Need replacement. QD/OLED or standard Monitor?

[Meddling-Monk]

Things have not gone well; First the motherboard (and thus whole rig) went and died and now the monitor has shown capacitor issues and now takes progressively longer each time before the screen comes on. I'm sure soon it'll reach a point where it'll no longer turn on at all without attempting to replace the capacitors, which I'm not fond on attempting at this time. (Lacking appropriate tools at this time as I've had to donate away previous tools to make room for my mother to be able to move around more comfortably and safely). So a new display is needed.

So, the current monitor is an Asus PB278Q, Vertical Alignment (VA) panel I believe. 99% sRGB. I typically use it for:

Photo editing (like, that wasn't obviously already... )
Video editing (less so these days but sometimes still called on to do so)
Gaming (most of the time these days. Not many high fps games, more like Baldur's Gate 3 where I can take time to plan, or Civilization. Highest fps needed is probably for something like Street Fighter 4, 5 and the upcoming 6, so around 60fps will be fine.)

So colour accuracy is probably most important for me (hence wondering if the QD-OLED or OLED displays might be suitable; are they reliable/mature enough yet to go for?)
Screen real estate coming in shortly after (higher resolution and size better for editing when called for), probably a minimum of 24" with preference on 27" or higher. 1440P or higher.
Price is negotiable depending on features on the display, but as I'm not returning to pro level of work, and more aiming for gaming these days, probably don't want to go above £1k (assuming the display has everything I'd like/want).

One final note, is that the monitor is usually on (as with the main rig) for at least 12 hours a day and often more than that. So if the QD-OLED and OLED are not really viable options (longevity and QC concerns - dead pixels, etc), standard display tech (VA, IPS, QIPS, with diming zones, etc) wouldn't be out of the question for an option.

Thanks for any suggestions and recommendations.

 

[EsaT]

When it rains, it pours...

All OLEDs suffer from fragility of that fancy and "media sexy" organic part.
And Samsung's QD-OLED is not that different using blue OLEDs as "power source" for quantum dots and is only some amount more durable before burn in from lots of use happens.
Besides normal programs anythign with static content like game menus etc cause that uneven wear of the pixels.

So wouldn't consider them as viable options for such heavy use.
Not to forget that there really aren't monitor size OLEDs, except some retro 60Hz models of LG at ludicrous prices.


For LCD biggest deciding factor between different types is the room illumination.
For normal/ish room illumination IPS is easily the most balanced LCD with overall the best image quality.
Again for darker room VA's the highest contrast of all LCDs rules.


27" 2560x1440 is basically the mainstream and has had lots of competition for years with lots of choise.
(in comparison 32" model choise is very limited)
Though LG's that size&resolution "Nano-IPS" based models have blast from 15+ years past low contrast.
AU Optronics panel based models reach 40% higher contrast and AUO also has the widest colour gamut, which would give very vibrant colours for games.

If you have beefy GPU/play slower paced games there would be some 3840x2160 options.
In that resolution LG's "Nano-IPS" panels actually have standard level contrast.
And Gigabyte has also Innolux panel based 28" models like M28U.

For high end 27" 4K Cooler Master Tempest GP27U would be one option with FALD backlight.
More of it in this thread:

Tempest GP27U - 27" 4k 160hz MiniLED HDR1000 (576 local dimming zones) - £800~

A new monitor coming out mid December~ from Cooler Master. Not many "professional" reviews out on it yet, but here's one from Techtesters. Think this could be a very good monitor for those looking for a "good" 4k HDR experience. Of course, OLED or a monitor with >1k local dimming zones (ldz)...

forums.overclockers.co.uk

32" is still basically devoid of real high end 4K panels and we're still waiting for models announced in CES, like Acer X32 FP...
But that's above your budget wih FALD backlight.
And non-FALD panel models from year earlier CES have basically five years old response times making them not good for fast paced gaming.
Though for slower paced/story based games those would work.
Asus PG32UQ, BenQ EX3210U, MSI MPG321UR-QD and Viewsonic XG320U are all based on same panel.


As for difference in between 27" and 32" you can find dimensions and comparison here:

Visual TV Size Comparison : 27 inch 16x9 display vs 32 inch 16x9 display

Visual size comparison of a 27 inch 16x9 display vs 32 inch 16x9 display

www.displaywars.com

 

[SpellowHouse]

I tend to find that colours on a monitor are very hit and miss. Some that are hailed by reviewers turn out to be horrible. Most monitors can't for the life of themselves display red decently and so struggle with yellow too. If you really want good colours then I would point you towards one that is going to appear in a few weeks - the Alienware AW3423DWF. It is an £850 gaming monitor, but it also happens to be a qd-oled. I know someone who has been creating content on one of those panels for a year, ten hours a day, and the monitor is still absolutely fine. They come with a three year guarantee against burn-in so should at least be good for that, especially if you never use it for HDR. Anyway... just a thought.

 

[Meddling-Monk]

I tend to find that colours on a monitor are very hit and miss. Some that are hailed by reviewers turn out to be horrible. Most monitors can't for the life of themselves display red decently and so struggle with yellow too. If you really want good colours then I would point you towards one that is going to appear in a few weeks - the Alienware AW3423DWF. It is an £850 gaming monitor, but it also happens to be a qd-oled. I know someone who has been creating content on one of those panels for a year, ten hours a day, and the monitor is still absolutely fine. They come with a three year guarantee against burn-in so should at least be good for that, especially if you never use it for HDR. Anyway... just a thought.

Yeah, always had issues with many display panels with certain colours, even OLEDs (my LG CX in the living room I've had to both temporarily use for a display before, and used it to watch calibration videos, and it's clear that some colours are off). A quick look at the details of the Alienware AW3423DWF suggests that it uses a cooling fan? That might unfortunately be a deal breaker for me (minimal sound produced is a thing here for me unfortunately), but will keep it in consideration in case I find that everything else about it is suitable for the price point.

The warranty against burn in might be interesting though, especially if my pattern of use remains unchanged; Whilst HDR might not be used all the time, I wonder how it'll handle for certain game use (Baldur's Gate 3 supposedly has HDR and Raytracing support) for 12 hours a day over a lengthy period of time? Would I see burn in before the 3 years and be able to make use of the warranty? Would HDR use for that type of time produced burn in qualify for the warranty? Hmmm.... Must look into that further I guess.

 

[Meddling-Monk]

Thanks for the suggestions @EsaT will look further into those. Although that unreleased one is a bit far out at the moment, and I'm worried this monitor isn't going to last long enough to wait for it. But will see. Thanks again.

 

[EsaT]

Yeah, always had issues with many display panels with certain colours, even OLEDs (my LG CX in the living room I've had to both temporarily use for a display before, and used it to watch calibration videos, and it's clear that some colours are off).

Actually LG's OLED tech is rather bad for colours.
That WRGB's white subpixel used to increase brightness output without as sharp increase in burn in rate is the problem:
Instead of pure red, green or blue light, it gets contaminated by that white subpixel, which naturally wrecks the purity of colour.

And unfortunately JOLED, whose pure RGB panels are used in those few LG OLED monitors, might not survive long.

Is printed-OLED producer JOLED on the brink of bankruptcy? | OLED-Info

JOLED (Japan OLED) was established in August 2014 by Japan Display, Sony and Panasonic with an aim to become an OLED medium display producer. Following years of R&D and initial production, the company initiated mass production of its OLEDIO panels in 2021 at its new 5.5-Gen production line in...

www.oled-info.com

So it's pretty much down to Samsung.
But they're driven by marketing scums and who knows when we'll actually get QD-OLED monitor giving proper vertical image size per used desk space.
(current one is literally consuming ~36" worth of desk space for 27" image height)

Thanks for the suggestions @EsaT will look further into those. Although that unreleased one is a bit far out at the moment, and I'm worried this monitor isn't going to last long enough to wait for it. But will see. Thanks again.

Leaving monitor to stand by instead of cutting power completely could prevent capacitors from "going to rigor mortis".
And using lowest usable brightness would slow down the wear.
While LCD may not have OLED's fragility and short life span, power supply's capacitors still wear faster at high brightness. (+high ambient temperature)

 

[Meddling-Monk]

Leaving monitor to stand by instead of cutting power completely could prevent capacitors from "going to rigor mortis".
And using lowest usable brightness would slow down the wear.
While LCD may not have OLED's fragility and short life span, power supply's capacitors still wear faster at high brightness. (+high ambient temperature)

Guess it's time to throw some coins and see if they land heads or tails if I go the QD-OLED (if I really want to try OLED for gaming and colours for editing) route then.

As for leaving the monitor on stand-by, I'll have to start doing that with the new monitor. This current one has reached a point where if I leave it on stand-by or power off, it'll require many minutes of blinking screen (power) before it can come back alive. The only way to keep it alive so that it can be used right away, would be to feed it a video signal so that it's constantly displaying something (thinking about this, I may pull the Pi and just plug it in temporarily until new monitor is chosen and arrived).

Brightness, it's not at max, had it configured at a more accurate 70 brightness (for this monitor anyway, had to also calibrate it to a printer so the chain of production was consistent). But will see if knocking it down will help. Temps, other than the recent Summer heatwave, it's lived a mostly sheltered life, although I guess a moment of intense stress could easily lead to issues like this.

Thanks for the tips on, will keep them in mind for application with the new display (whichever one I finally settle on).