Looking for a gaming monitor for eye strain.

[Anyx]

Hi,

I'm currently using a (ASUS VE247H 23.6" Full HD 1920x1080 2ms HDMI DVI VGA Back-lit LED Monitor) and I've been experiencing a lot of what I'm guessing is eye strain. I feel out of it and a bit nauseated after playing for hours, and even the next day. This mainly occurs or occurred while playing Diablo 3, with all the fast movement, but has started occurring while playing other games as well.

My PC specs that I think are relevant (if I don't include something, please say):

CPU: intel 4790k
GPU: 2 MSI Geforce GTX 970 4G Gaming
Ram: 32 gigs, 2 of these, Kingston 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory

I've done a bit of research, but I thought it'd be best to consult the experts. I'm thinking maybe a bit bigger would help, so I was looking at a 27" instead of 24, but that isn't a huge constraint in either direction.

The couple I've been looking at are:

BenQ 27-Inch IPS Ultra High Definition LED Monitor (BL2711U), 4K2K HD 3840x2160 Display
BenQ ZOWIE 27" QHD 2560x1440 LED 144Hz Quad HD Gaming Monitor with S-Switch, XL-Series for eSports Tournaments and Professional Players (XL2730)

The main reason is that I found that the BenQ monitors are 'flicker free' and that is apparently what causes eye strain. The main difference between the two is that one is 4K and one has 144Hz.

So.. the questions:

1. Does 60hz to 144hz reduce eye strain?

2. Would the 4k help, or be prettier(lol), enough to not worry about it being 60hz?

3. Is one of these even the best option, or could anyone recommend an amazing monitor that will suddenly make my problems go away?



Thanks in advance for reading and for any advice you can offer!

-Rob , the gamer that can't currently play games.






1. What Is Your Country Of Origin?

USA, Minnesota

2. What do you plan to do with this monitor? (ex. Games, Movie Watching, Photo Editing, etc.)

Gaming

3. What resolution and screen size do you want?

Undecided

4. What refresh rate do you want? (ex. 60 hz , 70 hz.)

Undecided

5. How much are you looking to spend?

400-600$ range preferably, but it is flexible. I'd rather have to save up a bit and get the correct monitor.

6. Brands Preferred (ex. Samsung, Acer, Asus, AOC, HP, Viewsonic, etc. )

Any

7. Brands Not Preferred (state reason why)

No.

8. Are You Buying More Than One Monitor?

No.

9. How Many Displays Can Your GPU Support Maximum? And what GPU and driver version are you using if applicable?

Two MSI Geforce GTX 970 4g Gaming

10. What Port Do You Want To Connect To (ex. DVI-D, HDMI, etc).

Whatever is best, Dual-link DVI-I, Dual-link DVI-D, HDMI, DisplayPort.

11. Is This Monitor A Primary Display Or A Secondary Display?

Primary

12. Is This A Secondary Display For A Laptop?

 

[tvhse_123]

4K on a 27" monitor would create more eye strain for you if you don't use scaling because the text will be very small to read.

 

[Ditt44]

I suffer from vertigo and there simply are games or parts of games that I cannot play. This varies based on a number of issues from my own fatigue level, caffeine intake, ambient light and other factors. Foremost, if you have more than one monitor, BOTH must be set at the same refresh rate. This will reduce issues greatly. Secondly, I think that similar sizing is important as well as your peripheral vision is less challenged with similar sizes and image positions.

If you do not have two monitors, I have gone through the research and agonizing decision making over this as well. I was running two 24" 1080p monitors and had to dial one up from 50 to 60hz and the other down from 75 to 60hz. MUCH better. Through a lot of digging I found out one truth.... You are unique in your needs and impacts.

Getting a flicker free display is critical. Lower blue light is better. Most major makes offer these features in their better devices. Generally I think most people will benefit from 144hz capability paired with either V or A-sync to stabilize image quality and smoothness. However, I have read that some users stated faster refresh rates bothered them more so than 60hz baseline.

I opted for a 60hz monitor, the ASUS MX27AQ. Low blue light, flicker free, IPS panel. I use a 1080p ASUS 24" for my seconday monitor and only use them together when doing productivity/modding work. When I play, I turn off the 24" (it has no flicker/blue light options) although generally it hasn't bothered me. So far, after two months, I have had vertigo issues only when playing Elite Dangerous and driving that damn Scarab across moons...the bouncing and wobbling horizon do me in so I avoid that as much as possible.

So... eye strain may or may not be related to refresh rate, but it is certainly impacted by flicker state, blue light, ambient lighting....where I think back light behind me helps me when the room is evenly lit. If dual monitors, you MUST sync their refresh rates. Too large is going to create more eye fatigue and cause your eyes and brain to work harder to view the entire display and cope with 'fringe' effects out of your direct LoS on the screen. I think curved monitors, in my case, will make this worse as well but I have a very very wide peripheral vision 'asset'.

Hope some of this helps. It really really sucks.