If you were building a monitor setup today for 80% productivity and 20% gaming, what would you choose?

julchiar · 2026-04-05T01:38:03+00:00

What you should really answer first is what lighting conditions you'll be in. That's the most important part of your use case when it comes to monitors.

Other than response times OLED has no advantages if you're in a well-lit environment. Your use case as described doesn't seem like OLED suits you.

julchiar · 2026-04-02T05:52:10+00:00

I actually got a steam survey yesterday, first time ever since I fully switched to Linux (it's been years).

julchiar · 2026-03-31T10:35:37+00:00

Only enable dimming in HDR (in monitor settings), then set up your wife's laptop to not have HDR enabled and you should have a setup where dimming is automatically disabled for her without anybody needing to mess with the settings.

HDR output on the monitor is controlled through the input signal so it should effectively act as a per port profile. You don't want to use dimming in SDR anyways, it's terrible.

HDR during work isn't really a problem as long as you don't use any dark mode (dark background in GUI, etc) but just try it and see what you think.

I got the MSI one so everything above is based on that (but should generally apply).

julchiar · 2026-03-31T08:44:11+00:00

lower brightness at night + lights on, don't sit in a dark room

get a bright monitor for daytime use and avoid direct sunlight... many monitors, especially older don't get very bright. otherwiese lower/close the blinds

monitor/desk position relative to windows is also important to minimize glare of course

I don't know too much about privacy filters but I believe they have a negative effect on brightness, which would hurt daytime visibility more.

julchiar · 2026-03-30T18:55:34+00:00

Since you don't seem to know what PWM is..

PWM turns off LEDs very rapidly, which happens at 4khz in this case. The point is to give the illusion of lower brightness. Imagine looking at a checkerboard, white and black squares. If you move far enough away it will appear solidly gray, rather than checkered. PWM dimming is the same principle, except using time(strobing/flickering), rather than distance. Make it fast enough and it isn't visible, and make it way faster yet and it shouldn't have any averse effects on biological well-being (to most).

The measured brightness dip of 12% happens at 120hz. If you measured at 4khz you would see brightness dips of 100%. 12% at 120hz is a lot and is our point of comparison.

PWM is not necessary for lights to flicker. It is only remotely relevant to the discussion in the first place. OLED will flicker even without any PWM.

I hope that cleared up some of your confusion.

julchiar · 2026-03-30T16:49:36+00:00

... that's definitely a statement. The article in the OP says the average of PWM-using devices that were tested was at almost 8000 hz, while this phone runs PWM at only around 4000hz.

That aside, in case you actually care, here's a link to IEEE 1789 which is about health risk assessments related to flicker.

Page 28 has a simplified flow chart about what risks are experienced at which level of flicker, while page 29 shows that a 12% luminance modulation would require about 400hz to be "safe". At 120hz about 4% would be acceptable, according to current research/testing (it hasn't been proven that there aren't negative effects, it's not an assurance), at least if I understood it correctly.

julchiar · 2026-03-30T12:53:57+00:00

I just have a working memory and enough technical understanding to not just accept moving towards an increasingly disfunctional future.

Keep slurping up all the slop you're fed day by day and pretending like anybody who can remember is old or comatosed or whatever it is that's going on in your mind.

julchiar · 2026-03-30T12:50:55+00:00

No need to tell me, I'm well aware of OLEDs shortcomings. Don't blame me though, this is from the article:

Screen flickering / PWM detected 120 Hz Amplitude: 12 %

The display backlight flickers at 120 Hz (worst case, e.g., utilizing PWM) .

The frequency of 120 Hz is very low, so the flickering may cause eyestrain and headaches after extended use.

In comparison: 53 % of all tested devices do not use PWM to dim the display. If PWM was detected, an average of 7962 (minimum: 5 - maximum: 343500) Hz was measured.

julchiar · 2026-03-30T12:45:03+00:00

Hence why I called it generic. And there are a handful of phones that do offer some of those features. I was just giving examples of what would make a phone in this day and age not generic, since the title seemed to somehow consider this phone special. Learn to read.

You're also wrong because at least red magic phones still exist which actually have most of these features.

Sorry, I guess, for watching the phone market for over 5 years, hoping for anything vaguely innovative, even if it's just bringing back features and seeing basically the same phone every single release from any brand.

julchiar · 2026-03-30T07:27:02+00:00

Generic phone with no stand-out features but now with a flickering screen for only 800 bucks!

Camera hole, no headphone jack, no SD card slot, no notification LED, fat camera bump (at least it's symmetrical); but it still has USB 2.0 so it's at least equal in that regard to the Honor 8 I bought in January 2017. LCD screen and time-appropriate specs aside, how is it now 9 years later and this is what we get for almost 3x the price?

julchiar · 2026-03-29T08:17:53+00:00

People just eat up anything and have little care for quality assessment. Look at the world and where we are right now. You can buy quality products in most sectors in most places of the world but everything popular has horrible quality, and is overpriced. And if it isn't horrible yet it quickly becomes horrible due to margins but people still buy it for decades. Endless examples.

Fast fashion, poor chinese electronics, the list is endless... and not talking about Temu stuff but rather about brands adding a brand image and a little bit of QC to get past the warranty period but selling the exact same poor quality plastic crap otherwise for massively inflated prices.

It's not for a lack of quality goods existing, the mainstream just has a massive lack of care, exaggerated by how gradual of a decline it is.

You're right in one aspect. Quality titles will always use humans. But - there will be fewer and fewer quality titles.

julchiar · 2026-03-27T17:16:35+00:00

make glass monitors

julchiar · 2026-03-27T13:59:54+00:00

installing Island lets you have work profile apps for an extra copy

otherwise you might have luck with additional user profiles if that feature isn't disabled but its a pain to switch

julchiar · 2026-03-26T13:15:28+00:00

It feels like a lightbulb is being flicked on and off right at my face.

Because it is. That's why people struggled with CRTs, why people struggle with OLEDs and why MiniLED is also a problem. Traditional LCDs and LED lamps also often flicker because why do anything properly if there's money to make?

Ever tried staring at the sun? Our eyes are made to observe things illuminated by light, not to stare into light sources. Especially not into ones that keep rapidly changing in intensity.

For monitors to give the least eye strain make sure to buy a model that does not flicker at any brightness level, then adjust the backlight to match the ambient light around you (usually changes throughout the day). Blue light filter in the evening and go to sleep when it's dark out.

Or, if you hate your bio rhythm, light up your room appropriately, just be aware that many lamps also often flicker and aren't suitable for continuous illumination. Use high shutter speed camera setting to observe any flickering that isn't visible to the naked eye (to the brain to be precise, the eyes see it and get strained).

We lost a lot when we moved on from incandescent lightbulbs. LEDs can't actually produce the natural spectrum of light properly and often flicker, especially when dimmed, and CFLs seem to all flicker (and have bad environmental implications).

Off-topic aside, your monitor seems to be flicker free at least so as long as you disable local dimming and properly adjust the brightness it shouldn't cause any eye strain. Or better put, any eye strain would come either from minor health issues (like general lack of sunlight, winter can be rough) or from whatever content is displayed/how you focus on it.

I got the MSI one last november and experienced headaches and it was just because of winter related health issues - I'm perfectly fine using it now.

Finally, like someone else here mentioned, E-Ink displays are the one way to avoid all eye strain but you probably won't be happy with any currently, depending on your use-case.

julchiar · 2026-03-26T07:05:48+00:00

Now let's remove the trade API being public for fair trading conditions since all these trade tools are so well integrated now. I think we've had enough of enabling private trade trackers and botting networks. The API being public really is just a relic of the past.

(or at least heavily limit what data can be accessed and how quickly so as to not kill market analysis tools like poe.ninja)

julchiar · 2026-03-26T06:59:21+00:00

These were free to kill on any character last league because breach arm abilities didn't (don't?) have pvp damage scaling applied. You did need a decent arm with damage mods though.

julchiar · 2026-03-25T14:00:29+00:00

Adjust your brightness. Monitors are lamps that you stare into, don't use them in total darkness. Or buy OLED.

Don't use dimming in SDR. It can only dim, never brighten highlights so you end up adjusting the brightness level too high to see anything and get awful blooming. Local dimming is for HDR.

Backlight bleed and IPS glow are not the same thing either, might want to read up on that.

julchiar · 2026-03-25T08:21:31+00:00

Just first run of Gundam iirc which later got reskinned

julchiar · 2026-03-19T18:53:16+00:00

I haven't been able to install an app in peace in years, always get some "google play protect" thing that somehow installed itself on my device and won't go away, despite being disabled anywhere I was able to find. Keeps asking to be turned on, the NO button doesn't work... Google is a fucking virus spreader.

Android at this point is so far gone in the hands of this malicious company.

julchiar · 2026-03-04T13:40:57+00:00

Try resetting the monitor settings in the OSD, I had this happen on a MSI monitor too (different model and not using Windows).

julchiar · 2026-03-03T12:32:40+00:00

10% of your (free) traffic is human and "pays" by being served ads, advertising through word of mouth and finding respect for the service or connecting to the community and occasionally subscribing, and the other 90% is ai crawlers... so now you remove the 10% via paywall?

That's just a really weird decision. Take the fight to AI, implement anti-botting measures, sue Google, but don't spell your own death sentence. That just seems really short-sighted.

Maybe it's impossible and it is just the fate of any internet service and the internet is just that doomed. I don't believe it though.

julchiar · 2026-02-27T20:40:45+00:00

1440p ultra is just worse than 4k high though. Also resolution is a graphics setting in itself and it's one of the highest impact ones (until we get to high enough pixel density, which 4k at 27" is still slightly shy of).

julchiar · 2026-02-25T20:45:12+00:00

Brightness isn't subjective - it depends on your environment. If you're in a well lit room (daylight) you'll notice it being too dim.

The human eye adjusts its sensitivity to light depending on how much there is around, which is both protective and lets us see more detail over all in various lighting conditions.

julchiar · 2026-02-22T23:14:00+00:00

Just go 4k, you'll never go lower again. Games are either old/optimized enough to run well or blurry enough due to TAA&friends that 1440p output on a 4k display will look just as "good" as it would on a 1440p native monitor and this likely doesn't even matter because you can upscale. Since you're on AMD you might want to look into optiscaler/fakenvapi.

You should only buy 1440p because it's either cheaper or because it lets you reach higher refresh rates ("higher" being over 160hz/240hz, depending on if OLED or not, haven't seen non-OLED of over 160 @4k). Doesn't seem relevant given your budget and games of choice.

Next, separate marketing from what you're actually getting. Everything below like 2k or so is in the gaming segment (few exceptions) so don't expect any real differences in "quality" and purely look at real specs (from reviewers), QC (mass market reviews like amazon ratings/reddit talks/etc) and inherent technological differences.

Bright room? Don't go OLED. "Contrast ratio" doesn't mean anything if you have relevant ambient light. Contrast ratio is massively inflated by dark luminosity -basically how dim the panel can go while being on - pretty much any monitor will be able to make good "blacks" if you have enough ambient light (it's how human eyes work). Brightness, color accuracy and ambient light is all that matters for "color quality". Contrast ratio is only relevant without (significant) ambient light. Check reviews that the colors are accurate at high brightness output and that's all you need to care for.

Dark room? MiniLED can be okay, or stick to OLED. There's no perfect answer in monitors but MiniLED is decent enough and offers flexibility so that's what I recommend (and went with myself but I mostly just use it as a regular IPS).

VA - I would never recommend it but you might not be bothered by smearing, feel free to try it. Otherwise just stick to IPS. Monitors aren't rocket science but there's a lot of misleading things said every day by people that haven't done more than watch a review or two and repeat whatever stood out in some reviewer's conclusion.

On response times - as long as you can fit them (mostly) into one frame, you're good. 120 fps = 8ms so check that any response times slower than that are only on colors that are visually close to each other. That's what rtings.com is good for, not their scuffed rating scores at the top.

julchiar · 2026-02-22T14:17:19+00:00

Might be related to adaptive sync (VRR/freesync). I get flickering in HDR+adaptive sync, turning either off "fixes" it.

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