14 DAY TRIAL // IPS technology tends to be used more for multimedia-centric displays because of its wide viewing angles, but its speed usually leaves something to be desired compared to TN. AUO has just created one that doesn't sacrifice speed, however.
IPS, short for in-plane switching, is a display technology that allows an LCD monitor or TV to have very wide viewing angles, of 178 degrees both horizontally and vertically.
This means that you don't need to sit ramrod straight in front of the display for fear of the visibility dropping and color going to the dogs.
You can lean back in your chair or even a couch, from a few meters away, and still see everything on the screen as well as ever. Sure, the color sharpness might go down a bit, especially when the color black is concerned, but you'll barely notice, if you do at all.
The disadvantage is that IPS panels are slower than TN, meaning that IPS-based gaming monitors are rarer than they could be.
AUO has a technology that can increase IPS use in gaming
Display panel OEM AU Optronics has introduced a 27-inch AHVA panel, where AHVA stands for “advanced hyper-viewing angle” technology.
The main asset of this panel is its refresh rate of 144 Hz, which allows it to render great 3D quality.
AUO believes its technology can usher in a generation of gaming-grade monitors, but we're not convinced. Response time is quite important there, or at least in first-person shooters. Even normal IPS tech can manage 5 ms with a bit of effort on display makers' part, sometimes, but AUO's database pegs this new one at 12 ms.
Not altogether promising, though manufacturing shenanigans might allow for improvements there. Besides, the predecessor of this panel, M270Q002 V0, was used in the Asus ROG Swift PG278Q monitor (1 ms).
That said, the new 27-inch display, codenamed M270DAN02.3, also features a brightness of 350 cd/m2 and a native resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels.
Likely applications
Since games are the main target here, the new AUO 27-inch AHVA panel – and screens of other sizes – should do well as part of monitors with NVIDIA G-Synch and AMD FreeSynch technologies, which sync the refresh rate with that of the GPU (reduce stuttering and other glitches, without the latency of V-Sync options).
We can definitely see Full HD resolution (1920 x 1080 pixels) being steadily sidelined from now on by WQHD (2560 x 1440). Especially with LG having also introduced an equivalent technology and other display experts bound to do the same.