Imagine running a 100-meter sprint, but right as the gun goes off, someone hands you a 15-pound backpack. You’d run as hard as you could, but your final recorded time would look terrible compared to someone running completely unencumbered.
That is precisely what happens when you take an online reaction time test. Your final score in milliseconds is never just your brain. It is the sum of two distinct numbers:
If your benchmark reports 240ms, your actual nervous system might have fired in 185ms, with the remaining 55ms stolen by display refresh intervals, mouse switch debouncing, and Windows composition queues.
The Photon-to-Click Signal Chain: Where Milliseconds Disappear
Let’s trace the journey of an electron from the moment ReflexBench tells your computer to turn the box green, all the way to when the click registers:
Does 144Hz vs 240Hz Actually Improve Reaction Time?
Yes—but the law of diminishing returns kicks in rapidly. Here is the raw math behind display frame times:
| Refresh Rate | Frame Interval | Average Display Lag | Latency Saved vs 60Hz |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60 Hz (Office Display) | 16.67 ms | ~8.33 ms | Baseline (0 ms) |
| 144 Hz (Standard Gaming) | 6.94 ms | ~3.47 ms | +9.73 ms saved |
| 240 Hz (Esports Standard) | 4.16 ms | ~2.08 ms | +12.51 ms saved |
| 360 Hz (Elite Competitive) | 2.78 ms | ~1.39 ms | +13.89 ms saved |
| 540 Hz (Ultra Cutting-Edge) | 1.85 ms | ~0.92 ms | +14.82 ms saved |
The Mobile Touchscreen Penalty: Why Phones Score 300ms+
If you take a reaction test on your iPhone or Android phone, you will almost certainly score 40 to 80 milliseconds slower than you do on your PC.
Does mobile screen gaming rot your reflexes? Not at all! The slowdown is entirely due to Capacitive Digitizer Sampling:
- Phones sample finger touch events at 60Hz, 120Hz, or 240Hz through a conductive glass matrix.
- Mobile operating systems deliberately wait 30ms–50ms after your skin touches the glass to verify whether you intended to tap, swipe, or pinch-to-zoom.
- In Safari and mobile Chrome, viewport gesture listeners introduce an extra layer of browser event deferral.
ReflexBench accounts for this by applying an automated -35ms digitizer offset for touchscreen inputs so mobile players aren't unfairly penalized when comparing global percentiles.
How to Eliminate Input Lag on Your PC (5-Step Checklist)
- Switch to Exclusive Fullscreen: Never play competitive games in "Borderless Windowed" mode. Exclusive Fullscreen bypasses the Windows Desktop Window Manager buffer, cutting 1 to 2 frames of display lag.
- Turn Off V-Sync in Web Browsers: In Google Chrome, go to chrome://flags and ensure hardware acceleration is enabled so compositing isn't bottlenecked by your CPU.
- Use Optical Mouse Switches & 1000Hz Polling: Optical switches eliminate mechanical debounce delays, ensuring your physical click transmits in 0.2ms.
- Verify Display Refresh Rate in Windows: Millions of gamers buy a 144Hz monitor and run it at 60Hz for years without knowing! Check Windows Settings → Display → Advanced Display to confirm your screen is running at its maximum rated refresh rate.
- Enable G-Sync + V-Sync + Reflex (The Low-Lag Trio): In games supporting NVIDIA Reflex, cap your frame rate 3 FPS below your monitor's maximum refresh rate and enable Reflex "On + Boost" for the lowest possible latency without screen tearing.