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16" MacBook Pro ghosting / smearing...

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StONE_ROdGEr

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 23, 2019
89
74
Hi all,

Received my 16" yesterday. After some playing around last night and today I've noticed a potential issue I'd like to compare. When using the launch pad and moving between apps, the display seems to have ghosting - its not smoothly transitioning between each page of apps. Ive noticed the same thing for stuff like text when scrolling, its blurry until you stop still. Has anyone else noticed this at all?

I'm using the 16" MBP as is.

I do have a 165hz monitor that I am used to, however I use an older 15" 2012 at work and this doesn't display the same thing I've noticed here :/

Cheers.

— EDIT (Feb 2020) —
After 28 pages and a few months of debate the TLDR is: this is Apple’s slowest response time screen seen in a MacBook Pro ever. Source link is somewhere in the thread but it was NotebookChecker (I believe?).

I personally couldn’t put up with it and some people could not perceive it at all.

To summarise: you do you - if it bothers you, return it. Don’t settle for a bad experience on your £2.3k minimum machine. If it doesn’t, enjoy a ghost free life 🤙

— EDIT Oct 2021 —
As per Ahrian’s posts on page 37, the brand new M1 Pro/Max 16” MacBook Pro’s still have a trash response time.
 
Last edited:
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Quu

Quu

macrumors 68040
Apr 2, 2007
3,440
6,874
Make sure the display is at 60Hz as it is changeable for the first time in the display settings.
 
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warfed

macrumors regular
Apr 16, 2011
177
60
Yeah it's pretty bad. I already exchanged one that was worse than the new one I got. Compared my first one to the display model at the apple store side by side, it was a noticeable difference.

Between the screen, bridge os errors, crackling speakers, and coil whine it's pretty disappointing. But at the same time there is so much to like about this laptop that I'm leaning towards keeping it and living with the issues.
 
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pragmaLT

macrumors newbie
Jun 13, 2017
25
36
just taking a casual photo with an iphone reveals that the 16" has noticeably worse ghosting than a 2015 15" (i'll let you guess which one is which)

IMG_7123.jpg


IMG_7122.jpg
 
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warfed

macrumors regular
Apr 16, 2011
177
60
pragmaLT said:
Wow, interesting!
It almost seems like the display is tuned to run at 47.95hz natively

So perhaps this additional ghosting is a result of the panel supporting variable refresh rates.
Click to expand...

Yeah it seems like the response rate is optimized for it, too bad 47.95 isn't as smooth as 60. I think 59.94 feels best for my eyes.
 
Quu

Quu

macrumors 68040
Apr 2, 2007
3,440
6,874
Have you tried the Blur Busters with the Intel Graphics and then with the Dedicated Radeon? I've noticed that the display seems much smoother with the Radeon engaged. Scrolling, moving windows around etc - And not just in apps that benefit from the added GPU, even just moving an app like Text Edit around the screen with your mouse.
 
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warfed

macrumors regular
Apr 16, 2011
177
60
Setting "Reduce motion" in Settings > Accessibility > Display improves ghosting quite a bit. You do lose the animation, but for me trade off is worth it.
 
K

_Kiki_

macrumors 6502a
Aug 13, 2017
961
281
Quu said:
Have you tried the Blur Busters with the Intel Graphics and then with the Dedicated Radeon? I've noticed that the display seems much smoother with the Radeon engaged. Scrolling, moving windows around etc - And not just in apps that benefit from the added GPU, even just moving an app like Text Edit around the screen with your mouse.
Click to expand...

stronger GPU, less input lag
 
S

stevemiller

macrumors 68020
Oct 27, 2008
2,055
1,606
for what its worth, i tried the blur busters on my 2018 macbook pro and the ghosting looks roughly the same as the 16" result posted here.

also wanted to point out that the camera tests are sorta meaningless though. the shutter speed of the camera determines how many "ghosts" are visible, and that can differ camera to camera and shot to shot. i could easily double the number of repeats just by adjusting exposure.

similarly, if you slow the refresh rate down, you're going to get fewer ghosts simply because the likelihood of a refresh is reduced over the camera's exposure length. like a 15 fps animation is captured by my camera as ghostless, but to the eye its a terrible judder-y mess.

even ambient room lighting i've found can make a perceptual difference on how smooth screen refreshing appear.

if you've got two laptops side by side, and you can see more ghosting on the 16" then it could be a real issue, but if you're comparing it to photo reproductions or memory of a screen somewhere else, i'd exercise caution.
 
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Ibara

Ibara

macrumors newbie
Nov 27, 2019
18
8
The screen on my 16 inch has terrible ghosting when there is movement (such as scrolling text).
I noticed it the second I got it. The best way I can describe it as a low refresh rate, cheap laptop screen.
I've tried every refresh rate, switching between AMD and Intel GFX and nothing fixes it.
I assumed I had a faulty machine and went to the Apple store to compare to the shop models today.
Amazingly, they were all identical :/

Anyone else noticed it? Does anyone have a good one?
I'd love to get some feedback as if anyone has a decent one, I may send it back.

Some other threads complaining of the same thing:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/16-ghosting.2212842/

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1187374605993988099
 
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Ibara

Ibara

macrumors newbie
Nov 27, 2019
18
8
I have just got my 16inch and my experience is identical to yours.
I went to an Apple store and compared 3 display models to mine and there was no discernible difference :(. I've also mentioned it to a friend who has the most recent 15 and he says his is similar.

I've posted another thread on the forum in an attempt to get some feedback off others. I'm considering sending mine back

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/macbook-pro-16-inch-screen-ghosting-anyone-else.2213385/
 
C

chabig

macrumors G4
Sep 6, 2002
11,432
9,289
As all Macbook Pros run the same software and have roughly the same hardware, refreshing the screen at 60Hz, I'd say they are all working as designed. Perhaps you are just more sensitive to it.
 
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Ibara

Ibara

macrumors newbie
Nov 27, 2019
18
8
chabig said:
As all Macbook Pros run the same software and have roughly the same hardware, refreshing the screen at 60Hz, I'd say they are all working as designed. Perhaps you are just more sensitive to it.
Click to expand...

I've got an older MacBook Pro and the screen is great. I'm not super picky. The screen just isn't that good.
[automerge]1574869020[/automerge]
pragmaLT said:
No the 16" is running a new panel that supports multiple refresh rates. The ghosting is definitely worse than previous years. Whether or not it bothers you depends on your sensitivity.
Click to expand...

It is pretty bothersome. Especially with dark mode.
I've played around with the refresh rates but none make much difference. I think the default refresh for the screen is 59.94Hz based on the display settings panel. Gmail is particularly blurry with the mid weight fonts and black / white contrast.
 
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CloudsNeverDie

macrumors regular
Apr 11, 2015
215
281
stevemiller said:
also wanted to point out that the camera tests are sorta meaningless though. the shutter speed of the camera determines how many "ghosts" are visible, and that can differ camera to camera and shot to shot. i could easily double the number of repeats just by adjusting exposure.
Click to expand...

Here's a comparison of my late 2013 MBP Retina 15.6" against my new MBP 16". I used Halide Pro in manual mode and set the shutter speed to 1/1000. I set both displays to maximum brightness. The ghosting does seem to be quite a bit worse. Visually, the UFOs are clearer on the 2013 display, too.

MBP 2013 vs 2019 ghosting.png
 
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tjedora

tjedora

macrumors regular
Jul 1, 2017
163
235
Errrm... I just changed the refresh rate to 59.97 and now the dropdown box to switch back to 60Hz disappeared :(
Help?

edit: changing resolution helped.
 
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