PC Monitor Question

[tm2dragon]

So I've always had a bit of trouble seeing in games when going into caves and such, but I used to think it was just because the screen was supposed to be dark. Now, I'm starting to think it's actually an issue with my monitor. It started off when I decided to watch Netflix's "Daredevil" on my PC, and realized that in any sort of dark scene, most of my screen was black. I figure that there should have been SHADES of black, rather than just one all-consuming shade blocking out most of the action. Basically, things are too dark, changing the contrast or brightness just makes everything a lighter but still near solid shade of black, and it is SERIOUSLY impacting both gaming and other media. Am I overthinking it and stuff is actually meant to hide in a darkness that drowns out most of the details? If not, then what's going on? Is this an issue with older screens? Mine is around the 10-year mark at this point, so I wouldn't be surprised.

 

Assuming this is just an issue of an old screen that can't keep up with modern graphics, what should I be looking for if I purchase a new monitor to make sure it's not an issue next time? I'm pretty much illiterate when it comes to tech terms, so I'm not entirely sure what sort of things I should search for in a good monitor. I'm planning a trip to Best Buy to ask similar questions there, but don't want to get roped into buying anything without a little foreknowledge. Hoping you folks here may have some insight!

 

Thanks!

[JimboUK]

Firstly I would look for an automatic brightness control and turn it off if the display has one.

 

As for a new monitor make sure you pick a native resolution that your GPU can keep up with, if you have to play at a resolution lower than native the monitor will scale it up and it won't look good.

Aim for a response time of 5ms or less.

Refresh rates higher than 60hz are nice but they cost more and are a waste if you struggle to get 60 frames per second in the games you play.

Pixels per inch are important, that will determine how sharp the picture looks, for example a 26 inch 1080p display will give you 85 pixels per inch, whereas a 32 inch 1080p will give you 69 pixels per inch and the difference is noticeable, you can use this site to do the math.

It's a hard to make recommendations without knowing knowing your other specs and what tasks other than gaming it will be used for.

 

If you're buying online it's best to put model numbers into Google and see what others are saying about them,

[goranpaa]

Besides what jim_uk says, A 24 or 27 inch monitor 1920 x 1080 resoloution and 75 Hz update frequency are a good choise. Most decent video cards can handle that resoloution in a good way. And depending on if you have a NVIDIA card or an AMD Radeon? A G Sync or a Free Sync monitor are nice to have. Asus, have some good monitors that aren't especially expensive. Likevise Benq. Eye care, are a good thing to have too in the monitor, as this will spare your eyes at long sessions.

 

Just make sure to buy a HDMI cable or a Display port one too. This, depending on wich cables the monitor and your video card can handle? Though HDMI cables often works at both ends. Display port, are becoming more common on the later video cards. You will likely need to buy any of those 2 cables as they seldom will come with the monitor bundle. The often included VGA cable in the monitor bundle will not give you any good image quality. Stay clear of monitors with built in speakers. Those speakers are pretty lousy.

 

And no neeed for buying expensive Display port or HDMI cables. You won't gain anything by this.

 

And always calibrate your monitor after the installation by running the built in Windows monitor calibration tool.

Edited March 12, 2019 by goranpaa