best lcd panel type for gaming supplier

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If you"re in the market for a new gaming monitor, you"re going to brush up against three distinct types of displays that all come with their own pros and cons. We"re here to break down exactly what you need to know about TN, IPS, and VA panels and help you make the right choice for your exact gaming needs.

There are three display panel types that cover most gaming monitors (cutting-edge technology like mini-LED and OLED are coming, but we won"t cover that here). TN (twisted nematic), IPS (in-plane switching), and VA (vertical alignment) all use the same technology at their core--molecules that react according to different voltages to move and produce an image--but their differences and evolutions have made each one good for specific use cases.

TN panels have the worst viewing angles of the three, with colors able to drastically shift from even slight angles off the center of the display. TN also has the worst color coverage, with the inability to show a high color depth and producing noticeable banding due to interpolation. Contrast ratios are also poor, with the overall image looking washed out compared to IPS and VA.

So, if TN is this poor, why is it still on the market? For one, TN panels are incredibly cheap, which is why you"ll often find them in budget gaming monitors that can still deliver a good, if not great, image. TN is also still the fastest panel type on the market, with pixel response times (the time it takes for a pixel to change color) as fast as 1ms. While IPS and VA panels have managed to get there, they often make use of methods that lead to other issues (such as smearing or inverted ghosting), which keeps TN panels relevant for speed.

For that reason, TN panels are ideal for competitive gaming, especially in the realm of esports where response time is much more important than image quality. If you"re primarily playing Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Fortnite, or Call of Duty: Warzone, you"ll probably benefit the most from a TN monitor if all you care about is securing those wins. Plus, you"ll save a bunch of money in the process.

In the past, one of the biggest compromises you had to make with IPS displays was pixel response time and refresh rate, but as the technology has evolved it has managed to shake these off. You can now find IPS displays with refresh rates well into the 240Hz range, with response times matching that of the 1ms on TN. You"ll pay a premium for that, with most high-end displays on the market featuring these specs, but it"s also possible to enjoy some of the benefits with cheaper IPS products. You might get a response time closer to 4ms and maybe a limited refresh rate ranging from 60-144Hz, but if you care about what your games look like then it"s a massive step up from TN.

One big disadvantage across the board with IPS panels are their poor contrast ratios, making them worse options for dark rooms than VA. It can make dark areas in games look more milky grey than black, made worse by the uneven backlighting that can be viewed at different angles (also known as IPS glow). The color reproduction is still the best it can be on an IPS display, but if you mostly play games at night or in a dim room, you might want to consider a VA panel.

Speaking of VA (vertical alignment) panels, there"s a reason the majority of LCD TVs use this panel type. It"s the jack-of-all-trades panel, with better color reproduction than TN panels as well as a much better contrast ratio compared to IPS. VA panels, depending on the overall display specs, can also be cheaper than IPS panels in most cases, occupying a good middle ground between performance and price that is difficult to argue against.

One area where VA truly excels is contrast. It"s a night-and-day difference compared to IPS, with VA panels able to produce far inkier blacks and really accentuate dark areas in games, especially when you"re playing in a dim environment. This is one of the strongest reasons for owning a VA panel, especially if the "IPS glow" really bothers you. You do, however, lose out on the wider viewing angles that IPS offers.

One issue with VA is its response times, like IPS. It can reach 1ms in very specific cases, but this often leads to a lot of smearing or inverse ghosting (where ghost trails behind shifting pixels have colors inverted), which make the gains moot. On average, a VA panel will have worse smearing at the same pixel response times when compared to an IPS panel, primarily down to how the vertical alignment of the molecules in the display function. It"s something you might notice when playing at very high refresh rates and in fast-paced games, but it"s also something that a lot of people don"t have an issue with at all.

If getting the fastest response times and highest frame rates possible is crucial to your gaming, there"s no question that a TN panel is still your best option. Competitive gamers who benefit from the fractions of a second that a pixel can take to update will find no corners cut on any TN panel out there, and they"ll benefit from the high refresh rates most offer.

Similarly, if you"re on a very tight budget and you"re looking for the right monitor to accompany a machine built for games like League of Legends, Dota 2, or Fortnite, then choosing a TN panel could help you put more money toward the hardware that powers your games instead. You"ll be missing out on the better color reproduction that TN lacks, but if you"re just planning to play games casually and not take in their sights, then you can save yourself a lot of money.

If single-player games are mostly what you use your PC for and you"re strictly keeping it for recreational use, then it"s difficult to argue against a VA panel. It"s a considerable step up from TN and will let you enjoy your games with visuals as their designers intended. The deep blacks will let you immerse yourself in moody atmospheres, while the cheaper prices could afford you the ability to get a bigger monitor with a decently high refresh rate.

VA panels also give you a lot of range to stretch your budget, whether you"re just looking for a slightly-above-average display or one to really bring out the best in your hardware. From 1080p to 4K, it"s easy to find a great VA-equipped display that won"t break the bank or go ultra-premium with one of Samsung"s top-of-the-line products. The company"s latest G7 (or Odyssey G9, if you have the space and the money for it) feature outstanding HDR support, incredible contrast, and great color, if you"re willing to invest in their high price points.

If you"re looking for a monitor that can do it all, there"s nothing beating out an IPS panel. Many new monitors feature the more advanced fast IPS panels, which remove many of the compromises you used to have to make with regards to pixel response times and high refresh rates.

The viewing angles, the color reproduction, and the overall experience of an IPS panel just can"t be beat right now, making it the perfect accompaniment to a high-powered gaming PC, console, or workstation. They"re accurate enough for some professional work, whether you"re color-correcting photos or videos, and fast enough to keep up with your favorite competitive games or engrossing single-player adventures.

IPS panels are also ideal for local multiplayer gaming with their wide viewing angles, but these come at the cost of good contrast ratios and potential backlight bleeding. If you"re only planning to play games in a dark environment, a VA might be better suited to your needs. But if you"re looking for a panel with the fewest compromises, it"s hard to argue against IPS.

We"ve highlighted some of our favorite monitors with each display panel type above, but if you"re looking for more options for well-priced displays, check out our guide to the best cheap gaming monitors on the market right now as well as the best monitors for PS5 and Xbox Series X. If monitors are just too small, we also have recommendations for the best 4K TVs for PS5 and Xbox Series X, some of which can also work well for PC gaming. If you’re looking for some more information on the types of monitors out there, we’ve got a list of the differences between LCD and LED Monitors. Let us know what your favorite displays are in the comments below.

In this guide, we’ll go over the differences between the most common monitor panels. We’ve compared IPS panels, TN panels, and VA panels to help give you more insight on your upcoming purchase.

However, the average consumer is clueless on the LCD panel technology used in their LCD monitor. A monitor’s panel type is a crucial feature that dictates how it performs as well as the kind of tasks it is best suited to accomplish. Therefore, it is important to understand panel technology so that you can be sure to choose the appropriate monitor for your gaming needs.

And, it is important for gamers to become familiar with these various panel technologies so that they can understand the variety of marketing buzzwords that companies use to describe the different LCD panel monitors on the market.

For instance, phrases like “grey-to-grey response time” and “contrast ratio” are important to understand. There are also other specifications such as “color bit-depth” and “input delay” that are good to know as well.

This is the first question you need to ask yourself. Because, if you’re working with a budget of $150 or less for your monitor, your options will be much more limited than if you were working with a ~$500 budget.

For instance, if you have $150 or less to spend, you’ll likely be forced to choose a TN panel. However, if you have more to spend, that doesn’t necessarily mean you will want to avoid a TN panel monitor, it just means that you will have more options.

This is an important question because the type of usage your monitor will see will be a big determining factor in which type of panel you can get. If you are going to use your monitor solely for competitive gaming—I’m talking CS:GO, LoL, COD, Dota 2, etc.—then a TN panel with a high refresh rate and low response time will be your best bet.

On the other hand, if you are more of a casual gamer, or you are planning on doing a lot of graphic design work on your monitor, you might want to look into a VA panel or an IPS panel. These panels don’t quite perform on the same level as a TN panel (in terms of response rate) and they cost a lot more for the same refresh rate. However, their picture quality is much better than TN panels and therefore, they are better-suited for graphics design work.

This kind of ties into the question above, but it is worth considering as well. As I mentioned above, if you are a serious gamer and you are playing competitive games where every split-second could be the difference between victory and defeat, you might want to forego better visuals for a better performing monitor.

And, for that, a TN panel is your best bet as they offer lower response rates and higher refresh rates (at least, for the price you pay) than IPS or VA panels.

On the other hand, if you’re not playing super competitive games and you really enjoy the visual aspect of gaming, you’d be better off going with a VA or IPS panel as they offer better technology for displaying richer and more detailed visuals.

The other bit you ought to understand is that it is quite difficult, if not completely impossible, to find a monitor that is the best solution for every individual.

Some display types are appropriate for gaming, while others are best suited for graphics design. Other monitors are good for gamers who want the best visuals, while a different set of monitor panels work better for competitive gamers who need the most performance possible.

In this guide, we have broken down the different panel types and have explained their key features, as well as have compared them to their counterparts to help you better understand which type of panel would best meet your needs.

If you are looking at a monitor and it doesn’t clearly state what kind of panel it is, it’s probably safe to assume it’s a TN panel. What I mean by this is that, in most cases, for IPS panels and VA panels, the monitor manufacturer will include the panel type in the name of the monitor in an effort to make them stand out.

As I mentioned above, TN Panels owe their popularity to low manufacturing costs.However, they are also known for being able to deliver much higher response rates than IPS or VA panels. However, they are also known for being able to deliver much higher response rates than IPS or VA panels.

Because of their affordability, Twisted Nematic Displays with higher refresh rates (a feature you will pay more for) are more readily available than competing panels with high refresh rates.

The viewing angles on a TN panel are touted to be 160 degrees vertical and 170 degrees horizontal: these angles are considerably lower than the viewing angles presented by other panel technologies

The eyes, for instance, will perceive a different viewing angle if you look at the center of the screen instead of the peripheral regions of the monitor. In this instance, a color shade can be represented to be a different shade depending on its position on the screen. It may appear darker when it is on the upper side of the screen or lighter when it is towards the bottom.

Because of these problems, the consistency and color accuracy on a TN panel will suffer in comparison to IPS and VA panels, which, ultimately, makes this panel type less ideal for color-critical work such as photography and design, or even for gamers who want the best visuals possible.

The most notable selling point of In-Plane Switching panels is their consistency, improved viewing angles, and superior color accuracy when compared to other LCD technologies. Every color shade retains its unique identity and distinctiveness regardless of its position on the monitor.

These factors make IPS panels suitable monitors for graphic design work, as well as for gamers looking for the best visuals possible (but who don’t mind a drop in response rate.)

Perhaps the greatest strength of a VA panel is its ability to block light from the backlight when it isn’t wanted. This ability results in higher contrast ratios and deeper blacks which are several times better than that of the other LCD technologies discussed in this guide.

As power users already understand, one problem with LCD monitors is light from the backlight. When an LCD monitor wants to display black, the color filter will be positioned in such a manner that very little light from the backlight will seep through. While they try to do a reasonable job, their filters aren’t always perfect, thus, incapable of rendering the blacks deep as they should be.

Thankfully, VA panels are magnificent at that task. And thanks to the fact that they are susceptible to clouding or bleeding towards the edges of the screen, the screens are often considered as ideal candidates for movie enthusiasts and suitable for general purpose work.

The VA panels also feature improved viewing angles and good color reproduction. Their excellent color reproduction abilities make the monitors ideal devices for color-critical work, or for gamers who want to play their games with the best picture quality possible.

A considerable drawback of the VA panel is its low level of responsiveness with its pixels transitioning from one state to the next. This can cause more noticeable blurring when gaming.

Thankfully, the more modern versions of VA panels use a superior pixel overdrive feature that is not susceptible to the problems of the earlier versions.

It is quite difficult to state definitively what LCD monitor is better in the battle of TN vs IPS. This is because both TN LCD displays and IPS LCD displays have a share of advantages and disadvantages.

The quick responsiveness of TN panels makes them suitable for competitive gamers who rely on every split-second to achieve victory. (Though there is a lot of debate surrounding this considering that some believe that the average human brain can just compute about 25 frames per second.) The response time of most TN Panels, save for the high-end and very exceptional ones, is between 2ms and 5ms. This quick response rate is why gamers love TN Panels, as they are perfect for fast-paced games.

IPS Panels, on the other hand, feature a rather sluggish response time compared with TN panels. But the good news is that IPS technology is improving with each new generation of monitors.

IPS Panels owe their popularity to superior viewing angles. They are also not susceptible to color washout when viewing at an angle, which is a problem that is very common with traditional TN panels.

TN panels suffer from limited viewing angles, especially when looking from a vertical position. Colors tend to shift if viewed from an off-perpendicular position. When viewing TN panels from vertical positions, colors will change so much that they’ll invert past a certain angle.

The reason is that higher resolution monitors typically cost more and, so, if you’re going to pay all of that money for an ultra high definition monitor, you might as well get the panel that is best suited for displaying high-end visuals.

Of course, if you want a balance between higher resolutions and lower response rates, you might be better off sacrificing some in the visual department and going with a TN panel to get a monitor with a better response rate.

Both VA and IPS panels are commonly used in LED-backlit TVs today. Though they are both Liquid Crystal Display types, there are vast differences between their performances. The differences touch on contrast, viewing angle, response time, and black uniformity.

IPS Panels are a clear winner when it comes to viewing angle. IPS Panels, as already explained, have a wide viewing angle without any noticeable drop in image quality on the monitor.

VA panels recoup their losses when it comes to contrast. Contrast, as you might be aware, is one of the most important factors when it comes to picture quality. VA surpasses IPS panels when it comes to contrast.

When in a dark environment, black images or shades will appear gray on an IPS panel, considerably undermining the experience. VA contrast ratios are usually in the range of 3000:1 to 6000:1 while IPS contrast ratios are around 1000:1.

Neither VA panels or IPS panels are ideal if one of the main features you are looking for in a monitor is response rate. However, of the two, VA panels offer a slightly faster response time than IPS panels.

VA panels, on the other hand, were built specifically to address the deficiencies in both TN Panels and IPS panels. Their response time is slightly faster than the response time of IPS panels yet considerably lower than the response time of TN panels.

There have been improvements on TN panels to make them more suitable for color-critical work such as photo editing, but even with the said improvements, TN panels are still far from ideal when it comes to these types of tasks.

From a visual standpoint, VA panels are better than TN panels as they are capable of 8-bit color depth as well as wider viewing angles. They also feature better black uniformity and high contrast ratios as compared to TN panels.

In my opinion, though, the choice between a TN panel and VA panel is somewhat similar to the choice between a TN panel and an IPS panel: choose an IPS panel if you are mostly into competitive gaming and pick a VA panel if you want better visuals.

If you are a competitive gamer, nothing will serve you better than a TN panel. TN panels might have weaker images, low contrast, and limited viewing angles, but they offer very fast response times.

However, if you are into the best visuals possible and you want images that are more crisp and detailed while you game, then the ideal panel for you is an IPS panel. IPS panels are excellent in reproducing color. They also come with a wide viewing angle, which is a feature well-suited for graphic design artists.

VA panels are the compromise panel. They offer accurate colors and wide viewing angles, almost comparable to IPS panels. Their response time is a little slower than that of TN panels, but also a little faster than IPS panels. So, if you want to get a monitor that brings balance to what a TN panel and IPS panel bring, VA panels are the way to go.

At the end of the day, TN panels are probably the most popular option for serious gamers. They are more affordable and perform better in competitive scenarios.

Your gaming monitor is one of the most important parts of your PC, and a big part of that is down to the type of panel it uses to display all those lovely polygons. You"ve probably seen lots of different monitor panel types crop up in a gaming screen"s specs sheet, too: words like TN, IPS and VA. But what do they actually mean, and how do they affect the quality of your gaming monitor? Well, as you"ve probably guessed from the title up top there, I"m going to tell you everything you need to know about all the different gaming monitor panel types, including their strengths, weaknesses and which one you should look to buy if you want the best possible image quality.

Now, I"m going to warn you - most of what you"ll read below is all going to be pretty general. Not all panel types behave the same way, for example, and there will always be some that outperform the rest. That"s why it"s still important to read proper reviews of gaming monitors so you can get an accurate picture of how a monitor"s panel type stacks up against the rest.

I"m also not going to spend ages talking about the exact chemical structure of every single type of sub-pixel, because, well, there are plenty of other people who have done that already. If you"re after that kind of detail, I"d suggest heading over to the folks at TFT Central. Instead, I"m going to be concentrating on what you actually need to know about gaming monitor panel types, such as how their various characteristics affect their performance, and how you can avoid falling into monitor misery by making sure you know exactly what specs sheets are talking about when they start throwing a million acronyms at you. So let"s get to it.

Let"s start with one of the most common monitor panel types available today: TN, or Twisted Nematic. TN panels are what you"ll find in most gaming monitors these days, especially ones with high refresh rates and those geared toward competitive esports and the like.

The good: That"s because they"re a) generally quite cheap to make and b) have the fastest response times out of all the different panel types. This means there"s less lag between you clicking your mouse or tapping your keyboard and that action being translated onscreen, making them ideal for twitchy shooters and games that need fast reaction times.

There are other benefits to having a fast response time as well. These include less blurring and ghosting when fast moving objects appear onscreen, which in turn leads to a clearer, crisper image. Indeed, some gaming monitors boast their response times are as low as just 1ms sometimes, but the key thing to watch out for are the words that come after it, such as "black-to-black" or "grey-to-grey" (which is often abbreviated to GTG).

Black-to-black is the standard response time measurement and refers to the amount of time it takes for a pixel to change from black to white to black again. It"s the fastest change possible in a monitor, and is generally regarded as the monitor"s best and more accurate response time.

The problem is that this kind of transition doesn"t often happen in everyday practice - especially not when playing games. Instead, most pixels are showing colour, which is why some manufacturers quote a grey-to-grey response time instead. However, this can mean different things depending on different manufacturers, as it all depends on what shade of grey they take as their starting point. Lighter greys will transition to white faster than darker greys, for example, and so a GTG figure won"t necessarily be the same for every pixel. As a result, GTG times are more of a rough guide to a monitor"s response time rather than a definite fact.

Over the years, other technologies have come along to try and improve a monitor"s GTG response time, or help correct the effects of having slightly slower response times. Some monitors, for instance, have an Overdrive feature, which is designed to make pixels change states much faster by applying a higher voltage to them. This can often dramatically improve a monitor"s GTG response times in particular, and if you see a very fast one quoted on the box, it"s almost certainly been achieved using some sort of Overdrive feature.

The bad: Alas, the disadvantage of picking a TN panel is that they generally don"t have the best colour accuracy and they also have quite narrow viewing angles. The former isn"t the case for every TN screen - those certified by Nvidia for use in their G-Sync gaming monitors, for instance, have to meet rigorous colour accuracy standards - but I"ve seen plenty of non-G-Sync screens that barely cover 85% of the standard sRGB colour gamut, which means washed out colours and generally not very rich and vibrant images.

IPS monitors, on the other hand, are all about colour accuracy. Largely made by LG, there have actually been lots of different types of IPS panel that have emerged over the years as varying manufacturers tried their hand at matching the quality of LG"s panels, leading to dozens of different variations and combinations of acronyms. These days, though, most manufacturers (especially gaming ones) just tend to say they"re IPS as opposed a specific variant.

Unless, that is, it"s an AHVA, or Advanced Hyper-Viewing Angle, panel. Despite sounding like a VA panel (our third main panel type, which you"ll find more on below), AHVA is actually another type of IPS panel produced by AU Optronics and offers pretty much identical performance to a classic LG IPS panel.

The good: As I just mentioned, IPS panels generally have pretty great colour accuracy (I normally expect an sRGB coverage score of around 96% here) and wide viewing angles, making them better suited to colour intensive work and tasks like photo and video editing. This is true across all types of IPS panel, and their superior viewing angles (often quoted as 178 / 178 degrees) means you don"t get that nasty colour or contrast shift when you"re looking at the screen from a funny angle.

The bad: Unfortunately, their response times are often slower than TN panels, although these have become a lot better in recent years. Personally, I"ve never had any problems with latency when playing games on this type of screen, and for me, image quality is a lot more important than a couple of millisecond"s difference in overall response time.

They can also be more expensive to produce than TN panels, which, combined with their slower response times, is another reason why you don"t tend to see them a lot in displays designed primarily for gaming.

Finally, there"s the VA, or Vertical Alignment panel. Much like IPS, there are dozens of different types of VA panel, but the main ones we need to concern ourselves with are MVA (multi-domain vertical alignment) and AMVA (advanced MVA).

MVA panels were first designed to sit in the middle of TN and IPS displays, offering better viewing angles than TN screens and higher contrast ratios and deeper blacks than IPS. However, their colour accuracy isn"t quite as good as IPS, and they don"t have very fast response times, either.

AMVA, on the other hand (not to be confused with the IPS-like AHVA panel tech described above) builds on that even further, improving the panel"s colour accuracy while still maintaining those ultra high contrast ratios and deep blacks. Its viewing angles still aren"t quite as wide as IPS displays, though, and its response times are still a bit slower as well. However, through the use of features like a monitor"s Overdrive function, VA response times are now much faster than they used to be, making them a much more common occurrence in gaming screens, especially when it comes to curved or ultrawide displays.

The good: As a result, VA monitors can sort of be viewed as the ultimate compromise screen. The key advantages are their best in class black levels and their superior contrast ratios, and compared to TN panels, they also have better viewing angles and higher colour accuracy.

The bad: However, while VA might rectify some of the weaknesses you"ll find in TN screens, they"re still not as colour accurate as IPS panels, and their narrower viewing angles also can"t compete with their IPS rivals, either. Their main weakness, however, is their slow response time, which is generally said to be the slowest of the three main panel types. As I said, steps have been taken to try and mitigate this when it comes to putting a VA panel inside a gaming monitor, but if your gaming library consists solely of competitive shooters and the like, then you"re probably better off looking elsewhere.

When it comes to thebest gaming monitors available on the market, the dizzying array of sizes, resolutions, refresh rates, response times, FreeSync versus G-Sync and panel types can make purchase decisions difficult. Our job is to make the buying process easier for you, so in this article, we"re going to look at two of the popular panel types used in today"s best gaming monitors: IPS and VA.

VA stands for vertical alignment, in which liquid crystals are aligned vertically, perpendicular to the substrate surface. As a result, these panels tend to have greater viewing angles than TN panels (but lower than IPS) and excellent contrast ratios and excel at providing incredible levels of detail in gaming (or movie) scenes.

Pixel response time refers to how fast a monitor can shift from one color to another (typically black to white or gray to gray) and is measured in milliseconds. But what does a low response time mean for gamers in the real world? A lower response time will garner less motion blur and allow for a clearer picture with fast-moving scenes in games. Of the two, IPS panels tend to have the lower response times, typically at 1 to 3 ms for the fastest panels (some even going as low as 0.5 ms).

On the other hand, the many gaming monitors with VA panels are advertised with a 4ms or lower (GTG) value for gaming monitors. In fact, we"ve seen some VA monitors spec"d as low as 1ms GTG with overdrive. However, those lower response times can come at the expense of inverse ghosting, leaving bright artifacts behind fast-moving objects on a screen.

IPS panels can be had from the standard 60 Hz up to 360 Hz on the fastest 1080p panels (like theAsus ROG Swift PG259QN). For a long time, 4K IPS panels were stuck at a maximum of 144Hz. However, that changed recently with the introduction of theViewSonic Elite XG320U, which overclocks to 150Hz (at the expense of Adaptive-Sync).

While neither IPS nor VA panels can match the "infinite" contrast ratio of newOLED panels, VA does have the upper hand. A good VA panel can exhibit a static contrast ratio of 2,000:1 to 3,000:1. However, the very best panels can crank that figure to 4,000:1 and beyond (for example, theAOC C32G2ZE can hit 4,000:1). The advantage that VA panels hold over IPS in contrast ratio is even more pronounced in darkened rooms, where "IPS glow" can be a serious problem.

Most IPS panels feature horizontal/vertical viewing angles of up to 178 degrees. This means if you"re viewing content off-center, there isn"t much color-shifting or a dramatic drop in picture quality until you reach the extreme edges of the viewing angles.

While VA panels have made great strides over the years in viewing angles, they are still not entirely up to par compared to IPS panels. VA panels are typically a bit weaker with respect to color/contrast shifts when viewing content off-center. However, for gamers who are likely to be sitting dead-center in front of the screen and not moving along the periphery of a monitor"s optimum viewing angle, this is likely less of an issue.

IPS panels, in general, have greater color gamut performance, leading to richer colors for your games. Most IPS monitors can hit a higher percentage of the DCI-P3 and sRGB color gamuts. Higher color gamut scores generally lead to greater accuracy and more vibrant color representation.

VA panels are slightly behind the curve on color accuracy compared to IPS, but for typical gaming scenarios, they are well suited for the job. They particularly shine when it comes to shadow and highlight detail in games, and make a good choice when you"re watching movies in your downtime due to the deeper blacks. But when you weigh the advantages that VA panels have with contrast ratio and black levels versus the more accurate color performance of IPS panels for gaming, it more or less comes down to your personal preference.

While it may look like IPS is the winner based on its technical merits, it’s not that easy. When we’re talking about things like how responsive a monitor is or how it looks to the eye, a lot of it comes down to personal preference. You might prefer VA over IPS based on not only your gaming preferences but also productivity apps when it’s time to get work done.

And while you may enjoy having a fast 360 Hz IPS display for your twitchy eSports games, someone else might have a different panel in mind for a slower-paced RTS game. In the end, if it is all possible, we’d suggest that you try to get some “eyes on” time with a monitor before you plunk down your cold, hard cash at a brick and mortar electronics retailer. And if that’s not possible, pore over our vast back catalog of monitor reviews to help you make an informed decision.

So, why would anyone ever buy a TN panel? For starters, they’re cheap. They don’t cost a lot to produce, so they’re often used in the most budget-friendly options. If you don’t value color reproduction or need excellent viewing angles, a TN panel might be fine for your office or study.

TN panels also have the lowest input lag—typically around one millisecond. They can also handle high refresh rates of up to 240 Hz. This makes them an attractive option for competitive multiplayer games—especially eSports, where every split-second counts.

IPS technology was developed to improve upon the limitations of TN panels—most notably, the poor color reproduction and limited viewing angles. As a result, IPS panels are much better than TNs in both of these areas.

In particular, IPS panels have vastly superior viewing angles than TNs. This means you can view IPS panels from extreme angles and still get accurate color reproduction. Unlike TNs, you’ll notice very little shift in color when you view one from a less-than-ideal perspective.

IPS panels are also known for their relatively good black reproduction, which helps eliminate the “washed out” look you get with TN panels. However, IPS panels fall short of the excellent contrast ratios you’ll find on VAs.

While high refresh rates were typically reserved for TNs, more manufacturers are producing IPS panels with refresh rates of 240 Hz. For example, the 27-inch 1080p ASUS VG279QM uses an IPS panel and supports 280 Hz.

Previously, TNs exhibited less input lag than any other panel, but IPS technology has finally caught up. In June 2019, LG announced its new Nano IPS UltraGear monitors with a response time of one millisecond.

Despite the gap being closed, you’ll still pay more for an IPS panel with such a low response time than you would for a TN with similar specs. If you’re on a budget, expect a response time of around four milliseconds for a good IPS monitor.

One last thing to be aware of with IPS panels is a phenomenon called “IPS glow.” It’s when you see the display’s backlight shining through it at more extreme viewing angles. It’s not a huge problem unless you view the panel from the side, but it’s something to keep in mind.

VA panels are something of a compromise between TN and IPS. They offer the best contrast ratios, which is why TV manufacturers use them extensively. While an IPS monitor typically has a contrast ratio of 1000:1, it’s not unusual to see 3000:1 or 6000:1 in a comparable VA panel.

In terms of viewing angles, VAs can’t quite match the performance of IPS panels. Screen brightness, in particular, can vary based on the angle from which you’re viewing, but you won’t get the “IPS glow.”

VAs have slower response times than TNs and the newer Nano IPS panels with their one-millisecond response rates. You can find VA monitors with high refresh rates (240 Hz), but the latency can result in more ghosting and motion blur. For this reason, competitive gamers should avoid VA.

Compared to TNs, VA panels do offer much better color reproduction and typically hit the full sRGB spectrum, even on lower-end models. If you’re willing to spend a bit more, Samsung’s Quantum Dot SVA panels can hit 125 percent sRGB coverage.

For these reasons, VA panels are seen as the jack of all trades. They’re ideal for general use, but they either match or fall short in most other areas except contrast ratio. VAs are good for gamers who enjoy single-player or casual experiences.

When compared to CRT monitors, all LCD panels suffer from some form of latency issue. This was a real problem when TN panels first appeared, and it’s plagued IPS and VA monitors for years. But technology has moved on, and while many of these issues have been improved, they haven’t been eliminated entirely.

Uneven backlighting is another issue you’ll find on all panel types. Often this comes down to overall build quality—cheaper models slack on quality control to save on production costs. So, if you’re looking for a cheap monitor, be prepared for some uneven backlighting. However, you’ll mostly only notice it on solid or very dark backgrounds.

LCD panels are also susceptible to dead or stuck pixels. Different manufacturers and jurisdictions have different policies and consumer laws covering dead pixels. If you’re a perfectionist, check the manufacturer’s dead-pixel policy before you buy. Some will replace a monitor with a single dead pixel for free, while others require a minimum number.

Office or study use: Your budget should be your primary concern here. VA is the do-it-all panel, with superior viewing angles to TN, but either would do the trick. You can save some money because you don’t need high refresh rates or ultra-low latency. They’re still nice, though. You’ll see a noticeable difference in smoothness just when moving the Windows cursor on a monitor with a 144 versus 60 Hz refresh rate.

Photo and video editors/Digital artists: IPS panels are still generally favored for their ability to display a wide gamut of colors. It’s not unusual to find VA panels that also cover a wide gamut (125 percent sRGB, and over 90 percent DCI-P3), but they tend to exhibit more motion blur during fast-paced action than IPS panels. If you’re serious about color accuracy, you’ll need to properly calibrate your monitor.

Programmers who mount monitors vertically: You might think TN panels are great for programmers, but that’s not necessarily the case. TN panels have particularly bad viewing angles on the vertical axis. If you mount your monitor in portrait mode (as many programmers and mobile developers do), you’ll get the worst possible viewing angles from a TN panel. For the best possible viewing angles in this scenario, invest in an IPS display.

Competitive online gamers: There’s no question TN panels are still favored in the eSports world. Even the cheapest models have fast response times and support for high refresh rates. For 1080p gaming, a 24-inch will do just fine, or you could opt for a 1440p, 27-inch model without breaking the bank. You might want to go for an IPS panel as more low-latency models hit the market, but expect to pay more.

Non-competitive, high-end PC gamers: For a rich, immersive image that pops, a VA panel will provide a higher contrast ratio than IPS or TN. For deep blacks and a sharp, contrasting image, VA is the winner. If you’re okay with sacrificing some contrast, you can go the IPS route. However, we’d recommend avoiding TN altogether unless you play competitively.

Best all-rounder: VA is the winner here, but IPS is better in all areas except contrast ratio. If you can sacrifice contrast, an IPS panel will provide fairly low latency, decent blacks, and satisfactory color coverage.

As you probably know, you can usually get a monitor cheaper online than at a brick-and-mortar store. Unfortunately, buying online also usually means buying blind. And with a TV or monitor, that can lead to disappointment.

If you can, check out the monitor you’re interested in in-person before you buy it. You can perform some simple ghosting and motion blur tests by grabbing a window with the mouse and moving it rapidly around the screen. You can also test the brightness, watch some videos, and play with the onscreen display to get a feel for it.

Again, IPS is the clear winner here. The vertical viewing angles are very similar to the horizontal ones on both IPS and VA panels. Unfortunately, this is one area where TN panels are usually much, much worse. TN monitors degrade rapidly from below, and colors actually inverse - resulting in a negative image that can be distracting. For this reason, if you decide to buy a TN monitor, look for one with an excellent height adjustment, or consider buying a VESA mounting arm, as you should mount TN monitors at eye level. Even when mounted properly, larger TN displays can appear non-uniform at the edges.

There"s usually not much difference between VA and IPS panels in terms of gray uniformity. It"s rare for monitors to have uniformity issues, and even on monitors that perform worse than average, it"s usually not noticeable with regular content. TN monitors tend to perform a bit worse than usual, though, and the top half of the screen is almost always darker than the rest, but that"s an artifact of the bad vertical viewing angles.

Black uniformity tends to vary significantly, even between individual units of the same model, and there"s no single panel type that performs the best. It"s rare for monitors to have good black uniformity, and almost every monitor we"ve tested has some noticeable cloudiness or backlight bleed. IPS and TN panels can look slightly worse due to their low contrast ratios, as the screen can take on more of a bluish tint when displaying dark scenes. Like with contrast, black uniformity issues usually aren"t very noticeable unless you"re looking at dark content and you"re in a dark room. If you only use your monitor in a bright environment, generally speaking, you don"t need to worry about black uniformity.

Historically, TN panels used to have the worst colors, as many of them were cheaper models that only supported 6-bit colors or used techniques like dithering (FRC) to approximate 8-bit colors. Most displays today, including TN models, are at least 8 bit, and many of them are even able to approximate 10-bit colors through dithering. New technologies, like LG"s Nano IPS and Samsung"s Quantum Dot, add an extra layer to the LCD stack and have significantly improved the color gamut of modern IPS and VA displays, leaving TN a bit behind. Between them, NANO IPS is slightly better, as it tends to offer better coverage of the Adobe RGB color space. Although the difference is minor, IPS panels still have a slight edge over VA and TN displays.

Although TN panels have caught up a bit in the SDR color space, they"re far behind when it comes to HDR, so if you"re looking for a good HDR color gamut, avoid TN panels. Between VA and IPS panels, the difference isn"t as significant; however, IPS panels still have a slight edge. The best VA panels top out at around 90% coverage of the DCI P3 color space used by most current HDR content. IPS panels go as high as 98% coverage of DCI P3, rivaling even some of the best TVs on the market. Due to the very high coverage of DCI P3 on both VA and IPS, the difference isn"t that noticeable, though, as most content won"t use the entire color space anyway.

Although not necessarily as noticeable to everyone as the differences in picture quality, there can also be a difference in motion handling between IPS, VA, and TN displays. TN panels historically offered the best gaming performance, as they had the highest refresh rates and extremely fast response times. Manufacturers have found ways to drastically improve the motion handling of VA and IPS panels, though, and the difference isn"t as pronounced.

LCD panel technology has changed drastically over the last few years, and the historical expectations for response time performance don"t necessarily hold anymore. For years, TN monitors had the fastest response times by far, but that"s started to change. New high refresh-rate IPS monitors can be just as fast.

VA panels are a bit of a strange situation. They typically have slightly slower response times overall compared to similar TN or IPS models. It"s especially noticeable in near-black scenes, where they tend to be significantly slower, resulting in dark trails behind fast-moving objects in dark scenes, commonly known as black smear. Some recent VA panels, such as the Samsung Odyssey G7 LC32G75T, get around it by overdriving the pixels. It results in much better dark scene performance but a more noticeable overshoot in brighter areas.

Within each of the three types of LCD we mentioned, other related panel types use the same basic idea but with slight differences. For example, two popular variants of IPS panels include ADS (technically known as ADSDS, or Advanced Super Dimension Switch) and PLS (Plane to Line Switching). It can be hard to tell these panels apart simply based on the subpixel structure, so we"ll usually group them all as IPS, and in the text, we"ll usually refer to them as IPS-like or IPS family. There are slight differences in colors, viewing angles, and contrast, but generally speaking, they"re all very similar.

There"s another display technology that"s growing in popularity: OLED. OLED, or organic light-emitting diode, is very different from the conventional LCD technology we"ve explored above. OLED panels are electro-emissive, which means each pixel emits its own light when it receives an electric signal, eliminating the need for a backlight. Since OLED panels can turn off individual pixels, they have deep, inky blacks with no blooming around bright objects. They also have excellent wide viewing angles, a near-instantaneous response time, and excellent gray uniformity.

OLED panels aren"t perfect, though. There"s a risk of permanent burn-in, especially when there are lots of static elements on screen, like the UI elements of a PC. There aren"t many OLED monitors available, either, but they"ve started to gain popularity as laptop screens and for high-end monitors, but they"re very expensive and hard to find. They"re also not very bright in some cases, especially when large bright areas are visible on screen. The technology is still maturing, and advances in OLED technology, like Samsung"s highly-anticipated QD-OLED technology, are promising.

As you can probably tell by now, no one panel type works best for everyone; it all depends on your exact usage. Although there used to be some significant differences between panel types, as technology has improved, these differences aren"t as noticeable. The two exceptions to this are viewing angles and contrast. If you"re in a dark room, a VA panel that can display deep blacks is probably the best choice. If you"re not in a dark room, you should focus on the other features of the monitor and choose based on the features that appeal to your exact usage. IPS panels are generally preferred for office use, and TN typically offers the best gaming experience, but recent advancements in VA and IPS technology are starting to change those generalizations. For the most part, the differences between each panel type are so minor now that it doesn"t need to be directly factored into your buying decision.

First, to be clear, there is no “best” panel type out of these, as all have their respective advantages and disadvantages over the others. The information here pertains to general characteristics, as even panels of the same panel type will have some variance in characteristics (power consumption, backlight bleed, etc.) depending on the luck of the draw. Manufacturer tuning can also impact display output, affording some differentiating leverage to manufacturers sourcing from panel suppliers (which is effectively all of them).

The earliest widely available and used consumer PCs employed CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) monitors. For this reason, CRT monitors are oftentimes remembered in fondness (or contempt) by those who grew up using them.

Nostalgia or riddance aside, there are still some valid reasons to use a CRT monitor. When compared to LCD panels, CRT monitors can have higher contrast ratio, very low response time (which leads to non-blurred pictures even with fast movement on screen), and very little input lag, although LCD input lag can be largely negated. The downsides of CRTs are apparent, though: they’re large, heavy, consume more power, produce flicker, can produce audible, high frequency noise (although age plays into whether one can hear them or not), produce slightly distorted images, and produce harmful electromagnetic waves (in the form of x-rays), which requires that toxic materials such as lead and barium must be used as shielding to prevent detrimental health effects. CRT monitors are also notoriously hazardous to repair, given their large, active electrical coils that can measure upwards of 50,000 volts of electricity.

CRT displays are sometimes still used in medical, simulation, military, and government fields that have embedded the displays into control panels and machinery.

CRT monitors have largely gone out of production, and are rarely sold new (finding a used CRT is fairly easy), but their advantages temporarily lent themselves to some special uses. In regards to gaming, CRT monitors have historically been advantageous to use when gaming competitively due to very little motion blur and very little input lag. That being said, these advantages have faded with the progressive march of TN panels.

TN panels now have low motion blur (especially with lightboost or a similar technology), offer high refresh rates, low response times (1ms GTG in many cases), and are more than adequate even in the world’s most competitive games.

Ultimately, for the vast majority of users, the disadvantages of CRTs aren’t worth their limited gains, especially when TN panels meant for gaming more than adequately satisfy the needs of even competitive gamers.

TN panels have many benefits over the previously popular CRT monitors: lower weight, lower cost to produce, lower power consumption, they’re much thinner, offer clearer pictures, have no realistically achievable resolution limits, offer flexibility in size and shape, and the ability to eliminate flicker.

That being said, TN panels weren"t and still aren’t perfect, and compared to the previously popular CRT monitors, they’ve suffered from limited viewing angles, uneven backlighting, worse motion blur, higher input lag, dead/stuck pixels, and poor display in sunlight.

To be clear, many of these issues have been improved upon, but due to the underlying science of LCD TN panels, cannot be completely resolved. In fact, many of these issues -- like uneven backlighting, motion blur, input lag, and dead/stuck pixels -- are inherent issues across all LCD panel types. Poor viewing angles become a more pressing issue with larger displays, since the viewing angle when viewed straight on increases towards the outside of the monitor, thus causing more color distortion. TN panels do have the advantages of lower response times and higher refresh rates than other panel types/CRTs. TN panels are generally from 60Hz to 144Hz, offering substantially greater fluidity of gameplay with higher frequencies.

TN panels provide a good compromise between CRTs and other LCD panels as their traditionally low response rates, input lag, and high refresh rate make them comparable to CRTs for accuracy; TN panels also have the advantages of offering sharper pictures, widescreen output, lower weight, smaller physical dimensions, and higher resolutions compared to CRTs.

Still, compared to other LCD panels, TN panels suffer from poor viewing angles and worse color reproduction. Ultimately, for most gamers playing somewhat competitively to very competitively, TN panels are a good choice, but for those looking for a prettier and improved color experience, another panel type may be worth considering.

IPS (In-Plane Switching) was created to address the shortcomings of TN panels. IPS panels seek to solve TN panels’ issues of poor color reproduction and viewing angles. In this regard, IPS panels have largely succeed. Not only do they offer a higher contrast ratio (superior blacks), high color accuracy (which leads to IPS panels also generally looking less “washed out”), but IPS panels also have very little color shift when changing the viewing angles.

The tradeoff to this is that IPS panels have slower response times, higher production costs, higher power consumption, and lower possible refresh rates. IPS panels have traditionally been 60Hz, although, as with all monitors, they can be overclocked (results will vary). There have been improvements to IPS panels over the years, and slightly different revisions in the form of E-IPS and H-IPS, but ultimately the differences between these versions are inconsequential to gamers and those not involved in graphic design as a job.

Due to their worse response rates and lower possible refresh rates, IPS panels are generally considered to be worse for competitive gameplay and used more often when color is important, such as graphic design. For gamers who don’t play competitively and prefer breathtaking strolls in Skyrim instead of sweeping scrubs in CS:GO, an IPS panel should be a consideration for the next monitor.

PLS (Plane to Line Switching) are quite similar to IPS panels, so much so that they have the same advantages and disadvantages, with a couple extra minor advantages. PLS is produced by Samsung, who claims that compared to IPS panels, PLS panels have better viewing angles, a 10% increase in brightness, 15% decrease in production costs, increased image quality, and allow for flexible panels. Samsung’s PLS panels have been known to overclock well in monitors such as the QNIX 2710 in particular. Overall, PLS is basically Samsung’s version of IPS, as it is very similar in functionality (and even name). AHVA is also very similar to IPS and PLS, and differentiation between them is rare, although it should not be confused with the next panel type.

VA (Vertical Alignment) panels offer a solid medium between TN and IPS panels. VA was created to combine the advantages of IPS and TN panels, and largely did, although they did so with some compromise. That seems to be a theme in the world of monitors.

Compared to IPS panels, VA panels have the advantage of higher possible refresh rates. Although most are currently 60Hz, there are a few that are above 60Hz. VA has more advantages over TN panels than IPS, with better color reproduction, higher maximum brightness, and better viewing angles. VA panels do have the best contrast ratios of all panel types mentioned, but they also have the worst response times of the monitor technologies covered here. This causes blurring in fast-moving pictures and is disadvantageous to gaming.

For the use of gaming, VA is not the greatest option due to generally higher response time in comparison to other panel types; this slower response causes more motion blur, effectively eliminating its deployment for fast-moving titles. For a general work monitor, VA panels provide high contrast ratios, brightness, refresh rates, good color reproduction, and good viewing angles.

CRTs provide practically no input lag and have extremely low response times, which makes them useful for competitive gaming, but their size, resolution limits, aspect ratio restrictions, and other issues make them largely unused in recent years.

TN panels are another good choice for competitive gamers, as they support higher refresh rates, low response times, decent input lag, and high resolutions. Their bad viewing angles, color reproduction, and slight blurring compared to CRT monitors (due to higher response times) are all disadvantages, ones which cannot be easily fixed.

IPS panels solve the issues of TN panels, with better color reproduction and viewing angles, but do so at the cost of refresh rate and response time. IPS panels are especially useful for those not wanting to play too competitively, but want a beautiful/immersive visual experience. PLS and AHVA are similar enough to IPS to usually not be differentiated.

VA panels provide a good middle ground with better-than-IPS refresh rates and contrast levels, but have worse viewing angles and color production, although generally still better than TN. Response times are VA’s largest downfall, though, being slower than IPS and its variants and TN.

What’s best for you will depend on all of these items. For those wanting to play at a competitive level and who favor FPS or racing games, TN panels are best. Those wanting a more impressive and immersive experience may want an IPS (or similar variant, such as PLS), especially if working on artistic endeavors. Finally, those wanting a general monitor for work might consider a VA panel, although due to their higher response times, they won’t be good for gaming.

Gaming motors are similar to other types of monitors, but they are designed to be of higher quality. Many manufacturers add LED lighting to these devices. They are made for professional use and with high expectations in mind to provide you with the best video game experience. These devices are usually much bigger than traditional monitors, as they can be from 24 to 50 inches wide.

This type usually has a lower color reproduction. This means that the colors can be slightly less sharp compared to IPS and VA panels. The contrast and brightness can also change depending on what angle you are viewing the screen.

However, TN panels have a quicker response time than the other two, only 1 ms. One pixel takes one millisecond to respond to the change of color. This is why professional gamers often go for this type of panel rather than IPS or VA.

This type of gaming panel has the best contrast, which, according to tests, allows it to produce very deep shades of black, making the VA panel achieve much more realistic and vivid details and colors. Unfortunately, VA panels have the worst response time compared to the other two.

However, this is not a problem for most gamers because of the intense colors. If you are a competitive gamer or play very quick games, you might want to consider one of the other two types of panels.

IPS panels have much more precise and consistent colors but do not have contrast as high as VA panels. They also have the best viewing angles, which means that you can see the screen well from any angle. However, the response time is a bit limited; it is not as fast as TN panels and not as slow as VA panels. The main problem that users find with IPS panels is the brightness, as there is usually a light at the corners of the screen.

Once you start using gaming monitors, tests show that the difference between them and regular monitors is very evident. In the list below we have provided the most important advantages and disadvantages of gaming monitors, according to opinions of experts and customers.

If you have gotten to this part in the article, you are probably still considering buying a gaming monitor. Congratulations! Before proceeding with your purchase, you need to keep certain shopping criteria in mind. Based on tests and customer and expert opinion, those are the refresh rate, input lag, response time, size, resolution, built-in technology, and the extra characteristics that come with the model. To help you make the best choice, we have expanded on these criteria in the section below.

Currently, gaming monitor manufacturers usually offer the following: 60 Hz, 75 Hz, 100 Hz, 120 Hz, 144 Hz, and even up to 240 Hz. Today, most monitors are 60 Hz. You might be wondering what that means. This is the monitor’s refresh rate. 60 Hz means that your monitor will refresh the screen once every 16.7 milliseconds. Therefore, a 120 Hz screen will ref