How Do You Know if Old Monitor Is Compatible With New Desktop Computer
If you lot're similar us, you lot spend a lot time staring at your PC monitor—so, shouldn't it be a good 1? Join united states of america as we decode the specs and cut through the jargon to assistance you find the best possible monitor for your needs.
Connection Type: Tin Information technology Hook Upwards to Your PC?
The first question you should always enquire yourself when buying a monitor: can it even connect to your calculator? Yous'll need to check the output on your computer and see what kinds of ports are available (if y'all accept a dedicated video carte, you'll desire to look at those outputs). Then, make sure your monitor features the same type of ports—if information technology doesn't, you'll need some sort of adapter or special cable.
Here are the different types of ports you'll see.
Video Graphics Array (VGA): Quondam and Out of Date
VGA is the oldest video-out standard however available on new computers, by and large on cheaper systems and business-class laptops (to make sure they can connect to older projection systems). The small, trapezoidal connectedness commonly comes with a screw-down plug colored blue. VGA carries only a video signal—not audio.
VGA has a lot of limitations compared with the other connexion types available. Information technology operates on an analog standard, so in that location's no technical limit to its resolution or refresh rate, but it's practically limited by the electrical ability and length of the cable itself. Generally, VGA connections are only recommended for displays lower than the standard 1080p resolution, which rules out most new monitors on the market today. To put it bluntly: you probably don't want to use this.
Digital Visual Interface (DVI): Sometime, Only Still Usable
DVI is the digital successor to the analog VGA standard. While it's as well quite onetime now, it'due south however normally used on monitors, desktop motherboards, and discrete graphics cards, though its relatively large size and screw-down connection ways it's not pop on laptops. Dual-link DVI connections and cables back up resolutions up to 2560×1600 at 60 hertz. That'south enough for most pocket-sized and mid-sized modern monitors. DVI also carries only a video bespeak.
High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI): Extremely Common and Convenient
If you have a apartment screen television, odds are pretty good that you lot're already familiar with HDMI ports and cables. HDMI is a digital standard that carries both audio and video—that means if your monitor includes built-in speakers or a headphone jack, there'south no demand for a separate sound connection. Between its handy video-plus-audio adequacy and its ubiquity across televisions and monitors, HDMI is probably the about pop video connection standard on the market.
HDMI ports and cables come with different capabilities based on when they were released. The original standard (1.0) could handle only a maximum of 1920×1200 resolution at 60 hertz, just the latest revision (2.i) can send a massive x,000-pixel-wide picture at 120Hz. If y'all're looking for a monitor with a loftier resolution or refresh rate, an HDMI connectedness with the latest revision is an fantabulous choice.
DisplayPort: Lots of Features for PC Users
A newer monitor with all-digital connections. Left to right: HDMI, HDMI, DisplayPort, Mini-DisplayPort, DisplayPort.
DisplayPort is one of the most advanced connections bachelor to modern PCs. Like HDMI, the standard is constantly updated, and information technology tin can handle both video and sound on a unmarried cablevision. But every bit a connexion designed specifically for computers, information technology includes other capabilities as well. For example, some DisplayPort-enabled monitors tin can be connected to each other in a "daisy concatenation," allowing two or more than displays to be continued to a PC with just a unmarried cable going from the concluding monitor to the computer.
DisplayPort version 1.iv supports 4K resolutions at upward to 240 hertz—a huge plus for gamers—or 8K at up to 60 hertz. The trapezoidal connection is standard on most discrete graphics cards and some laptops, but some infinite-saving designs use the smaller Mini DisplayPort connectedness.
USB-C and Thunderbolt iii: New, But Not Ubiquitous Yet
Newer laptops using the USB-C connection standard (a reversible oval rather than the rectangle connectedness of USB-A) can also send video and audio through the connexion using an interface called Thunderbolt. The third revision of Thunderbolt uses the USB-C plug instead of a proprietary connexion. This is extremely useful, since information technology's possible to charge a laptop, connect it with devices like phones, and output media to an external screen, all using the same connexion.
However, Thunderbolt iii-compatible monitors are still rather rare at the time of writing, and merely the most compact and "fashionable" laptops omit a more common video connection option like DisplayPort or HDMI. Buying a monitor with a USB-C or Thunderbolt connection should only be a priority if you frequently connect a laptop with only a Thunderbolt video-out choice. Even then, it's possible (and quite mutual) to use an adapter cable.
Multiple Connections and Adapters
Fifty-fifty inexpensive monitors tend to come with at to the lowest degree two different options for video connections. Mid-range and loftier-end ones will have more—for instance, my Dell monitors back up DVI, HDMI, and DisplayPort connections. Take a look at the specs of whatsoever monitor you're because to see your total range of options. Fifty-fifty if the monitor you want doesn't have the exact season of connection you lot're looking for, nearly digital connections tin be adapted to each other with adapter cables. These are mostly reliable, though they do default to the specifications of whichever connection is older or less complex.
Screen Size: How Big Is It?
Screen size is a personal choice, and is one of the major contributors to the cost of a PC monitor. While you know your needs meliorate than nosotros practise, we can suggest a few guidelines:
- Larger monitors are better if y'all're using them for graphics related purposes: watching or editing video, graphics intensive video games, photography, then on.
- If yous exercise a lot of piece of work on your PC, you might notice that larger (and multiple) displays can make people more productive.
- If you lot don't use the PC intensely for any of these purposes, you may not need a large display.
- Annotation that some monitors may be simply too big to apply comfortably on your desk-bound. Anything above 34 inches is mostly likewise big for standard PC viewing distances.
With these guidelines in mind, pick a size (measured in diagonal inches) that works for you.
Aspect Ratio: What Shape Is Information technology?
The aspect ratio of a monitor is the ratio of the width of the screen panel to its meridian. Most monitors sold today use 16:nine, the same aspect ratio equally televisions, to make for ideal total screen video viewing. 16:10 is a picayune taller, specially for "professional person" or graphics models, though it can exist a chip harder to discover. Older "square" aspect ratios, like 4:3 and 5:4, are rarely seen in mod monitors.
16:ix is probably ideal for well-nigh users, but a new category of ultrawide monitors is also gaining in popularity. These ultrawide monitors are designed for multitasking with multiple program windows or a providing a super-widescreen field of view for gaming. These monitors use a stretched attribute ratio of 21:nine or greater, and tend to be much more expensive than their conventional counterparts.
Screen Resolution: How Sharp Is the Film?
Now that we're out of the age of the cathode ray tube (CRT), every modern display creates its epitome with grids of pixels. The resolution of a monitor refers to its total number of pixels, expressed equally a number value of Horizontal past Vertical. So a standard resolution size, 1920×1080, actually includes over two million individual pixels in the display.
Generally speaking, higher resolutions are better. Fifty-fifty cheap monitors these days accept at least 1920×1080 resolution, the standard format known as "1080p." That item resolution is shared with most standard LCD televisions, many phones and tablets, and a wide variety of other technologies, similar the streaming resolution of virtually web video and Blu-ray discs.
Just in that location are bigger, better options out there, likewise. Yous mostly want every bit much resolution every bit yous can beget and fit in your monitor.
- 1280×800, 1440×900, 1600×900, 1680×1050 are older resolution standards that are only found on very pocket-sized, cheap monitors.
- 1920×1080or "1080p," is the standard monitor resolution, available at almost any size. This is a standard 16:9 aspect ratio, making it the same shape every bit the Tv in your living room. This is likewise sometimes called "Total Hd."
- 1920×1200is slightly taller than 1080p, and popular with business organisation and graphics-oriented monitors.
- 2560×1440is a higher-res xvi:9 option, sometimes called "2K."
- 2560×1600 is a xvi:10 variant of the 2560×1440 resolution.
- 3840×2160is "4K" resolution, so chosen because it's four times as precipitous as 1080p.
RELATED: All Well-nigh Ultrawide Monitors, the Latest Trend in Gaming and Productivity
Y'all will also see other resolutions out at that place for super-premium "5K" and "8K" displays, equally well as ultrawide monitor designs primarily used for gaming and media watching.
A monitor generally looks its best when displaying an image at the aforementioned resolution as its panel, also known as its "native" resolution. Configuring your PC to show information technology at a lower resolution, especially if the aspect ratio doesn't match, results in a blurry or distorted paradigm.
There are some situations in which a super-high resolution display may not be ideal. Farsighted users (or those of u.s. who have trouble reading modest text) may prefer displays with smaller native resolutions, although there are settings in most modern operating systems to accommodate for illegible small-scale text.
Console Type: How Are the Colors and Viewing Angles?
Modern LCD panels tin exist split up into two primary design types: twisted nematic (TN) or in-plane switching (IPS). The differences betwixt these are highly technical, but all you lot really need to know is that LCD-TN panels are cheaper to produce and are therefore found in less expensive monitors, while LCD-IPS panels have a better color reproduction and viewing angles. However, IPS panels also tend to have a slower response time, making them less suitable for gamers.
There are also vertical alignment LCD panels (LCD-VA). This newer design aims to combine the fast response time of TN with the higher-quality colors and viewing angles of IPS.
OLED panels are becoming more and more than popular in phones and televisions. Their incredible contrast and bright colors are highly-seasoned, just these panels have been very slow to migrate to figurer monitors. At the time of writing, the only OLED monitors on the market all the same cost thousands of dollars.
Refresh Rate: How Smooth Is Motion?
A monitor'southward refresh rate describes how often it refreshes the image on the screen, expressed in hertz. The standard for LCDs is 60 hertz. Most users don't need a monitor with more than this value.
Gamers, notwithstanding, oftentimes prefer faster refresh rates, which allow for smoother, more than dynamic animation and motion in games (if the PC is powerful enough to push the frame rate higher). Gaming-branded displays can go up to 120, 144, or fifty-fifty 240 hertz.
RELATED: G-Sync and FreeSync Explained: Variable Refresh Rates for Gaming
Some of these higher-end gaming monitors even take feature a technology knows as variable refresh rate. They are designed so that the monitor refreshes at the same frame rate output by your system (and whatever game you're playing). And then, for example, if your game is rendering at l frames per 2d, the monitor refreshes at 50 frames per second. If the game jumps to a dissimilar rendering speed, the monitor instantly matches it. This feature is dependent on your graphics bill of fare, and at that place are two different standards for the 2 major graphics carte manufactures: NVIDIA's is named G-sync and AMD's is named Freesync. Wait for a monitor that supports whichever type of card yous utilise.
Brightness: How Much Light Can It Put Out?
Monitor brightness is normally non something that most of us demand to concern ourselves with. Brightness is measured in units of candela per square meter (cd/m22), more usually known as "nits."
A rating greater than 200 nits should exist skilful enough for nearly anybody. Brighter monitors—at 300 nits or greater—let for better display of colour and better dissimilarity ratios. Graphics professionals (designers, photographers, etc) and gamers may prefer a brighter monitor for richer and more accurate colors.
Contrast Ratio: Blacker Blacks and Whiter Whites
Contrast Ratio is the difference between the luminance of the brightest white and the darkest dark a display can produce. This is of import to a display, because the greater the contrast in these two extremes, the more than subtle the differences in color and value a monitor tin display.
Dissimilarity ratio is a hard specification to quantify. Information technology is very important for judging a proficient brandish. The problem is that there'southward no real industry standard for dissimilarity ratios, and then most manufacturers employ their ain in-business firm techniques for making the measurement. 1 manufacturer might claim a 30,000:1 ratio and another a 600,000:i ratio, just when their monitors are placed adjacent, you might not even notice the difference.
Many pros recommend a minimum Contrast Ratio of 350:1 (and we generally agree), although with electric current LCD technology, you're actually unlikely to see ratios that small. Our best recommendation is to purchase according to your needs and budget, and to check out what other people have to say about the monitor you're thinking of ownership.
Some monitors also take advanced tech to boost dissimilarity ratios: these are sometimes called "Dynamic Dissimilarity Ratio" or "Advanced Contrast Ratio."
Colors: How Many Tin It Display?
Whatsoever monitor worth its salt displays the total 16.7 million colors (24-bit) possible from an RGB colour space. Some older VGA monitors may not display all of these, and volition only work in color modes lower than 24 bit. Simply put: don't use these if you tin help it.
If you're looking to buy a new monitor, this is a value you don't really need to worry most. Pretty much all mod monitors are 24-bit color capable.
Viewing Angle: Does the Pic Distort from the Side?
Viewing angle refers to how far to the side of the monitor you can get before the image is distorted. In a perfect globe, an LCD viewing angle would be 180 degrees, significant that you lot can view the screen at whatever indicate, every bit long as you're looking at it from the front. As it stands, many LCD monitors have viewing angles as high as 170 degrees.
Actually, this is a value that is much more important on TVs, where you often have multiple viewers sitting at different locations around the room. Monitors are nigh oftentimes used by one person sitting directly in forepart.
Withal, if you use also use your monitor to picket shows with other people, or perchance you're a graphics professional who needs to arrange groups of people viewing the monitor, y'all might want to take the viewing angle into consideration. Otherwise, nearly people will be happy with viewing angles of 140 degrees and upward.
Response Time: Is There Any Motion Blur?
It takes a finite amount of fourth dimension for the pixels in a monitor to change from colour to color, and the lag between those changes is chosen the "response time." This is measured in milliseconds (ms) and the smaller the number, the meliorate the response time.
A fast response fourth dimension can make for improved video quality, but for nigh people (fifty-fifty graphic professionals), it's not a vital specification.
Faster response times are, yet, critical to the performance of PC games, equally slower response times tin cause motility blur. Gamers should demand a quick response fourth dimension (nether 8ms and the lower the better) to ensure that their monitor isn't subtlety affecting their functioning in fast-paced games.
Other Features to Look For
Other features to consider in a monitor purchase include:
- USB hub: a built-in set of USB ports that let you plug in devices when your computer is out of reach. Very handy for mice, keyboards, and flash drives.
- Curved screen: a slight curve to the LCD panel. Some prefer information technology for stylistic or viewing angle reasons, merely it's not an essential characteristic.
- Adjustable stand up: premium monitors permit the acme of the display to exist adapted. Some can even rotate the display for a portrait brandish.
- VESA compatibility: a standard mounting bracket. It's essential if you want to use a double- or triple-monitor stand up, or mountain your monitor to the wall. Some cheap or ultra-thin models do not take VESA mounts.
- Daisy chain: the ability to string multiple monitors together with a single connection to a PC.
- Integrated speakers or cameras: speakers or webcams congenital into the display. Some business monitors offer addition speaker bars every bit well.
- Picture show-in-film and multiple inputs: some loftier-finish business monitors tin display inputs from multiple computers at a time.
While these aren't quite as important overall every bit some of the other specifications we've covered, they could be quite of import to you lot.
Plain, in that location'due south no single monitor that has an ideal combination of the features higher up (at least, not at anywhere near a reasonable price). Take a good look at the specifications of all the monitors you're considering, weighed confronting their toll and reviews. If at all possible, see if you can view the monitor in person at a local electronics retailer.
Besides, be sure you understand the return policy and menstruum when you finally brand the call to buy, since yous'll often find that monitors expect different in your abode than they do when sitting on a store display.
Image Credits: Dell, antos777/Shutterstock, roubart/Shutterstock, maurobeltran/Shutterstock, Amazon 1, Amazon 2, Pressmaster/Shutterstock,
Source: https://www.howtogeek.com/77194/hardware-upgrade-the-htg-guide-to-picking-the-right-pc-monitor/
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