Best monitor for reducing eye strain?

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tmc1284

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I just found out about the BenQ monitors which have RevolutionEyes Technology to help reduce eye strain. Do any of the more expensive ones have any specs that would help reduce eyestrain than other ones which also have the RevolutionEyes Technology?

Do I need to look for any specifications in the graphics card I purchase to work with the monitor's eye strain reducing features?
 
Buy a monitor which does not use LED PWM Dimming (read about the side effects) or is Flicker Free (monitors without PWM are Flicker Free), ignore marketing junk like Low Blue Light (a feature which makes monitors disgustingly red and can be achieved by drastically reducing the Blue control on any other monitor) and don't crank the brightness when using monitors in dark rooms or sit really far away. Good reviewers test monitors for PWM and many are marketed as Flicker Free. Monitor Recommendations Thread.
 
Do you think that using a G-Sync graphics card with a G-sync supported monitor or a Freesync graphics card with Freesync supported monitor could help reduce eyestrain?
 
Eyestrain is most often caused by trying to focus hard on little objects. The best monitor for eyestrain is a monitor that makes focusing easy. Get a big monitor with lots of resolution and make sure what you are reading has big text.
What size monitor do you currently have?
Something like the seiki 4K would do you well.
http://www.amazon.com/Seiki-SE39UY04-39-Inch-Ultra-Discontinued/dp/B00DOPGO2G
 
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eyestrain is tricky thing. Personally after long years I did finally picked up new IPS LCD with LED backlight HP Z24i which is PWM free but I still experience eyestrain. I didnt notice it right from start but overtime i see it is getting worse. I got Z24i 5months ago.
I'm not sure what could be root cause, i suspect LED backlight as I already had couple of IPS screens in work, all with CCFL and apart from some grainy coatings it didnt cause me problems.
I tried to play with truetype, sharpness settings to no help. Also it has high blue tint (I read usual WLEDs emitts most of blue light) even if i lowered B a bit in RGB (like 248 and even 238) it bothers me. If I change color temp to warm/5000k it helps with blue thing but after a while eyestrain is there again.
I also heard some people may be sensitive to FRC flicker (Z24i is 6+2) so it also could be the case. However my old TN L204wt sitting next to it doesnt bother me, though not sure if it is only 6bit or 6+2frc .So I dont know what could be compatibility problem between my eyes and Z24i :(

I'm quite unhappy with it and.already put it up on sale...
If my problem is indeed LED or WLED it pretty much sucks, as CCFLs are no longer produced it seems and other led variations like GB I'm not sure it will be better. If it is FRC i guess it is just as bad, as in 24" i cant see true 8bit anymore (maybe some 16:9 though)
 
One of the most critical elements of eye strain is too small font. Buy big, high res monitor and then set proper scaling so there are absolutely no microscopic elements on the screen. It is much better to have things bit bigger than the necessary minimum. For good scaling do not go below Win 8.1 and wait for the Win 10.
 
@Lordken

I can relate to what you wrote.

My story is the same than yours except with a BenQ BL2411 monitor. That damn monitor
gives me eye strain despite being PWM free. My old TN Belinea o.display 24" from 2009 (also PWM free), a technology supposedly destroyed by IPS panels, doesn't give me eye strain.
The BenQ may have better colors than the Belinea but in the end it doesn't matter if you spend all day reading text and one monitor destroys your eyes while the other do not.
The BenQ also suffers from noticeable IPS glow at low brightness/contrast and the Belinea can go to much lower brightness than the BenQ which is really important at night in a low lit room. Since I have configured my OS and most apps to use dark themes (important for reducing eye strain in my case, YMMV), IPS glow is even more noticeable. The TN panel is just better than the IPS for blacks.
I tried various settings on the BenQ, reducing blue light to the minimum as well as contrast/brighness, but nothing really fixes eye strain on it. The Belinea is just softer to the eyes.
So I'm looking to replace the BenQ with a new monitor that works well for dark destop/apps, can go to very low brighness, and does not cause eye strain. Oh and it has to be 16:10. This seems mission impossible and a total lotery.
 
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For OP I suggest buying a CCFL monitor if he can find one. What I noticed is that I feel better with old LCD/CCFL monitors than with the new LED monitors. When I look at LED for a long time I feel like I'm looking at a light bulb.

My experience until now is:
I had headaches with low refresh rate CRT, no problems above 75Hz.
For a few years I used TNs with 75Hz refresh rate and the only thing that bothered me was the small viewing angle and the grainy coating.
At work I had two Lenovo laptops with TN panels, one LCD and one LED. I can't stand the LED, especially when I switch on battery and it goes to 50Hz to use less power, in a few minutes I feel that something is wrong (headache/dizziness) and I change it manually to 60Hz. I saw another Lenovo laptop from 2014, the display is even worse...
I also have two iMacs, one really old with a grainy coating and one with IPS from 2014, I feel much more comfortable with the old one, no eye strain after I'm using it.

I almost bought BenQ BL2411PT, but since I'm no fan of LED I decided not to buy it. bobbie424242 just confirmed that it was a good decision. Grimvald started a few interesting threads recently, but I doubt he found what he wanted - a good 24" monitor 16:10.

I'm also looking for a good (no eye strain) monitor for office work - coding for 8-9 hours daily. No games and rarely watch youtube movies, I need just clear fonts and a high refresh rate.
 
theres no technical reason for freesync to have pwm

if a specific freesync monitor does, blame it on the manufacturer not on freesync
 
DanCar said:
Eyestrain is most often caused by trying to focus hard on little objects. The best monitor for eyestrain is a monitor that makes focusing easy. Get a big monitor with lots of resolution and make sure what you are reading has big
Click to expand...

If that's the case, a VR display would do pretty well wouldn't it? Can't wait till a VR document reader is released :D
 
DanCar said:
Eyestrain is most often caused by trying to focus hard on little objects. The best monitor for eyestrain is a monitor that makes focusing easy. Get a big monitor with lots of resolution and make sure what you are reading has big text.
Click to expand...

Pixel density ended up being the biggest factor for me. I really wanted to get one of these affordable 27-28" 4K monitors. But the more I looked at them, I realized that the pixel density was just aweful for me. The alternative would be to put the monitor close to your head, but then you run into issues with being able to see the whole screen without moving your head.

So I ended up with the LG 34UM95. 34" 3440x1440 ultrawide. It has the same pixel density as a 27" 1080p monitor, but it just gets bigger physically. Obviously, a lot more pricey then a cheap 4K monitor, but I have been very happy with it.

At work I use two 1680x1050 monitors and it actually works very well. I would prefer more real-estate, but the pixel density is very comfortable for many hours of code writing and text reading (and forum cruising :cool: ).
 
flod said:
theres no technical reason for freesync to have pwm

if a specific freesync monitor does, blame it on the manufacturer not on freesync
Click to expand...

The point is that it's not a guarantee in any case.
 
dmonkey said:
G-sync is PWM-free, so yes. Freesync, no.
Click to expand...
Where do you get that info from?? What does Freesync/Gsync/adaptive sync have to do with PWM (which is backlight thing)? Adaptive sync is supposed to sync frames from GPU to monitor and I cant see where PWM cames into play. PWM is about backlight.

And also your reply is wrong, cause he asked if G/Fsync reduce eyestrain. Answer is imho no (as NCX said), unless considering that stuter/tearing caused by non G/Fsync is causing eyestrain.

@bobbie424242: "glad" to see I'm not only one suffering lol. Tbh I'm pretty disappointed about whole LCD thing, since it came to replace CRT [ages ago] i cant see it bringing any benefit in the main field, and thats displaying nice,smooth,clear picture without problems. Sure LCD weights less and eats less power but damn that should not in no way by primary attribute of DISPLAY device, which purpose is to guess what, to display stuff.

gothic_hobbit said:
I thought all CCFL based displays used PWM for dimming ?
Click to expand...
LED just made it a lot worse cause they dont have "cooldown" and so the spikes are very sharp, compared to CCFLs, thats imho why LED PWM can be percieved by more ppl.
 
Where do you get that info from?? What does Freesync/Gsync/adaptive sync have to do with PWM (which is backlight thing)? Adaptive sync is supposed to sync frames from GPU to monitor and I cant see where PWM cames into play. PWM is about backlight.
Click to expand...

You're forgetting that Nvidia controls the backlight used in these monitors to allow for ULMB
 
well ok didnt realize that, maybe non-pwm is prerequisite for ULMB rather then gsync (as they are two different things but bundled together ofc)? Its probably a bit easier to time strobes with non-pwm backlight. (speculation)
So probably I can see what he meant but it was still a bit misleading statement.

but we are a little offtopic I guess :)
 
A light matte coating monitor that is properly calibrated and doesn't use pwm.

Good luck finding a properly calibrated one for a reasonable price though.
 
OT: so what I am guessing here is that 24" sweet spot of monitors for PC is dying since all things are now slowly moving to 4k, now I realized why 27 is the new standard for monitors with UHD resolutions, hell I can't even stand to read text on my 22" LG FHD monitor, I kinda realized I went full retard that I purchased a 22" or 24" monitor.
I did have a BenQ LED TV/Monitor too but god that was awful, I could not adjust how the backlight was performing, hell it was too bright and bluish, thank god I was not stuck with that.
 
Keeping the backlight level a little dimmer than typical reduces eye strain big time from my experience, Ever since I started using the auto brightness feature my eye strain issues went away completely (Samsung PX2370). The backllight is adjusted depending on ambient light in the room.
 
Well, I know this is an old thread, but this is an important issue, although for a few people only.

I have first encountered this eye strain problem when quite a few years ago I have sold my MAG500T Trinitron CRT and bought a flat screen TFT. It was - as far as I remember - a 22" 16:9 Acer with TN panel, 6+2 bit dithering and a CCFL backlight - all the bad things. I was happy. Well... for about half an hour, when my eyes started to hurt. I have tried every setting possible, looked up some forums... in the end, after spending a few hours in front of this monitor, I got such a terrible headache and eye strain that I literally could not work for a week. I could not watch TV or sit in front of a monitor, my eyes swelled up, it was tragic.

So I did some "research", and bought an S-PVA display - a Samsung 971P. I still have it. I turned down brightness, turned up contrast, etc. Also got a lamp behind the monitor that lights the wall, and I was happy again :) Later on I bought a BenQ BL2400T, which has an AMVA panel. It was somewhat harder to set up, but it was OK once again.

However, just today I got a Dell U2515H. I wanted to do some color sensitive work, get WQHD resolution, etc... And now again, my eyes are starting to melt. I look at the BenQ beside the Dell, and it's a relief. I look back, and it's starting to hurt again.

I am still evaluating this, but I strongly suspect that for me, it all comes down to contrast. And contrast is... well, more complicated than one might think. I am perfectly fine with the AMOLED screen of my Tab 8.4 S, even though it has very tiny text. I am also OK with the *VA panels, as they have about 3x the contrast of IPS panels: I can set brightness to almost zero, while turning up the contrast, so that I have really deep blacks. But on an IPS... even the blacks *radiate*. If I turn down the brightness up to the point where it is fine for me, the contrast becomes very low. There is just no sweet spot. If I increase the ambient light in the room, it is somewhat better, but still, IPS - and TN of course - just have way too much intrinsic light hitting my eyes, IMHO.

I would recommend to everyone that have this problem to try some sort of an *VA panel display with about 5% brightness and 50% contrast, with a lit background, and see whether it helps or not.

BTW: the U2515H was professionally calibrated.
 
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One thing I didn't see is glasses prescription. I'm -4.0 in both eyes, got a cheap pair of glasses from online for $25 shipped set to -3.25 and it helped a lot.
 
fagzal said:
However, just today I got a Dell U2515H. I wanted to do some color sensitive work, get WQHD resolution, etc... And now again, my eyes are starting to melt. I look at the BenQ beside the Dell, and it's a relief. I look back, and it's starting to hurt again.
Click to expand...

Doesn't the U2515H have higher resolution and as such you may be using smaller text? I have a hard time with high resolution screens because of this. Letting Windows scale fonts is a problematic solution, because it causes layout issues such as truncated button labels.
 
Something I didn't see mentioned is setting the ambient lighting in the room.

placing a "bias light" to shine behind the monitor or just keeping a few dim lights on will allow the eyes to relax more instead of having to strain between a bright screen and a dark room.

it is why colorists,artists,photographers, etc typically have bias lights and calibrate for light output too.

beyond helping match color content , the level they calibrate to is based on standards and takes into account proper light levels you eyes need to see images while maintaining good contrast and color fidelity.

typically you want ambient light to be around 10%-15% the level of the monitor so it doesn't take much to setup a 40w equivalent bulb to see if it helps enough.

LED backlit monitors that are PWN driven can be harder on eyes because of flicker and being low CRI and thus too "blue" so some models now are marketed as "flicker-free" and low blue mode /settings adn that will help too but as others have said, it is focusing on small text that will really strain your eyes much more than other content and having a large enough screen with enough resolution can sometimes make a bigger difference but it depends on you distance to the monitor and your eyesight since sitting too close to a large screen will be just as bad as too far from a small one.
 
Maybe if only people stopped setting brightness to 100% every single time they buy a new monitor there wouldn't be a problem.
 
westrock2000 said:
So I ended up with the LG 34UM95. 34" 3440x1440 ultrawide. It has the same pixel density as a 27" 1080p monitor
Click to expand...
This isn't quite true. A 34" 3440x1440 ultrawide has a pixel density of about 110 PPI, while a 27" 1080p has a density of about 82 PPI. The text on the ultrawide will be much smaller.

Though I think you meant to say 27" 1440p, because that comes out to be about 110 PPI.
 
In the case of so-called "necros," I think a long-term eye strain study is a reason to keep old threads around:
Which monitors have you experience the most pleasant usage from for long periods?
 
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