Blur Busters Forums

Hey guys,

I have been wanting to upgrade my monitor for some time now, but I keep getting uncomfortable eye strain / headaches / nausea. I am trying to figure out what is causing this. I am a programmer so I spend a lot of time behind my monitor so it is important to me that I have something that doesn't mess up my eyes.

I've been using my LG 27UD88-W for a few years without any problems. It is a 27" 60hz 4K IPS monitor. I can run it on high or low brightness, no problems. Unfortunately gaming on this is a no go. I like to play COD on my xbox so 120hz is a must. Ideally I would like to get 1 larger monitor for work/gaming, but if no monitors work for me I am also open to have a 2nd monitor next to the LG.

Lately I have tried the following monitors:
LG 38UC99-W, 38" 1440p UW 75hz IPS (I might've been sitting too close since I didn't have a proper desk at the time to test it with)
Gigabyte m32u (32" 4k 144hz SS IPS)
Gigabyte m28u (28" 4k 144hz SS IPS)
Dell S3422DWG (34" 1440p 144hz UW VA)

I don't think the refresh rate is the problem, as I get eyestrained from just reading articles. I also tried using 60hz, same effect. My current screen runs pretty bright and I have no problems with that. It has really vivid colors so I don't think that's the problem either. I thought my eyes just got used to the ~160ppi from using the LG for years, but the 28" gigabyte also strained my eyes.

My gut feeling says I might be sensitive to the polarisation angle of the monitors, but I don't have polarized sunglasses to test it out. Also the monitor I am currently testing is the Dell ultrawide which is kind of hard to use vertically.

Do you guys have any ideas which monitors might work for me?

What brightness level? I have to turn my brightness down to 0 on most monitors.

I have been having the same problem, it turned out to be an astigmatism sickness on my eyes. Get checked by ophthalmologist. I was not even able to look at OLED TV and playing games on any monitor was a motion sickness for me. I have given a glasses and I can play games and watch movies on 55 OLED without any strain or motion sickness now.

I have tried different brightness levels, it's all the same. On my old monitor I can use whatever brightness I want without any issue.
I also have a 55" OLED TV that I can game on as long as I want, no problems. It really seems to be something with modern LED monitors but I have no clue what.

I am currently testing a LG38GL950, which is causing some headache and yesterday a little nausea. My eyes feel weird but not painful. I am going to see if it gets better over a few days. Otherwise this monitor will also have to go back

Unfortunately I don't have an answer, but I'll join in to say that I'm having the same issues.

What's weird is that I don't ever remember this being an issue with older monitors. For example, at work I have two of these monitors: https://www.sharpnecdisplays.us/product ... a234wmi-bk

I look at these monitors all day long and I have never once experienced a headache or eye strain from them. They are bright and I don't need to fuss around with any brightness/contrast settings on them. These monitors were first released in 2013.

At home, I have been trying to find nicer monitors for gaming and media. All the newer IPS monitors I have tried so far has given me headaches.

I have been able to tolerate a 1440p Dell 25" monitor (will post the model number later when I'm home), but only if I turn the brightness and contrast way down. It kind of looks like crap when I do that, but at least it doesn't make me sick.

I've never experienced an issue with looking at my OLED iphones and I look at that damn thing quite a bit. So I'm exploring OLED desktop monitors, but there aren't that many of them available yet. I'm also considering trying a VA or TN panel. It's getting frustrating.

shaqun wrote: ↑

18 Nov 2022, 19:32

I have been having the same problem, it turned out to be an astigmatism sickness on my eyes. Get checked by ophthalmologist. I was not even able to look at OLED TV and playing games on any monitor was a motion sickness for me. I have given a glasses and I can play games and watch movies on 55 OLED without any strain or motion sickness now.

What number was your astigmatism?

I have astigmatism, and maybe an incorrect prescription because in the evening i get these sort of issues. (Gonna get eyes checked again)

I tried increasing ambient lighting, lowering brightness, messing with contrast, gamma, changing color temperatures and these things helped to only a certain extent.

Tried IPS,TN,VA, with flickerfree, low blue light certificates etc... There is still something in modern panels being emited that keeps bothering me.

A bandaid solution that "somewhat" works for me is lowering Dynamic Range to "Limited" on NVCP and monitor so that pixels can only have a maximum brightness range of 235 for the very bright shades instead of 255 RGB.