VA panel?

NorthernGamingBros

NorthernGamingBros

NorthernGamingBros

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Hi Gamers,

I'm in the market for a new monitor and the one I want is currently out of stock with no ETA (G27Q-EQ 144hz 1440p IPS) but there is a VA panel version 165hz 1440p and I was just wondering if VA is good for gaming?

I currently only play Escape From Tarkov and FFXIV so no competitive games.
 
Assuming this is the right monitor, I would read both of these reviews and decide:

https://www.displayninja.com/gigabyte-g27q-review/
https://www.displayninja.com/gigabyte-g27qc-review/

I think Displayninja, RTINGS and tftcentral are the best review sites I've found.

In terms of the display technologies, VA will generally always have significantly better contrast than IPS ,worse viewing angles, normally be 'slower' and can have less colour accuracy.
But, I would argue that modern VA panels are improving faster than IPS.
IMO VA overall gives a better picture, which is why a lot of TVs use VA.
 
G27QC is typical arch type VA, with challenged response times compared to any newer IPS.
Even with highest overdrive with notable overshoot/inverse ghosting creeping in, dark shade transitions are slow.
While overall very average response time mid overdrive still has some overshoot.
https://youtu.be/ootIQhEYEDs?t=230
Basically those reponse times are from 120Hz monitor...

So while contrast and hence black level/quality beats the crap out of any IPS, it comes with major trade off elsewhere for faster action.
Though neither is Q27Q any higher end IPS with just average response times by modern standards.

BenQ EX2780Q would be pretty equal to G27Q.
Gigabyte's M27Q would have better quite good response times, but weird upside down monitor BGR subpixel layout is bad for clarity of text.



rustyk21 said:
IMO VA overall gives a better picture, which is why a lot of TVs use VA.
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TVs care little about fast response times or accuracy, hence those have been sacrificed for VA's high contrast.
 
EsaT said:
TVs care little about fast response times or accuracy, hence those have been sacrificed for VA's high contrast.
Click to expand...

Agreed, that was my point, that's why I said that VA has higher contrast but is 'slower'.
It depends on the type of game you play as to whether it is worth it or not, but TVs use VA because high contrast ratios are nicer to look at, all else being equal.
 
rustyk21 said:
Agreed, that was my point, that's why I said that VA has higher contrast but is 'slower'.
It depends on the type of game you play as to whether it is worth it or not, but TVs use VA because high contrast ratios are nicer to look at, all else being equal.
Click to expand...
Also TVs are often watched in dim room illumination or in dark, which makes contrast and black value "primary ingredient" of perceived image quality.
 
NorthernGamingBros said:
Thanks for the responses guys! Seems I have a harder choice than I first thought
Click to expand...

Tarkov will look awful on a VA panel due to black smearing. The one thing I learned to hate about VA monitors is the ghosting on dark content. It's basically like having motion blur that you can never turn off.

Don't get me wrong Samsung make some great VA panels (QLED) in their tv's but VA monitors aren't the same quality.

Stick with an IPS.
 
Personally I wouldn't touch anything with an IPS panel. yes it has marginally better speeds but the PQ trade off and backlight bleed I couldn't live with. I see no smearing in games with both my VA monitor and my TV. Certainly, for PQ, you would not touch an IPS panel with a barge pole if it was for a TV so as far as I am concerned the same applies for monitors but each to their own..
 
cuke2u said:
Personally I wouldn't touch anything with an IPS panel. yes it has marginally better speeds
Click to expand...
Dark shade transition times of VAs are like four times those of IPS, which is far from marginal.
Samsung's latest Odyssey models are only exceptions to that.
And higher contrast comes at the expense of horizontal gamma shift, which causes so called black crush.

All LCD's simply suck and instead of polishing turd makers should have been aiming to move to self emissive displays years ago.
 
rustyk21 said:
Assuming this is the right monitor, I would read both of these reviews and decide:

https://www.displayninja.com/gigabyte-g27q-review/
https://www.displayninja.com/gigabyte-g27qc-review/

I think Displayninja, RTINGS and tftcentral are the best review sites I've found.

In terms of the display technologies, VA will generally always have significantly better contrast than IPS ,worse viewing angles, normally be 'slower' and can have less colour accuracy.
But, I would argue that modern VA panels are improving faster than IPS.
IMO VA overall gives a better picture, which is why a lot of TVs use VA.
Click to expand...

What rtings usually have in all their VA reviews is complaints about viewing angles. For TV's I guess they mainly are thinking about people sitting in a living room. But even used as a monitor this might be an issue depending on the size (or when working with two or more monitors).
Well, we know that there is no perfect display technology so everything is a compromise.
I seldom notice the extreme backlight bleed on IPS monitors but wouldn't recommned them for dark games.
 
darket said:
Tarkov will look awful on a VA panel due to black smearing. The one thing I learned to hate about VA monitors is the ghosting on dark content. It's basically like having motion blur that you can never turn off.

Don't get me wrong Samsung make some great VA panels (QLED) in their tv's but VA monitors aren't the same quality.

Stick with an IPS.
Click to expand...

I think someone else already covered this below, but not all VA panels are created equal. The Samsing Odyssey G7 and G9 (which I have) have much quicker dark pixel transition times that other VA panels.
If you look at all the reviews on RTINGS, they give very detailed timings and the higher spec odyssey panels are as fast or faster than some IPS panels, plus they have the inherent contrast advantage, which is a big factor in perceived image quality.

But as everyone esle has also iterated, all panels have pros and cons. The biggest thing is deciding what you're going to use if for and what your preferences are. One thing though, no matter what your budget, be prepared to accept compromises.
 
I went for IPS (and paid through the nose for it) with my 3440x1440p Ultrawide and am very happy with it. Some people don’t mind VA panels or notice nothing different, others can see the ‘smearing’ or image ghosting quite easily and it puts them off. Try and get to PC World if you can or somewhere else that shows monitors and see for yourself.
 
Having owned IPS, VA and 6 and 8bit TN, I'd rather go with an 8bit TN than VA, I think it's the bottom of the barrel for gaming.
 
rustyk21 said:
I think someone else already covered this below, but not all VA panels are created equal. The Samsing Odyssey G7 and G9 (which I have) have much quicker dark pixel transition times that other VA panels.
If you look at all the reviews on RTINGS, they give very detailed timings and the higher spec odyssey panels are as fast or faster than some IPS panels, plus they have the inherent contrast advantage, which is a big factor in perceived image quality.

But as everyone esle has also iterated, all panels have pros and cons. The biggest thing is deciding what you're going to use if for and what your preferences are. One thing though, no matter what your budget, be prepared to accept compromises.
Click to expand...

I agree and I shouldn't tar all VA panels with the same brush, however Black smear and VA come hand in hand, its always there to a degree. A friend of mine has a newly purchased G9 and its a fantastic panel but the black smear is there, its certainly not the worst I've seen but still a typical VA panel.

Perhaps I'm just sensitive to these things but I'd rather have lower contrast and better motion clarity especially in games with lots of dark transitions. What we need is affordable OLED monitors as my LG C9 suffers from non of these drawbacks but i don't want something as large as a tv stuck on my desk.
 
darket said:
I agree and I shouldn't tar all VA panels with the same brush, however Black smear and VA come hand in hand, its always there to a degree. A friend of mine has a newly purchased G9 and its a fantastic panel but the black smear is there, its certainly not the worst I've seen but still a typical VA panel.

Perhaps I'm just sensitive to these things but I'd rather have lower contrast and better motion clarity especially in games with lots of dark transitions. What we need is affordable OLED monitors as my LG C9 suffers from non of these drawbacks but i don't want something as large as a tv stuck on my desk.
Click to expand...

I came from a surround setup with 7 year old 120Hz TN to my G9. The motion isn't quite there, but the contrast, curve, resolution, brightness and colours make my old screens look antiquated, so it depends what you're coming from too.
I agree in principle on OLED, I have one of the last passive 3d capable OLEDs as my main TV, so I'm familiar with the benefits of OLED. But then even they suffer from banding, relatively lower brightness, burn in (topic for another day) and poor transitions from 0 black.
OLED is the holy grail due to infinite contrast and unparalleled pixel response time, but tech has a habit of giving with one hand and taking away with the other.

Microled is the future, but it's the future. So, like with all future tech, it's unobtanium.
 
VA is the only panel type which is able to reach true deep blacks. IPS only reaches dark greys.

rustyk21 said:
my G9. ... colours make my old screens look antiquated...
Click to expand...

Yes, yes, it is because of the specifications:

Color Gamut (NTSC 1976) 88%(Typ.)
Color Gamut (Adobe RGB Coverage) 92%(Typ.)
Color Gamut (sRGB Coverage) 125%(Typ.)
Color Gamut (DCI Coverage) 0.95
Color Support Max 1.07B
 
4K8KW10 said:
VA is the only panel type which is able to reach true deep blacks. IPS only reaches dark greys.
Click to expand...

Ahh this must mean 4k owns a Va monitor........

Firstly VA panels (Generally so lets exclude the high end TV's such as the q90r) get no where near true blacks but are admittedly superior to IPS in this regard.

The typical VA has around 2000:1 (the G9 being around 2500:1) whereas the average IPS has around 1000:1, but even 2500:1 is a LONG way off true blacks as you need around 4000:1 to get what I would call a reasonable black.

I guess it depends what you want. If contrast is the single most important thing to you then VA is the only way to go with a monitor but as with all these things you're trading off other things.
 
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