IPS burning my eyeballs out

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26 Jan 2019
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Hey guys, as someone that has been using an ASUS VP278H monitor for some years now, I thoguht it time for a reasonable upgrade. I chose to purchase an ASUS TUF VG279QL, which is a 120Hz IPS montor and was initially quite impressed with the build quality, features and picture it created. After a couple of hours though, I found that it was far too bright even on the standard settings and actually began causing pressure in my eyes and head, and causing my tinnitus to increase. After reducing the brightness and contrast I found the symptoms were reduced significantly, but so was the quality of the picture (especially when a dark scene was produced).

I was wondering if this would be the case of the new QD-LED and WOLED screens - that is, are they as abrasive or as blisteringly bright as the IPS monitors? I appreciate that that may be slightly arbitrary, but I don't want to make another purchase if it's going to cause me the same discomfort.

Thank you,

Drewsan
 
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I'd highly suggest finding a place that has OLED monitors on display so you can see them in person before pulling the plug, you have a Curry's or computer store nearby you could pop into?
 
Adjusting contrast and backlight, or for OLED - OLED light allows you to customise it for suitable room.

If it's in any "vivid" modes make sure you change from that as some still have processing on, try cinema, SRGB etc.

IPS has limited contrast ratio so I don't know why it's causing you issues, I use a VA panel which generally have far greater max light output (if needed)
 
Also use a bias light, that will help. I use strip lights behind TV and monitor.

Check monitor settings, for mine brightness effects the backlight, which is totally wrong - it should be called backlight setting, then black level setting should be the amount of black in black.
 
I'll echo what others are saying about bias lighting.

When I moved to IPS I was running 65% brightness and it was causing me problems. It "looked" right but I quickly found out that I needed to lower it to 20% - but the real issue was not what the monitor was doing in isolation, it was the rest of the room. I'm next to a bright window with lots of daylight, but the corner where my monitor sits is slightly darker, it was the *unevenness* of all these light sources that was the real issue for me (bright window in my peripheral, bright monitor, darker areas behind and around).

Simply adding a little desk spot lamp which points at the wall behind my monitor *massively* increased usability for me - but you do need to adjust your monitor's brightness to be similar to the level of the room lightning, it needs to be balanced.
 
The ASUS TUF VG279QL has a brightness of 400 nits (candles per square meter). An OLED monitor of 400 nits will be just as bright because a nit is still a nit.

The brightness range for indoor use tends to be 200 to 400 nits so your monitor is in the upper range.
 
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I like gaming in the dark, and I found IPS just couldn't handle those conditions. I can't say i've missed the extra brightness of IPS too much either, even without ramping up brightness/contrast on my OLED past around 65, plus there's HDR which OLED handles brilliantly.
 
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