Help Me Choose: Monitors

To reproduce images, from games to videos, each display relies on a set of technologies that can enhance your particular use for your system.

- OLED or organic light-emitting diode is a technology that provides high contrast, high brightness, and great color fidelity. This happens because each pixel has it’s own light source and can be individually managed. This is a great panel for gamers looking for complete game immersion, especially in adventure an action titles.

- TN or twisted nematic panels allow for incredibly fast refresh rates and response times. The liquid crystal in the panel “twists” in order to control how much light goes through and how fast. These panels can go up to 240Hz, allowing for competitive gameplay and fast-reaction games like First Person Shooters where every millisecond counts.

- IPS or in-plane switching panels allow for great viewing angles and great contrast. The liquid crystals are arranged in 90-degree planes, blocking more light and allowing for a great experience overall. These panels can go up to 144Hz, which offer a great overall experience for every type of gamer.

We use Hz to measure how many times a second a picture on your screen is shown. So when you have 60Hz screen, it means your display is refreshed 60 times a second, 120Hz is refreshed 120 times a second and so on.

This important for both gamers and creatives as you will see much smoother videos and games on-screen.

This is especially important for gamers since a higher refresh rate panel can help a gamer react faster in fast-action games like First Person Shooters.

Response time is the time it takes for a pixel in the display to change from one shade of gray to another. This matters because the lower your response time, the faster each pixel is able to “react” to changes in picture, which in turn can reduce the amount of trail a moving object can leave behind.

Ms is the way we calculate these response times, which stands for milliseconds. Certain panels like OLED (organic light-emitting diode) can have response times down to 1ms, which are perfect for gamers looking for a no compromises experience.

Nits is the measurement of the amount of light that a display can create. A 300 nits panel can output 300 nits of luminance.

This is important for gamers and creators because it shows how bright the image can appear on a display. This helps the user determine whether a system will be suitable for day use or night use.

A good range for gamers and creators is 300 nits and above.

Different displays can show different color ranges. There are widely used standards to measure how much of the color range a particular display covers. Some of the widely used standards include sRGB, Adobe RGB, and DCI-P3.

For gamers, the closer to 100% sRGB, the better the color reproduction of a game will be.