@chrcoluk, i understand what you're saying, but there is some contradiction in what you've said there. no one (including myself at TFTCentral) is saying they
are IPS, just that they are "
IPS-type". An AHVA panel from AUO is much closer and more comparable to an IPS panel from LG.Display than it is to a VA panel type (from AUO, Samsung, Innolux or anyone else). That's why they are referred to by us as "IPS-type". I do agree with you that a monitor manufacturer simply stating "IPS" in their spec is a little grey and maybe a bit misleading, and your analogy with crisps makes sense. However, in the same analogy, we are referring to the Tesco branded crisps as "Walkers-like" here, which is fair, as long as they have similar taste/texture etc (ie for the monitor they have similar performance characteristics).
Regardless of the technical performance, a AHVA panel been marked as an IPS to a paying customer I think is on dodgy grounds, unless it is a IPS at manufacturing (not similar but actual IPS) then the screen should not be put as IPS on its tech sheet. They could maybe put "emulated IPS" But not just "IPS".
I agree this could be misleading, but that's why we use "IPS-type"
which i think was your original gripe...
There will still be some variance from one AHVA panel to another, just like there will be from one IPS panel to another. Actually if you look at even a modern LG.Display IPS panel, you will find that many have taken a step back when it comes to viewing angles and contrast shift compared with some older generations. The Dell 2209WA was a good example actually of a pretty good IPS panel in those areas. There's also some older IPS panels which had A-TW polarizers to reduce the IPS-glow on dark content when viewed from an angle, but again modern IPS panels don't really feature this and so they've taken a step back there too. So the fact you're seeing more contrast shift on the modern AHVA panels than the older IPS panel is not because they are AHVA necessarily, but because overall that technology is different from older generations. Both LG.Display and AUO have gone through various generations where they've improved things like resolution, contrast, response times, power consumption and the pixel structure and undelrying panel production has also evolved over time.
The reason we refer to AHVA as IPS-type is that is is far closer to IPS than it is to VA panels. It's a similar pixel structure and the overall viewing angles and contrast shift characteristics are very similar. There are plenty of examples where an IPS panel from LG.Display looks very similar to an AHVA panel from AUO. They both exibit much less contrast shift than a typical VA panel. They both show the same typical pale/white glow on dark content from an angle ("IPS-glow"), and they are both free from the off-centre contrast shift/black crush that characterises VA panels. That's due to the pixel structure of VA matrices, and so if you view a dark grey font on a black background for instance from head on, on a VA panel the dark grey font would be hidden until you move to the side a little. you don't get that on IPS/AHVA panels. The other thing is that on VA panels you get more noticeable contrast shifts vertically than you typically get on IPS/AHVA panels.
As an example if you compare the viewing angles of the most recent AHVA, IPS and VA panels we've tested you can see the similarities and differences in viewing angles. here's the viewing angles of a
31.5" IPS panel from LG.Display and the viewing angles of a
27" AHVA panel from AUO. Similar contrast shift, similar off-angle glow on dark content (and neither have the off-centre VA contrast shift). Compare that then to a
[url=http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/samsung_c32hg70.htm#viewing]27" VA panel from Samsung[/url] and you can see that VA panel has much more contrast shift, especially vertically. it doesnt have the same off-angle white glow (apart from the backlight leakage captured in that example) and then also shows the off-centre black crush issue of VA panels.
Not all AHVA panels and IPS panels are created equal, and there will be examples where one is worse than the other. But fundamentally an AHVA panel is very close to IPS overall in these areas in most cases, and certainly closer to IPS than TN Film or VA. The reason AUO don't just call it IPS by the way is that it's copyrighted to LG.Display, but it's an IPS technology in production, structure and performance characterisitcs.
incidentally, we still always accurately reference if the panel is AHVA from AUO or IPS from LG.Display, but to make it easier for our readers and avoid loads of slightly different technologies being confusing, we summarise in to 3 main types - TN Film, VA type and IPS-type. there's also differences between different manufacturers TN Film versions, and between Samsung SVA and AUO's AMVA, but that's a whole other conversation
In all seriousness though, I see ready as how the 1080ti is to 1440p. A lot of games will push 100 maxed out, some are closer to 75~, but a minimum higher than 60 is a given.
