How to read the UFO test
- Smoothness: the top saucer should glide. The lower ones step, because they update less often. On a 120 Hz screen the middle lane shows 60 fps, so you can compare directly.
- Ghosting: look for a faint trail or shadow behind the saucer. Dark or bright trails come from slow pixel response. Try the black and white backgrounds, since ghosting is often worse on dark colours.
- Overshoot (inverse ghosting): a bright or coloured halo around the saucer means the monitor overdrive is set too high. Lower it in the monitor menu.
- Frame skipping: if the top saucer stutters regularly, frames are being dropped. Check the measured rate against your monitor setting.
Follow the saucer with your eyes rather than staring at one spot. That is how you see motion in games and when scrolling.
Reduce ghosting and blur
- Raise the refresh rate to the highest your monitor supports.
- Try the overdrive or response time setting in the monitor menu. The middle setting is often best.
- Turn on the motion blur reduction mode if your monitor has one (often called ULMB, ELMB or DyAc). It strobes the backlight and sharpens motion, at the cost of brightness.
Stuck at 60 Hz? How to fix it
- Set the refresh rate in the system. Windows: Settings, System, Display, Advanced display, Choose a refresh rate. Mac: System Settings, Displays, Refresh rate.
- Check the cable. Many HDMI cables and ports top out at 60 Hz at high resolutions. Use DisplayPort, or an HDMI 2.0 or 2.1 cable and port, for 120 Hz and above.
- Plug into the graphics card, not the motherboard, on a desktop PC with a separate GPU.
- Turn off power saving. Laptops on battery and phones in low power mode often drop to 60 Hz.
- Check the browser. Some browsers limit animation to 60 fps in power saving modes. Plug in a laptop and test again.
Frequently asked questions
Short answers to the questions people ask most about this test.
What is the UFO test?
A moving object test for monitors. It shows the same object at full, half and quarter frame rate so you can judge smoothness, ghosting and motion blur.
What is monitor ghosting?
Ghosting is a faint trail behind moving objects. It happens when pixels change colour too slowly to keep up with the refresh rate.
Why does the top saucer look blurry even at 144 Hz?
Some blur is normal on all sample-and-hold screens, because each frame stays lit until the next. Higher refresh rates and backlight strobing reduce it.