eye strain

[supr4]

Hello,
i've an issue with eye strain that i can't comprehend, i tested many monitors and all cause some eye strain.

So far tested those:
PG279Q
Samsung odyssey G7
Aorus CV27Q
Asus VG27BQ
ZOWIE XL2546S

what could they all have in common that could cause eye strain?
good day

[StareX]

Bad room light? Too high brightness? Incorrect OD usage?

[Chief Blur Buster]

Many causes:

• Room lighting strain
• Blue light strain
• Stutter strain
• Too much motion blur
• Too much ghosting
• Brightness strain
• Screen antiglare film texture strain
• PWM strain
• viewing angle strain

Test the following:

• Low blue light mode (but doesn't fix blue light of glowing LCD blacks)
• "Orange tinted computer glasses" ($10 off ebay/amazon)
• Enabling motion blur reduction (strobing)
• VSYNC ON + strobing (framerate=Hz ELMB ON)
• G-SYNC + VSYNC ON + framerate cap 5fps below
• Lower frame rates (even test a 24fps caps)
• Higher frame rates (max Hz)
• Accent light behind LCD, screen shouldn't be brightest object in room
• Synchronized frame rates (VSYNC ON or G-SYNC)
• Mouse higher poll low sensitivity (2000Hz 1600dpi low ingame sens)
• 240Hz+ refresh rate (less motion strain than 120fps)
• Viewing closer
• Viewing further

Everybody has different strain; some get eyestrain from PWM, some gets more eyestrain from motion blur, some gets more eyestrain from blue light, etc. So troubleshooting is sometimes tough.

Some clues can be revealed by:

• Do you get discomfort from glossy Apple displays?
• Do you get discomfort from OLED televisions?
• Do you get discomfort from CRT flicker in past?
• Do you get discomfort from any 60 Hz display?
• Do you get discomfort if you sit further away?
• Do you get discomfort only in games?
• Do you get discomfort only in Windows?
• Do you get discomfort watching movies/films

This can selectively knock off some potential causes of eyestrain, to narrow down the range of discomfort causes. Screens are imperfect simulations of real life.

[supr4]

Thanks for your answers (:

At the moment i use the samsung odyssey G7 27" and when it triggers me headache & eyestrain i can't even look at it with sunglasses, specially on google search results i noticed. It's already at low brightness (10%) and with low blue light.

My phone is a Samsung galaxy s10+ and it doesn't seem to cause my any strain or headache. I also think 4K IPS TV's don't cause me issue.

I suspected the screen coating but don't know how to know which kind it has (light or agressive) before buying a monitor. And i guess after all the monitors i tested one of them should have been light coated ?

[Chief Blur Buster]

Thinking...

Possible theories specific to your condition:
- Screen coating issues (all of your monitors are not glossy)
- Low color gamut (all of your monitors are 72%-102% sRGB), less than many TVs and phones.
- Inconsistent ghosting (some of your monitors are VA panels)
- Extreme close distances to extremely big bright displays.

You may be affected by the LED phosphor formula of cheaper 72% NTSC and 99% NTSC LED edgelights. They emit a fair bit of awful blue light that requires actual physical orange glasses. Current digital Low Blue Light modes cannot fully block blue light from these 72% and 99% sRGB cheap white edgelight LEDs, especially during dim greys and blacks. A workaround is to put actual physical orange filters onto the screen, or wear actual physical orange glasses. Even the Samsung G7 (QLED with best color gamut) only reaches 98% sRGB and only 86% DCI P3, which often leaves a lot of cheap LED blue light unconverted.

1. Wide-color-gamut IPS panel... Even KSF phosphor based. Beautiful dazzling colors as long as you're not using strobing with KSF. The color gamut of these displays are roughly desktop equivalents of 4K IPS TVs. Either LG27GL850 or ViewSonic XG270QG are great examples. 135% sRGB color gamut and near 100% DCI-P3! More pleasing on the eyes, if the film is not the culprit.

2. Glossy OLED TV as monitor... Use a 42" or 48" LG OLED HDTV for use as a desktop monitor. The newer 2021 LG OLED is becoming available shortly in these smaller 42" and 28" formats. They all support 4K 120Hz G-SYNC, and are glossy.

3. Bias lighting... If having a big display, add a bias light behind your screen (dimmable LED bulb). You can buy stick-on LED ribbons for back of monitor, or for a quick hackjob for testing, you can buy a cheap plastic $10 WiFi bulb (preferably CRI90 dimmable) and a light socket adaptor, hang it from a common 2-pring extension cable from the rear of your monitor stand, and call it a day with bias lighting. Sub 10-watt LED bulbs don't have the old fire hazard of past lightbulbs.

[ELK]

Thinking...

Possible theories specific to your condition:
- Screen coating issues (all of your monitors are not glossy)
- Low color gamut (all of your monitors are 72%-102% sRGB), less than many TVs and phones.
- Inconsistent ghosting (some of your monitors are VA panels)
- Extreme close distances to extremely big bright displays.

You may be affected by the LED phosphor formula of cheaper 72% NTSC and 99% NTSC LED edgelights. They emit a fair bit of awful blue light that requires actual physical orange glasses. Current digital Low Blue Light modes cannot fully block blue light from these 72% and 99% sRGB cheap white edgelight LEDs, especially during dim greys and blacks. A workaround is to put actual physical orange filters onto the screen, or wear actual physical orange glasses. Even the Samsung G7 (QLED with best color gamut) only reaches 98% sRGB and only 86% DCI P3, which often leaves a lot of cheap LED blue light unconverted.

1. Wide-color-gamut IPS panel... Even KSF phosphor based. Beautiful dazzling colors as long as you're not using strobing with KSF. The color gamut of these displays are roughly desktop equivalents of 4K IPS TVs. Either LG27GL850 or ViewSonic XG270QG are great examples. 135% sRGB color gamut and near 100% DCI-P3! More pleasing on the eyes, if the film is not the culprit.

2. Glossy OLED TV as monitor... Use a 42" or 48" LG OLED HDTV for use as a desktop monitor. The newer 2021 LG OLED is becoming available shortly in these smaller 42" and 28" formats. They all support 4K 120Hz G-SYNC, and are glossy.

3. Bias lighting... If having a big display, add a bias light behind your screen (dimmable LED bulb). You can buy stick-on LED ribbons for back of monitor, or for a quick hackjob for testing, you can buy a cheap plastic $10 WiFi bulb (preferably CRI90 dimmable) and a light socket adaptor, hang it from a common 2-pring extension cable from the rear of your monitor stand, and call it a day with bias lighting. Sub 10-watt LED bulbs don't have the old fire hazard of past lightbulbs.

I wish they were making a 28" (there's a typo in your post)

[supr4]

I can test one of the theory.
Would the Alienware AW2721D be good? it is 240hz and 131% sRGB.

[Chief Blur Buster]

I can test one of the theory.
Would the Alienware AW2721D be good? it is 240hz and 131% sRGB.

Yes, wide-gamut 1ms IPS is usually pretty eye-pleasing in sample-and-hold mode. Give it a try, and see if it solve your eyestrain problem.

I must add a caveat: No guarantee on fixing eyestrain. It is not fully glossy, so if your eyestrain is from other causes (glossy, etc) than from the cheap 72-99% sRGB backlight LEDs. A surprising large number of people are eye strain bothered by the color gamut low-cost edgelight LEDs. They are typically much lower end LEDs than the LED backlight/edgelight built into all iPhone/Galaxy phone screens of the last 5 years -- even Samsung uses better LEDs in their smartphones than most of their gaming monitors.

High Hz + Fast IPS + wide gamut via top-of-the-line backlight LEDs -- tends to have lower % of stray blue light in its dark greys/blacks. And tend to match or exceed the vision comfort envelope of a modern smartphone or high-end HDTV -- and often solves approximately half of the eye strain complainers in my experience. Temper your expectations (50:50 odds of solved eye discomfort) since you may be affected by other things like the texture of the antiglare filter, etc.

For a person of your special eyestrain situation, buy from a store that has a refund-exchange policy, such as Amazon, etc.

Blur Busters Amazon affiliate link (2.5% commission sent to Blur Busters): Alienware AW2721D on Amazon. Purely optional if you use this, should you choose to support Blur Busters. Thank you!

[supr4]

The monitor is not available until mid april in my country.
I checked a little bit on google and some people have eye strain with nano IPS so i don't know what to do