{"id":126662,"date":"2026-05-26T11:39:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T09:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/?p=126662"},"modified":"2026-05-27T08:08:48","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T06:08:48","slug":"ips-vs-va-vs-tn-vs-oled-what-south-african-gamers-need-to-know-before-buying-a-monitor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/features\/126662-ips-vs-va-vs-tn-vs-oled-what-south-african-gamers-need-to-know-before-buying-a-monitor","title":{"rendered":"IPS vs VA vs TN vs OLED – What South African gamers need to know before buying a monitor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When buying a gaming monitor, it is important to choose the right panel technology for your specific needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are four main types of monitor display panel technologies on the South African market – IPS, VA, TN, and OLED.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These panel technologies fall into two main display configurations:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. A self-emitting display with a single-panel setup.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. A transmissive display with a dual-panel setup.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Self-emitting displays are the newer technology on the market, which offer exceptional picture quality, but at a steep price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Currently, the only commonly commercially available self-emitting display panel type for monitors is OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    A more recent emergence in the self-emitting display technology is MicroLED, but it is prohibitively expensive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The key difference with self-emitting panels like OLED is that they do not rely on a second panel to illuminate the image on your screen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This means they produce far greater contrasts, as they can turn pixels off entirely to create deep blacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    They also typically offer better refresh rates and extremely low response times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In fact, OLED monitors are superior to Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs) in almost every way – but this comes at a price premium that most gamers won’t be willing to pay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"Gaming<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    LCD monitors<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    The more traditional transmissive LCD dual-panel types comprise a panel of LEDs (known as the backlighting panel), which shine through and illuminate a viewer-facing LCD panel, producing the picture you see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    LCDs are made up of thousands of tiny liquid crystal pixels, and each pixel contains three subpixels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    A colour filter sits on top of these subpixels, assigning a colour to each of them – red, green, and blue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Electrical currents are applied to the crystals to allow different wavelengths of light to pass through and hit the different colours, and this creates the picture you see. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    There are three types of LCD panels to choose from on the South African market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Each panel type uses different technologies to control the way light is released onto the colour filter, resulting in different picture qualities, as well as other benefits and draw backs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"Gaming<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    1. TN – Twisted Nematic<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    TN displays are the oldest type of LCD panels. In TN panels, the liquid crystals are twisted<\/a> to let light pass through, or untwisted to block the backlight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This process is extremely fast, enabling TN monitors to achieve fast response times (around 1ms) and high refresh rates (over 120Hz).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    However, they are prone to having a poor colour gamut and sub-par viewing-angles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    If you just want speed for fast FPS games, and you’re not after the best display fidelity and colour reproduction, a TN panel is a great choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    2. VA – Vertical Alignment<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    VA monitors have largely overtaken TN monitors in popularity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In VA panels, the liquid crystals follow a different arrangement to let light through. They are initially vertical to block the backlight, and rotate to let the light through when charged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This has a much better impact on colour gamuts and viewing angles, as less light scatter occurs. They also offer decent contrasts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    As a result, VA panels offer significantly improved visuals, but the action of tilting the crystals is slower, meaning they have slower response times and refresh rates than TN panels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    They are also more prone to ghosting effects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    If you’re more into cinematic games and not after high-intensity, quick-reaction gameplay, a VA monitor is perfect for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    3. IPS – In-Plane Switching<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    In IPS panels, the liquid crystals are parallel to the screen and rotate like a clock, staying flat. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This has a negative impact on contrasts and blacks because they are unable to fully block out the backlight, resulting in dark gray colours instead of deep blacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    However, when it comes to response times, IPS panels sit between TN and VA panels, and are fast enough for modern games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    They are the best LCD panels for colour accuracy and brightness, offering 20-30% more <\/a>colour space than TNs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Their decent speeds combined with this exceptional colour accuracy make IPS monitors exceptional all-rounders for gamers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Below is a table comparing all three LCD monitor types.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Feature<\/th>IPS<\/th>VA<\/th>TN<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
    Colour accuracy<\/td>Best<\/mark><\/td>Average<\/td>Worst<\/mark><\/td><\/tr>
    Contrasts and Blacks<\/td>Average<\/td>Best<\/mark><\/td>Worst<\/mark><\/td><\/tr>
    Viewing angles<\/td>Best<\/mark><\/td>Average<\/td>Worst<\/mark><\/td><\/tr>
    Response times<\/td>Average<\/td>Worst<\/mark><\/td>Best<\/mark><\/td><\/tr>
    Affordability<\/td>Worst<\/mark><\/td>Average<\/td>Best<\/mark><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    There are four main types of display panel technologies on the South African market – IPS, VA, TN, and OLED.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":266,"featured_media":126770,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[26613,2664,6610,9685,9686,15713,8364,26614,26615],"class_list":["post-126662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","tag-display-types","tag-gaming","tag-ips","tag-lcd","tag-led","tag-monitor","tag-oled","tag-tn","tag-va"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/266"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126662"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":126774,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126662\/revisions\/126774"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}