Picking the Best Monitor for You

You’ve been patiently collecting all the components to finally build your dream PC. You may have finally got a hold of that elusive and expensive GTX 3090. You now want to see it’s graphic potential with your favorite games or movies. You may have some old Monitor laying around or even try to use a TV. These are options, but they may not be your best option for what you want. Today we’ll be discussing the kinds LED monitor panels, their purpose and what size or configuration you should get.

LED Types

• TN
• VA
• IPS

Twisted Nemantic (TN)

This is a type of LED panel on average, these types of monitor panels tend to be the fastest and cheapest out of the three panel types. It is one of the earliest types of LED panels developed. With a TN panel, you will be able to get high refresh rates easily with the improvements made over the years. These high refresh rates of 144hz or more can also be achieved with a high contrast ratio as well without special branded features applied. The draw back of monitors using these panel types is the viewing angle range. Various brands may state a range between 160° and 170°. You may be able to technically view output from the TN LED monitor, but the display tends to washout the farther way from center you become. The image from the monitor may appear to be darker the closer you are to the sides of a monitor. These are arguably one of the better Monitor types for gamming since you’ll be right in front of it anyway.

Vertical Alignment panels (VA)

These panels are great at blocking filtering backlight bleeding onto the panel. When displaying images on the monitor’s panels, light is projected. Sometimes, the light can be too intense, causing some of the colors to appear lighter than they should be. VA panels are structured to do a somewhat better job at filtering out unwanted light. They also have better viewing angles and contrast ratios than the TN panels. This is somewhat inherent with it’s ability to filter out unnecessary light better than the TN. It provides a more consistent picture from the various view points of the monitor. The one draw back is that though the view is consistent over more angles, from the center, the TN may have a better view. It’s more noticeable on larger sized monitors. Also, there can also be problems with colors in certain spectrums. Deeper black colors may render beautifully, but it often times have trouble with viewing producing these colors at a high refresh rate (144hz or more). You can see sometimes after images, lag, and/or a smear-like appearance with items in motion. Brands have developed improvements to reduce this blur or smear. Media with less dynamic motion happening at a time compared to some video games would be optimal for this screen type. But, brands are creating their proprietary technology to help resolve this blurring for what could be considered a good all around choice.

In Plane Switching (IPS)

These are suppose to be the best of both the VA and TN worlds. The IPS panels offer high end refresh rates (244hz and above) with a more consistent and accurate color range. These monitors are available in small and large sizes at generally decent rates for many major brands. This monitor type is often enjoyed by gamers for the high refresh rates and deep array of color spectrum. Similar to the TN monitors, it has some light bleeding issues. The light bleeding issue for IPS monitors tend to be a glow vs, images too bright, this can cause more severe eye strain if exposed over long periods of time. There’s also an issue with glare with IPS panels too. The often times glossy panel’s reflective material makes it tougher to use in brightly lit areas.

Conclusion

If you’re gaming mainly, aim to get an IPS panel for it’s beautiful array of colors at a high refresh rate. There also great for photographers or others who want to create and consume high resolution media.

VA panel monitor is fine if you want a great array of colors. Else we’re here.

TN panels will have a great refresh rate and decent picture, but not at all viewing angles. This could be a great gaming monitor, but it wouldn’t be best to be also used as a living room TV for a large audience.

Cordell Kennerly