How do today's TN panels compare to IPS of a few years ago?

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I currently have a 22" Dell IPS screen that i bought 4 years ago (ish) and since it's not even 1080p i've been considering getting a new 24" screen and i'm tempted to get a 120/144hz screen.

I'm just wondering if TN panels have improved at all over the last few years or if the difference in colour quality would still be really noticeable. My fear is that after years of IPS i'll end up spending £200 on a TN screen that will disappoint me.

Cheers
 
from a viewing angle and colour stability point of view, not a massive amount has changed in TN Film technology over the last few years. You will still see noticeable contrast and colour tone shifts as you move your line or sight. Now if you use the screen from head on, on your own, it might not even be a problem. However, if you move around your viewing position much or need to ensure stable colour across the screen then TN Film is still pretty limited, especially vertically.

Where TN Film will be much stronger though is when it comes to things like response times. Pixel transitions are much faster. You can also get much higher frame rates and refresh rates which really make a differnce in games. Then there's also additional gaming technologies available on TN Film panels like NVIDIA G-sync (very good!) and various blur reduction backlight options too (also very good for reducing perceived blur in practice).
 
The only TN panel/screen, which seems to compete with "older" IPS monitors is the asus rog swift but as badass said, you still have the viewing angle and contrast shift issues.

Stas823 said:
the 144hz is far more noticeable than colors
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Depends on usage.... For quick paced FPS shooters then yes 144HZ is "far more" noticeable than better colours.
 
Still pretty much the same and I think it's still a while off before you will get the best of both. I know high hz IPS monitors are on the horizon but if they're anything like the Korean ones there's still a noticeable input lag difference between a high hz TN.
 
Ayahuasca said:
Still pretty much the same and I think it's still a while off before you will get the best of both. I know high hz IPS monitors are on the horizon but if they're anything like the Korean ones there's still a noticeable input lag difference between a high hz TN.
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Input lag isn't as much of an issue these days with IPS screens, the main issue is still the response time imo:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7288/asus-mx299q-monitor-review/5

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Thanks for the input guys.

I currently have a 280x so i'll almost certainly wait and see what sort of freesync monitors become available next year.

I actually dont play a lot of FPS games either really, mostly Skyrim, Fallout, Rome 2 type games so 144hz might be wasted on me. Coupled with the fact that i only ever have a mid range PC at best so a 280x or inequivalent might not even be up to the job of pushing much higher than 60fps.
 
Top of the line latest generation TNs (some of the 4K panels and the swift) have 8 or even 10bit per pixel colour, produce eye pleasing and relatively accurate colours just suffer from gamma shift especially if your not dead on to the screen. The more mainstream current gen TNs don't really compare with previous generation IPS.

EDIT: One thing that has improved a lot with the latest panels is the LED back lighting previous generations a fair number of panels (especially cheaper TNs) had an icey blue bias from the back lighting which felt un-natural on the eye.
 
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10Bit colour need a Quadro and its drivers, does not work on desktop GPU's.

The Rog Swift IMO was horrible esp blacks and I did not see it any better than many other TN's I have used in that aspect, in fact could say it was worse than some but it was bigger and higher RES which could make exaggerate the issues over past 22"-24" panels.

IMO VA should be next step if we see a Rog Swift 2 not a IPS panel.

Eizo Foris FG2421 < This should have been 144HZ and 1440p, still its a better monitor with highest contrast and best blacks ever tested on a LCD going by reviews.
 
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Blacks are one area a lot if TNs fall down, its one thing I miss from my Samsung 2233rz when calibrated it had really deep gorgeous blacks - unfortunately was obviously 6bit+frc if you looked at colour gradients in highlights.
 
Not sure how any TN or IPS can be said to have gorgeous blacks it just is impossible.

IPS has better colours than TN and VA but VA has better colours than TN and better black than all others.

I am not sure if TN is better blacks than IPS though.

If you do not have good black/contrast all other colours are ruined esp for night time movies/gaming.
 
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PFFFFFT, screw VA, what we need is OLED! :D

:p

But yes, IPS and TN blacks are crap. I really hope we see more 21.9, 29-32" VA monitors in the future.
 
I dunno, but I do really like the black levels, contrast, and colour fidelity of my now quite old Hyundai W220D that I've had now for over five years.

I tried a couple of other TN displays before but sent them straight back because the contrast, colour gamut and black levels were just so awful coming from a fairly decent CRT. As soon as I got it, the W220D was in a completely different league.

I still think the blacks look pretty damn good on this and the contrast for dark colours is excellent. I just fired up my BR of Gravity when reading this thread to check with an extra critical eye, and I do think it looks pretty great.

That is what's held me off from getting a newer monitor. I would like a bigger screen and higher resolution as well as trying out this 120/144Hz factor, but every review I read of fast response screens criticises the black levels, contrast and colours and it puts me off.

Is there a fast 24" 120Hz TN screen as good as this currently on the market? Have I just got so used to this over the years that I'm accepting what is now mediocre performance?
 
Nexus18 said:
Input lag isn't as much of an issue these days with IPS screens, the main issue is still the response time imo:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7288/asus-mx299q-monitor-review/5

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i'm not entirely sure what those response time figures from Anandtech are based on, but i would say they are pretty misleading to be honest. I know Chris doesn't have an oscilloscope system to measure response time, and from the way it's written it's perhaps based on some measurement with the LeoBodnar input lag testing device. if that was the case (and i wasnt aware that device could separate response time out of the lag measurement) then it would only be measuring a black>white transition i believe. that in itself isn't really very useful nowadays (since overdrive was introduced around 2009!) so i dont really like the comparisons there.

22ms response time for the BenQ XL2720T?
33ms response time for the Dell U3014?

they just aren't right.

If you look at more detailed response time measurements using an oscilloscope and measuring a wide range of pixel transitions and G2G figures you can see the BenQ XL2720T should be more like 3.8ms G2G average (based on the TFTCentral review of the XL2720Z which should be very comparable in terms of response times). Then the Dell U3014 has an average G2G response time of 7.7ms, which is very good for an IPS panel actually (although there's a massive amount of overshoot as a side effect on that model!).

So i'd be very careful about drawing conclusions from the response time "measurements" at Anandtech there to be honest.

I agree IPS still can't keep up with TN Film, but a good IPS panel can reach around 8 - 9ms G2G average without introducing any overshoot (e.g. Dell U2414H, P2414H). A good TN Film panel can reach down to around 2 - 4ms G2G but there will normally be some moderate to light overshoot included as well.
 
As a totally subjective opinion, I recently connected up a TN BenQ 24" 1920x1080 with a view to maybe getting a high frequency TN over my current IPS 27" Hazro. In short I just couldn't do it, the TN looks like turd in comparison it's currently sat in portrait mode as a web page reading monitor.

e: Although it did prompt me to play about with the CRU tool and found I can clock my IPS screen to 120Hz anyway
 
Ah fair enough badass! :) I find anandtech to be one of the best review sites out there for all type of tech. so would have expected the monitor reviews to be pretty accurate too!

I googled that same monitor and came across prad's review, so I imagine there results will be a lot more accurate?

http://www.prad.de/new/monitore/test/2014/test-asus-mx299q.html

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From experience, I can't say I really notice input lag with my 29um65 or my previous monitor, the dell U2311H, I notice the motion blur/response time far more :(

As you probably know from the LG 34UM95, my 29um65 has the same options for response time, I do notice a bit of overshoot with the high setting (mostly with black objects on a white background and vice versa), but at the same time, I find the motion clarity to be a lot better than the default medium setting.
 
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Excellent topic, indeed. In that case here's another question- if a person had a decent hardware calibrator (me :) ) in what aspects would that calibrator improve a TN monitor and in what it wouldn't?
Is hardware calibrator only purposed to improve the colours produced by a monitor or also other things?
I do have 3 monitors- 2 IPSs and 1 TN and can definitely see difference in favour of the IPS but then again the TN one is really old.
I have been thinking lately- if a company produces a 34" 3400x1440 TN and it can be hardware calibrated to a level somewhat close to that of an IPS counterpart then why would I spend the extra 200-400 on the IPS if I am not into photo-editing or something similar?
Although to be honest if the rumours of a 550.00 GBP U3477PQU are true my question will be pointless and I will get one.
 
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jh30uk said:
Not sure how any TN or IPS can be said to have gorgeous blacks it just is impossible.

IPS has better colours than TN and VA but VA has better colours than TN and better black than all others.

I am not sure if TN is better blacks than IPS though.

If you do not have good black/contrast all other colours are ruined esp for night time movies/gaming.
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Most don't, trust me though a properly 2233rz has blacks that are off the chart for a TN (not VA territory but suitably impressive) - if you go nuts with the sharpness and brightness controls you can make a fairly convincing replication of the CRT like look to the image.

Clav said:
As a totally subjective opinion, I recently connected up a TN BenQ 24" 1920x1080 with a view to maybe getting a high frequency TN over my current IPS 27" Hazro. In short I just couldn't do it, the TN looks like turd in comparison it's currently sat in portrait mode as a web page reading monitor.

e: Although it did prompt me to play about with the CRU tool and found I can clock my IPS screen to 120Hz anyway
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My experience of BenQs has not been inspiring - very bright and vivid but un-natural colours, loss of subtle detail and impossible to calibrate without making a big compromise somewhere.
 
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