Workstation Monitors
The ultimate displays for high quality professional graphics
How to pick the perfect workstation monitor
Although the GPU is the most important component of a graphics workstation, it is the monitor that you interact with and it should not be overlooked when choosing your system. It isn’t wise to spec the latest and greatest components at the expense of monitor quality, as the additional performance the hardware provides may not translate to the screen.
A great monitor will make all the difference in bringing your design or animation workloads to life, making them more engaging and immersive. The primary factors to consider are screen size, resolution and colour reproduction as these dictate the overall size - height and width - of the image and its sharpness and clarity.
Monitor Size
The larger the monitor size the bigger the image will be - it may sound obvious but the detail you can see will be amplified with each increase in size - potentially very important when looking at complex designs.
Resolution
Higher resolution monitors will offer more detail in every aspect of graphical output, making landscapes more realistic and complex graphics easier on the eye. However, the higher the resolution the more powerful GPU will be required to maintain a smooth framerate.
Colour Gamut
The colour gamut defines how true the colours of an image can be reproduced when transferred from one device to another. For design and media professionals this is the key attribute when considering a monitor. The three standards frequently cited in relation to PC monitors are sRGB, Adobe RGB, and NTSC.
The next key factors to consider are the monitor’s contrast ratio and brightness. Contrast ratio is simply the difference between the darkest blacks and the brightest whites any given monitor can display, whereas brightness is a measurement of the amount of light the monitor screen produces. The higher these two values, the better as this will give you greater depth of colour in your images and offer more flexibility if working in rooms with lots of natural light.
