Motion Blur Test

What is this tool?

The Motion Blur Test moves an object across the screen at a known speed and asks you to look at it. Motion blur is what you see when a moving object smears instead of staying sharp, and a controlled moving pattern is the only way to judge it without instruments.

Speed is the variable that matters. At 120 px/s almost any panel looks clean; at 1920 px/s the differences between panels become obvious. Sweeping through the speeds tells you where your own display starts to lose detail.

The engine drives the motion from real frame timing, so the object's position is computed per frame rather than animated blindly. What you judge is the combination of your panel and your browser's frame delivery.

How to use it

1. Start with a presetSTANDARD runs at 960 px/s and is the sensible first look. PRECISION drops to 240 px/s, which makes fine detail easier to inspect. STRESS pushes 1920 px/s, where even good panels smear.
2. Choose a direction← LEFT, → RIGHT, ↑ UP and ↓ DOWN, plus HORIZONTAL, VERTICAL and BOTH (DIAGONAL). Direction matters more than people expect: some panels smear noticeably worse on vertical motion than horizontal.
3. Track the object with your eyesFollow the moving object smoothly rather than staring at a fixed point. Perceived blur on a sample-and-hold display depends on eye movement, so tracking is part of the test, not a distraction from it.
4. Sweep the speedsStep through 120, 240, 480, 960 and 1920 px/s and note where sharpness gives way. That crossover point is your practical answer, and it is more useful than any single reading.
5. Use A/B COMPARISON and record what you sawA/B COMPARISON puts two conditions side by side so the difference is visible rather than remembered. Then pick the self-report labels that apply — they run from “Moving object remains sharp” and “Text remains readable” through to “I can see visible smearing”, “I can see a trailing effect” and “Fine details become difficult to see”.

What the results mean

Moving object remains sharp

At the speed you are testing, your display and your eyes are keeping up. If that holds at 960 px/s you have a genuinely fast-feeling panel for everyday use.

Visible smearing

The object's body looks soft or stretched in the direction of travel. This is the panel's pixels not finishing their transition before the next frame arrives, combined with sample-and-hold persistence. It gets worse with speed and better with refresh rate.

A trailing effect

A faint copy follows the object. That is closer to ghosting than to blur, and the Screen Ghosting Test is built specifically for it — it adds high-contrast colour pairs that make trails easier to see.

Fine details become difficult to see

Edges survive but texture does not. This is the most common real-world complaint about motion clarity: text in a scrolling list or a name plate in a game becomes unreadable while moving even though the outline stays visible.

Motion looks uneven

That is a pacing problem rather than a blur problem — frames are not arriving on a steady cadence. The Display FPS Test and Refresh Rate Test quantify it with jitter and frame-stability numbers.

What it can detect

• The speed at which your display stops holding motion detail
• Whether blur differs between horizontal, vertical and diagonal motion
• Trailing that is stronger than the blur alone would explain
• Loss of texture and readability in moving content
• Uneven pacing, which shows up as stepping rather than smearing

Limits worth knowing

A browser can only report what the platform gives it. These are the honest boundaries of this page, so a result is never read as more than it is.

• The page has a section titled “Browser Test Limitations” and its FAQ asks “Can a browser automatically measure monitor motion blur?” It cannot. The tool generates the motion; the assessment is yours.
• It cannot measure MPRT. The page's FAQ asks that too. MPRT is a photographic measurement of how long a pixel remains visible, and it requires a high-speed camera or a pursuit-camera rig, not a web page.
• Perceived blur depends on your eyes as well as the panel. Two people watching the same screen can honestly report different results, which is why the self-report labels describe what you see rather than issuing a score.
• Browser compositing sits between the pattern and the panel. A stuttering browser can look like a blurry panel, so check frame pacing first if the motion also looks uneven.

Tips

• Test at your normal brightness and viewing distance. Blur perception changes with both.
• Compare fullscreen against windowed. If fullscreen is clearly better, the browser's compositing was the limiting factor rather than the display.
• If your display has an overdrive or response-time setting, run the test once per level. That is the fastest way to find the setting that trades the least overshoot for the most clarity.

Troubleshooting

Related documentation

• DisplayScreen Ghosting TestHigh-contrast moving patterns that make trails and overshoot easy to see.
• DisplayDisplay Response Time TestControlled colour transitions for judging pixel response, trailing and overshoot by eye.
• DisplayRefresh Rate TestEstimate your display's refresh rate from frame timing, with a confidence level attached.
• DisplayDisplay FPS TestMeasure the frame rate your browser is actually delivering, with 1% lows and jitter.
• DisplayScreen Tearing TestScrolling patterns at chosen frame rates, so a torn frame becomes obvious.