System latency is another area of our testing, where we use Nvidia’s Latency and Display Analyzer Tool (LDAT) to measure end-to-end system latency. LDAT itself is a photosensor which is placed on the monitor. It has an integrated mouse button, allowing it to measure the total time taken from mouse click, to an action happening on screen, which is done by measuring a change in luminance. This data is logged to a CSV file over USB, allowing for close analysis of the data.
As this is end-to-end system latency, we are not measuring only the processing/input latency of each monitor we test. However, we can standardise the test process so the monitor is the only variable. It also gives an insight into how different refresh rates and resolutions can affect end-to-end latency, which is of course highly relevant to your purchasing decision.
We use Rainbow Six Siege for this testing.
One slight oddity is the amount of latency shown by the AW3423DW. It's not bad by any means, but it is slower than we'd expect – the Cooler Master GM34-CWQ ARGB offers the same screen size and resolution, but produces about 2.6ms less latency.
We are of course talking fine margins, but it's something worth pointing out. I'm still not really sure a human would be able to tell the difference, but it was repeatable during our testing.