These technologies can be overwhelming at first, and marketing fancy terms gimmicks could prevent you from getting the best-suited monitor for your rig. Often you will stumble across “not-the-important-stuff” like contrast ratio, having RGB, thin bezels, printed in all caps on the monitor’s packaging. These are critical features to have, but it is only one side of the coin. You will likely miss out on more important details like input delay, response times, refresh rate, or even color bit depth. These are equally crucial features than the features the salesperson will tell you about. There is no such thing as the perfect or best monitor, containing every feature like fast response time, excellent picture quality, high refresh rate, and more. There are monitors built for design work, editing, multiple resolutions, and more. If you are looking for a monitor for gaming or for doing professional work, you might have to make compromises one way or the other. There are few choices to select from if you are searching for a monitor having several pros but with little or no cons. These monitors will cost you money and do not come in cheap. A monitor is not just a display with resolution or refresh rate. It is much more than that. If you are looking for a new monitor, you should know about the technologies used behind the screens. One of the monitor technologies that you should be familiar with is to learn the difference between available panels like IPS, VA, and TN. Which are the best suited for your system? Let us find out with the help of this article.
IPS Vs. TN Vs. VA – Which Is Best For Gaming?
You will find a lot, and by a lot, I mean a lot of different types of monitors. Almost all of them are built on three popular panel technologies widely adapted by monitor manufacturers across the globe. These panels are IPS, TN, and VA. There is a fourth new monitor technology called OLED, which is relatively newer, but it is the future of monitors, and it will dominate the market when the time comes. There are monitors with these panels, but due to their price, they are not as common as the three panels and will take time to become affordable. The benefits, advantages, and disadvantages of OLED and QLED will be discussed in the latter part of this article. Stay tuned. Our main focus is to decide which monitor will be the best from the IPS vs. TN vs. VA monitors for gaming. Let us find out which panel is the most suitable for gaming.
What Is An IPS (In-Plane Switching) Panel
IPS Stands for “In-Plane Switching,” IPS panel monitors are the most popular monitor panels. IPS panels were introduced to overcome the limitation of other panels like TN. When it comes to IPS panels, they offer by far the best images and offer the widest color gamut and viewing angles. The idea behind IPS technology is to use voltage to control the “liquid crystals” inside the LCD monitors. The liquid crystal orientation in IPS is different than in TN or VA. The crystals are aligned parallel to the glass substrate, thus the term in-plane. The crystals in IPS LCDs are rotated instead of twisted, which offers several benefits. Except for the larger number of benefits, there are certain drawbacks of IPS panels, which will be discussed down below. There are different variants of IPS panels built over time after extensive research done on IPS. The PLS, AHVA, eIPS, and more, are some of the different variants that you will find in the market. These are nothing but varying names of IPS panels built by panel manufacturers. PLS (Plane-To-Line Switching) is Samsung’s variant of IPS. AU Optronics uses the AHVA (Advanced Hyper Viewing Angles) technology for its panels. AHVA should not be confused with VA panels; it is just a confusing name, which is IPS-like technology. These IPS variants have some differences between them, but their fundamental working is the same as IPS. Manufacturers claim that their versions of IPS panels are better than the parent due to better and improved technology. Samsung claims that their PLS technology is affordable, has better viewing angles than the typical IPS, and can be used in flexible displays, i.e., displays with curved screens. This is true to some extent but has some drawbacks like poor overclocking. If you are planning to get an IPS model, do note that you will not be able to get a very high refresh rate monitor. The maximum refresh rate an IPS panel can achieve is around 150 to 160 Hz. If you are looking for over 200 Hz displays, you might want to get a TN panel monitor. These monitors are best suited for work that is highly color-sensitive, like image editing, rendering, video editing, and rendering, and more. This is because these monitors have the best colors and viewing angles out of any panels available. The contrast ratio on these monitors is pretty decent but not the best. Check out the full benefits and drawbacks of using an IPS panel down below: Benefits The IPS panels have a lot to offer compared to other panel technologies. They offer the most benefits out of the three mainstream panels. One of the biggest benefits of getting an IPS LCD is its excellent color quality. While other panels are limited to the sRGB coverage, IPS panels offer the widest variance. Even the most basic, entry-level IPS displays feature up to 95% sRGB coverage, while the majority offer full sRGB coverage. This makes them the superior panel when it comes to gamut work. IPS displays offer 8-bit native display, entry or worst level IPS displays have 6-bit displays. However, professional-grade monitors offer the true 10-bit experience. While high-end, IPS displays offer a brilliant 8-bit native display. Talking about viewing angles, IPS displays have by far the best viewing angles, i.e., 178/178 compared to TN or VA panels. IPS monitors are best suited for professional work due to their color accuracy; these panels are closest to real-life colors. Drawbacks There is not the best monitor, and despite IPS being an attractive option, it has a few drawbacks which you should know. If you are thinking about purchasing IPS displays for gaming, these are not the best due to their response time delay. It is because of the complex technology on which the monitor operates. The input delay is around 4 milliseconds which is right below the TN panels. Though 4 milliseconds delay is hard to find during gaming. These panels are also not the fastest when it comes to refresh rates. There are high refresh rate IPS displays are available but are costly and are not popular when it comes to high refresh rate gaming. Despite offering the best color production, IPS panels do not have the best contrast ratio. They are better than TN panels but are way worse than VA panels.
What Is A VA (Vertical Alignment) Panel?
VA stands for Vertical Alignment. VA panels stand right in between the IPS and TN panels, like a middle man. As the name suggests, VA panels use the vertical alignment of liquid crystals using behind the screen. The technology works similarly to an IPS panel where the crystals are aligned in a parallel fashion. These crystals are arranged in a vertical fashion in VA panels, which makes them different than IPS, but the functionality is similar. These vertically aligned crystals change their orientation when voltage is applied. These panels were announced to offer a mixed experience of both IPS and TN. When compared to the IPS panel, VA features a far superior contrast ratio than IPS. They have the best contrast ratios than the other two panel technologies, and the margin is huge. VA monitors’ contrast ratio reaches up to a static 5000:1 ratio, thus offering better blacks the other two panels. Unlike IPS, VA panels can achieve high refresh rate than IPS. They also feature better color reproduction, overall higher maximum brightness, and excellent viewing angles, just a little bit shy from IPS. VAs are best described as a jack of all trades, but like other panel technologies, they also have a set of drawbacks that are too big to ignore. One of the concerning issues related to VA panels is their high latency reaching 10 milliseconds of delay. This is something that the competitive gamer is not going to like, and again, VA panels are not the best for competitive games. Although some high-end VA monitors can reduce this huge delay up to 4 milliseconds, however, there is a catch. You might have guessed it, they cost a fortune. The majority of VA monitor falls to the 5 to 10-millisecond delay category. If you want to play games of multiple genres, except for competitive games, while also being able to do your office work or freelancing work, you cannot go wrong with a VA monitor. These drawbacks were too big to ignore, but as the technology is advancing, so does these technologies, and with every generation, the gap between the panels is closing. Like other panels, there are different variants of VA panels: Samsung’s SVA and AU Optronics AMVA. Below are the benefits and drawbacks of a VA panel: Benefits Vertical Alignment panels are the brightest and have the highest contrast ratio compared to other panels. This offers better blacks and black uniformity during video games or performing any tasks, including black areas. These panels have improved viewing angles than TN. However, the angles still cannot compete with IPS viewing angles but are still impressive nonetheless. VA panels are by far the best when it comes to gamut work. All of the panels feature full sRGB coverage, while some reach up to 125% sRGB coverage or 90% of the DCI-P3 mark (Possible with Samsung’s SVA variant). The best possible yields can approach up to 95% of DCI-P3 coverage or higher. Compared to IPS, these panels are affordable for the entry-level to mid-tier variants. VA monitors tend to offer the best all-around performance. VAs are generally considered a solid choice for all types of work, even gaming. Drawbacks VA panel suffers when talking about the topic of refresh rate. These panels do not have the best refresh rate options, but if you are willing to spend more, then you will be able to find a 240 Hz capable VA monitor. However, such monitors are rare and are very expensive. Another drawback is their slow response time. These panels are dubbed as the slowest panels in the TN vs. IPS vs. VA discussion. Except for the rare and expensive models, VA monitors have a response delay between 5 to 10 milliseconds. Users have also reported a ghosting effect during gaming and working. Some users have reported the issue of backlight bleeding.
What Is A TN (Twisted Nematic) Panel?
Twisted Nematic, or TN for short, is the oldest out of all existing panels. In a TN panel, the liquid crystals are twisted by using a nematic effect. The liquid crystals can be twisted by using voltage like other panels. The working principle behind the TN panel is complicated, so let us skip the technical stuff and let us dive into the main discussion. VA and IPS are far better and superior technologies when compared to TN panels, then you might wonder, how come these monitors are still ubiquitous? One of the main reasons is their price tags and excellent response times, offering up to 1 millisecond of delay, which is bonkers. It is hands down the fastest type of panel, which makes it still relevant in the monitor market and the reason people still purchase TN monitors. TN panels have seen leaps and bounds improvements over several years, and the gap between other monitor panels is shrinking with every new generation. However, we are still far from getting the perfect TN panel with an as impressive performance as IPS or VA when it comes to color reproduction, color gamut, and viewing angles. TN monitors suffer from accurate color production, and the performance changes if the screen is observed from top to bottom during use. If you subtend different viewing angles from the mid, you will observe that the monitor has higher saturation and gamma than the bottom of the screen. This makes them the worst choice for work, including pinpoint color accuracy, like image editing, graphic designing, and photography. These panels also suffer from poor contrast ratios. Out of the three mainstream panels, TN panels have the worst contrast ratio. IPS has high contrast ratio, but the difference between TN and IPS is not that huge. Color quality-wise, whether it is color depth or color gamut, TN panels tend to fall to the bottom of the scale. Most TN panels are 6-bit, but some high-end monitors offer up to native 8-bit. However, if you are looking for a true 8-bit experience, you would still want to go for either a VA or IPS panel. Here are the benefits and drawbacks of using a TN with your system: Benefits: While TN panels are the weakest in every category, be it contrast ratio, color depth, color gamut, and viewing angles, there is one factor where TN excels. This factor is the panel’s capability of achieving high refresh rates. TN panel can reach up to 240 Hz of refresh rate, which other monitor technologies struggle to achieve. And even if they somehow manage to achieve, the costs get way too high. The other advantage of using a TN panel is its response time. These panels are the fastest in the market and can achieve up to a 1-millisecond input delay. Other panels can reach a maximum of 4 milliseconds except for one exception. Most of the TN monitors fall in the category of 3 milliseconds response time, which is why the majority of the professional players prefer these monitor panels over IPS and VA, to have the competitive edge. These refresh rates are also achievable at higher resolutions like 1440p (here are some 1440p monitors) and beyond. TN monitors are also affordable, and even with high refresh rates, the prices are still decent compared to what IPS and VA have to offer in their high refresh rate variants. Drawbacks: Several drawbacks are stuck with TN until engineers will figure a way out to overcome these drawbacks. One of the obvious and biggest drawbacks for TN monitors is their color performance. They fall to the bottom of the list, whether you are testing them for color bit depth or color gamut. Even the best TN panels tend to be limited to sRGB. Some worst TN panels do not even cover the entirety of sRGB. The viewing angles of the TN panel are also nothing praiseworthy. These monitors have the worst viewing angles and tend to change colors with a slight change in angle from the dead center.
IPS Vs TN Vs VA: Viewing Angle
I have been talking about viewing angles ever since we started discussing these monitor panels. What exactly is a viewing angle, and how can it affect my decision of getting a new monitor for my system? The answer is simple, it may or may not affect your decision. A viewing angle means when a consumer looks at his monitor from multiple angles than from the dead center. The IPS vs. TN vs. VA view angle is by far the biggest difference between these three technologies. Some high-end TN panels do have better viewing angles, but they are the biggest weakness of TN panels, making them the worst choice compared to IPS and VA panels. For the IPS vs VA debate, there is not a huge difference between each of their viewing angles. VA offers far better viewing angles than TN, but the ratings are a bit shy compared to an IPS panel. IPS panels have the best viewing angle rating than their competitors, with a rating of 178/178. After getting an IPS panel, you will not notice a difference between color, contrast shift if you decide to view the monitor from any angle across your room. VAs do not offer a similar type of performance but the considered generally good in this regard. You might observe a slight change in contrast and colors in an image displayed on the monitor in VA, but the change becomes obvious, and the image becomes unclear. The difference can be observed even in a slight change in viewing angle from dead center in TN panels, which makes them useless for color quality-dependent work like photography, image editing, graphics design, and so much more. The changes also have an effect during gaming on a TN panel. If you decide to observe the panel from top to bottom, you might be able to differentiate between the color saturation and gamma from top to bottom. Color quality is also one of the main reasons why high-end, and professional-grade monitors stick with IPS panels or VA at max. The best panel: IPS is the best choice for viewing angles. IPS monitors can successfully maintain contrast, color depth when the display is viewed from multiple angles. VA monitors come to second place, though the angels are not as wide as IPS.
IPS Vs TN Vs VA: Brightness & Contrast
Brightness and contrast are other two important features that differentiate the TN vs IPS vs VA discussion. In terms of brightness alone, there is no particular difference between these technologies. The reason is due to two different modules. One module determines the brightness, while the other module is the liquid crystal panel. These two modules are discrete; hence there is no inherited difference between these panels. Things are different when we talk about contrast. Contrast is one of the important factors when it comes to picture quality. A good contrast ratio will highly impact how the image quality will turn out. A contrast ratio determines how well the monitor will display the blacks on the screen. In high contrast ratio monitors, you will observe the deepest blacks, while in monitors with poor contrast ratio, you will observe faint blacks. This is where things get really interesting. The differences between VA vs. TN vs. IPS panels are quite odd. VA panels, which you can call is a mixture of IPS and TN, has the highest contrast ratio out of the three technologies. The contrast ratio of the IPS panel comes to the second, and the gap is twice and thrice times as big compared to the VA panel. IPS comes at the second, and TN is on the last. Interestingly, the difference in contrast ratio between IPS and TN is not that big. TN panels are the worst when it comes to contrast ratio hence their inferior color production and color gamut. The entry-level TN panels feature a contrast ratio from 700 to 900:1, the values can be pumped to a 1000:1 with a high-end TN panel. IPS panels have a decent and larger range than TN, with entry-level models reaching 1200:1 and high-end displays reaching as high as 1500:1. When the VA range is listed, the competition becomes a one-sided discussion. The entry-level VA panel can reach up to 2000:1, already better than high-end TN and IPS panels, and high-end VA panels can reach up to 6000:1. There is one particular issue related to IPS displays in terms of brightness and contrast ratio. A similar test is a black uniformity, I did not think of a better section to discuss this factor, and I did not want to miss any crucial information from the article. That being said, a black uniformity test is a test to check how well a monitor displays a dark scene. Unfortunately, the brightness and contrast ratio tests cannot determine the black uniformity of a monitor. To have a decent black uniformity is important if you frequently watch movies, seasons, and videos on your system. Most panels will have a decent black uniformity, but it can vary from model to model despite having the same panel. There are not monitors with perfect black uniformity. If your monitor is displaying a dark area without any backlight bleeding, it means it has a decent black uniformity and vice versa. Out of the three panels, VA has the best black uniformity due to the best contrast ratio and brightness. The best choice: VA panels have the best contrast ratio out of the technologies. IPS comes to second place, and TN is at third, but the gap is relatively smaller.
IPS Vs TN Vs VA: Refresh Rates
TN panels are almost at the bottom of almost everything I have discussed in the article so far. It is not the best for color-sensitive work; it has the worst viewing angles, color depth, color gamut, and more. However, there is one big advantage that the TN panel has over IPS and VA, which is the refresh rate. If you are not familiar with refresh rate, the overview of it is the monitor’s ability to display frames in one second. One hertz means the monitor will update only once in a second. 60 Hz means the monitor refresh sixty times in one second. The slower the refresh rate is, the highest the input delay the monitor will have. This makes refresh rate an important factor for choosing the right monitor. TN panel offers the best performance when it comes to refresh rate and response times. TN monitors are capable of reaching up to 240 Hz of refresh rate at 1080p (here are some 1080p monitors) and achieving similar refresh rates at 1440p. However, recently IPS monitors also hit a similar refresh rate, and the highest it can reach was 360 Hz for a consumer-grade monitor. These technologies are improving and will feature high refresh rates at lower response times in the future. IPS panels generally come with the 60 Hz option but can reach 165 or 240 Hz marks depending on which type of work they are aimed at. VA panels are also capable of hitting the 240 Hz mark. There is one issue with monitors, other than TN panels, with a higher refresh rate. The problem is their cost. TN panels are the cheapest in the category, which makes it the best choice out of the TN vs IPS vs VA refresh rate discussion. Sure, these panels can achieve high refresh rates, but it also introduces a new problem. It could be a problem depending on if the user is bothered by the issue or not. Some high refresh rate monitors fail to reduce the ghosting and motion blur effect. This is a common issue for most panels, but manufacturers have put a lot of work into researching the panels and introduced features for monitors having issues like motion blur in high-refresh-rate mode. One of the features is the strobed backlight. It is a method to improve motion blur in high refresh rate monitors. For example, a 120 Hz monitor with strobed backlight will have less motion blur than a non-strobed 144 Hz monitor. Strobed backlight is a technique to disrupt the human eye that can trick the brain into thinking that the amount of motion blur is minimal. This is done by cutting of backlight for an instant, which creates a stable image. There is one big issue of using strobed backlight feature is a decrease in the brightness of the image overall. The flicker can cause eye strain and, in worst cases, can cause headaches. Overall winner: TN panels are the best if you are looking for a high refresh rate panel with the lowest response time delay. However, IPS and VA also managed to achieve a similar or higher refresh rate than TN, but TN still performs better. TN panel monitors are excellent if you are looking for that competitive edge that can win you games or you crave high frame rates in your games.
IPS Vs TN Vs VA: Response Times
Response time is another major category that should be taken into consideration when deciding to buy a new monitor. Response time should not be confused with input lag or delay. What exactly is the response time? As the title suggests it the minimum time, measured in milliseconds (ms), is taken by an individual pixel on the screen to change its color from white to black and one shade of grey to another. You might have heard about grey-to-grey, which refers to the same thing. A low response time means how quickly your monitor will update the display with new image or frame data. Higher response times can lead to problems, one of them is motion blur and trails left behind game characters called ghosting. This issue can influence gameplay and can cause distraction, which is tolerable in single-player-driven video games but not for competitive games. TN is the fastest in this category, with high-end models featuring up to 1 millisecond of response time. Most TN monitors have response times of around 3 milliseconds, making TN the fastest panel than IPS and VA. IPS panels come next in terms of response times. Oddly IPS panels are the second best and the worst as well. This is because of the wide variance between different models of TN monitors. The best in the category has a response time as low as 3 milliseconds. Most fall in the category of 4 to 7 milliseconds, with the worst models having over 10 milliseconds of response time, making them worst at the same time. TN panels are still the fastest in the category. VA panels’ response time lies in between TN and IPS. Some IPS models are better than VA, while the average transition time of VA panels is between the 5 to 10 milliseconds bracket. The high-end VA panels also feature as low as 4 milliseconds of response time. These numbers are expected to improve as, after every generation, the technology keeps improving, and the gaps, which differentiate these technologies from each other keep shrinking. VA monitors are highly inconsistent with their transitions. Some transitions can be fast, while others tend to be slower. IPS panels do not have this inconsistency. Most of the IPS monitors tend to follow their average transition speed. The difference between 1 milliseconds to 5 and 10 milliseconds might be noticeable, but the difference between 5 and 8 milliseconds is hard to spot. Unless you are focusing on the details and the reaction speed between your monitor and mouse click, it is unlikely you will notice a difference between 5 and 8 milliseconds. IPS panels are not the best in this category, and due to their high response times, they are limited with refresh rates. However, most of the recent IPS monitors do have higher refresh rates with acceptable transition rates, faster than 7 milliseconds, making them a viable choice for a 144 Hz window. The fastest monitor: TN monitors are hands down the fastest panels in the market, with high-end displays having less than 1 millisecond of transition speed. The entry-level or medium budget monitors fall in the category of 2 to 3 milliseconds window. The second fastest panel is IPS, with the high-end model reaching the transition speed of as low as 3 milliseconds, while the majority falls into the 4 to 10 milliseconds, depending on the quality of monitors.
IPS Vs TN Vs VA: Color Gamut & Color Quality
Whether you are looking for a decent gaming monitor or a professional-grade display best suited for color-sensitive work like photography and graphic design, color quality, production, and color gamut are some important factors to take into consideration. This is where you will have a clear idea of which monitor you should be getting. Starting with the color quality. It can be further divided into two categories; color depth and color gamut. TN panels are the weakest in each of these categories, making them the inferior panel out of the mainstream panels. These panels have improved a lot, even the TN panels. Some of the high-end TN panel offers 8-bit displays. These are made possible by combining a native 6-bit display and FRC (frame rate control). The main difference between 6 and 8-bit displays is the color gradients. In 6-bit displays, the displays are prone to issues like color banding. While the 8-bit displays feel more realistic and the colors give a much smoother feeling. These displays with 8-bit display hence offer better color display output. Most of the TN panels are 6-bit, and the highest-end TN displays feature up to a native 8-bit display. IPS panels and by far the best in this category; you will find most of the monitors with a native 8-bit display. Most of the IPS panels are native 10-bit, but in reality, they are 8-bit+FRC. You can find true native 10-bit displays in the market, though due to them being professional-grade, they can be costly. VA lastly is the second-best in the color depth department. There are 6-bit variants of this panel available in the market, but most of them (medium budget) are 8-bit. When talking about color gamut, there are only two panels worth discussing for, VA vs IPS, TN has the worst color gamut out of the three panels, which takes it out of the equation. Now when it comes to VA and IPS, IPS wins the competition convincingly. VA panels do offer full sRGB coverage as a minimum, and some can be pushed a little further. Some high-end VA panels like Samsung’s SVA can push the sRGB percentages up to 125% or 90% DCI-P3 coverage. Generally speaking, most of the VA panels can hit between 80 to 95% sRGB coverage. IPS, on the contrary, covers up to 95%, with the majority covers the sRGB coverage to the fullest. The lowest that IPS panels can cover in terms of color gamut is 93%, while it offers 95% coverage most of the time. The best choice: IPS is the best panel for color quality and color gamut. If you are looking for a monitor that can produce colors as close to real colors, then IPS panels are the best choice, with VA coming close and coming to second place. If you like to play games of different genres and want to enjoy the game with the best possible graphics settings, and you do not care much about input delay and refresh rates, you cannot go wrong with IPS monitors.
What About OLED & QLED?
Over the years, several different monitors technologies have been adapted, and a lot of research is put into the three most popular panels in a try to reduce the gaps between each tech and to come up with the monitor closer to reach perfection. It was not an easy road, and by the looks of it, we might have to stick with the pre-existing technologies for a little bit longer. However, recently developed technologies like OLED and QLED have been emerging and keep improving every year. OLED and QLED have their distinguished features and characteristics which are worth discussing, and these monitors might be the ones for your system. These OLED monitors are getting common and common in TVs, mobiles, and other display technologies, and they are making their way into the PC market. These displays offer speeds, the best picture quality, and a contrast ratio that users have never seen in any display technologies before. Let us discuss whether to research OLED and QLED technologies or not. OLED Most of the LED televisions and monitors use a backlight to display images on the display. OLEDs do not use these technologies. Instead, these displays have self-powered/emitting pixels that can be individually controlled. This ensures perfect black uniformity and no blooming issues, which are popular with the LCDs. These displays offer amazing advantages over the three popular LCD panels, like superior image quality and wide viewing angles (wider than some IPS displays). Other advantages include power efficiency; these monitors are highly power-efficient and consume little to no power compared to a generic LCD monitor. There is one big issue related to OLED displays is the shorter lifetime difference between red, green, and blue OLED films. One of the other issues related to OLED displays is their manufacturing costs, as right now, the prices of these monitors are ridiculous. This technology is the future and will become affordable in the future very soon. The problem related to the shorter lifespan of OLED films was a huge issue back when the technology was relatively new, now the technology has been improved, and displays with OLED have improved their limited lifetime. As of now, OLED is best for watching movies or seasons in your living room, monitors are not a decent purchase. QLED In 2015, Samsung announced a new display technology called quantum dot TVs that was later labeled as QLED in 2017. A QLED is an LED monitor having quantum dots between the LED backlight and the panel. A quantum dots are a microscopic molecule. These molecules emit their own multiple colored lights when normal light hits them. These molecules are enclosed in a film, and the light is provided by an LED backlight. These monitors are much closer to LCD monitors than to OLED, which some people might confuse due to the naming convention. These displays offer high contrast ratios, but their viewing angles are not impressive compared to OLED monitors. A huge benefit of using QLED is their highly low power consumption and is highly bright, several times brighter than LCD monitors. This monitor also does not prone to image burn-in, unlike in OLED monitors. One of the biggest issues with QLED is its shorter viewing angles. These monitors also suffer from backlight bleeding effects, which is common with LCD monitors. In short, OLED and QLED technologies sound better on paper than LCD monitors, but they have yet to prove their ground against LCD monitors. These monitors are best for movies and watching seasons. For gaming and other stuff, you should stick with LCD monitors for now. The future for OLED and QLED is bright and are the technologies that will be ubiquitous in the future, when most of the issues like costs, LED films lifetime, and more, are improved and manufactured at a bigger scale. We still do have OLED monitors in the market if you are interested to purchase one for your system.
Which Is The Best Monitor Display For Gaming?
I am almost done with the article as I have discussed each of the available monitor technologies in the market in-depth. Now, it is time for the wrap-up. Which is the best monitor display for gaming? If you have already gone through the article by now, I am pretty sure you might get the idea of which monitor panel would be the best for your choice. Now, out of the IPS vs VA vs TN discussion, which panel is the best for gaming? The answer depends on which type of game that you prefer to play on your monitor. If you are a type of person who likes to play RPGs, shooters, story-driven titles, and other genres, and you would like to enjoy the details of the game to their max potential and framerate is not a big concern of yours, you can select between IPS and VA panels. As previously mentioned, IPS monitors have the best image quality and color production out of any available panel technologies in the world. You will be able to see colors closer to real-life colors, the will add another dimension to the game’s depth. Now, if you play a competitive shooter who has a high framerate and refresh rate as his top priority with as little transition time as possible, you cannot go wrong with a TN panel. Sure the colors and contrast ratio are not similar to IPS or VA, but their high refresh rate and low response times make them the superior panel in every possible way. For people who like to play video games, as well as other stuff like watching movies, editing images for freelancing at the same time, VA panels are for you. More guides related to this page:
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VA comes to a close second with not equally similar color production but still manages to offer decent image quality. VA panels have the best contrast ratio than TN and IPS, making them best for displaying blacks. TN panels are the worst compared to the other panels when it comes to colors and contrast ratio. Despite getting to the bottom of almost everything, there is one key benefit of using a TN panel, these monitors have the lowest response times and have the highest refresh rates than IPS and VA. Although recently IPS and VA can achieve around 240 Hz of refresh rate, they still suffer from higher response times than TN panels. There is no answer to tell which monitor technology is the best. All of these panels excel in certain aspect and offers a set of drawbacks. If you are a competitive gamer, that craves the highest possible frames per second and refresh rates, you would be looking at a TN panel. If you are a professional whose work involves color quality, you would be looking at IPS panels. Similarly, if you are looking for a monitor that can offer excellent image quality as well as acceptable gaming performance, VA is the choice to go.
#1 – Which is the best panel for high-end PC gamers?
It depends if we are talking about high-end PC gamers that play competitive games to the extreme level, for such gamers, TN panels are the most suited choice. If you are a high-end gamer that likes to enjoy the story and play the game with the highest graphics settings and without caring much about framerates, an IPS panel is the better choice.
#2 – Is IPS better than VA?
IPS panels are better than VA panels in terms of viewing angles and color quality. In terms of refresh rate, VA panels are better in general. In response times the IPS panel varies and offer different transition times, high-end IPS panel offer low response times, while medium to entry-level budget IPS monitors has higher response times than VA monitors.
#3 – Do pros use TN or IPS?
Professional games always stick with TN panels due to their low input latency and extremely high refresh rate, as high as 240 Hz. However, the technology has been improving and advancing every year, and the gap between IPS and TN panels is shrinking every generation.
#4 – Why are TN panels bad?
TN panels fall at the bottom of the list in every factor that should be taken into consideration when selecting a new monitor. They have narrow viewing angles, the worst color gamut, the lowest contrast ratio, and more, which is why these panels are generally considered bad for most casual gamers and professional workers.
#5 – Which TV panel is best, IPS or VA?
IPS panels are the best because the panel offers wide viewing angles than VA. The contrast ratio and image maintain their colors and shape when viewed from different angles other than dead center, making them better than VA. TVs are best enjoyed with multiple people, and since not all can sit in the middle, IPS panels will provide similar image quality to every person watching the IPS TV.
#6 – Is VA slower than IPS?
VA panels have high refresh rates and response times than IPS monitors, which makes them faster than the latter technology. However, a high-end IPS panel has a better response time than the majority of the VA panels, which makes them faster than IPS monitors.
#7 – Do VA panels have burn in?
No, the burn-in issues are observed the most in OLED monitors. It is not reported by users across the internet about burn-in issues with LED panels. It happens due to displaying a longer duration of static content.
#8 – Do VA panels have ghosting?
Yes, VA panels do have ghosting, and out of the other two panels, it is most noticeable on the VA panels. However, high-end VA monitors tend to resolve the issue and do not show any noticeable ghosting effects but can get costly.
#9 – Does IPS cause input lag?
IPS panels have the most varying range of response times across the mainstream panel technologies. The fastest IPS monitor has as little as 3 milliseconds response time, the worst IPS monitor has as high as 10 milliseconds response time. Having an IPS monitor with a high response time can cause input lag.
#10 – Is 5ms response time good?
It is hard for the human eye to distinguish the difference between 5 and 7 milliseconds of response times but the ideal response times are still in the range of 2 to 3 milliseconds. With this in mind, 5 millisecond response times are not so bad, and you can still have a decent multiplayer experience.
