If you're thinking of buying a new monitor, it can get pretty overwhelming with all the words
and the numbers. So I'll give you five tips on what the numbers mean
and how it relates to your setup. I've bought a lot of monitors and made a lot of mistakes
along the way. At the end of the video, I'll also show you the specs that I recommend for
getting a monitor. If this is gonna be your first monitor, or if you just need a refresher
this is the video for you. Starting off with the first tip, the monitor size.
There's two main things I need to know before even looking at monitors-
the first one is the size of my desk, and the second is what ports are available. I've made
the mistake of buying a monitor first and that's second and this is what happened.
It was a really great monitor but unfortunately it just didn't fit. So I like to start out with
measuring the desk depth, in this case it's 30 inches. Monitor stands are typically six
inches deep, so that gives me 24 inches to work with. So to convert that depth to a monitor size,
I use this chart from Esports Tales. Looking under the category of minimum distance requirement,
24 inches translates to 2 feet which means anything 32 inches or under is suitable
for my needs. If I was looking to get an ultra wide that would mean I need to get something 34
inches or under. And just for reference here's what a 27 inch monitor looks like on my desk.
So other than monitor sizes, we need to know what ports are available.
Modern ports include HDMI, Displayport or USB-C. And within each port there's a
separate version for example HDMI 1.4 or HDMI 2.0. These ports and versions determine the
maximum resolution and frame rate supported by your computer. Which leads me to the next tip.
Tip 2 resolution. Now, I want to spend a bit more time here because this is where things
get interesting. This is a circle. It doesn't look like one but that's because it's one pixel
by one pixel. As I add in more pixels the circle starts to form. Resolution describes the number
of horizontal and vertical pixels for a screen. A low resolution means you get a pixelated image,
while a higher resolution means you get a sharper image. Pictures like this are really deceiving
because it makes you think that the 1080p screen can only show a quarter of the full image
compared to the 4k. And that might be true if there wasn't any scaling. In reality what you
would see is that the 1080p screen would look exactly like the 4k screen- until you zoom in.
Then you get to see more pixelation for the 1080.
So naturally it makes sense to get the highest resolution possible but there's a
huge trade-off and that's the price. If we were to take a 27-inch gaming monitor for example,
a 1080p resolution would cost $300 1440p $500 and 4k would cost almost $1000.
Now, you might be wondering what's the relationship between resolution and distance.
After all you might be able to save some money if you just sit further back
and this has something to do with pixel density and visual acuity. Esports Tales
has done a pretty good write-up about this and I've provided a link in the description.
If you're just looking for sizes and resolution I recommend these for widescreens and these for
ultrawides. Don't worry about taking notes, I'll put this chart back up at the end. Now
as for widescreen or ultrawide it really comes down to personal preference Ultrawides means you
get more screen on a single monitor and it's easier to split things up.
The trade-off is that if you wanted multiple monitors, it gets a little bit hard to fit.
And also when watching videos you get these black bars. So my suggestion is that if you were only to
get a single monitor, go for ultrawide, but for everything else I'd get a wide screen.
Tip 3 refresh rate. So far I talked about monitor sizes and resolution. Next, I want
to talk about refresh rate, response time, G-sync and Freesync. These all describe similar things
so it gets really confusing really quickly. For refresh rate it talks about the number of
times your monitor updates every second. So 144hz refresh rate means your screen updates 144 times
every second. Comparing 60 hertz to 144, we can see that the 60 has slightly longer trails.
Now this might not look like much but it really plays a huge role. Mouse movement and scrolling
feels a lot more smoother and responsive. It's really hard to show this on a video,
so I recommend going to a store and testing out the difference between an iPhone 13
and an iPhone 12. Normally high refresh rate screens are targeted towards gamers,
but I find it benefits all workflows so I try to get one if I can. Personally, I recommend
getting something with 120 hertz refresh rate or higher. But if I had to choose between resolution
and refresh rate, I'd stick with the resolution. Now as for response time, the numbers from the
manufacturers aren't that reliable because they're measured under ideal conditions. So it really
doesn't mean much for the user. I made a video about why the 1ms response time is misleading
and what it looks like in real life. I'll have a link to it at the end of this video.
Next I want to touch on G-sync and Freesync and they're technologies used by Nvidia and AMD
to reduce screen tearing. Take a look at this example. When the frame rate drops, the top part
of the screen creates a disconnect to the bottom. To correct for this, Nvidia uses G-sync while AMD
uses Freesync. Now there's some confusion about G-sync monitors only working with Nvidia cards
and Freesync monitors only working with AMD. Don't worry, your monitor doesn't actually care where
your graphics card came from it'll still work normally. But if you do decide to mix and match
you won't be able to take advantage of the G-sync and Freesync technologies.
Tip 4 color reproduction. Next I want to touch on monitor technologies and color reproduction.
There's 4 main monitor technologies- TN, IPS, VA, and OLED. TN is older and is known to have poor
viewing angles. It's improved a lot but it still lags behind IPS and VA. Here's a side-by-side
comparison of the IPS and TN panels. Notice how the colors become washed out as the TN panel goes
off center. In general IPS and VA both have really good viewing angles. Normally IPS panels are flat
and VA panels are curved. I've made a video about some of their trade-offs and I'll provide a link
in the description below. OLED is the newest of the bunch and has some of the best colors,
but it does suffer from burn-in, where the image persists and can't recover.
Out of the 4 technologies, I prefer IPS because I found it to be quite good for general use.
As for color accuracy the metrics used can get really confusing. Different manufacturers use
different metrics and some don't even include any metrics at all. Personally, I haven't encountered
any issues with IPS, VA, or OLED panels but if you're serious about color consider getting a
monitor designed for color accuracy like the Asus ProArt series or the BenQ DesignVue.
Tip number 5. Miscellaneous things. These are the things that aren't found on spec sheets,
but are still very important. The first one is monitor stands. You can generally find
stands with height and rotation adjustments, and I find that to be really useful when coding. But
if you plan on attaching it to a monitor arm, just make sure it has a VESA mount. Some ultra
thin monitors don't have this, and others have it in an off-centered position. The second one
is warranty. Normally monitors are pretty good but defects do happen.
Personally I like the zero dead pixel policy from HP but not every company offers it. Finally if you
want to save some money then it's always good to look at last year's models. The LG that I
first purchased was over $700 when I bought it, but now has dropped down to $500. Unlike phones,
monitors don't change much year to year, so there's no need to get the latest and greatest.
Now I talked about a lot of different things and I've really only begun to scratch the surface.
Here's a list of my recommended monitor sizes to resolutions again,
and really it's just my recommendations as a starting point. At the end of the day,
the monitor you select really depends on budget and what you plan on doing with it. If you want
to learn more about response times or IPS and VA monitors, check out these videos that I've linked.
Leave a comment if this video has helped, thanks for watching, like and subscribe.