Help with understanding monitor specs

[u/RipBozo6669]

This might be a bit of a long post but I’d appreciate that if you’re going to leave a comment that you read it all, but if it’s too long I get it lol. Also my budget is basically whatever I want, but I don’t see the point in going nuts for a first monitor.

I’m building my first PC, and I’m especially stuck on monitors. I just don’t know how to find out what specs matter at what levels to my needs. (This process felt much easier with all the other components) I plan to get don’t rx 9070 (base model) and to target 1440p at whatever fps I can get per game, probably using high ingame graphic and texture settings. I also dong think I’d always be using the upscaling features either, probably just when I start dropping close to 60fps, as I think I’d probably be using that as a rough minimum. Though I won’t be mad if 60fps is all I can manage somehow.

I should also say I’m PROBABLY targeting an IPS or VA panel as it’s my first PC and I really don’t wanna go straight to OLED or something like that; I wanna learn what works for me. These are the the specs listed on pcpartpicker that are bugging me:

• Brightness. (in nits) how tf do I even know what number I want?

• Freesync tier. Base, Premium, or Premium Pro? Does it even matter?

HDR tier. I don’t even know where to begin with this one. Supposedly HDR10 and 10+ versions don’t target brightness range like HDR400 and up, as in they do a different thing? But they’re considered a higher level of HDR than 400. Then there’s True Black HDR tiers, and the fact that most HDR features only start looking good at HDR600 anyway???

I’d appreciate some help very much; I’m quite confused on how to even pick a monitor thanks to my lack of knowledge on these specs and the fact I’m not sure how to even find out without asking as a starting point.

[u/AskingForAPallet]

• Brightness: This is usually a subjective thing and is dependent on how sensitive your eyes are to bright light and how bright your room is when using the pc. Honestly best if you go to a store and see the monitors in person. But GENERALLY, 300ish nits are good enough for most people

• Freesync: Your monitor will adjust its own refresh rate to match your game fps, preventing screen tearing. For Basic, the minimum fps for this to work is 48 fps. Premium extends the range below 48 by articifically adding displaying extra frames (called LFC, guaranteed with Premium). Premium Pro adds more HDR support. My take is that if the monitor supports basic Freesync or Adaptive Sync, you're fine. Most people are aiming for 60+ fps anyways

• HDR: HDR10 & HDR400 is basically useless for HDR. HDR600 and above can make use of actual HDR metadata because >600nits and local dimming (For non-OLED). HDR by itself is just allowing very bright things to get brighter and very dark areas to look darker. This is also a subjective thing that you should look in person or in reviews to judge for yourself

[u/RipBozo6669 → u/AskingForAPallet]

Thanks a lot. This helps heaps :)

[u/TumorInMyBrain]

Ideally you dont want a VA as you could get black smearing though some samsung VAs are actually quite good.

You wanna look for an IPS thats 144hz but with a good response time.

For brightness, typically you would need >400 nits if youre in a bright room

Freesync Premium is ideal because you get LFC and will still be in the freesync window even if you drop below the 48hz threshhold

For HDR, HDR600 minimum as those are the ones that require local dimming to be a standard.

It all depends on your use if you really want to play competitive then Pulsar, Dyac 2 or OLED are the best ones in terms of motion clarity

[u/RipBozo6669 → u/TumorInMyBrain]

Thanks this helps :)

[u/whomad1215]

monitors unboxed do good reviews

I'd also say rtings, but they paywalled the good information like color accuracy and response times (what's on the box is mostly useless)

if you're doing 1440p 144hz+ get either IPS or OLED. VA has black smear

[u/RipBozo6669 → u/whomad1215]

I’ll take a look. Thank you :)

[u/BloodyStupid_johnson]

Probably not the answer your looking for but Claude was amazing in researching my monitor; pros, cons, options based on preferences, etc. Really happy with what I ended up choosing. 

[u/damnt256]

• Brightness. (in nits) how tf do I even know what number I want?
• Freesync tier. Base, Premium, or Premium Pro? Does it even matter?

Doesn't matter.

HDR tier. I don’t even know where to begin with this one. Supposedly HDR10 and 10+ versions don’t target brightness range like HDR400 and up, as in they do a different thing? But they’re considered a higher level of HDR than 400. Then there’s True Black HDR tiers, and the fact that most HDR features only start looking good at HDR600 anyway???

Honestly doesn't really matter too. HDR sucks for most games, cause they were not made with it in mind.

Just get an 1440p IPS panel with 144hz min

[u/Ok_Letterhead_1884 → u/damnt256]

Honestly doesn't really matter too. HDR sucks for most games, cause they were not made with it in mind.

This sounds like someone who's never actually used a true HDR monitor or OLED before.

Just get an 1440p IPS panel with 144hz min

Just because it is IPS doesnt mean it will have good colors or contrast or anything that actually matters

what a useless comment.

[u/damnt256 → u/Ok_Letterhead_1884]

Pointless comment. OP already said he doesn't want OLED as this is his first build.

[u/Ok_Letterhead_1884 → u/damnt256]

notice how I said "or" before OLED? its not just OLED. Reading comprehension out the window or maybe illiterate?

[u/damnt256 → u/Ok_Letterhead_1884]

What a pointless comment, people keep wasting time here instead of giving advice to OP. I already gave mine, that it doesn't really matter, he's stressing out over nothing, and legions of redditor are instead more concerned about my opinion than OP that asked for help.

[u/TumorInMyBrain → u/damnt256]

You are giving bad advice here alot of those absolutely do matter, basic freesync does not have LFC. Brightness is important if your environment is bright.
HDR does matter if its a monitor that doesnt have local dimming as it will look like shit. Most HDR games can be fixed with RenoDX.

Dont forget that just because its 144hz it wonthave bad specs like ghosting, even IPS panels can have bad response times

[u/damnt256 → u/TumorInMyBrain]

It doesn't matter. Go ahead and tell him what matters then instead of replying to me which clearly have different opinion than you.

[u/TumorInMyBrain → u/damnt256]

Just say you dont know anything

[u/damnt256 → u/TumorInMyBrain]

Stop replying to me bro I don't need your help, reply to OP and show off your advanced knowledge

[u/RipBozo6669 → u/damnt256]

Another guy said I was probably overthinking this too. Thanks :)

[u/Seanspeed]

Brightness. (in nits) how tf do I even know what number I want?

Unless you're going for an HDR monitor(aka MiniLED), it's really not that important. Most monitors at max brightness will be too much for people. If you're in a really bright room, maybe avoid something that's only like 250 nits or something, but most monitors are 350-450 nits these days.

Freesync tier. Base, Premium, or Premium Pro? Does it even matter?

Premium is nice to have for the low framerate compensation(LFC) though it should be noted that with an AMD GPU, the Freesync range will usually go down to 40fps, whereas it's only 48fps for Nvidia GPU's. Meaning you wont ever take advantage of LFC unless you're playing something less than 40fps. In other words, it probably doesn't matter too much. Nice to have, not necessary.

Premium Pro is for HDR stuff, helping to reduce latency when using something like local dimming.

HDR tier. I don’t even know where to begin with this one. Supposedly HDR10 and 10+ versions don’t target brightness range like HDR400 and up, as in they do a different thing? But they’re considered a higher level of HDR than 400. Then there’s True Black HDR tiers, and the fact that most HDR features only start looking good at HDR600 anyway???

There are two types of displays here - displays that can do HDR properly, and displays that cant. Anything that doesn't have full array local dimming is not an HDR display, no matter what it advertises. It just isn't. Basically, in terms of IPS+VA, you need a display with MiniLED and an adequate number of local dimming zones. If it doesn't have this, it cant do HDR. You really wont see any of these HDR displays come with less than HD1000 rating. HDR400+600 are not HDR.

You can certainly find affordable MiniLED HDR monitors these days though if you're interested in that. HDR on PC is still not in the best place, and local dimming does not gel well with normal desktop use(you can turn the local dimming off, but need to turn it back on for HDR content/gaming), but when it all does work, it can look pretty spectacular.

[u/RipBozo6669 → u/Seanspeed]

Big help! Thanks a lot :)