Real-time imaging does not always mean ultra fast acquisition. But it certainly means that images and results are available when needed. Therefore, the speed at which such a system acquires and processes data can vary significantly. But determinism must be guaranteed to ensure reliable operation of the real-time system. The goal of this technical brief is to cover the most important aspects to consider in deploying GigE Vision cameras in a real-time machine vision system. This includes typical aspects such as latency and jitter. Other elements such as the impact of the operating system and PC, and various ways to optimize your network configurations are also presented.