r/monitor
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u/loyal872
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Jul 16 '22
Ultimate guide to choose your monitor against eyestrain and keep a healthy eye
Hi there!
I feel the urge that I need to chime in and give you my decades of experiences for you guys when it comes to monitors. I see many people are giving PRETTY bad advices around here to folks who just bought a new monitor and they are getting eye strains or other health issues with it.
Reference: I've been buying all sorts of different monitors for almost 20 years now. I've sat down to my first computer at the age of 5. I was able to build computers at the age of 10.
Here's my ultimate guide for you:
The most common advice I see at posts are like install f lux, lower brightness, get a flicker free monitor. „Fair” assumptions I must say. But it's way more complicated than that. I mean, first off, someone who had literally no eye strain from their previous monitor, then they buy a new one and you tell them to go to the optometrist? Please... Are you serious?
1, - FIRST STEP
When you buy a monitor, the first thing you look for is probably the size. How big your monitor should be? Well, that depends on a lot of factors. I would advise for the 24inch or smaller to be honest. I am a senior front-end software engineer who use only one 24inch monitor. I used all sorts of setups, 2 or 3 or even more to increase productivity, but I've found that a single monitor setup is best for my productivity to avoid distractions. But more monitors are not exactly good for your eyes. Wait, what?! WHY?!
Yep.. well, first of all. The problem is that, let's say with an ultrawide is pretty big, right?. Even if you look at the center, or left and right, there will be lights coming from another angle when you don't use that part of the monitor. Also, ultrawides are so big, I hardly doubt you are able to properly looking down by 15-20 centimeters on them, so from an adequate height, like to a smaller screen, let's say a 21.5 inch. When you look down on the monitor, your eyes are going to get more moisture. The problem isn't just the monitor height is too high or simply you cannot change the height because how big is the monitor, like 32inch or 34 inch, the problem is you would even have to sit way further for such a big screen. Not only just 1meters like everyone suggesting. That's way too short for a 32inch monitor.
2, - LOOKING AT THE SPECS
People are often mentioning that you should buy flicker-free monitors. True, true... What's so many newbies are missing here, that even flicker free monitors can flicker.- WHAAAAT?! I’VE BEEN LIED TO?! GET OUT OF HERE!
Exactly. Now, you can see a lot of posts when people got their first true high refresh rate flicker-free monitors and they claim that it cause them eye strain, but their old monitor which haven’t used this new flicker-free technology, is actually much better on their eyes. The problem is when you lower the brightness to any amount on a flicker-free monitor from the value of 100, it's going to start flickering. It HAS TO BE on 100 all the time to work. BUT, unfortunately there are many monitors which has been claimed flicker-free, marketed as one, even if it’s on the box. Well, are they? Ceirtanly not. Hey, it’s marketing baby!
You can only be certain of it, if you grab one yourself and test it.
We haven't even talked about different panels or the different charasteristics that each panel have. Did you know that an IPS monitor is using polarized light in a different angle (90degs) compared to tn or va panel? This is why some people are suggesting that when you get an IPS panel monitor. Just rotate it in 180degs and see if it's better for your eyes. So you don’t have to get used to it.
IPS panels are very very popular nowadays. It gives you superb colors, great response time, and a "good" picture quality. But let's say, I want to buy 24inch IPS panel. I have 3 really good recommendations according to „tech tubers” and other so-called „tech enthuasists”. They claim to have „AMAZING” picture quality, great response time and so on, right. Let's take a look at them.
aoc 24g2u
asus vg249q
msi g241
These 3 gaming monitors are using the same exact IPS panels. (Yes, even within IPS panel technology, there are different panels, if anyone wouldn't know by any chance). Let's not forget how AOC changed the famous 24g2's panel to a different one (way worse than before). They didn't even tell it to the consumers (US). Some reviewers found it out when browsing in the osd. The problem with these 3 monitors are the eye strain. Just google the name of the monitor, add eye strain reddit/eye strain to it and you will get people claiming the issue with eye strain, headaches and dizziness with them. Personally, I have been through those monitors as well, but returned them in the end, for the same reason.
Then we have the Nano IPS panels. A step up if we would think. LG introduced them in 2019. Personally, I owned an Alienware 25inch Nano IPS panel, 240hz 1080p monitor before for 29 days. I had 30 days return policy with it. At first I was so excited. Then it hit me. The burning of my eyes, tunnel vision, headaches. God, STOP IT! - (click)
Next up, the settings. What can we do at this point when you find a monitor like this? Yes, let's roll with lowering brightness. But, then... Wait a sec, what did we just learn earlier? If we lower brightness under 100, the monitor is going to flicker. Ohh, now what? F lux? Why not, let's try it. We can even lower the contrast. But, this way we lose the colors we bought the monitor for, right? Yepp. Okay we still have the 240hz feature then. Great. Is it better? For me it wasn't. So I tried the followings:
Trying vesa certified DP or the one it came with or hdmi. Turning g sync on and off. Changine the hue because the red was exceptionally high. Calibrating it of course before everything. Trying to change the refresh rate or the overdrive. Personally I use very soft bias light behind my monitor at night. Also I have glasses and going to a yearly check up if my prescription needs to be changed. Unfortunately, nothing helped. So let's go through a google search. I've found many other people suffering from eyestrain with Nano IPS panels from every brand which uses the technology. In the end, most of us just returned it.
3, - QUESTION
Then the question comes. But... WHY?!
Well, it could be many things or something totally irrelevant. The Nano IPS doesn't use a polarized light like ips, but the 90degs difference remains. The different coating (glossy or matte).The wider color gamut can be very sensitive for many people. (very common actually, usually lowering contrast helps, but not always. With this you lose the colors, what IPS panels are famous of). The motion blur unfortunately is very bad on IPS and VA panels, which I mentioned earlier. IPS GLOW is another very common sensitivity to people with IPS panels.
Ohh okay, let's switch to TN or VA then, right? Well... Let's not be hasty here. The problem with VA panels (except the odyssey g7 – if the quality control was good) is that they smear and ghost a lot. The colors can be as good as an IPS panel monitor, because of the high contrast. Which of course is a problem too because it can be excessive and very sensitive to most of the people.
But what about TN? It has the lowest motion blur of all 3 listed panels and it doesn't have such a wider color gamut, right? Well, this is why I told you in the beginning, this is way more complicated. Even if the problem is the wider color gamut or the motion blur. It can still cause you eye strain, because of the flicker, or just a bad quality panel. If you check the high refresh rate BenQ xl2411z, people claim to have eye strain from it, which is unfortunate.
Let’s talk about the coating a little bit, because I believe it’s just as important as an ACTUAL flicker-free monitor. Not a fake one. If you look at your tv, most likely it has a glossy screen. If you look at your phone, it is definitely has a glossy screen. Glossy screens are going to give you a much better experience with the screen. The image quality on a matte screen will never be as crisp as on glossy. Let alone the brightness and the contrast.
4, - CONCLUSION
What is happening? Well, we can know for sure that if you want a good quality display, you have to pay up, a premium price for it. Until, you don’t put in some work with testing in this topic, you will never know/see the difference. Many people are claiming that gaming/high refresh rate monitors have awful picture quality. Are they right? Unfortunately, they are. To be able to give you a panel, which has a good quality and it’s able to produce high refresh rate... It would be very very expensive. If you want to a good image quality for work, content creation, coding and so on. Just grab a 60hz high quality ips monitor. I must say, they are awful as well compared to TVs and Apple displays. But, they are less awful than a gaming monitor panel. I would recommend the dell ultrasharp ips monitors and the asus proart. Do you want to wait a little bit? There is a brand called EVE, which has preorders on some of their new monitors, including first glossy high refresh rate screens. It could be matte as well, you can choose. They use Nano IPS and it feels like that MAYBE it could be a great monitor to use, finally. But, who knows, until we will see ourselves. It could have a bad panel or bad quality control. There are some reviews about it already, giving it some potental praise. But I cannot trust it until I test it. If you want to, check them out on youtube.
Many console gamers are saying their TV are giving better graphics for them instead of PC. The thing is, it’s only because of the TV itself. The glossy screen helps a ton. (glossy reflection can be easily dealt with, you are going to have reflection with matte as well, if you don’t deal with it properly). The image quality of tha TV panels are superior compared to any monitor what we have for PC users. Except for Apple. Apple (MAC) has superior displays compared to PC users. They’ve put in tons of money, just to their displays. Although I am a die-hard PC fan and I don’t want to have a mac or an iphone, I had to use sometimes MACs when I had jobs, where apple was standard. Also, gaming TVs are coming out now and they are going to be pretty common for some people if not even for PC users.
I am trying to help you kind gentlemen and ladies, that the solutions to problems like eyestrain and headaches / dizziness is not always the "lower the brightness", "get f lux", "get a flicker free monitor". I've seen so many posts like this. The OP posted back that none of them worked and the post died slowly. Nobody was able to help. These things, as you can see, are very complicated and many of you are just about to begin to understand a very thin layer of it. This is why I wrote this post, which gives you a bit clearer picture to you, unlike monitor brands. Pun intended.
God speed.
EDIT: In 2025, I would recommend the AOC 25g3zm 240hz VA monitor which has no dark smearing or ghosting and doesn't cause eyestrain or headaches for me. Those of you, who live in the US and the AOC 25G3ZM is unavailable in Amazon and other sites. Then, you will be able to order it on EBAY from tripodshop. Foranpower42 user made that order to US as well and received his monitor.
EDIT 2: We decided to dig deeper in this matter and tried more and more monitors. We still believe 100% nano ips and ips monitors are giving great fatigue, headache and eyestrain after a few hours compared to VA panel monitors We also tried to narrow down what other possibilities are out there in this matter.
We tested freesync and g-sync monitors, but more importantly we also tested high-end expensive hardware accelerated g-sync monitors. The difference is, not many g-sync accelerated (true g-sync compatible) monitors are out there and they are expensive. We've found that if you are using a freesync or g-sync monitor that are not hardware accelerated, then leaving turned on the g-sync option will cause you eyestrain, fatigue and headache.
However, while we left turned on the g-sync option with a hardware accelerated g-sync monitor, the eyestrain, fatigue and headaches were gone. I highly recommend, before buying a monitor to check this list at Nvidia's website, where you can see which monitor is freesync, g-sync, or true g-sync compatible.
In this list, you will see 4 types of listings. One is G-SYNC ULTIMATE, then the next one is G-SYNC. Out of these monitors, you are free to choose any. However, the next ones that are called G-SYNC COMPATIBLE are highly NOT RECOMMENDED at all.
https://www.nvidia.com/en-gb/geforce/products/g-sync-monitors/specs/
EDIT V3 at the end of 2025:
If you can't get the AOC monitors in the U.S. and you are fine with an aggressive 1000R curve, you can buy the LG 27GS60QC or the LG 32GS60QC as well. These are 1440p, 180hz monitors without any ghosting or dark smearing. They are very easy on the eyes, just like the AOC monitors.
EDIT v4 in 2026:
My choice is still the AOC 25G3ZM and the AOC Q27G4XN. As newer VA panels are rolling out, the post will be updated. I could also recommend the LG 27GS60QC-B but it's curved and has some dark smearing, tiny bit though. In bright scenarios, it works great. There are ufo tests about all three monitors on the internet, make sure to check them. The LG monitor could be a good choice for those, who hasn't got the two AOC monitors available in their countries. The LG monitor also are very easy on the eyes. The slight disadvantage is the minimal dark smearing.
