What to avoid, what to look for

pstarlord · January 10, 2019

I'm thinking about making the jump from 1080p to 1440p this year, but I really don't know a whole lot about monitors beyond the basics like resolution, refresh rate, input times, what adaptive sync to look for, and size. Beyond that, I'm completely clueless. On Newegg there are 12 monitors fitting the general spec I'm looking for, but range in price from about $350 to $650. What could separate

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=0JC-004Y-00031

from

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIABT18GU5662

Is it paying for the Asus brand? Is there a spec difference I should pay attention to when looking at monitors other than what I've mentioned above? Just to be clear, I'm not trying to decide what one to buy between these two, just trying to learn what could make similar spec monitors vary this much in price.

Thanks in advance for helping the new guy out.

Kdog · January 10, 2019

The ASUS has some "higher end" features like RGB. You also get the comfort of knowing you bought something from a reliable brand like ASUS.

wojtepanik · January 10, 2019

discount from 560$ to 399$, get it asap, 1440p 165hz

https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-24-gaming-monitor-s2417dg/apd/210-aizs/monitors-monitor-accessories

DJ46 · January 10, 2019

23 minutes ago, wojtepanik said:

discount from 560$ to 399$, get it asap, 1440p 165hz

https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-24-gaming-monitor-s2417dg/apd/210-aizs/monitors-monitor-accessories

I swear to god, this forum is...

He's looking at 32" monitors with FREESYNC because he has an AMD GPU and plans to stay on "the red team". Yet he's supposed to get a 24" TN panel with G-sync "asap"?!

On topic though - well known brands often have more accurate colours out of the box and better panels (as in maybe the same model of panel but higher quality/binned by the manufacturer), maybe a better stand and warranty. Cheaper panels from less known brand are sometimes more likely to get stuck/dead pixels.

Also, check detailed reviews for those monitors. They have VA panels and some users seem to be complaining about ghosting. I considered a monitor with a VA panel before and found a review that showed that things like white lines on an in-game HUD left a noticable trail if you were looking at a shadow or something dark and moved around.

pstarlord · January 10, 2019

7 hours ago, DJ46 said:

I swear to god, this forum is...

He's looking at 32" monitors with FREESYNC because he has an AMD GPU and plans to stay on "the red team". Yet he's supposed to get a 24" TN panel with G-sync "asap"?!

On topic though - well known brands often have more accurate colours out of the box and better panels (as in maybe the same model of panel but higher quality/binned by the manufacturer), maybe a better stand and warranty. Cheaper panels from less known brand are sometimes more likely to get stuck/dead pixels.

Also, check detailed reviews for those monitors. They have VA panels and some users seem to be complaining about ghosting. I considered a monitor with a VA panel before and found a review that showed that things like white lines on an in-game HUD left a noticable trail if you were looking at a shadow or something dark and moved around.

Thanks! That was a perfect example of the kind of answer I needed. I have no idea what a VA panel is, but it gave me something to start learning. Thank you very much, I'm going to go study up on the different types of panels.

SolarNova · January 10, 2019

Reviews are key.

As for panel types

you have 3. VA, TN , and IPS

VA has the best static picture quality, but suffers from poor viewing angles and slow pixel response which reusltsin ghosting. generaly speaking u would only get a VA panel monitor if it has been reveiwed as having a very good pixel response test result, most VA panels do not however.

TN, has the fastest pixel response which reduces blur/ghosting significantly, they also tend to have the fastest frequencies, the fastets being 240hz. however they have the worst picture quality generaly speaking, poor blacks and contrast especialy, and poor viewing angles.

IPS has the best color accuracy and good viewing angles, they are regularly seen in professional grade monitors used for color accurate work. However they are generaly more expensive and suffer from IPS glow. This glow is apparent whenever viewing the display slightly of centre and it effectivly reduces its ability to display a dark image, this is especialy noticable in dark rooms.

For the most part, people tend to prefer IPS for monitors, however i personal pref a good fast VA panel for the superior blacks and contrats, this is why you wil lfind most TV's use VA panels. That being said i dont own a LCD monitor, i still use Plasma.

The most important thing is to check reviews on a monitor befor you buy it as specs dont tell you much, especialy when it comes to resposne time and input latency. Resposne time specs are meaningless as manufacturers dont use a standardised method of testing and thus moreo rl ess put down what ever figure they like, and input lag is rarely listed at all. An example of the disparity between the specified resposne time and actual resposne time would be somthing along the lines of a manufactuer specifing a 4ms response time , when in actual fact once tested by reviewers, its closer to 10ms.