Computer Display Reference Guide

(version 1.3 — 15/12/2024)


  • Welcome. This is a reference guide for anyone wanting to dive deep (or pick good panels) into display technology.
  • After a few reading list recommendations, my personal panel recommendations are listed. They're grouped by their specific resolution & refresh rate.
  • Suggestions for improving this guide are welcome.
  • Nothing in here is final and everything may be subject to change. The author of this document is not perfect and can be fallible.

Table Of Contents

Reading list

mandatory (teaches you how displays work)
Monitorinsider—“Anatomy of a Monitor” || Techspot—“Anatomy of a monitor"
“A Taxonomy of Displays: Transmissive, Reflective, Emissive & More”—Anne Corning
“The Evolution of LED Backlights”
“Internal structure of a liquid crystal or LCD TV screen” (video)
“OLED Displays, How do they work?” (video)
“Blur Busters Law: The Amazing Journey To Future 1000Hz Displays”
“The Stroboscopic Effect Of Finite Frame Rate Displays
“GtG versus MPRT: Frequently Asked Questions About Pixel Response On Displays”
“Understanding Display Scan-Out Lag With High Speed Video”
“Are There Advantages to Frame Rates Higher Than the Refresh Rate?”
“Factors Affecting Monitor Responsiveness”
“LCD Motion Artifacts 101: Introduction”
“LCD Motion Artifacts: Overdrive”
“HOWTO: Pursuit Camera With Motion Tests”
“How LCD Response Times are Measured, and Why 10% to 90% GtG Measurements are Moderately Deceptive” (@a5hun) (video)
“Response Time vs. Latency / Input Lag (video)”
“What frame rate is needed to simulate reality?” (video)"
“What Is The Resolution Of The Eye?” (video)
“How to properly cap your FPS - FPS/Hz disparity stutter” (@Calypto)(video)
“Frame mistiming, stutter beat frequencies”—Chief Blurbusters

optional (good to know / niche things for enthusiasts)
"Blur Busters Custom Resolution (CRU) Glossary 101 / FAQ"
"G-SYNC 101" (this guide has outdated recommendations. instead, opt for backing off the frame rate cap by 10% from the native refresh rate, use in-game frame rate caps as they're the lowest input latency solution. e.g.: 130fps @ 144hz, 215fps @ 240hz, 325fps @ 360hz,...)
"HOWTO: Low-Lag VSYNC ON"
"HOWTO: Using ULMB Beautifully or Competitively"
"Motion Blur Reduction (ULMB, LightBoost, etc)"
"HOWTO: Pursuit Camera With Motion Tests"
“Making Of: Why Are TestUFO Display Motion Tests 960 Pixels Per Second?”
Pursuit photography slider setup - jusakuhibi
"New Easy Free Pursuit Camera: Smartphone. No rail needed."
"Quick Frame Transport (QFT) - Large Vertical Totals (reduce lag, reduce crosstalk)"
"CRU | How to Make Custom QFT Resolution"
"Blur Busters' Word On The DSC Lag Rabbit Hole" (BE AWARE! the person who started the thread is someone who's unwilling to do any kind of testing with his hardware/software stack. It is possible that the “DSC adds input lag” claim that he mentions is completely invalid. We have no data to work off, only anecdotes. Even Chief worked in anecdotes here)
"Strobed Motion Blur Reduction Is Same As PWM (but good kind of PWM)"
Beautiful Red Phosphor in New 1ms IPS 1440p LCDs Interferes With Blur Reduction Badly
Flicker-based vs Framerate-based Blur Reduction
Frame Generation Essentials: Interpolation, Extrapolation, and Reprojection
"Confused about HiDPI and Retina display? ― Understanding pixel density in the age of 4K"
"The Multiple Human Thresholds Pertaining To Display Motion"
"Is eye tracked motion blur measurable?"
"So what refresh rate do I need?"
Discorz stroboscopic effect infographic
"is blue light filter a gimmick ?"
"Blue Light Filters on Monitors, Do They Work?" RTINGS
"Is it all flicker? (Dragan Sekulovski) - video"
"Flicker explained - Guide to IEC 61547 for the lighting industry"
"The OLED Black Depth Lie – When Panel Type and Coating Matters"
"Can you calibrate a monitor without a colorimeter?" - video
Topic about hand pursuit shots - chief's tips
"Luxmeter App vs. measuring device: Are smartphones suitable for measuring illuminance?"
LCD Repair (will make this into a section later)
techmind.org – LCD technology and Tests
"Is motion blur directly related to strobe visibility or not?"
NVIDIA – How To Optimize Display Latency
Manufacturers: We Need User-Programmable Overdrive Lookup Tables
Why Retina Isn’t Enough
Displays, Diamond PenTile and others
PenTile and Sharp Eyesight
Notes on the Resolution and Other Details of the Human Eye
Experiments with Pixels Per Inch (PPI) on Printed Image Sharpness
Diagnosing and Disabling Dithering in the Graphics Pipeline
"Global BFI or Rolling BFI; Which is better?"
"Applied Sciences Group: High Performance Touch" showcase of 1kHz touch input latency
"Are hardware anti-blue light displays an IQ tax?" (CN article)
PWM flicker - examples of everyday life flicker
Discorz MPRT ruler
"Why Does Higher Resolutions Make Display Motion Blur Easier To See?"
Unsynchronized 240hz vs Synchronized 250hz polling rate screenshot comparison
Input Lag and the Limits of Human Reflex

advanced-level (ties in with GPU rendering + some research/studies, most can skip this)
"Swapchains and frame pacing" - Ralph Levien
"Present Latency, DWM and Waitable Swapchains" - Jack Minnet
"Sample Application for Direct3D 12 Flip Model Swap Chains"
"Improving Player Performance with Low Latency as Evident from FPS Aim Trainer Experiments"
"Latency of 30 ms Benefits First Person Targeting Tasks More Than Refresh Rate Above 60 Hz"
"Introducing NVIDIA Reflex: Optimize and Measure Latency in Competitive Games"
"SwapChain Science, It puts the Pacing in Frame Pacing" - SpecialK Wiki
"Input Latency Detection in Expert-Level Gamers, An experiment in visuomotor perception"
"Delays Have Dangerous Ends: On Monitors in SSBM"
EMI talk - Chief Blurbusters
Pixel inversion artifact showcase & threads
LCD/OLED Manufacturers: Cheap way to add 960Hz
Custom OLED Rolling Scans -- Custom Built OLED Monitor

latency guides to read (presence of topics on display devices & latency)
calypto's guide
bored's guide
vod's guide
timecard's guide


Illustrations

Persistence_At_0_G2G How MPRT values scale with different UFO speeds at simulated 0ms G2G

KSF Simulation of KSF backlight on display performance

stationary_vs_fixed_gaze Stationary vs fixed gaze motion difference Source: @Discorz

desktop_ppd
Desktop-sized displays — how PPD scales with distance

laptop_ppd
Laptop-sized displays — how PPD scales with distance

retina_ppd
'Retina' displays — how PPD scales with distance

phone_ppd
Phone displays — how PPD scales with distance

tv_ppd
TV displays — how PPD scales with distance Source: @kyube

30 ppd — 20/40 vision; poor vision
60 ppd — 20/20 vision; below average vision
80 ppd — 20/15 vision; average vision limit [1], [2]
120 ppd — 20/10 vision; practical upper limit of visual acuity
150 ppd — theoretical upper limit of visual acuity [3]

(take a look at Nvidia's calculator for the sources. aim for 80-120ppd ideally, higher is better)

coatings Coating of displays, reference Source: @prad.de (pic is incl. in all reviews)


General

Symbols

🏎️ - >90% compliance (reserved for LCDs that are close to OLED in terms response times)
🛸 - good strobing implementation
🐸 - great strobing capabilities
📴 - VRR off (RT) testing methodology
🔛 - VRR on (RT) testing methodology
Red text color - KSF/PFS phosphor WLED backlight (e.g.: Nano IPS)
Green text color- Quantum Dot WLED backlight (or QD-OLED)
No color - YAG phosphor (classic) WLED backlight
🛇 - Scarce / low availability / unobtainable
🧱 - External power supply (power "brick") (if it doesn't have the symbol, it means it has a internal power supply instead)

Tools

TestUFO || Beta for TestUFO
Eizo Monitor Test
Passmark MonitorTest (desktop app)
Monitor Test Utility 2.0.0 (desktop app)
IsMyLcdOk (desktop app)
Lagom.nl — collection of LCD Tests
SmoothFrog — alternative to TestUFO (desktop app)
SoftMCCS — Controls DDC/CI commands (desktop app)
ControlMyMonitor — Controls DDC/CI Commands (desktop app)
Custom Resolution Utility (CRU) — Utility for manually setting up monitor timings (forum thread is a great resource for troubleshooting timings) (desktop app)
Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) (desktop app)
TFTCentral's Monitor Panel Database
Sven.de/DPI — Calculate the PPI of your display
NVIDIA Automotive Screen Density Calculator (PPD)
Tom's Video Timings Calculator — Calculate the bandwidth of specific resolution, refresh rate and bit rate combinations
NVIDIA G-SYNC Certificated Display List
Bored's FPS Cap calculator
"Should you be worried about 1, 5, or 10 ms of input lag? Use (ApertureGrille's) Latency Split Test (LST) and find out!"
LCD Explorer by Merck group — 3D interactive map of LCD internals (desktop app)
novideo_sRGB — Color gamut clamping tool for Nvidia cards meant for wide color gamut displays (desktop app)
MotionCam — Android application for motion pursuit shots
DSLRCamera — iOS app for motion pursuit shots
ProCam — alternative iOS app for motion pursuit shots
Lux Light Meter Pro — Andorid app for measuring luminance (techless recommendation)
Photone - Grow Light Meter — Android & iOS app for measuring luminance)
Light Meter LM-3000 — iOS app for measuring luminance
"Lux to PPD calculator"
"Lux to PPD calculator with smartphone"

Cables

DisplayPort VESA Certified Products
Ultra High Speed HDMI 2.1b Cable Certification Program
HDMI Adopters & Affiliates
LTT HDMI cable testing video
LTT DisplayPort cable testing video
Mouser - Understanding Shielded Cable
Why a good cable matters (example of audio cable but same principle applies)
AWG - Wiki
There's no official list of HDMI certified cables, you need to follow the guidelines for identifying one.

There are 3 types of display cables on the market (for both DisplayPort & HDMI):
1.) Pure Copper,
2.) Hybrid Optical Fiber & Copper,
3.) Pure Optical Fiber

Pure fiber optic cables should generally be better than their copper & hybrid-copper counterparts due to the galvanic isolation principle, but there aren't many in-depth reviews of them hence it's unknown to the wider audience what their latency penalty is, what their electrical properties are and how they operate long-term with modern displays.

Many HDMI and Coaxial Antenna Cables in the Market Don't Meet EU EMC Regulations

"All EMC tests are made in isolated lab for emissions, not susceptibility to electromagnetic waves travelling into the cable from the environment." @Anonymous

NOTE

Be aware that a longer cable will lead to worse signal integrity.

1.) Pure Copper
All of these are VESA certified, according to VESA's website.
When it comes to this category, I'd opt for Club-3D cables due to larger conductor diameter & seemingly decent reliability.

DisplayPort 2.1 (UHBR20)
testing of club3d cac-1091 cable

Club 3D CAC-1091, 1,20m, 28 AWG | 0.08 mm²
Club 3D CAC-1092, 1,60m, unknown AWG
Startech, 1m, 30 AWG | 0.051mm²
Cable Matters, 102095-1m, unknown AWG
Cable Matters, 1,5m, unknown AWG
Silkland S1334, 2m, 28 AWG | 0.08 mm²

DisplayPort 1.4
Club 3D CAC-2068, 2m, 28 AWG | 0.08 mm²
Startech DP14MM2M, 2m, 34 AWG | mm²
Cable Matters 102025-6, 1,82m (6ft), unknown AWG
KabelDirekt 1120, 2m, unknown AWG
Accell B088C-007B-23, VESA Certified, 2m, unknown AWG
Lindy 36292, 2m, 24 AWG | 0.25mm² (no VESA Certification, but larger diameter)
Opt for these only if you have a DP1.4 display.

HDMI 2.1
Club 3D CAC-1372, 2m, 28 AWG | 0.08 mm²
Delock 83996, 2m, 29 AWG | 0.065 mm²
Startech HDMM21V2M, 2m, 30-32 AWG | 0.051mm² - 0.0320mm² (power-data)
AudioQuest Pearl 48, 2m, unknown AWG (possibly ~28AWG or thicker)

2.) HYBRID OPTICAL FIBER & COPPER

NOTE

This forum thread is valuable if you wanna dive into hybrid or pure optical fiber cables, consider reading into it.

"Short List of Certified HDMI Cables for HDMI 2.1" — AVSForum

3.) PURE OPTICAL FIBER

INFO

Will not have a continuous (copper) ground and thereby help battle against ground hum issues.
It's a form of galvanic isolation

DANGER

Latency tests, display interplay & long-term reviews of these cables are not available publically, YMMV with them. They could / might cause damage to your device.

SmartAVLink Pure Optic FIber DP 1.4 cable — price unknown
FiberCommand PureFiber® ULTRAVISION®| HDMI 2.1 48Gbps | 4K120Hz — $195 USD
Ruipro 8k Gen 4A Pure Fiber DFO HDMI Cable - non-certified 8k, 3m-100m (includes cable, 2 DFO's (Detachable Fiber Optic connectors)
HeyOptics 8K Fiber HDMI 2.1 48Gbps Pure Fiber MPO OM3 Fiber Optical Cable, 1000ft — $138 USD
ActiveOpticalCable Pure Fiber Ultra High Speed 48Gbps 8K60 HDMI 2.1 Active Optical Cable, 1m — $325.00
KING KABLE Pure Optical Fiber HDMI2.1, 1m — $299.00

I ordered fiber from KING KABLE and it almost broke my monitor. Overheated signal just as I plugged it in. @Anonymous

Hope it's clear that there might be some more unexplored side-effects from using this technology.
FiberCommand seems to have a decent showcase (1st party) video of their internal lab.
Fibercommand Pure Optic Fiber video showcase

Bandwidth of DisplayPort & HDMI standards (without DSC)

Why should one avoid DSC?

  • Increased probability of sub-optimal implementation, leading to delayed processing latency (refer to "Blur Busters' Insights on DSC Lag Concerns").
  • Delayed Alt+Tab function,
  • Malfunctioning of MPO's (Multi-Plane Overlays),
  • Malfunctioning of DSR & DLDSR (Deep Learning Dynamic Super Resolution) Article against this claim
  • Utlization of 2 GPU heads out of a total of 4 (Source)

Some articles on this topic may be found here:
How does DSC affect image quality?
How far can DSC be pushed before the claims of visually lossless stop applying?

Do keep in mind these bandwidths apply to Windows, not Linux.
HDMI Forum to AMD: No, you can’t make an open source HDMI 2.1 driver
4k@120hz unavailable via HDMI 2.1 (Linux)

Here's a article mentioning some benefits of using DisplayPort over HDMI (check comments as well):
Displayport - a better video interface

RDNA1 && Turing/Pascal == HDMI 2.0
RDNA2 == HDMI 2.1 FRL5
Ampere/Ada == HDMI 2.1 FRL6
Blackwell == DP 2.0 (UHBR20) & HDMI 2.2

Table of DisplayPort versions with their respective refresh rate & resolution limits
Table of HDMI versions with their respective refresh rate & resolution limits

DP 2.0 (UHBR20, no DSC)

  • 5120x2880 @ 200Hz @ 8-Bit || 5120x2880 @ 165Hz @ 10-Bit
  • 3840x2160 @ 360Hz @ 8-Bit || 3840x2160 @ 300Hz @ 10-Bit
  • 25601440p @ 840Hz @ 8-Bit || 2560x1440 @ 670Hz @ 10-Bit
  • 1920x1080 @ 1480Hz @ 8-Bit || 1920x1080 @ 1180Hz @ 10-Bit

DP 1.4 (HBR3, no DSC)

  • 3840x2160 @ 120Hz @ 8-Bit || 3840x2160 @ 100hz @ 10-Bit
  • 2560x1440 @ 280Hz @ 8-Bit || 2560x1440 @ 225hz @ 10-Bit
  • 1920x1080 @ 480Hz @ 8-Bit || 1920x1080 @ 390hz @ 10-Bit

HDMI 2.1 (FRL6, no DSC)

  • 3840x2160 @ 200Hz @ 8-Bit || 3840x2160 @ 165hz @ 10-Bit
  • 25601440 @ +450Hz @ 8-Bit || 2560x1440 @ 360hz @ 10-Bit
  • 1920x1080 @ 800Hz @ 8-Bit || 1920x1080 @ 640hz @ 10-Bit

HDMI 2.1 (FRL5, no DSC)

  • 3840x2160 @ 165Hz @ 8-Bit || 3840x2160 @ 120Hz (~139) @ 10-Bit
  • 2560x1440 @ 380Hz @ 8-Bit || 2560x1440 @ 300Hz @ 10-Bit
  • 1920x1080 @ 640Hz @ 8-Bit || 1920x1080 @ 500Hz @ 10-Bit

jisakuhibi's guide on choosing a monitor arm

Testing Methodologies of (most) reviewers

Response times

NOTE

OSRTT does 10-90% gamma corrected by default, don't use that mode, use rgb 5 tolerance. built the same as a5hun's tool

  • a5hun (ApertureGrille) — 0-100% gamma corrected + cad & overshoot numbers
    [uses melexis mlx75305 light2voltage probe, connected to the Adafruit Metro M4, analog reads of 50us – 20kHz, in UE4]
  • RTINGS (Test Bench 2.0) — gamma-corrected w/ raw graph data 🔛
  • techless — fixed RGB 5 offset (with OSRTT) 🔛📴
  • TechteamGB — fixed RGB 5 offset (with OSRTT)
  • KitGuruTech — fixed RGB 5 offset (OSRTT)
  • https://tftcentral.co.uk/category/reviews — fixed rgb 10 offset (from 25th february 2021 onwards, earlier reviews are not using this method)
  • totallydubbedHD — fixed rgb 10 offset (with OSRTT)
  • Techtesters — fixed rgb 10 offset (with OSRTT)
  • Hardware Unboxed || Monitors Unboxed — 3-97% gamma corrected + CAD (before febr 2021 reviews use older method)
  • stilgar for moreleTV — rigolds1102z-e + thorlabs PDA36A (10-90% g2g, no info on gamma correction)
    (used OSRTT with "10% light level tolerance" in new-ish reviews but swapped off due to having issues with OLEDs, older ones are 10-90% - both are the same thing as VESA 10-90% g2g)
  • ggoki — 2-98% not gamma corrected (not on all reviews, early ones are 10-90%)
  • RTINGS (before "Test Bench 2.0") - 0-100% not gamma corrected (listed as "Total Response Times", more like 2-98% due to noise)
  • X-KOM (Polish channel) — fixed RGB 5 Offset (with OSRTT)
  • Djun (Russian channel) — fixed RGB 5 Offset (with OSRTT)

UFO's

INFO

Be aware of the UFO speed, some switched between 960pixels/s to 1440pixels/s, some use pixel/frame]

INFO

A correct UFO pursuit shot must show the ladder pattern as a validation test.

Reviewers which show UFO tracks:

  • A5hun, Techless, Stilgar (moreleTV), Type-C Tech Reviews
  • LTT Labs with Brandon (former reviewer at RTINGS) has frog pursuits
  • TFTCentral syncs tracks (not visible to readers)
  • Bijan Jamshidi — 1920pps gray UFOs
  • PCMonitors — great UFO's & strobed mode comparisons

WARNING

TAKE IT WITH A GRAIN OF SALT, SINCE MOST PEOPLE DO THE TEST WRONG

Calibration

How to set up custom gamma (ish) with Nvidia GPU's

(Credits to @Dogelition - creator of novideo_sRGB)
Tools needed:

pre_step

0.) Either make your own icc file with a colorimeter, download one or make on using EDID data
1.) Save the icm file to argyllcms folder with iccvcgt.exe in it
2.) Open "Calibration Tools" and click "New" if needed

2nd_step

3.) Click "Edit Calibration"

third_step

4.) Click "Adjust", pick 10-Band

fourth

5.) Play around with the curve till you find what you prefer, no way to verify without colorimeter however.
6.) Click on "Save as.."
7.) Save the .cal file to the same folder as the iccvcgt.exe file is in, in argylls folder
8.) Open CMD and cd to the argyll folder

fifth

9.) Type the following: iccvcgt.exe -i icm1.icm cal1.cal customgamma.icm
where icm1.icm is the file you made from displaycal in the start, cal1.cal is the file you made from calibrationtools, and customgamma would be the output name if your new icm file

6th_step

11.) Move the customgamma.icm file wherever you want, i suggest the novideo sRGB folder
12.) Open novideo_sRGB

seventh_step

13.) Tick the "Clamped" checkbox, then click "Advanced"
Load the icm file, enable calibrate gamma to srgb or whatever you prefer. Same for dithering

eigth_step

15.) Click "OK" => Youre done, you can close the program. it'll persist through boot.

Custom gamma for AMD GPU users

You can try AMDColorTweaks , but its abandoned and currently does not persist through boot.

Display defects

INFO:

This section will be expanded greatly later on, leaving this here for now.

WARNING:

MAY TRIGGER SEIZURES, IT'S FOR STUCK PIXELS

https://forums.blurbusters.com/viewtopic.php?t=2083#p15472
https://forums.blurbusters.com/viewtopic.php?t=5379
https://forums.blurbusters.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4565
https://forums.blurbusters.com/viewtopic.php?t=6421

Light blubs

Equally important
Ultimate LED Bulbs - Ultra High CRI - The Honorable Quest (high CRI light bulbs spreadsheet)
Phillips Ultra Definition LED Light Bulb review by @The Hook Up
Healthy LED Bulbs Tested! Waveform Lighting vs Yuji vs Philips vs Sylvania TruWave vs Cree!

Opinionated monitor brand tier list

INFO

This is based upon firmware, thermals, EMC, longevity of product etc.

WARNING

I dislike tier-lists personally, they're vague and deceptive. They don't reveal the entire picture of each brand and their subbranding. Each specific display model can also have their own specific quirks & cons. This will be re-written in future releases. "S-Tier" brands are not exempt from this.

S-TIER: ASUS ROG, MSI
A-TIER: ASUS TUF, Viewsonic, (Eizo), Gigabyte, (Dell) Alienware
B-TIER: HP, BenQ(MobiuZ), iiyama, Dell, Lenovo, Sony
C-TIER (copy-pasted TV UI): Samsung, LG, Philips, BenQ(Zowie)
D-TIER: Acer, AOC, Cooler Master, Titan Army, INNOCN, Koorui / KTC / HKC, SanQ, Xiaomi / Redmagic

  • Always opt for buying displays with a external power "brick" (power supply) rather than a internal one, due to the ability to replace it with a custom solution (which is often superior), emitting less interference & heat directly to the IC & crystals inside the display.
  • List of displays which have a external power supply, filtered by >=240hz (may not be always accurate): Geizhals filter query (hint: Asus mostly leads in this regard here)
  • Dell Alienware products have nice manuals (random observation)
  • Consider going for external cooling solutions rather than internal ones (same reasoning as above. 140mm fan such as the Phanteks T30, Arctic P14 Max or a proper water-cooled setup will perform better than anything a manifacturer will provide the user with out of the box)
    A nice example of a water-cooled monitor

In regards to EMC:
"why does my mousepad turn off my monitor?" (video, comment section)

"Acer/Aopen monitors generally have such issues due to a lack of shielding on their internal components, therefore the static electricity created by moving the pad or electrical noise in general often mess up the monitor's ability to process video signals properly making it briefly turn off and on" @Cancerogeno

IKEA Computer Chair Static Might Be Blanking Your Display (more info in regards to this)
80's video from Apple with Woz talking about ESD
Monitor/screen that blanks due to static electricity in my chair
newsycombinator talk about phenomena

  • Comments under boardzy's video have suggested that this occurs on Dell and LG monitors too, hence why I've grouped them as such.
  • This is somewhat of an extrapolation, models in higher tier brands may have mishaps too. This subject (especially EMC) isn't very documented, but I thought I'd just group them as a rough guideline. Don't take this as something finite and as the ultimate truth.

"I have access to warranty returns and I cannot say much but AOC is on the top, not the bottom when it comes to numbers" @Stilgar


List of recommended monitors

LCD

FHD

WARNING

Do not buy 27" 1080p under any circumstance, let alone 32" unless you plan on using it as a TV.

TN

INFO

After 360Hz, G2G starts to be slow for the MPRT

  • Usually the go-to type of lcd when it comes to motion clarity, at the cost of deteriorated viewing angles and subpar color rendering.
  • Not all TN's have great G2G's, such as BenQ/Zowie 240Hz models, which should be avoided due to their lackluster G2G response times, higher processing delay & high price tag.

>600hz

  • "Rapid-TN"
    • Koorui G7
      availability: “late” q1 2025
      first announced 750hz panel
      don't expect good ref. rate compliance

>400Hz

>300Hz

>200Hz

IPS

WARNING

No IPS here can display their respective native refresh rate properly due to slow G2G times
In particular, fall times being 2x slower than MPRT requires. This means your cursor will feel smeary / delayed / have more lag on a dark background (white-dark transitions)
Avoid above 360hz IPS (such as the AW2524H) due to very poor g2g response time performance which will result in subpar motion performance and overall input lag

INFO

In the <400Hz category however, they all perform more or less identical in terms of G2G.
Price, firmware (OSD) and scaler (internals) differentiate them

>300Hz:

>200hz:

WARNING

Don't get the Dell S2522HG, ASUS XG259CM or Dell G2524H
Both the S2522HG & XG259CM are employing the same panel - LG Display LM245WF9-SSA3, which has green static dithering / low bit depth | Source: GGoki S2522HG Review) | Source: XG259CM review | GGoki S2522HG vs AW2521HF comparison
Avoid the Dell G2524H due to it's abnormally slow G2G's | Source: PCGamesN - OSRTT

INFO

The 23.8" IPS models have slightly faster G2G than the 24.5" IPS ones

VA

>200Hz:

QHD

WARNING:

Avoid TN panel in this category, such as the OMEN X 27 and it's derivatives due to PWM backlight & lackluster G2G times

IPS

>=300Hz:

>200Hz:

WARNING

► Avoid KSF/PFS phosphor WLED backlight if good strobing is your priority or you've troubleshooted your eyestrain concerns to be caused by something related to the KSF backlight (they're used abundantly in a majority of the 1440p >144Hz LCD panels)
► QDEF or WLED are substantially better than KSF, if good strobing is your primary goal (eyestrain complaints have occured on QDEF LCD panels as well, however)

NOTE

► Rest of 27" 1440p 240Hz IPS displays perform similar (such as the older ones - m27q x/aw2723df/vg27aqml1a)
► If you're adamant on 27" 1440P 240Hz IPS, opt for HDMI 2.1 models to avoid DSC issues on Nvidia GPUs - listed below

100Hz – 200Hz:

INFO

These are mostly listed due to their somewhat uncommon backlight (QD, YAG) employed, I don't particularly care for this category as I find <200Hz MPRT to be insufficient for good motion clarity.

  • MAG274QRF-QD
    [🧱,🛸]
    HUB/MUB
    RTINGS
  • Gigabyte GS27Q
    stilgar
  • Viewsonic VX2728J-2K
    [🛇🧱]
    PCMonitors
  • HP X27q (2 panels)
    [🛇]
    techless
    HUB/MUB
  • LG 27GS75Q
    [🧱]
    bilibili
  • AOC Q24G2A
    [🛸]
    The same panel as the Koorui GP01 [🧱]
    Great form factor & acceptable G2G performance
    The low blue light mode filter implementation is garbage, you can't make the display 2000K (red) through OSD. Setting the Green & Blue gain results in a purple look instead of fully red.
    pcmonitors
    techteamGB
    kitgurutech
    techless

VA

INFO

This category is special. Models not listed here can be decent performers (KTC/Koorui/HKC has a couple of really fast ones) as well. I'll list ones which I find OK.

>200Hz:

UHD

IPS

NOTE

4K is hard to drive without using DLSS, FSR, NIS, XeSS, all of which add latency overhead.

  • LG 27G850A
    dual mode ips black panel, slower than usual ips
    great choice if looking for high ppi & low persistence at desktop-sized display market
    sadly dp54, so still bound by dsc
    will be replaced in the list as soon as dp80 non-ips black panel comes to the market
    snowman review
    bilibili review
  • Benq EX3210U
    [🧱, 🛸]
    only decent backlight strobing experience on a 4K screen
    pcmonitors review
    totallydubbedHD's
    bijanjamshidi

OLED

  • OLEDs are only limited by persistence (MPRT or refresh rate itself), not by G2G response times, making them ideal for sample & hold motion clarity.
  • Be aware that there are trade-offs to this and they are as follows:

WARNING

Current list of issues with OLEDs include:
1.) Subpixel layout causing text rendering issues, leading to a softer image (this is a Windows issue, see here for how it performs in Linux),
Example of bad text rendering
However, there does seem to be a bit of a discussion going on in regards to this, take a look at this:
"Generic Subpixel Algorithm for Triangular-Structure QD-OLEDs / Pentile / WOLED / Others" - Chief Blurbusters
2.) Slight flicker / brightness drop related to display scanout (seems to be fixed 20-25% brightness drop, unknown as of now why this occurs and whether they will fix it)
3.) Potential for burn-in higher than LCD (somewhat exaggerated online however),
4.) DSC (slower alt tab behavior with Nvidia GPUs due to old display engine, but this is a LCD issue as well),
5.) Unusable VRR / Adaptive-Sync (can't do it without the gamma changing on abrupt frametime transitions),
6.) Black crush
7.) Forced pixel refresh once every 16 hours, Source

Another thing to be aware of is that Desktop / TV OLED displays perform different compared to smartphone displays (AMOLED), as can be seen here:
"Artificial reason of ghosting in <1ms OLED. Why it was done like that?"

Sharpness on AMOLED is also diminished when compared to LCD
FHD VS QHD Pentile displays
True resolution of AMOLED vs LCD
PWM and "DC Dimming" 960fps demonstration on the OnePlus 7 Pro showcase of different brightness dimming methods on the OnePlus 7 Pro (PWM vs PAM)
"Display Secrets: OLED 0.1ms response time" examples of AMOLED G2G transition behavior. Lacks showcase of transitions in form of heatmaps or oscilloscope graphs.

Subpixel_Layout_Example Magnified macro photos of text on two different 27″ WOLED panels. IPS LCD for reference Source: @TFTCentral

OLED_persistence 1440pps comparison of LG WOLED & Alienware QD-OLED, theoretical "<1ms G2G" / pure MPRT limit showcase Source: @techless

OLED_persistence_aw2725df 1440px/s pursuit shot comparison, QD-OLED at different refresh rates, theoretical "<1ms G2G" / pure MPRT limit showcase Source: @techless

OLED_vs_LCD 960pps comparison of TN, OLED, IPS

OLED purple line phenomena
It is related to the display scanout brightness dip, they're tied together
I don't know the underlying cause of it.

"Frame transition slow-motion OLED vs. LCD"
"Slow motion OLED 4K 60Hz & LCD 1080P 60 Hz | ASUS UX371 & ASUS UX363"

Brightness_Drop Brightness drop, related to display scanout (at 0% brightness setting on 271QRX) This behavior persists regardless of luminance level set (pressumably 20-25% of luminance is how much it drops) So, in this instance, if 27 cd/m² is the minimum brightness, this should cause a ~5 cd/m² drop (1cd/m² = 1nit) Source of image: @Muren

Methodology Behind the scenes of testing flicker by the reviewer. using a Admesy Prometheus LF Source: @野生的装机宅

WOLED_Nit_Drop 480 Hz (W)OLED tested at max brightness Source: @野生的装机宅 Link to video

QD-OLED_Nit_Drop 360hz (QD-)OLED tested at ? brightness Source: @野生的装机宅 Link to video

INFO

Messing with "Black Equalizer"-equivalent settings (it affects the gamma curve in darker shades of grey) may help with black crush.
Here's how each brand names the setting:
MSI - "Night Vision"
ASUS ROG - "Shadow Boost"
Gigabyte, BenQ/Zowie, Samsung - "Black Equalizer"
LG - "Black Stabilizer"
Viewsonic - "Black Stabilization"
Dell Alienware - "Dark Stabilizer"

Dual Mode (4K 240Hz & 1080p 480Hz)

  • Viewsonic XG323-4K-OLED2 (dp2.1, woled)
    Unreleased yet, rumor for now.

4K 240Hz

INFO

QD-OLED (Triangular RGB)

WARNING

Be aware of blurrier image, 4K PPD/PPI might mask it to some extent

1440P >=500Hz

  • MPG 272QR X50
    availability announced for june 2025
    dp2.1 uhbr20, semi-glossy
    no info on pixel layout, very likely same triangular structure
  • Samsung G60SF
    availability TBC
    same panel as above just samsung's version, no info
  • Gigabyte FO27Q5P
    availability TBC
    dp2.1 uhbr20, semi-glossy

1440p 480Hz

INFO

WOLED (RGWB Stripe)

WARNING

Better than previous generation in terms of text clarity, but worse than standard RGB Stripe LCD or LG 27EP950 (J-OLED 60Hz), be aware

INFO

This section will get re-written once new DP2.1 UHBR20 displays arrive (all of these will become irrelevant then)

1440P 360Hz

INFO

3rd gen QD-OLED (Triangular RGB)

WARNING

Be aware of blurrier image

  • MSI 271QRX
    supposedly can do 350hz without DSC (seemingly a 1340MHz pixel clock or 500kHz horizontal freq limit? no confirmations yet. no diff between 8-bit & 10-bit. on the stock cable tho, theoretically it should do 360hz on HDMI 2.1)
    271QPX is the same panel, some versions of it shipped with inability to upgrade firmware (old stock, new stock shouldn't have this issue)
    kitgurutech
    MUB
    RTINGS
    Stilgar UFO of 271QPX
  • GIGABYTE AORUS FO27Q3
    [🧱]
    "forced" (auto-negotiated) DSC
    price & ext. power brick made me put it here (GB fw is ok usually)
    RTINGS
    jisakuhibi's detailed analysis
  • Samsung Odyssey G6 G60SD
    [🧱]
    "forced" (auto-negotiated) DSC
    has weird response time behavior (fw bug, typical samsung qc)
    price, no TV OS & ext. power brick made me put it here
    RTINGS
    Djun review

1440P 240Hz

INFO

2nd gen WOLED (RWBG Stripe)

WARNING

Be aware of blurrier image
This section is redundant but will be kept for the time being, as one can find displays such as the G60SD (360hz panel) for the same price.


CRT

DANGER

CRT's are a health hazard for long-term use due to their high EMI (especially the magnetic field it generates)
There's also the radioactive radiation aspect to consider
Examples:
link1,
link2,
link3,
link4
Be aware, some of these links are made by layman which don't know the proper terminology of what they're measuring (and devices have questionable accuracy)

NOTE

You need a 980Ti (last NVIDIA GPU with a RAMDAC) to be able to run CRT's natively

Virgin LCD vs Chad CRT meme Source: forgot lol

Hardforum - DisplayPort to VGA adapters thread; Most active forum in regards to CRT's
ApertureGrille's P1130 review
GPU passthrough for CRT's

To calculate max refresh rate at a given resolution, the formula is:
(horizontal scan rate ÷ vertical pixel count) • 0,95

NOTE

There are a few monitors that are able to go above their spec'd vertical refresh limit, which are italicized
I do not know the implications of going above this limit for long periods of time, so if you do get your hands on these, be very careful about running them at refresh rates outside of the spec'd vertical refresh limit.

Vertical Scan Rate — this is the max refresh rate
Here we have a backup of the old CNET articles
The following tables are grouped by their respective HSR

>130 kHz

Brand & Model Horizontal Scan Rate Vertical Refresh Dot pitch Other information
Eizo F980 137khz 160hz .20mm
Eizo F930 130khz 160hz .21mm [F931 is flat variant]
Eizo T965/T966 130khz 160hz .24mm
Sony CPD-G520 132khz 170hz .24mm
Sony GDM-F520 137khz 170hz .20mm
Sony GDM-C520K 130khz 170hz .24mm
Mitsubishi 2070SB 140khz 160hz .24mm
Mitsubishi RDF225WG 140khz 160hz .24mm
NEC FP2141SB-BK 140khz 160hz .24mm
Hitachi CM815(uplus-531) 130kHz 160hz ?
Iiyama Vision Master Pro 514 142khz 200hz (420hz?) .24mm Capable of going above the spec'd 200hz vertical refresh limit.
Iiyama Vision Master Pro 454 132khz 200hz (420hz) .24mm 19 inch
Lacie Electron 22 Blue IV 140khz 160hz
Dell/HP P1130 132khz 170hz .24mm
IBM P275 130khz 170hz .24mm
IBM ThinkVision C220p 130khz 160hz ? probably .24mm
ViewSonic G225f 130khz 160hz .216mm
ViewSonic P227fb 130khz 160hz .25mm
Sun Microsystems X7149A 140khz 160hz .24mm 2070SB Rebrand
HP P1130 130khz 170hz .24mm Sony CPD-G520 Rebrand
HP P1230 140khz 160hz .24mm 2070SB Rebrand
Samsung 1100MB 130khz 160hz .20mm
Philips 202p40 130khz 160hz .24mm
NEC Multisync FP1370 130khz 160hz .24mm

~12x kHz

Brand & Model Horizontal Scan Rate Vertical Refresh Dot pitch Other information
Sony GDM-FW900 121khz 160hz .23mm-.27mm 16:10
Sony GDM-F500R 121khz 160hz .22mm
Sony CPD-G500 121khz 160hz .24mm
Nokia 445PRO 125khz 180hz (340hz) .25mm Capable of going above the spec'd 180hz vertical refresh limit
Nokia 445XPRO 121khz 150hz .21mm needs verification source:
Hitachi SuperScan 814 (CM814U+CM814U-521) 125khz 160hz ?
Sun/Sony GDM-5410 121khz 160hz .24mm ?
Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 2060u 121khz 160hz .24mm
Viewsonic P225f 127khz 160hz ? ?
IBM P260 121khz ?? probably 160hz .24mm ?
Samsung Syncmaster 1100DF 121khz 160hz ?
Dell P1110 121khz 160hz .24mm ?
IBM P260 121khz 160hz .24mm ?

100–11x kHz

Brand & Model Horizontal Scan Rate Vertical Refresh Dot pitch Other information
ViewSonic P220f 110khz 160hz .24mm
ViewSonic G220fb 110khz 180hz .25mm
Sony CPD-E540 110khz 170hz .24mm?
Sony CPD-G420 110khz 170hz .24mm 19 inch
Sony CPD-G400 107khz 120hz .24mm 19 inch
LG Flatron F920P 111khz 200hz .24mm
LG Flatron F900P 107khz 200hz .24mm
Mitsubishi Diamond Plus 230 SB 115khz 160hz .24mm
Philips 201B45 115khz 160hz .25mm
Dell P991 107khz 120hz .24mm 19 inch
NEC MultiSync FE2111SB 115khz 160hz .24mm

CRT input lag measurements
tldr: as low as 670 nanoseconds (as per prad.de ) or 400 microseconds (as per qsxcv's ghetto setup )


Display studies / DIY projects / Memos

A Pixel Is Not A Little Square (And A Voxel Is Not A Cube) - Technical Memo 6 - Alvy Ray Smith
Flickersense - Testing LEDs and Screens
Assessment of the effect on the human body of the flicker of OLED displays of smartphones - Minhyuk Kim
Perceiving polarization with naked eye
50.4: Method to Measure Perceptual Resolution of Moving Picture Display, DOI:10.1889/1.3500581, Jong‐Ho Chong
Organic light emitting display device and driving method thereof
"Motion portrayal, eye tracking, and emerging display technology"
Visibility of temporal light artefact from flicker at 11 kHz
Flicker Parameters for Reducing Stroboscopic Effects from Solid-state Lighting Systems
8bit vs 10bit
IEEE 1789: A new standard for evaluating flickering LEDs?
LED : les recommandations de l’Anses pour limiter l’exposition à la lumière bleue - LED: ANSES recommendations to limit exposure to blue light
Effects of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) on human health and the environment (flora and fauna)
DIY CD Spectrometer
A $500 DIY near-IR spectrometer that would sell for $10,000 - Yuan Cao, Ph.D.
color blindness test
Helmholtz–Kohlrausch effect
Evaluating the blue-light hazard from solid state lighting, John D. Bullough, Andrew Bierman & Mark S. Rea
Blue Light Exposure: Ocular Hazards and Prevention—A Narrative Review
DIY microscope camera setup - for photographing displays (BLANK LINK FOR NOW)
Tandem Organic Light-Emitting Diodes, Man-Keung Fung, Yan-Qing Li, and Liang-Sheng Liao*
EMC countermeasures for High-Speed Differential Interfaces, How Do Common Mode Filters Suppress EMI in Differential Transmission Circuits? Masao Umemura
Analytical equation for the motion picture response time of display devices - Fenglin Peng; Haiwei Chen; Fangwang Gou; Yun-Han Lee; Michael Wand;...
The Effect of Extended Visual Angle on Flicker Perception using OLED Display: Comparison with Flicker Indices DOI:10.36463/idw.2022.0698
Effects on the Ocular Surface from Reading on Different Smartphone Screens: A Prospective Randomized Controlled Study
Kelan Yuan 1, Haiping Zhu 1, Yujie Mou 1 PMCID: PMC8212737 PMID: 33202098

The effect of image resolution of display types on accommodative microfluctuations Niall J Hynes 1 , Matthew P Cufflin 2 , Karen M Hampson 3 , Edward Ah Mallen 2
Effects of high pixel density on reading comprehension, proofreading performance, mood state, and physical discomfort - lSusanne Mayra, Maja Köpper b, Axel Buchner b
51.1: Effect of PWM Dimming Frequency of OLED Smartphones on Visual Fatigue - Zexuan Wu, Lili Wang, Yan Tu, Yexi Sun, Chunsheng Jiang, Daniel Wang
50.4: Method to Measure Perceptual Resolution of Moving Picture Display - Jong-Ho Chong, Sang-Ho Kim, Dong-Wook Choi, Jae-Woo Bae, Seung-Bae Lee, Sang-Soo Kim
Advanced Display Technology: Next Generation Self-Emitting Displays (Series in Display Science and Technology) (talks about Mura effect & purple line)
A New Type of Furniture ESD and Its Implications - Douglas C. Smith
The Raster Tragedy at Low-Resolution Revisited: Opportunities and Challenges beyond “Delta-Hinting” — Beat Stamm, PhD
“Designing a Dark Theme for OLED iPhones”—Vidit Bhargava on 2019-05-08
“Fighting black smear” (@okreylos) and an addendum A Clarification About “Black Smear” (@okreylos)
Drivers for OLED, Joep Jacobs; Dirk Hente; Eberhard Waffenschmidt;


NOTE

A few additions I plan to do later down the line:

  • Classification of different backlight methods for LCD's (transmissive, transflective, reflective),
  • More display technologies (E Ink / E Paper), subcategories (AMOLED, P-OLED, miniLED, microLED),
  • Color calibration (color gamut, gamma calibration, HDR),
  • Defects (causes, solutions & methods to approach)
  • Expanded studies section
  • Font rendering in Windows & (most common) application software

Version History
Ver. 1.0 (12/10/2024): main composition written
Ver. 1.1: slight ux improvements (links appear w/ dotted lines now, easy to deduce it's nature)
Ver. 1.2.: added studies section & new infographics in regards to ppd (+ added a few reviews)
Ver. 1.3: added custom gamma section, few studies & inversion artifact article

Edit Report
Pub: 07 Nov 2024 16:10 UTC
Edit: 29 Mar 2025 20:37 UTC
Views: 1194