like as if the white text is wet paint.
I don't know if I'm crazy but I notice blur in everything I use. Every phone I've had. All my macbook's. 2008/11/16/19. On my iPad. On my external 34" monitor. Basically everything. I noticed the scrolling blur very early on in my 2008 white MacBook. It has never really gotten better with scrolling text. Thats why I never put much thought into screen blurring as I thought it was normal or I'm overly sensitive to it. Ive just learned to not care as much as reading while Im scrolling isn't important. With video everything looks fine.
 
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matram

macrumors 6502a
Sep 18, 2011
781
416
Sweden
Are we not mixing two different things in this thread?

1) Ghosting due to the LCD having a slow response time. That should show up as a trail of "white" behind a white element on the screen when the window is moved rapidly, because the LCD pixels cannot change from white to black fast enough.
2) Screen redraw rate. This would show up as a number of "snapshots", one each time the screen redraws.

I can only see #2, and I can only see that in fairly extrem situations, e.g. grap safari and juggle it around as fast as you can. I cannot really see that as an issue. Who would want to read text while you are juggling safari at full speed?

I did compare my 16" to my 2016 15". And there is no major difference. If anything the 16" is a little bit better than the 15".
 
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jlehet

macrumors newbie
Dec 12, 2019
26
8
I got my BTO yesterday, build date 11-25. I had been worried about this issue, reading this forum. Mine is OK (for me), if not perfect! I'm coming from a late 2013 retina 15", which does not have ghosting to any noticeable degree. This new one is definitely blurrier when scrolling. I have been absolutely a read-while-scrolling guy, so I feared this 16" was going to suck. It is blurrier when scrolling for sure, but I don't notice the ghosting at any other times, and it snaps into clarity instantly as soon as I stop scrolling - it seems I am able to adapt without any problem. And the scrolling blurring, while hard to quantify, is not horrible. I am a photographer, and the improvement for most things in Lightroom and Photoshop are dramatic enough that the overall improvement is all around delightful.

When I'm not working at my desk with a big monitor and all, doing computer crunching work, I use it as a laptop to read news and such. (and as often as not I use an iPad for that consumption). Really I find it is good for the laptop-news mode.

Another question that has come up is heat. It does get hot when I'm pounding it, but at a low demand state, it is cooler than my old 2013 r 15". Like right now typing this on my lap, it is cool.

Type is smaller, and my eyes aren't young, but it is also clearer, and I am not more prone to need reading glasses than the old computer, surprisingly. I'm not using them now.

Al in all, so far, a fantastic machine!
 

stephanc

macrumors newbie
Dec 9, 2019
21
9
S
I got my BTO yesterday, build date 11-25. I had been worried about this issue, reading this forum. Mine is OK (for me), if not perfect! I'm coming from a late 2013 retina 15", which does not have ghosting to any noticeable degree. This new one is definitely blurrier when scrolling. I have been absolutely a read-while-scrolling guy, so I feared this 16" was going to suck. It is blurrier when scrolling for sure, but I don't notice the ghosting at any other times, and it snaps into clarity instantly as soon as I stop scrolling - it seems I am able to adapt without any problem. And the scrolling blurring, while hard to quantify, is not horrible. I am a photographer, and the improvement for most things in Lightroom and Photoshop are dramatic enough that the overall improvement is all around delightful.

When I'm not working at my desk with a big monitor and all, doing computer crunching work, I use it as a laptop to read news and such. (and as often as not I use an iPad for that consumption). Really I find it is good for the laptop-news mode.

Another question that has come up is heat. It does get hot when I'm pounding it, but at a low demand state, it is cooler than my old 2013 r 15". Like right now typing this on my lap, it is cool.

Type is smaller, and my eyes aren't young, but it is also clearer, and I am not more prone to need reading glasses than the old computer, surprisingly. I'm not using them now.

Al in all, so far, a fantastic machine!
So glad to hear. These MBP I have tested have not been bad at all, at least for me.
 
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