[krackers]

Assuming a 60Hz refresh rate, does it take ~16ms (± the vblank inteval) for a complete cycle from top-left to bottom-right? Or does the scan happen faster than that (with something else being the limiting factor on overall refresh rate)?

[perching_aix]

Yes, the refresh cycle takes ~16.6 ms. There's another "point" chasing behind the refresh "point", that will be where the panel's response time has finished catching up with the refresh. In between these points, the pixels are slowly morphing from one color to the next. On LCDs, the area between these two points is quite sizeable, definitely more than a few lines, sometimes even hundreds of lines. On a 1080p 60 Hz display, just 1 ms of response time corresponds to 64.8 lines (6% of the screen) being constantly in flux, for example.

The difference between LCDs and CRTs in this regard then, is that on a CRT you only ever got light during that chase section. The initial state is full darkness, and the final state is full darkness too. It's a pulse.