IPS or VA

nheather

nheather

nheather

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Horsham, West Sussex
Hi,

It is a long time since I purchased a monitor, possibly over 10 years, and back then the general consensus was

IPS
Sharper
Batter colour reproduction
Better viewing angles


VA
Faster
Better contrast ratio
Cheaper

I'm looking for a new monitor, 27", 2560x1440, between 120Hz and 180Hz, used for both gaming and normal desktop (productivity, browsing etc) in equal measures.

In the past I concluded that IPS was best suited for my needs, but is that still the case some 10 or more years later?

Cheers,

Nigel
 
VA unfortunately is a case by case basis by monitor - and quite a lot of VAs have trailing issues in fast paced stuff which you may not notice initially but once you do you can't "unsee".

IPS is a better bet if buying "blind" most of them have reasonably fast response times these days, good viewing angles and reasonable to decent picture quality. IPS glow/backlight artefacts may or may not be an issue but if you've previously been happy with IPS it probably won't be a problem for you unless a monitor is particularly bad for it.
 
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You can have a fast VA but with smearing it still looks like crap. Depends on your budget, are you buying top end or bottom end monitors as you'll get different trade offs.

Personally I've just gone from VA (not a top end panel) to IPS (again not top end) and I'm happier with the screen in general for both gaming and work.
 
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Rob_B said:
You can have a fast VA but with smearing it still looks like crap. Depends on your budget, are you buying top end or bottom end monitors as you'll get different trade offs.

Personally I've just gone from VA (not a top end panel) to IPS (again not top end) and I'm happier with the screen in general for both gaming and work.
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I wouldn't say crap, in brighter scenes it's fine. It's usually darker scenes, on brighter background with darker object (or vice versa) if I sidestep slowly those towers will have near black shadows to the left/right

 
Ghosting/blur and other issues make VA's a big no for me, some are better than others but ultimately it's still a gamble with whichever monitor you buy.

The main problem with IPS is blooming and weaker black levels, but modern screens have excellent response times and better overall colour reproduction imo, I'd opt for an IPS or pony up for an OLED for gaming/media usage personally.
 
Darujhistan said:
VA ought to be dead by now.
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One of my monitors is a B-LED+QD Film MVA panel with largely unnoticeable smearing/trails, for light and colour I prefer it to OLED - there is a vibrant "realness" to it which I've not found with any other display - so great for watching content, also doesn't have the downsides of potential image retention/burn in issues of OLED, sadly the BGR pixel format and being only 60Hz are considerable downsides for general use.
 
Darujhistan said:
IPS is better than VA despite its drawbacks. VA ought to be dead by now.
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VA is fine for movies, content creation, desktop and gaming if you're aware of it's issues.

Also even black level, IPS glow would do my head in.

FALD seems to offer a more even black level, compared to edge lit were the edges can be brighter and have lighter hot spots
 
Rroff said:
One of my monitors is a B-LED+QD Film MVA panel with largely unnoticeable smearing/trails, for light and colour I prefer it to OLED - there is a vibrant "realness" to it which I've not found with any other display - so great for watching content, also doesn't have the downsides of potential image retention/burn in issues of OLED, sadly the BGR pixel format and being only 60Hz are considerable downsides for general use.
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I wouldn't touch one with a barge pole.
 
hornetstinger said:
and gaming if you're aware of it's issues
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I've only ever found 2 VA panels I'd consider acceptable for gaming, one being the Philips 436M6 I mentioned above - though 60Hz holds it back there despite working adaptive sync and reasonably low latency, all the rest I've tried sooner or later, usually immediately, I've noticed smearing/trails issues which you can't "unsee" once noticed.

To quote from the TFTCentral review:

"We carried out some further tests with a wider range of transitions in the optimal 'off' mode. The average G2G response time was now measured at a more accurate 7.9ms which was impressive and very good for a VA-type panel. This screen was not plagued by the often very slow black > grey transitions that you will see on many VA panels. For instance even the Asus ROG Strix XG35VQ which is aimed at gaming had some particularly slow transitions changing from black to dark grey (see the detailed response time measurements section if you scroll down a little wayhere). This meant that there was not the common black smearing on moving content that you commonly see on VA panels. The overall response times were fast enough to keep up with the frame rate demands given this was only a 60Hz capable screen and there was no overshoot at all which was great news."
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I honestly don't remember anything other than IPS or OLED. Even branded tablets are either or now I think.
 
I seem to recall that in recent years, the VA panels that have been rated among the very best seem to have been Samsung ones. I can't remember the exact model, though it might be the G7 Odyssey or something similar.

That aside, I would take IPS over a VA pretty much any day, especially if you're playing faster paced games. Maybe a very high-end VA is worth a consideration, but otherwise I'd forget them altogether.
As someone else said, if buying somewhat blind, I'd much rather do that where an IPS is concerned. In fact, it's quite possible I'd rather opt for a high quality TN panel over a VA!

It might be worth checking out Monitors Unboxed (or other related tech channels): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDKLZBNM9XZ7pHPZF9D8xDQ

If your use case is a mixture of productivity and content consumption, then with regard to OLED screens, I would look into making sure the service/warranty is solid where 'burn-in' is concerned. I believe some manufacturers have a no-quibble 2 or 3 year burn-in policy.
 
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