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Monitor suggestions, Eyestrain help!

B

bbbrad

Weaksauce
Joined
Jul 30, 2009
Messages
96
My old Acer AL2216W needs to go and my eyes are starting to get irritated when gaming. My main uses are gaming, day trading, movies in that order of priority. My computer room receives medium sunlight during the day.

I am looking to get 2 monitors preferably 23-24" with the main concern of reducing the stress on my eyes. Reasonably priced would be great too.

Thanks
 
First, I am no optometrist, but it's also useful to try and determine the approximate cause of your eyestrain:

-- Type of eyestrain?
.......Tired eyes (e.g. excessive movement during games, etc)
.......Discomfort / needles sensation in eye / etc (e.g. from PWM flicker? Poor contrast, glare, etc)

-- Eyestrain only during gaming? Tired from sustained eye movements?
.......Tired eyes (e.g. exercise your eyes more frequently, have breaks, move monitor back to reduce eye movement)
.......Motion blur (e.g. get a faster monitor, CRT, 120Hz, LightBoost, etc + get faster GPU for less stutters)

-- Eyestrain only during day in bright room?
.......Screen too dim. (e.g. get brighter monitor)
.......Poor colors (e.g. adjustments, etc)
.......Glare (e.g. antiglare, screen shield

-- Eyestrain only at night?
.......Excessive brightness (e.g. reduce brightness, get new monitor with good dimming)
.......Room too dark (e.g. put lamp behind screen, add ambient lighting)

-- Eyestrain only on some displays? Never had eyestrain on Apple and certain displays but eyestrain on some LED monitors at dimmed brightness?
.......Check if you have eyestrain due to PWM (pulse-width modulation)

Often, boilerplate advice tends to not really help; since some people get eyestrain from excessive brightness, other people get eyestrain from PWM flicker (or artifacts), yet others get eyestrain only in games (moving eyes around a lot, eyestrain from stutters/motion blur, etc). All too often, I've seen people replace monitors, and find it does nothing to help their eyestrain.
 
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Well I would say I get the most discomfort during gaming greater than an hour. And also some discomfort during the day but I know that is due to the sun being to bright, need drapes or something. So I am guessing this would leave a 120hz monitor as my best bet? Aim for a deal on some of the BenQ's or Asus 120hz models.?
 
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bbbrad said:
My old Acer AL2216W needs to go and my eyes are starting to get irritated when gaming. My main uses are gaming, day trading, movies in that order of priority. My computer room receives medium sunlight during the day.

I am looking to get 2 monitors preferably 23-24" with the main concern of reducing the stress on my eyes. Reasonably priced would be great too.

Thanks
Click to expand...

May I ask how old you are?
 
bbbrad said:
Well I would say I get the most discomfort during gaming greater than an hour
Click to expand...

You should be taking a 5 minute break from VDU use every hour no matter what you're doing on the computer.
 
bbbrad said:
Well I would say I get the most discomfort during gaming greater than an hour. And also some discomfort during the day but I know that is due to the sun being to bright, need drapes or something. So I am guessing this would leave a 120hz monitor as my best bet? Aim for a deal on some of the BenQ's or Asus 120hz models.?
Click to expand...
Not necessarily. It's possible, but no guarantee.
There could be other causes of your eyestrain.

Out of curiousity, do you lean forward while you're gaming?
 
Yes I do lean forward sometimes, usually when things are getting intense.
 
How is your vision? Do you find text or fonts too small on your monitor? There are multiple possibilities for eyestrain, but I'm not so sure it can be narrowed down to motion, or flicker, or bad vision ... without knowing how you react to other monitor types.

If you think it's motion, then a Lightboost TN would make sense.

If flicker, then one of the PWM free models should help ... Eizo 2336 or Eizo 2736 may be suitable.

Or if you want a decent speed panel, but want accurate colors and better angles, then an Eizo 2333 should work.

If your vision isn't the greatest, then increase dpi, or go for a 27" 1080p panel.

There are always tradeoffs though. You can't get a Lightboost IPS, for example.
 
Yes, it's extremely hard to narrow down. Motion, flicker, bad vision.

Also, the Apple Cinema monitors (in the most recent few years) are also PWM-free.
 
Mark Rejhon said:
.......Check if you have eyestrain due to PWM (pulse-width modulation)
Click to expand...

This one is a big one for me, I can't stand PWM flicker. You can't see it with the naked eye but here's how to check - look at your monitor through a camera (iphone, ipad, etc) or record a video. Turn the display brightness down. If there is flickering the camera shutter should catch it.

If your screen flickers you can still get around this - the PWM doesn't activate at full brightness, so set the brightness to 100% on the monitor and then dim it with the driver settings or a software utility. I have to do this with all of my monitors because they all flicker otherwise.
 
Although it's possible it could be due to flicker, keep in mind he is using an older CCFL display. They tend to cause less flicker issues than LEDs do. And if it was due to flicker, I'd think he'd notice it right away, and for the past several years, not just recently.

If I had to guess, it possibly could be an issue of glare... or just eyeball fatigue, which happens with everyone after a while. Or perhaps his monitor is just getting elderly and the backlights are a bit dim, resulting in worse colors and more squinting.

Whatever monitor you do get, I do suggest getting it from a place with easy returns. Even if not sensitive to flicker on a CCFL, it doesn't rule out flicker issues with LEDs.
 
Yeah, CCFL flicker is theoretically softer than LED but it can still get pretty bad. I used a 22" CCFL for a couple years before my eyes started bothering me, then I decided to investigate and that's when I found out what PWM is. It was like a freaking stroboscope when I looked through a camera. Not sure why it didn't bother me right away, maybe it takes time to become sensitive to it.
 
Thanks for try to help. I tried looking through my phone camera at my monitor and didn't see any flickering or waves on the screen.
 
Go to eyebuydirect purchase a pair of glasses with a,
Flat as possible frame on the sides for use with a headphones
Anti-Scratch
Anti Glare
20% yellow tint

You may also get your prescription if you have one, other wise just get them without. I got my presciption pair for $17 shipped. You will have gotten a better pair of Gunnar computer glasses. You could also try the Gamma Ray glasses on amazon for $19.95.
 
bbbrad said:
Thanks for try to help. I tried looking through my phone camera at my monitor and didn't see any flickering or waves on the screen.
Click to expand...

hope you set it in sports mode and turned down the white balance..
 
I've tried it in text, standard, graphics, and movie as well as different levels of brightness don't see any flickering.
 
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