Contrast vs brightness, which is more important?

[ArunasNe]

So I'm currently trying to decide which one to get between these two monitors: Acer Predator XB241YU and MSI Optix MAG27CQ. Both of these have 144hz, 1440p and 1ms response time,g-sync on Acer and adaptive sync on MSI, but Acer offers 350nits birghtness and MSI only 250, but you get higher contrast on MSI of 3000:1 and i like that curved screen when on Acer it's only 1000:1, so what i want to know is 250nits enough for gaming? Will there be a big difference between 250 and 350nits? Ofc i will want to watch movies and videos on that monitor as well, so i need to know which is a better choice for all that. Thanks for help.

[Jurrunio]

contrast ratio is as pointless as the response time because it's not a universal standard and not comparable.

 

whether you need more brightness depends on how bright your room is. If it's always somewhat dim like mine, then you don't.

[Ttnuagmada]

33 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

contrast ratio is as pointless as the response time because it's not a universal standard and not comparable. 

 

That's not true at all. OP is talking about static contrast numbers, which are universal and comparable (ratio of black light output to white output on a black/white checkerboard pattern). Dynamic contrast is what's completely useless to compare.

 

As for OP, contrast is generally considered to be the most important PQ aspect. However, when talking about PC displays, pretty much all of them suck in terms of contrast. So while a 3000:1 VA panel might seem a lot better than a 1000:1 IPS panel, 3000:1 is still pretty mediocre and is still going to give you bad black performance. Also, to add to that, contrast is going to have the biggest impact in a dark room, so if you use your PC with the lights on, brightness is probably going to be more important, as you won't really get the benefits of improved contrast.

[SolarNova]

Contrast is by far the most important.

 

Brightness is usfull for HDR and the like, but generaly speaking u dont actually need a 'full image brightness' of much more than 150nits for ur average front room environment. Ofc in bright rooms and direct sunlight u idealy would need higher brightness.

 

Contrast on the other hand indicates the difference between the brightest whitest image the screen can produce and its darkest blackest im age it can produce. What you idealy want is a black level as low as possible + a high contrast ratio. With brightness only beign worried about when considering HDR content and bright room environments.