Budget Gaming LCDs

DisplayMate is our weapon of choice, in particular the greyscale tests (Fig 4) that display 255 shades from black (0) to white (255). Very few monitors can successfully display this entire range, usually going too dark and too light too quickly. This results in a high contrast screen in which a lot of detail can be lost.

Fig 4. The greyscale test allows us to see the range of darks and lights that the monitor is capable of, from 0 (pure black) to 255 (pure white). The more shades that are discernible from the background, the better the monitor is and the more detailed and accurate the images will be on the screen.

We also focus on the greyscale and colour gradient ramps (Fig 3), checking for banding within certain colours, and to make sure once again that things don’t get too light or dark too quickly. While slight consistent banding is usually acceptable, the smoother the gradient the better. Non-uniform banding is never welcome. We also check to make sure the greyscale ramps don’t discolour, usually either turning green or purple. These gradients also have a tendency to smear and streak if a monitor features broken auto-colour correction or manipulation. The final gradient test is a set of vertical gradients (Fig 2), which we now test consistently after the Dell 2407WFP REVA02 turned up problems specifically to do with vertical gradients due to defective Faroudja image processing.

Fig 2. Since the original 2407WFP issues, we’ve run vertical gradient tests as well to make sure every angle is covered.

Fig 3. The colour gradients, or ‘ramps’ show us how subtley the monitor can differentiate 255 shades of colours. Typically monitors tend to get too dark too quickly – the left hand side. Lesser screens will not have a smooth gradient and begin banding visibly, sometimes unevenly and green/purple discolouration and streaking can appear in the greyscale gradient.

To test motion we play a sample 1080p MPEG2 transport stream movie (Fig 1) to make sure no annoying auto-colour system screws with the image, and to tax the response time of the screen with a fast motion scene. Depth of colour is also watched here.

Fig 1. Our 1080p movie sample shows a high-motion scene of an alligator taking down a buffalo into water. The huge amount of splashes need a low response time to remain clear, while the 1080p detail allows us to check how vibrant and discreet the monitor is with its colour ranges.

Finally, we boot up the old classic Quake 4 (Fig 5), set it to the native resolution of the screen, turn on VSync and start a new game to check the response time for gaming, fragging a few Stroggs in the process. Is it just us, or does that sound like a deeply suspect euphemism?

Fig 5. Someone’s lost his head over image quality. The first level in Quake 4 has served as our monitor response time gaming test for a while, the fast action demanding of even the finest monitors.

Of course there is a subjective element, especially since everyone’s eyes are different. Nonetheless we’ll do our best to rank the monitors as we see it (Oh, for the love of puns, someone shoot him, please – Ed).