When you want to buy a monitor, in addition to the size and resolution, what is the significance of the various indicators that are as many as a cow's hair? With different usage needs, will there be trade-offs in the choice of these indicators? Today's one-time instructions, after reading through, you will know how to choose the right monitor for you. In addition, there is a trick when buying a monitor, the technical indicators that are not mentioned on the promotional page of the monitor are often the Achilles heel of this model.
resolution
The often said 1080P, 2K, 4K are the abbreviations of resolution, specifically 1080P=1920×1080, 2K=2560×1440, 4K=3840×2160, the higher the resolution, the higher the fineness of the picture - but it is not necessarily the higher the better, which should be combined with the size of the display.
size
At present, there are three mainstream display sizes: 24 inches (23.8), 27 inches, and 32 inches (31.5). As mentioned earlier, the resolution of a display is based on the density of the light emitting dots, and the accurate name for this statement is PPI, that is, pixel density. If it is small size + high PPI, the imaging will be more delicate and clear, but there will also be problems of too high density and too small font.
So this involves the most optimal problem of resolution and size matching, and the simple summary is that 1080P resolution recommends 24 inches (display settings 100% scaling), 2K resolution recommends 27 inches (display settings 150% scaling), 4K resolution recommends 31.5 inches (monitor settings 200% scaling) - remember, don't trust Windows' recommended zoom settings!
panel
The panel is the most headache problem,At present, the main distinction is LCD、miniLED、OLEDThe three kinds,The first two of which are still related。 Don't worry, LCD and miniLED are also subdivided into VA and IPS because of the difference in implementation technology. Don't worry, the IPS panel will be further divided into three types: IPS, Fast IPS, and nano IPS......
LCD is the technical product of white light backlight + liquid crystal panel, miniLED is actually a kind of panel based on LCD, which uses pixel array luminaire, the difference between it and the former is that it can achieve higher brightness (peak brightness over 1000nit), and has the function of regional light control; OLED is "pixel" light, no need LCD, miniLED backlight module and color filter, the light control is more fine, the brightness and darkness can reach the extreme, and the color is richer, but there is a problem of screen burning (afterimage).
Let's talk about the VA and IPS panels of LCD and miniLED. The VA panel has good color, poor response time (dragging), average visibility, good contrast, and can be bent; The IPS panel has good color, average response speed, wide visibility, average contrast, and general light leakage. Fast IPS and nano IPS (exclusive to LG) are subdivided into IPS panels, and the response time and color performance have been improved, respectively. The former can generally achieve a GTG response time of 1ms, and many cost-effective gaming monitors use Fast IPS panels; The latter is mostly found on design monitors, but note that the KSF phosphor used in nano IPS will make the display reddish, and even color correction is difficult to solve.
To summarize simply, technically, OLED > miniLED>LCD; In terms of price and color< miniLED<OLED, in terms of brightness, color, contrast, and response time, OLED> miniLED> LCD. Note that OLED displays are almost always high-end displays, miniLED displays occupy the mid-range price range, and LCD displays range from entry-level to mid-to-high price ranges.
Brightness, contrast, and HDR
Brightness refers to the ratio of the luminous intensity to the area of the light source, which determines the overall brightness and darkness of the image. Contrast refers to the difference between different pixels in an image, and the greater the ratio, the more gradations from black to white, resulting in richer color representation.
Contrast is a technical parameter that many people tend to ignore, but it is often impossible to view before purchasing, if you have the opportunity, it is best to take a look at the 256-level grayscale test, if it is online communication, you can ask the merchant to provide a screen camera, the focus is to view the grayscale test of the 1-16 part, the clearer the difference, the better.
Now many displays now support HDR, this HDR means high dynamic range image, brightness contrast is a very critical part of it (emphasizing the upper and lower limits of light and dark), and it also contains color gamut, color depth, and technical parameters of several parts of dynamic mapping. There are many standard formulators for HDR, and the current popular standard specifications are HDR10/+, HDR 400, HDR 600, HDR 1000, and HDR1400. Among them, the standards that LCD can support are the lowest gear, because its peak brightness is only 300nit~400nit (some reach 450nit), and the dark part cannot be reduced; The peak brightness of miniLED is at 1000nit; The peak brightness of OLED can also exceed 1000nit, and the dark parts can even be turned off to glow to reveal pure black.
In essence, HDR is a natural partner of OLED, and only OLED can perfectly reproduce the calibration requirements of HDR. Later, the emergence of miniLED can also meet the requirements of some HDR standards to a certain extent, and as for LCD displays, even if they are marked to support HDR, they don't have to care.
Response time
Response time is an indicator of the time required for color transformation,There are currently two units of measurement,GTG and MPRT,In most cases, display manufacturers are currently accustomed to using GTG annotation,That is, (native) gray scale response time,The smaller the response time,The faster the color switching,Especially suitable for applications in high-dynamic scenes,For example, e-sports games need to pay great attention to this。
Refresh rate
In addition to response time, the refresh rate is also an important indicator that affects gamers' purchases: the higher the refresh rate, the more detail you can see, the less shadow you can see, and the more accurate you can make judgments. At present, the mainstream display refresh rate is 60Hz, 120Hz, 144Hz, 165Hz, 240Hz, and 360Hz. Most non-gaming monitors only have a 60Hz refresh rate. It should be noted that the higher the refresh rate, the better - because there are not many graphics cards that support high refresh rates at present, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 series graphics cards and AMD Radeon RX7000 series graphics cards support HDMI 2.1 full blood specifications, which can support high resolution + high refresh rate (cable support is also required); At present, most of the DP interfaces are version 1.4, and at most support 4K+144Hz DSC compression output.
In addition, there are two technologies to mention about the refresh rate, namely Free-Sync and G-Sync. G-Sync and Free-Sync are AMD and NVIDIA's official refresh synchronization technology,Reduce display screen tearing,When the number of hardware frames is much greater than the screen refresh rate, screen tearing will occur,Through G-sync and Free-sync, the refresh rate and game frame rate can be displayed synchronously,It can reduce the feeling of screen tearing,Displays with G-sync are generally a few hundred yuan more expensive。 In addition, HDMI 2.1's VRR "variable refresh rate" is a good technology that can bridge the problem of co-channel picture refresh of monitors and graphics cards, even if the frame rate is not enough, the two can be "synchronized".
interface
Since the interface is mentioned, it is necessary to explain their differences, the current mainstream interface specifications of graphics cards are HDMI 2.0/2.1 and DisplayPort 1.4/2.0/2.1. The most important difference is that HDMI 2.0 cannot support high resolution + high refresh rate (bandwidth is only 18Gbps), and at the same time, HDMI 2.1 in the half-blood state is only 18Gbps bandwidth because it is TMDS mode; Only the full-blooded HDMI 2.1 (FRL mode) is 48Gbps bandwidth, which can support high resolution + high refresh rate; The DP interface is also a similar problem, but the situation is much better, and the 1.4 specification can support 4K+144Hz (DSC compression). Note that only the AMD Radeon RX7000 series supports DP 2.0/2.1, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 series only supports DP 1.4.
In the display part, most of the displays are HDMI 2.0/2.1+DP 1.4 specifications, so you must figure out this, that is, whether the combination of graphics card + display is reasonable. My suggestion is that there is no need to pursue a monitor with a refresh rate above 144Hz, even if you are an esports gamer, because: there is currently no graphics card that supports the game to run smoothly at 4K resolution + 144Hz!
Color gamut, color depth, color accuracy
Color gamut, color depth, color accuracy, and color temperature are the most complex things, and here we try to explain them in the simplest way.
The color gamut is the standard for all color ranges visible to the human eye, and the current focus of display propaganda is on DCI-P3 or sRGB. DCI-P3 is a color gamut standard in the film industry, which is characterized by a wider color gamut, bringing greater color saturation effect, to put it bluntly, more vivid and colorful. sRGB is a universal color standard, and most of the content we usually come into contact with is based on sRGB. Therefore, if you value entertainment, such as watching movies, videos or games, refer to the DCI-P3 color gamut level of the monitor; If you're a designer, or a specialist (e.g., in the publishing industry), it's even more critical to pay attention to the level of the display's sRGB color gamut – the closer to 100% of both is the better.
Color depth is a technical indicator of whether the color depth reflects the excessive smoothness of the color,At present, it is concentrated in 8bit and 10bit,The former will often mark the display as 16.7 million colors,The latter will be marked to support 1.07 billion colors - the higher the number of supported colors, the smoother the transition of color in theory。 Although most entry-level displays are also marked with 8bit panels, it is likely to be achieved through FRC jitter technology, that is, 6bit+FRC mode; All non-miniLED and OLED technology panels are achieved through 8bit+FRC technology if they want to achieve 10bit color; All native 10-bit displays, there are only two types of panel technology: miniLED and OLED, so it is very easy to distinguish.
When the display is promoted, it often provides a color accuracy index, the unit is expressed by ΔE, this color accuracy refers to the accuracy of the color displayed within the color gamut, the smaller the ΔE value, the smaller the color deviation, the more accurate the color display, and the professional use should pay special attention to this technical index.
Eye protection
Eye protection mainly relies on two functions, the first is blue light filtering technology, and the second is dimming technology. LCD screens produce short-wave blue light, which can cause damage to the human eye, so it is necessary to suppress specific wavelengths of blue light to achieve eye protection, and such displays often apply for low blue light certification. Among them, OLED displays have very little short-wave blue light because of their innate technical advantages, so they are much better in this regard. However, when the anti-blue light function is turned on (which is not enabled by default on most monitors), the color will deteriorate in layman's terms, which is a necessary price.
The other is the dimming problem, like the mobile phone, the display also has a difference in dimming, the same PWM dimming and DC dimming. Among them, LCD/miniLED screens basically use DC dimming; OLED screens are mostly PWM dimming, and some products use DC dimming - undoubtedly, DC dimming is a better way, compared to PWM dimming, it is more friendly to the human eye, and the fatigue of long-term use is lighter.
Finally, the final is a summary: according to the difference in usage needs, give the priority direction, and gamers should focus on: response time, refresh rate; Design and professionals should focus on: color accuracy, color depth, color gamut, color temperature, contrast; Home audio-visual entertainment, office, etc. should focus on: color, brightness, and eye protection.