LCD / LED Monitors

There are thousands of LCD monitors on Newegg. Finding the best deal is a snap if you know what you need and where to look.

Whether that’s a 4K gaming monitor for your desktop PC, or a budget display that gets the job done without the bells and whistles, this outline helps determine the best LCD - LED monitors for your planned use.

Here you will learn:

• Which monitor specifications matter, and which you can ignore.
• How to assess your overall system relative to the applications you run.

Two important caveats before diving deep into LCD monitors:

It’s not LED vs LCD monitors. LCD and LED are parts of the same system; you do not pick between the two technologies. All modern desktop monitors (except OLED which we will discuss later) use liquid crystal display (LCD) for channeling electronic signals to give pixels their color. Crystals do not emit light by themselves; an LED (light emitting diode) is one of the ways light is passed through LCD monitor to see its colorful pixels. Backlighting with LED is more energy efficient and responsive than older cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) mechanisms.

Assess your system before buying a monitor. A 4K monitor for gaming requires powerful graphics cards to achieve recommended resolution and other measures of performance we will touch on in the following tabs. If you do not have the system for 4K gaming, a high end monitor won’t deliver the graphics you paid to have.

Screen size: Measured diagonally across the display, most desktop monitors measure between 24 and 34 inches corner to corner. The bezel that frames the screen is not included in the measurement.

Recommended Resolution or (‘Native Resolution’) is a pixel count (width in pixels x height in pixels) that best fits the monitor. The higher the pixel count, the sharper the image—provided the graphics processing components in the computer have enough oomph. There are dozens of different resolutions due to aspect ratio variations in monitors. Each falls under one of five ranges.

The 16:9 widescreen format is most common for new desktop monitors, for example:

• High Definition (HD): 1366 x 768 pixels
• Full High Definition (FHD or HD): 1920 x 1080 pixels
• 2K or Quad-High Definition (QHD): 2560 x 1440 pixels
• 4K: 3840 x 2160 pixels
• 5K: 5120 x 2880 pixels

Aspect Ratio, as mentioned above, is the proportion of width and height that describes the shape of a monitor. There are three important shapes to note in computer displays.

4:3 (square-like) is today a common tablet shape, and the building block for modern desktop screens.

16:9 (‘wide screen’) is the same as two (4:3) screens—by far the most common for desktop monitors.

21:9 (‘ultrawide’ or ‘cinemascope’) is the same as three (4:3) screens.

21:9 is actually not an exact reduction of (4/3) x (4/3) x (4/3) but nobody wants to say ‘21-and-a-third to nine’ when making ultrawide monitor comparisons.

The 16:10 ratio is an older standard that vendors are phasing out. It’s the golden ratio for document reading according to some user reviews. That bit of extra height matters for top-to-bottom eye work.

Gamers should stick with 16:9 as it is the standard to which developers design games.

Monitor performance specs are based on rates for frames and pixels—the faster the better for both. More frames per second means smoother-looking graphics. Pixels that change color faster offer more dazzle when viewing animated digital imagery. The relationship between system and monitor hardware is critical, which is why retailers assemble package deals for monitors and GPUs.

Frame Rate is achieved by your system — it is the number of times per second new images are displayed to give the illusion of animation, denoted by frames per second (fps). The higher the frame rate, the smoother the look. If your system is underpowered for the software, you get a choppy strobing effect. AMD and NVIDIA video cards correct this to an extent using Adaptive Vsync settings.

What is considered a good frame rate for PC gaming? 30 fps is on par with gaming console graphics; 60 fps is the solid standard for PC games; 100+ fps is elite status.

System requirements for gaming at 1080p @ 60 fps varies by game – but a decent baseline for reference is 16 GB of system memory; fourth generation Intel Core i5 or AMD FX-8300 CPU or better; GeForce GTX 960 or AMD Radeon R9 or better.

Vertical Refresh Rate is achieved by your monitor — this is the number of times per second pixels can change color (not hue). Frequency is measured in hertz (Hz). Just like fps, the solid 60 Hz prevails for good gaming monitors. Ideally, a high end system capable of 60+ fps is hooked up to a 144 Hz monitor.

What if the monitor underperforms the system? If the Frame Rate outpaces the Refresh Rate, screen tearing and stutter decrease the user experience. Monitors are able to correct for discrepancy if equipped with adaptive syncing technology like FreeSync (AMD) and G-Sync (NVIDIA) – these are standard monitor features.

Response Time is about your LCD panel and backlight – which provides ‘crispness’ of moving images by adding saturation and shadowing—the backlighting effects. A 60 Hz monitor shows one new frame once every 17 milliseconds, but the light behind the screen is even faster—blinking light to dark in under 5 milliseconds. In turn, a pixel changes hue faster that it changes color; and the eye interprets this as sharp animation. But if you notice a “ghosting” effect for images moving on screen, that is likely due to monitor Response Time not keeping up.

Alternate resolution gameplay is the last resort – first try dialing back on shadowing, anti-aliasing or other features. Stay within the aspect ratio (go from 1080p to 765p says at 16:9) to maximize performance.

What is the difference between 16.7 million and 1.07 billion colors? If color accuracy is part of your job—editing photos and video, or making medical assessments based on digital images—a billion colors gives you the best chance for color accuracy. The human eye perceives about 10 million colors, so you won’t be missing anything on a 16.7 million color monitor.

WLED vs RGB LED backlighting: White LEDs (WLED) are positioned behind the perimeter of the display is the most common arrangement. Tri-colored RGB LEDs (Red, Green, & Blue) are positioned in a grid behind the LCD screen. They provide a more dynamic color range. These require thicker builds and are more expensive.

Contrast ratio is a notoriously squirrely measure – How many steps are between the lightest white vs. the darkest black? There is no real binding standardization here, so vendor marketing goes wild—a monitor with Dynamic Contrast Ratio can boast ratios in the millions, but is not a sensible comparison point. So ignore dynamic measures and instead use the static contrast ratio (numbers in the thousands) as the actual metric for comparison.

Comparing LCD panel technology gives you a better idea of what to expect from a monitor.

• TN Film – Twisted Nematic + Film: Best response time which makes TN film monitors popular for gaming, but fewer viewing angles and low (6-bit) color depth.
• IPS – In-Plane Switching: Better (8-bit) color depth for standard models than TN Film. Slower on the whole—but gamers can consider AH-IPS (advanced performance horizontal-IPS) panels for gaming rigs.
• VA – Vertical Alignment: Special chassis/bezel features block out ambient lighting to improve contrast ratio, and deliver great color accuracy from corner to corner. Slower than TN Film.

What makes OLED so special? The newest backlighting technology is organic light emitting diode (OLED) and it works without a backlight, or rather, the display is the backlight depending how you look at it. Remember those LEDs that backlight LCD screens? These are laid out in layers of a film-like organic substance, and pass electrons back and forth to show color. Benefits: OLED screens show more contrast, consume less energy, and can be transparent, paper-thin and flexible.

Use this link for more information on LCD Monitors in our Learning Center

LCD monitors have distinct size and power advantages over past, and even some present, display choices. Plasma monitors don't come in desktop sizes, and represent higher costs, weight, and energy consumption. Most homes and offices use monitors between 15 to 20 inches, though larger widescreen monitors increase productivity at work and enjoyment of games and movies at home.

Pros and Cons

LCD Monitors are thin, lightweight and easy to move, and some are wall-mountable, getting them completely off your desk, providing drastically greater options for work or play. Adjustable monitor stands also offer increased ergonomics. LCD monitors have a steadier, flicker-free picture, causing far less eyestrain, and are a blessing to users who spend long hours at their screens. They use less energy than plasma monitors or CRTs.

What should you consider before purchase?

• LCD monitors are currently available in a variety of screen sizes. A larger viewing area will often provide support for higher resolutions, which translate into more on the screen at once. LCD screen sizes are measured in inches along the diagonal of the screen. Newegg carries LCD monitors from 15" all the way up to 52"!

• Native resolution is the maximum resolution (detail level, in pixels) an LCD monitor can support. A monitor provides the best viewing experience when working in its native resolution.
• Aspect ratio is the width to height proportion of a display. Non-widescreen LCDs have an aspect ratio of 5:4, similar to a standard television set's aspect ratio of 4:3. Widescreen LCDs boast 16:9 or 16:10 dimensions to better display movie formats.
• Response time is the speed at which an LCD monitor's pixels change from one color to the next and back again. Response time is measured in ms (milliseconds). The quicker an LCD monitor's response time, the less likelihood there is for ghosting or after images appearing when displaying fast-paced images (games and movies). We recommend 8ms or better for high-performance gaming and multimedia applications.
• Brightness is often measured in candelas or cd/m2. Most LCD monitors today can provide over 200 cd/m2, which is more than sufficient for normal use. Games and movies may benefit from somewhat higher brightness levels. A higher contrast ratio allows a monitor to provide a greater range of dark and light details.
• Viewing angle is the greatest angle (horizontal or vertical) from which a user can view an LCD screen at an acceptable image quality. A wide viewing angle enables a group of people to view the screen at once or enables a user with greater viewing flexibility.

LCD monitors are usually equipped with one or two types of connectors for connecting to your PC. D-Sub Connectors transfer analog signals and are still very popular as they are compatible with most video cards. DVI Connectors transfer a video card's digital output directly for a superior signal. The DVI connector is mainstream equipment on newer video cards and on an increasing number of new LCD monitors. HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) connectors are necessary for displays with HD resolution approaching that of HDTV, from 780-1080 lines per inch, and they're backwards-compatible with DVI systems.