[PLUS] Adjust and calibrate your gaming monitor optimally

Level the monitor

In order for a photo to look almost exactly the same on the monitor as it does on the printout, a high-quality model is required, which is often calibrated and adjusted ex works and costs a four-digit price. The high image quality has its price: The display is usually not very responsive, but a photoshopper doesn’t really care. A gamer’s priorities are the other way around: a fast response time is far more important than high color fidelity. However, the two are no longer necessarily contradictory these days. Because the times are over when you either have to choose between a fast-reacting but color-weak TN panel or a rather slow but color-strong IPS panel. In the meantime, both panel technologies have worked on their respective weaknesses, IPS a bit more, which is why IPS has now completely replaced TN. In addition, the factory standard setting of a monitor almost always offers the best color quality, so that you don’t really have to readjust here.

Because a calibration of the monitor, especially one with a colorimeter, a so-called colorimeter, is not necessary for gamers or private users. Thank you for reading this far. Jokes aside: Even if you don’t necessarily have to see the exact same colors on the monitor that a printer prints out on paper afterwards, you should at least delve into the depths of the monitor settings in order to get the best out of the device with manageable effort. While professional graphic artists should regularly level their screen with the color calibrator, it is absolutely sufficient for the average gamer to turn a few screws after setting it up. Some tools and test images help and we present them all here. Have you thrown on your brand new monitor right after unpacking and are promptly disappointed with the picture? Give it some time: after half an hour at the latest, the panel will be warmed up. The pixel response times change a bit with the temperature and can be a bit sluggish, especially after a winter delivery, which is reflected in stronger motion streaks.

With the Windows screen calibration, the monitor can be set to a level that is absolutely sufficient for private users. Simply press the Windows key and enter “dccw”.

Source: PC Games Hardware

Adjust instead of calibrate

A short paragraph on the terminology, because calibration is almost always used incorrectly: When we talk about calibrating a monitor, we almost always mean adjustment. There is a key difference in the meaning of the word: in the technical sense, calibration means measuring a deviation from the reference value and documenting it (in the calibration report). In other words, how far away the actually displayed color is from the target. The actual balancing out of the deviation using adjustment screws in the monitor OSD or profiling using an ICC file is called adjustment in the technology. So: Only a colorimeter can calibrate. If you tweak the monitor controls yourself, you are “adjusting” and not “calibrating”. Every engineer’s toenails roll up when one reads something about “calibrate brightness” or “calibrate contrast” in some Internet tutorials. Because almost always the setting (= adjustment) and not the test (= calibration) is meant there.

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The following topics can be found in the article:

• Adjust instead of calibrate
• Set up the monitor correctly
• Adjust brightness and contrast
• Even out the color cast
• Measured: color fidelity of a gaming monitor
• Graphics driver controls
• Overdrive: Play without streaks
• Overdrive: Crystal Accelerator
• No on-screen display on the notebook
• The “sRGB mode”
• Quality check with test images
• Ingame adjustment

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