We’ve all done it. We buy the new, big 4K TV straight from the store; we rush home, set everything up, and get excited to finally use our fancy new product. The new Ace Combat just dropped, after all, and you have to play it in super smooth 4K, right? Then, we turn on game mode because we can’t deal with any of that pesky input lag. You’re an ace of the skies. You can’t afford mistakes.

But there’s one problem with that. Usually, TVs run several layers of image processing before they display what’s on the screen. Today, most of this is done in microseconds, but when you’re trying to clear a lobby and establish dominance, those milliseconds matter. Game mode bypasses some of that processing in order to display the image on the screen even faster, and as a result, you get a quicker display, but has anyone ever told you what exactly your TV skips out on to make that happen?

Motion smoothing disappears

When you’re not limited to 24 fps, anything is possible.

Some call motion smoothing the “soap opera effect,” but all you really need to know about it is that it makes shows and movies that are typically shot at 24 fps smoother by adding frames in between the filmed ones. To do this, the TV has to process the input footage, add those “smoothing” frames, and output it. This is actually a good thing for gaming that your TV removes.

Why? Because instead of taking that input image, processing it with extra frames, then outputting it, the TV can just display the raw input image, which reduces input lag. You can see what’s on the screen faster, react quicker, and pull off that last-second dolphin dive you need to secure the win for your squad. However, if you’re looking for that same crisp finish your TV has while streaming, don’t get your hopes up if Game Mode is turned on. That is why your TV’s picture likely looks less processed when you’re gaming than when you’re watching your stories.

The hidden HDR costs

Game mode might be rewriting your HDR

The first thing that most get confused about HDR is that it isn’t simply an on/off feature. Instead, your TV has to do something called “tone mapping,” where it takes in an HDR signal and maps it to what the device can actually display. Most TVs also use different HDR mapping protocols depending on the mode, so your TV’s cinema mode may map HDR differently than when it’s in game mode. That’s why highlights, shadows, brightness, and overall color detail can shift between modes.

This is also where your console becomes incredibly important. To ensure you get the best color readout possible, make sure your console is correctly calibrated to whatever HDR the TV is using. Next time you’re gaming, switch between cinema and game mode mid-session. You’ll likely notice some color differences. That’s because your TV uses two different tone mapping procedures.

Local dimming can even behave differently

Hardware-dependent, but still something to note

You might have noticed on that fresh new TV box that your new product has local dimming capability. But what does that mean? Your TV actually divides its backlighting into zones, and depending on the model, it adjusts those zones depending on what’s happening on the screen. For instance, if you’re watching a movie with a dark, black sky and a bright moon, the TV will darken the surrounding areas and keep the moon bright.

Gaming creates a conflict there, though. Often, large, bright objects move in and out of the frame very quickly when gaming. The on-screen image is constantly changing, so the local dimming features sometimes struggle to keep up with the input. That’s why some TVs change their local dimming behavior in game mode, which can lead to uneven shadows, more blooming, and, again, brightness changes. You might have bought the TV just for its local dimming features, but in game mode, you’re only getting about half of its capability.

You may lose “smart” picture processing

Yes, game mode fiddles with that, too

There’s a whole laundry list of other features that gaming mode will force users to deal without, and most of them are selling points for today’s hardware. I can’t begin to list all of them, but there are some that are well played out in marketing campaigns that you deserve to know about, like AI picture processing, which uses AI to analyze a TV’s picture and make adjustments to things like sharpness, contrast, and color as part of its processing.

Another fan favorite is TVs that use super resolution to enhance the image they display. Again, game mode turns off both features in many cases because they take up a lot of processing power. So, if you’re going to scoop up the latest TV from your local retailer and all you plan to do is game, don’t get tricked by these upsells. If your TV stays in game mode 90% of the time, these features may not be worth your time.