Frag-Box upgrad information.
GAMING:::
IPS:
144hz AND 240hz panels, Faster crystal transition time (lower motion blur)
60hz panels and 120hz panels are significantly more blurry (in motion) vs 144 / 240, it's NOT just the 24hz, the crystals are different.
Very poor contrast ratio. Dark games look bright grey. For example, if you're playing something atmospheric like the new Control, or Doom (2016), upcoming Doom Eternal, You may want to get something other than IPS.
TN:
Absolute fastest crystal transition time. Faster than the fastest IPS.
Also very poor contrast ratio, identical downfall as IPS.
This is for WINNING at all cost. for people who takes Pro gaming Seriously.
VA:
Slowest of the 3 crystal transition time, 144hz and 240hz available, but it will still have very slight smearing of white grey transitions.
The 144hz versions w/ ULMB are a bit better and on par with faster IPSes.
the latest Samsung 240hz is an unknown at the moment, not sure it supports ULMB, it's not mentioned in their brochure.
Biggest advantage of VA is Contrast ratio. Image looks DEEP and 3 Dimensional. On IPS image looks floaty because the black point is too high. Whereas on VA, the blacks actually look black, which adds to scene depth, what's closer and farther away is more obvious on a VA panel.
I wouldn't recommend any NON-Curved VA panels for PC, because you are quite close to the monitor even on larger 32 inch ones, the Curve greatly stabilizes the contrast drift problem which VA has.
Samsung has 1500R curve, but even 1800R is enough to take care of the sides drifting. 1500R would allow you to sit even closer than 1800R.
4K / 25x14-16 / 1080p
Competitive games , you have no choice , even with multiple 2080ti your frame / input latency will be higher with 2 cards. For an All out frag-box, you'd get 1080p or at most 2560x1600/1440 monitors.
For atmospheric casual gaming, 4K is an option.
HDR
Not relevant for gaming, NO game has taken HDR seriously, or mastered their content / color grading to properly utilize HDR. The HDR standard for gaming is not established, it's a mess, and very little resource is devoted to working with it on part of the studio.
ULMB
ALL types of LCDs have ULMB models. blacklight strobe, to remove motion blur trails. These models will however cut the peak brightness roughly in half, but greatly enhances motion clarity.
ULMB is not uniform. The pixels on the whole panel does not transition all at once. whereas the backlight DOES transition uniformly for the whole screen.
THIS MEANS, they have to tune the backlight strobe timing typically to the Center of the screen. The consequence of which is, The CENTER of the screen will always have slightly more motion clarity than the Top or Bottom of the screen. This is still a net benefit, but there are limitations.
ALL LCDs are benefited by ULMB (for gaming).
For movies, it's better, but movies are only 23.976fps, frame smear and judder somewhat negates the benefit of ULMB.
Brightness:
How many Nits do you need for gaming. It depends on how bright your room is. 250nit is enough for most indoor situations. 300-500 nits is recommended if you're near a window during the day .
Take into account that LEDs will dim over time. especially when running at maximum brightness. you'll probably lose 30-50 nits in your first year or 2 of use @ maximum setting.
Ports:
For PC , typically displayport / hdmi/ dvi/ vga, doesn't really matter, they'll all work. But some monitors may have trouble with HDMI input from consoles/ other devices without pixel-format options.
Using TV for PC monitor:
Highly recommend Curved VA TVs in this instance.
Roku embedded TV models are the most hassle free as far as PC connectivity.
Samsung TVs work with PC, but the software and color engine is not as stable, you can't get color stable output from a samsung TV, it's temperature dynamic.
Sony, works, but UI is meh..
OLED, too blurry for competitive gaming, but for casual play they're great. it WILL burn in, not a debate.
GAMUT:
Adobe RGB, SRGB, DCI-P3
Games are typically mastered to SRGB, if you send the same signal to a P3 or Adobe rgb monitor, the colors will look oversaturated. It's not accurate but some people like it.
Games are not color managed applications, (though this may change in the future if Nvidia actually integrates Reshade),
If you purchase a color probe, and calibrate your monitor, it will correct White point, Grey balance, and Contrast, it does not offer GAMUT correction adjustment between P3/Srgb/Adobergb. WAY WAY better than nothing, it's still not accurate, but color balance is greatly improved.
PHOTOSHOP:::
If you want to do PS seriously, You will need 2 types of monitors, a HIGH END Adobe RGB monitor w/ high bit processing , 10-14bit, and a middle grade Srgb monitor to Check your work for web-audiences.
The bulk of monitors out in the world are srgb, if you check your work on a high end AdobeRGB monitor, it may not be representative of the output Normal people see. This is especially true for Web.
For Print work, you don't need the second srgb monitor. you'd softproof on the Adobe rgb monitor.
YOU MUST PURCHASE a calibration probe. Otherwise, everything you do is rubbish.
Colormunki-Display is the best bang for buck colorimeter,
Datacolor Spyder 5/ spyder X are slower and less accurate.
PRE-Calibrated Monitors:
Calibrations drift within the first 200-500 hours, the pre-calibration becomes worthless after that time. The pre-calibration is also only true to 1 specific brightness setting, if you raise or lower the brightness, it's no longer a relevent calibration.
This has been a way to market monitors, it's beyond meaningless in actual usage. GIMMICK.
