IPS vs VA Panels for TVs—What’s the Difference?
Right now, buying one of the best TVs means choosing between two major technology types: an LED/LCD TV, or an OLED TV.
Because OLED TVs are generally more expensive, the average buyer is looking at LED/LCD TVs right now. And although there are several features and specifications to consider while shopping—the brand name, HDR compatibility, and refresh rate, just to name a few—there’s one important hardware spec that isn’t widely advertised: LCD panel type.
LED/LCD TVs are so called because of the two things that make up their displays: an LED (Light Emitting Diode) backlight and an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) panel for that backlight to shine through. LED backlights vary between a variety of implementations, but modern LCDs generally come in one of two panel technologies: IPS (In-Plane Switching) and VA (Vertical Alignment).
Unlike other hardware specifications (which are usually listed on the side of a TV box or on the manufacturer’s website), information about a TV’s LCD panel type is a bit more inside baseball. But panel type has a far greater impact on a TV’s performance than you might expect—it affects contrast, color, and viewing angle as well.
What is an IPS panel?
Credit:
Getty Images / “rusm”
Individual pixels in an LCD display are made up of liquid crystals activated by voltage. How the display arranges its crystals is part of what sets IPS panels apart from VA panels.
IPS (In-Plane Switching) panels are a common display type for both the best computer monitors and TVs. Without getting too far down the rabbit hole, let’s talk a little about how IPS panels distinguish themselves from other types.
Every non-OLED TV on the market today is an LCD TV powered by LED lighting. Individual pixels in an LCD display are made up of liquid crystals activated by voltage—this is what produces color. An IPS panel aligns its crystals horizontally, parallel to the glass substrate.
IPS technology was developed in part to improve the color and wide viewing angle performance of a display.
There’s also a range of variations under the IPS umbrella, including ADS, S-IPS, H-IPS, e-IPS, P-IPS, and PLS (Plane-to-Line Switching). But, while they all differ marginally from one another in operation, their core functionality (as compared to VA panels) is the same.
What is a VA panel?
VA (Vertical Alignment) panels represent another common display type, used for both computer monitors and TVs, but especially for the latter where they greatly outnumber their IPS counterparts. Most LED/LCD TVs you’ll find on the market use a VA panel. While IPS panels align their liquid crystals horizontally, VA panels align them—you guessed it—vertically. They run perpendicular to the glass substrate rather than parallel to it. When met with voltage, the crystals tilt, letting light through and producing color.
This positioning changes how the liquid crystals behave. Without any voltage, the liquid crystals in a VA panel do not tilt, which is a better outcome if your goal is to block light and create image depth.
Like with IPS, VA panels also come in a few varieties: PVA, S-PVA, and MVA, though again, their core functionality (as compared to IPS panels) is the same.
Buy the VA-panel Samsung QN90B at Samsung
What about TN panels?
TN (Twisted Nematic) is an older LCD display type. They’re still relatively common display types for computer monitors—thanks to their lightning fast response times and excellent handling of motion blur. TN panels aren’t typically used in TV production anymore, though.
Related content
What’s the difference between IPS and VA panels?
Credit:
Reviewed / Jackson Ruckar
IPS and VA panels have different strengths and weaknesses. The Sony X900H (seen here) features deep black levels but relatively narrow viewing angles.
Now that we’ve explained the bare essentials of these two technologies, let’s take a look at their relative strengths and weaknesses.
Contrast Ratio
The cornerstone of picture quality, contrast ratio refers to the range between a display’s darkest black levels and brightest highlights.
Because VA-style panels excel at producing deep, dark black levels, this is arguably their biggest strength. VA panels almost always feature deeper black levels than their IPS counterparts, and this goes a long way in creating a detail-rich picture. An IPS panel can mitigate this by serving up an exceptionally bright image to offset relatively shallow black levels.
Advantage: VA
Wide viewing angle
A TV’s total viewing angle describes how much a viewer can move away from an ideal, head-on viewing position before the contrast and color of the picture begins to deteriorate. Due to the positioning of their liquid crystals, IPS panels excel in this department; they typically offer significantly more viewing flexibility than TVs with VA-style panels. In other words, IPS panels are more reliable for group viewings (or any situation where a viewer might need to sit at an off-angle).
Advantage: IPS
Color and image quality
While impressive color production is possible on both display types, IPS panels tend to offer wider colors, given the nature of their hardware.
While a wider range of colors tends to spell better color accuracy, the advent of additional TV technologies like quantum-dot color have evened the playing field considerably. In other words, you’re far more likely to notice the benefits of an IPS TV’s wider viewing angle than you are to notice its tendency for wider color.
Advantage: IPS
Here’s the final takeaway: IPS panels are significantly better than VA panels when it comes to viewing angle and somewhat better than VA panels when it comes to color. VA panels, however, almost always offer deeper black levels and better overall contrast. And because they block light better, TVs and monitors using VA panels tend to have better backlight uniformity regardless of LED backlight type.
How can I determine a TV’s panel type?
Unfortunately, not only is it rare to find a TV’s panel type listed on a manufacturer’s website, but it’s increasingly rare for a brand to reveal a TV’s panel type at all—even when we contact brands directly for information.
The reason for this caginess has everything to do with marketing; it’s better to keep shoppers focused on the bells, whistles, and impressive performance specs of a TV rather than its potential shortcomings.
To add to the confusion, it’s common for different sizes of the same TV series to mix and match display types; you might find that the 55-inch version of a TV features a VA-style display while the 75-inch model uses IPS.
Credit:
Reviewed
It’s relatively easy to determine panel type if you have the proper equipment and you know what to look for.
Fortunately, it’s relatively easy to determine panel type if you have the proper equipment and you know what to look for. Certain test results and viewing characteristics act as tell-tale signs. This is why my colleagues and I make a point of discussing panel type in just about every TV review we publish, and why you should make a point of reading reviews before making a purchase.
Panel type is not the end-all-be-all for LED/LCD TVs.
Many other factors, most of them related to the style and intensity of the LED backlight, can have a major impact on factors like contrast, viewing angle, and color intensity. Ultimately, you need to see a TV in person (and ideally in the space it’s going to live in) to get the best idea of how well it creates an image. But by knowing the core differences of IPS vs VA LCD panels, you can at least make some good guesses before you buy.
Which type of TV panel should I buy?
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Getty Images / “.shock”
TVs with an IPS-style panel might be better for group viewings, but VA panels tend to offer better contrast.
Is IPS or VA better for gaming?
Unlike the best gaming monitors, IPS and VA TV panels are on an even playing field. TVs with both technologies are capable of high refresh rates of 120Hz, or occasionally 240Hz (although it usually comes at a premium).
If you focus on single-player gaming, or your multiplayer gaming happens online, the excellent contrast of VA is the way to go.
The most gaming benefits you’ll see will come from extra features like Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM), or cloud game capabilities.
If you’re buying a large screen and intend to host movie nights with friends and family, a TV with an IPS-style panel is far more accommodating thanks to its superior viewing angle. Just be aware that certain content—particularly dark content—won’t pop as much on account of the panel’s shallower black levels.
On the other hand, if you want the best possible picture overall, we recommend investing in a TV with a VA-style panel. They’re not always ideal candidates for group viewings, but the vast majority of the best non-OLED TVs you can buy feature this display type.
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Prices were accurate at the time this article was published but may change over time.
IPS vs VA vs TN: Comparing LCD Types Found In Monitors
Differences Between IPS, VA, and TN
Almost all monitors use LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) panels lit by LED backlights. There are three main types of LCD panels: In-Plane Switching (IPS), Vertical Alignment (VA), and Twisted Nematic (TN). The general idea of each panel type is the same: liquid crystals react to an electric charge, controlling how much light is allowed to pass through and reach each of the three colored sub-pixels.
For this article, we’ll take a look at three recent high-performance gaming monitors: the LG 27GP950-B, the Samsung Odyssey G7 LC32G75T, and the ASUS TUF Gaming VG258QM. We’ll compare a few aspects of their performance, including picture quality and motion handling.
IPS Monitor
LG 27GP950-B
What is IPS?
IPS, which stands for in-plane-switching, uses a different crystal orientation compared to VA and TN. While TN and VA twist the crystals, IPS crystals are parallel with the glass substrate, and they rotate within the plane of the substrate to let light through, similar to the shutter on a camera.
IPS panels are by far the most common on today’s monitors.
VA Monitor
Samsung Odyssey G7 LC32G75T
What is VA?
VA, or vertical alignment, uses vertically aligned crystals that tilt to allow light to pass. While IPS crystals are parallel with the glass substrate, VA crystals are perpendicular to the substrate. Although VA panels aren’t as common as IPS panels for monitors, they’re one of the most common choices for TVs.
TN Monitor
ASUS TUF Gaming VG258QM
What is TN?
TN, or twisted nematic, was the first LCD technology on the market. TN panels consist of liquid crystals sandwiched between two polarizing filters. When an electric current is applied, the crystals twist and allow light to pass through. TN panels are by far the cheapest, but they’re also a bit out of date and not as common.
What’s The Difference?
It can be hard to generalize how each LCD type performs. In most cases, the difference between each type is pretty minor, but there are a few key areas where one type is consistently better than the others.
We won’t be talking much about extra features or design elements, as these vary depending on the overall market context of the monitors you’re looking at. There are high-end and low-end models of each, and the feature sets and performance vary accordingly.
Picture Quality
Although most monitors today look pretty good, there are some noticeable differences, depending on the type of LCD used. The most significant differences between the different LCD panels are in their contrast ratios and viewing angles, but there can be some subtle differences in other aspects of the overall picture quality.
Contrast
LG 27GP950-B (IPS)
Native Contrast 1,194:1
Samsung Odyssey G7 LC32G75T (VA)
Native Contrast 3,912:1
ASUS TUF Gaming VG258QM (TN)
Native Contrast 1,107:1
VA panels have the clear advantage here. TN panels have the worst contrast by far, typically in the 600:1 – 1200:1 range. IPS panels are slightly better, ranging between 700:1 – 1500:1, but they’re still not as good as VA panels.
Most VA panels on monitors have contrast ratios above 2500:1, with some as high as 5000:1 – 6000:1. Newer monitors even use local dimming to achieve much higher contrast ratios. Even with local dimming, IPS monitors aren’t able to produce blacks as deep as VA panels. In short, if you’re often using your computer in a dark room, a VA panel is the way to go, as it’s the only LCD panel type that can produce deep blacks in a dark room. If you’re not in a dark room, the difference in contrast is hardly noticeable, especially since many monitors have anti-glare coatings that can reduce the effective contrast ratio of the display.
Of the three monitors shown here, the Samsung has the best contrast, at nearly 4x the contrast ratio of the other two. We measure contrast at a fixed white level of 100 cd/m², so this means the Samsung’s blacks are, on average, 4x darker than the others. The other two are about what we expect from TN and IPS displays, but the ASUS is at the upper end of the range for TNs.
Most TN monitors we’ve tested are much worse than this one.
Winner: VA
Brightness
Since the brightness is controlled by a backlight behind the LCD layer, the type of LCD used has essentially no impact on the peak brightness of the display. That said, there’s a difference between TN and VA/IPS, but it has more to do with market limitations than technological ones. TN monitors aren’t nearly as popular as they used to be, and the remaining models tend to target high-performance gaming, so there’s less of a focus on brightness. Because of this, almost all high-end monitors currently on the market use VA or IPS panels, so if you’re looking for a very bright image, especially for HDR, chances are it’ll be either VA or IPS.
Winner: IPS and VA
Horizontal Viewing Angles
LG 27GP950-B (IPS)
Samsung Odyssey G7 LC32G75T (VA)
ASUS TUF Gaming VG258QM (TN)
IPS is the clear winner here, as the image remains accurate even at a wide angle.
VA and TN monitors usually perform much worse. Color accuracy generally remains good on VA monitors, but TNs have a slight shift in color accuracy at moderate angles. They both usually show a decrease in brightness at moderate angles and gamma shift at a small angle, causing the image to appear washed out. Panel manufacturers came out with curved panels to compensate for this image degradation, as the curved screen reduces the viewing angle to the edge of the screen, meaning that the image appears more uniform if you’re sitting up close. Most curved monitors are VA, but there are a handful of TN panels as well. Unfortunately, we measure the viewing angles from the center of the screen and rotate the monitor while still measuring in the center, so any advantages from the curve aren’t apparent in our test results.
Some manufacturers have started adding wide-angle filters to VA panels used in TVs. These filters significantly improve viewing angles, but come at the expense of contrast.
We haven’t seen any VA monitors with this technology yet, but we wouldn’t be surprised if manufacturers started adding wide-angle filters to some high-end monitors.
Winner: IPS
Vertical Viewing Angles
LG 27GP950-B (IPS)
Samsung Odyssey G7 LC32G75T (VA)
ASUS TUF Gaming VG258QM (TN)
Chroma inversion on a TN monitor – Dell S2716DGR
Again, IPS is the clear winner here. The vertical viewing angles are very similar to the horizontal ones on both IPS and VA panels. Unfortunately, this is one area where TN panels are usually much, much worse. TN monitors degrade rapidly from below, and colors actually inverse – resulting in a negative image that can be distracting. For this reason, if you decide to buy a TN monitor, look for one with an excellent height adjustment, or consider buying a VESA mounting arm, as you should mount TN monitors at eye level. Even when mounted properly, larger TN displays can appear non-uniform at the edges.
Winner: IPS
GRAY Uniformity
LG 27GP950-B (IPS)
50% Std.
Dev. 3.434%
50% DSE 0.104%
Samsung Odyssey G7 LC32G75T (VA)
50% Std. Dev. 2.769%
50% DSE 0.107%
ASUS TUF Gaming VG258QM (TN)
50% Std. Dev. 7.622%
50% DSE 0.121%
There’s usually not much difference between VA and IPS panels in terms of gray uniformity. It’s rare for monitors to have uniformity issues, and even on monitors that perform worse than average, it’s usually not noticeable with regular content. TN monitors tend to perform a bit worse than usual, though, and the top half of the screen is almost always darker than the rest, but that’s an artifact of the bad vertical viewing angles.
Winner: VA and IPS
Black Uniformity
LG 27GP950-B (IPS)
Native Std. Dev. 2.957%
Samsung Odyssey G7 LC32G75T (VA)
Native Std. Dev. 1.667%
ASUS TUF Gaming VG258QM (TN)
Native Std.
Dev. 1.815%
Black uniformity tends to vary significantly, even between individual units of the same model, and there’s no single panel type that performs the best. It’s rare for monitors to have good black uniformity, and almost every monitor we’ve tested has some noticeable cloudiness or backlight bleed. IPS and TN panels can look slightly worse due to their low contrast ratios, as the screen can take on more of a bluish tint when displaying dark scenes. Like with contrast, black uniformity issues usually aren’t very noticeable unless you’re looking at dark content and you’re in a dark room. If you only use your monitor in a bright environment, generally speaking, you don’t need to worry about black uniformity.
Winner: VA, but not by much.
SDR Color Gamut
LG 27GP950-B (IPS)
sRGB xy 100%
Adobe RGB xy 88.1%
Samsung Odyssey G7 LC32G75T (VA)
sRGB xy 98.2%
Adobe RGB xy 83.
2%
ASUS TUF Gaming VG258QM (TN)
sRGB xy 95.8%
Adobe RGB xy 79.9%
Historically, TN panels used to have the worst colors, as many of them were cheaper models that only supported 6-bit colors or used techniques like dithering (FRC) to approximate 8-bit colors. Most displays today, including TN models, are at least 8 bit, and many of them are even able to approximate 10-bit colors through dithering. New technologies, like LG’s Nano IPS and Samsung’s Quantum Dot, add an extra layer to the LCD stack and have significantly improved the color gamut of modern IPS and VA displays, leaving TN a bit behind. Between them, NANO IPS is slightly better, as it tends to offer better coverage of the Adobe RGB color space. Although the difference is minor, IPS panels still have a slight edge over VA and TN displays.
Winner: IPS
HDR Color Gamut
LG 27GP950-B (IPS)
DCI P3 xy 95.2%
Rec.
2020 xy 70.1%
Samsung Odyssey G7 LC32G75T (VA)
DCI P3 xy 86.3%
Rec. 2020 xy 67.6%
ASUS TUF Gaming VG258QM (TN)
DCI P3 xy 49.8%
Rec. 2020 xy 56.3%
Although TN panels have caught up a bit in the SDR color space, they’re far behind when it comes to HDR, so if you’re looking for a good HDR color gamut, avoid TN panels. Between VA and IPS panels, the difference isn’t as significant; however, IPS panels still have a slight edge. The best VA panels top out at around 90% coverage of the DCI P3 color space used by most current HDR content. IPS panels go as high as 98% coverage of DCI P3, rivaling even some of the best TVs on the market. Due to the very high coverage of DCI P3 on both VA and IPS, the difference isn’t that noticeable, though, as most content won’t use the entire color space anyway.
Winner: IPS
Motion Handling
Although not necessarily as noticeable to everyone as the differences in picture quality, there can also be a difference in motion handling between IPS, VA, and TN displays.
TN panels historically offered the best gaming performance, as they had the highest refresh rates and extremely fast response times. Manufacturers have found ways to drastically improve the motion handling of VA and IPS panels, though, and the difference isn’t as pronounced.
Response Time @ Max Refresh Rate
LG 27GP950-B (IPS)
Rise / Fall Time 4.0ms
Total Response Time 7.3ms
Overshoot Error 0.0%
Dark Overshoot Error 0.0%
Overdrive Setting: Normal
Samsung Odyssey G7 LC32G75T (VA)
Rise / Fall Time 2.8ms
Total Response Time 7.0ms
Overshoot Error 5.5%
Dark Overshoot Error 3.0%
Overdrive Setting: Faster
ASUS TUF Gaming VG258QM (TN)
Rise / Fall Time 2.9ms
Total Response Time 7.5ms
Overshoot Error 4.8%
Dark Overshoot Error 7.
8%
Overdrive Setting: Level 3
Winner: TN & IPS
Black smear behind moving objects – ASUS TUF VG27VQ
LCD panel technology has changed drastically over the last few years, and the historical expectations for response time performance don’t necessarily hold anymore. For years, TN monitors had the fastest response times by far, but that’s started to change. New high refresh-rate IPS monitors can be just as fast.
VA panels are a bit of a strange situation. They typically have slightly slower response times overall compared to similar TN or IPS models. It’s especially noticeable in near-black scenes, where they tend to be significantly slower, resulting in dark trails behind fast-moving objects in dark scenes, commonly known as black smear. Some recent VA panels, such as the Samsung Odyssey G7 LC32G75T, get around it by overdriving the pixels. It results in much better dark scene performance but a more noticeable overshoot in brighter areas.
The examples listed above aren’t perfect. The average response time metrics shown don’t necessarily show the whole picture. Monitors also usually offer a certain level of control over the pixel overdrive, so it’s possible to adjust the response time to match your usage and personal preference. Some overdrive settings deliver a sharper image but introduce overshoot and reverse ghosting artifacts, while other modes might not be as sharp but have no distracting artifacts. You can learn more about our response time testing here.
Other Panel Types
Within each of the three types of LCD we mentioned, other related panel types use the same basic idea but with slight differences. For example, two popular variants of IPS panels include ADS (technically known as ADSDS, or Advanced Super Dimension Switch) and PLS (Plane to Line Switching). It can be hard to tell these panels apart simply based on the subpixel structure, so we’ll usually group them all as IPS, and in the text, we’ll usually refer to them as IPS-like or IPS family.
There are slight differences in colors, viewing angles, and contrast, but generally speaking, they’re all very similar.
OLED
There’s another display technology that’s growing in popularity: OLED. OLED, or organic light-emitting diode, is very different from the conventional LCD technology we’ve explored above. OLED panels are electro-emissive, which means each pixel emits its own light when it receives an electric signal, eliminating the need for a backlight. Since OLED panels can turn off individual pixels, they have deep, inky blacks with no blooming around bright objects. They also have excellent wide viewing angles, a near-instantaneous response time, and excellent gray uniformity.
OLED panels aren’t perfect, though. There’s a risk of permanent burn-in, especially when there are lots of static elements on screen, like the UI elements of a PC. There aren’t many OLED monitors available, either, but they’ve started to gain popularity as laptop screens and for high-end monitors, but they’re very expensive and hard to find.
They’re also not very bright in some cases, especially when large bright areas are visible on screen. The technology is still maturing, and advances in OLED technology, like Samsung’s highly-anticipated QD-OLED technology, are promising.
Conclusion
As you can probably tell by now, no one panel type works best for everyone; it all depends on your exact usage. Although there used to be some significant differences between panel types, as technology has improved, these differences aren’t as noticeable. The two exceptions to this are viewing angles and contrast. If you’re in a dark room, a VA panel that can display deep blacks is probably the best choice. If you’re not in a dark room, you should focus on the other features of the monitor and choose based on the features that appeal to your exact usage. IPS panels are generally preferred for office use, and TN typically offers the best gaming experience, but recent advancements in VA and IPS technology are starting to change those generalizations.
For the most part, the differences between each panel type are so minor now that it doesn’t need to be directly factored into your buying decision.
Matrix VA or IPS – which is better?
- Material Information
- Igor Rybachuk
Questions and Answers
To answer the question which matrix is better than VA or IPS, you need to clearly understand your scenarios for using the TV. The same type of matrix will look better in some conditions and noticeably worse in other conditions.
These matrices have a different pixel structure, due to which they have strengths and weaknesses.
For example, a VA matrix has a significantly higher native contrast ratio of 2000-6000:1. Which gives a more three-dimensional image, especially in dark scenes. And deeper blacks, which is important for the perception of films. The negative side of the VA matrix is weak viewing angles horizontally and, especially, vertically.
Horizontally, the shades will be distorted, vertically, the detail in the shadows. General tendency to lighten shades.
IPS matrix has wide viewing angles, the pixels are oriented in such a way that the light is scattered to the sides. But because of this, the contrast suffers (usually 700-1300:1) and the black level is only sufficient for viewing in a well-lit room. In a darkened room, the sensitivity of the eyes to the perception of details in the shadows increases and “black” becomes gray.
Thus, we can distinguish several sub-points for the optimal use of such matrices in TVs.
Matrix VA or IPS – which is better for a TV?
If the TV is primarily for cinema. Viewing in the dark or with weak light, or, conversely, a very bright room. At the same time, movies will be watched directly in front of the screen – the best option would be a TV with a VA matrix (if we talk only about LCD technology)
If the use of TV is more versatile, often with lighting, but not too bright, IPS will be more interesting due to wider viewing angles.
Such a TV does not have to be optimally positioned in height in front of the viewer – it is less demanding on the place where it will be located.
VA or IPS matrix – which is better for a monitor?
If you use TV as a monitor, you need to clearly place the accents – whether the TV will be used to work with graphics and video, or is it just a large universal screen.
In the first case, clearly, IPS is needed. Moreover, it is “correct” when there are three color subpixels in each pixel.
IPS RGBW example:
In this case, the brightness on white, other things being equal, the TV is higher, but the color gamut is lower (one of the color subpixels is replaced by white) and, most importantly, because pixels are organized not in columns, but in honeycombs; it will not be possible to obtain even lines one pixel wide. IPS RGBW is used in budget 4k LG TVs. However, it can also be found in other brands.
In the second case -VA will be more interesting, because higher contrast, black depth, and viewing angles are often not important.
Matrix VA or IPS – which is better for gaming?
In terms of pixel response, you need to look at specific models. In TVs, as a rule, budget IPS have a lower response, shorter cables.
But the lack of a good anti-reflective filter, weak contrast and spotting of the Direct backlight are not encouraging. Again, there are exceptions everywhere.
In terms of the image as a whole – if you play with lighting, before that there were TN or IPS matrices in use – you can take IPS.
If you play with a weak light in the dark or without it at all – ideally OLED, or at least a VA matrix. Dark scenes on such panels will look better.
Which matrix is better – TN or IPS?
TN matrix structure:
At the moment, such matrices in TV are used very rarely and in small diagonals. There is only one advantage of such a matrix – its low cost. In modern realities, these matrices are best avoided.
In this article, we did not discuss anti-glare filters, or pixel response, or backlight types, or how it works in terms of flicker, etc.
– all this can be found in more detail on our forum
IPS vs TN vs VA
There are many factors to consider when choosing a monitor: refresh rate, response time, contrast ratio, color range, and so on. They are strongly influenced by the type of matrix used in the display. If you understand what to expect from each of these types, you can make it much easier for yourself to choose the best gaming monitor.
In this article, we will briefly review the three most common types of matrices listed in the title, consider their advantages, disadvantages and differences from each other, so that you can decide which is best for you personally.
Short answer
IPS panels have the best color reproduction and viewing angles, TN panels have the best performance, i.e. maximum refresh rate and minimum response time, and VA panels have the best contrast and a good ratio of performance and image quality, although response time is usually slightly higher.
IPS
IPS stands for in-plane switching. This is a very popular type of matrix used in a wide variety of devices, be it monitors, TVs, smartphones or other devices.
The main advantage is better picture quality, which mainly comes down to better color reproduction and wider viewing angles compared to TN panels. The contrast ratio is approximately the same with TN matrices and can vary greatly depending on the quality of a particular matrix.
One of the disadvantages of IPS panels is backlight problems, infamously known as “IPS glow”. Also, response times can’t go below 4ms, and while IPS monitors with 144Hz refresh rates aren’t uncommon, they’re usually more expensive than their VA or TN counterparts.
Pros
- Excellent image quality
- Best viewing angles
- Maximum color range
Cons
- Response time faster than TN
- Most models have a low refresh rate
TN
TN stands for “twisted-nematic”, translated as “twisted nematic”, one of the types of liquid crystals.
This is the fastest of the three sensor types, providing the highest refresh rate and fastest response time. In particular, you should pay attention to the response time, because no other type of sensor can achieve a true 1 ms pixel response time. In addition, TN monitors with a refresh rate of 144 Hz are usually cheaper than IPS models, and values at 240 Hz can reach mostly TN panels.
But, as already mentioned, TN matrices are inferior in image quality. Colors look washed out and viewing angles are quite poor, so these monitors will not appeal to those who prefer a beautiful picture over speed. It is also worth noting that very few TN matrices support HDR technology, and if they do, they do not have enough contrast to fully use it.
Pros
- Fastest matrix type
- Easily reaches 1ms response time
Cons
- Mediocre color
- Very poor viewing angles
VA
Finally, VA (vertical alignment) matrices represent a kind of compromise between IPS and TN.
Color reproduction and viewing angles of VA matrices are usually close to those of IPS matrices, but VAs tend to have much better contrast.
However, this type of sensor has the longest response time of all, and image retention is not uncommon. It is especially noticeable in dark scenes or fast-paced games. In addition, some VA matrices have problems with backlight unevenness and glow, but again this depends on the quality of a particular monitor.
Pros
- Color reproduction comparable to IPS
- Best contrast ratio
- More expensive models comparable to TN in response time
Cons
- Typically faster than
- Good models are very expensive
Which matrix to choose?
When choosing the right sensor, the first question to answer is what is more important to you, image or speed? And secondly, there is always the price factor.
Refresh rate
The refresh rate of a display, measured in hertz (Hz), indicates how many frames per second it can display.
Most monitors have a 60Hz refresh rate, but gaming monitors tend to have higher refresh rates. At the moment, the most common values are 75, 120, 144, 200 and 240 Hz, the most popular in specialized gaming monitors is 144 Hz.
Why is this parameter important?
As mentioned above, a higher refresh rate means the monitor is displaying a higher frame rate. So while a 60Hz monitor can only output 60fps with V-sync active, a 144Hz monitor can only output 144fps. Clearly, higher frame rates provide greater fluidity and responsiveness, which can provide a valuable advantage in multiplayer.
But keep in mind that in order to achieve such frame rates in demanding games, you will need a fairly powerful video card. Luckily, esports games aren’t that demanding, so even weaker graphics cards can deliver triple-digit frame rates in them.
Response time
Pixel response time, measured in milliseconds (ms), indicates how long it takes one pixel to change color from white to black and vice versa, or from one shade of gray to another.
Like a high refresh rate, a short response time makes the display more responsive. While too long a response time can potentially cause problems with motion blur and trails, which is called “image retention”.
Keep in mind that for some people, the difference of a few milliseconds between a time of 1 and 4 ms is almost imperceptible. In principle, with a long response time, most people experience discomfort only when it is above 10 ms. You can be sure that you will not find a gaming monitor with such a long response time.
The best way to determine how important response time is to you is to check it out for yourself, but if you’re not used to playing on a monitor with a 1ms response time, then a value of 4ms is unlikely to confuse you.
Conclusion
Ultimately, it is impossible to unequivocally answer the question which is better. All three technologies have their advantages and disadvantages.
If you want maximum performance, perhaps for less money, then the TN matrix is probably the best choice for you – it is currently the fastest and cheapest type of matrix.