Sore eyes from using Asus VG248QE

[hbjdk]

I bought an Asus VG248QE monitor 7 months ago.
Recently I then started noticing I'm getting sore eyes after a day of using my pc - also if I'm using it for just 4 hours.
Can this be because the monitor do not use a flicker free backlight?

[Falkentyne]

Very possible, but the only way to test this is to test a PWM free setting.
Try 100 brightness but make SURE you have extra brightness in the room. If necessary, you can lower the contrast and the color RGB values, and even use the video card color correction tools to try to lower some of the brightness too (which won't reduce the backlight). 100 brightness is eye tiring, however full brightness should not use PWM dimming (since it's not dimming). Do you get the problem now?

[Chief Blur Buster]

There are many causes of eyestrain:

- Eyestrain from flicker/PWM (most common cause; very probable, but sometimes a red herring if there's a different sensitivity)
- Eyestrain from extreme brightness (add ambient lighting)
- Eyestrain from extreme dimness (brighten screen, dim ambient lighting)
- Eyestrain from motion blur (focussing muscles gets tired, so use a strobe backlight, if more sensitive to motion blur than flicker)
- Eyestrain from increased fast eye motion (did you start any new fast-action games?)
- Eyestrain from extra time at computer (did amount of computer time change?)
- Eyestrain from more than one of the above
- Other causes (e.g. vision changes)

While flicker is one of the most common cause, it's the cause only about half of the time, and has commonly turned out to be a red herring to other causes of eyestrain.

That said, it's already known that the VG248QE is not the most eye-friendly 120Hz monitor, it is not a PWM-free model (unless it has the GSYNC upgrade), there are PWM-free 120Hz monitors at http://www.blurbusters.com/faq/120hz-monitors/

[Edmond]

I bought an Asus VG248QE monitor 7 months ago.
Recently I then started noticing I'm getting sore eyes after a day of using my pc - also if I'm using it for just 4 hours.
Can this be because the monitor do not use a flicker free backlight?

Precisely the reason why im done with all this shit.... only getting back to gaming when there is a gsync, flicker free IPS monitor; or a gsync projector. TN is a health hazard.

[Blural]

I'd just like to share that I use a strobed 120hz LCD monitor at 120hz strobed including on the desktop for over 10 hours each day and do not suffer from any significant eye strain.

For a point of comparison, I used CRT 85hz+ monitors extensively from about 1998-2002 and suffered a high degree of eye fatigue within one hour of use which led to various eye related problems and tons of stress.

LCD strobing has been a godsend. I had written off the ability to have a nice clear monitor due to the health concerns of flicker but that simply has not been the case with LCD technology. I'm sorry for anyone suffering but if you used CRT monitors extensively as I have then I'd hope you'd see the comparison and how LCD is better for this.

[hbjdk]

Thanks for your replies. I only just noticed now, as I had forgot to put a mark in the box saying "Get notified when people reply"

I was only using Brightness 80 in the monitor, but have now turned it up to 100.
I didn't know this meant no PWM is used - thanks for the tip, Falkentyne.
I reduced Brightness and Digital Vibrance in the Nvidia control panel too.
Not sure if the latter has any effect on eye strain but it makes the colors more pleasing to look at at least.

I'll try this for a few days and see if it helps.

Chief, thanks for the list of possible causes for eyestrain.
All that is something to consider also for sure.

I'm going to Google reduce eyestrain monitor and see what turns up.