How to Set Up a Gaming Monitor - Full Guide, Tips and Tricks

welcome back to monitors unboxed so you've just bought a new gaming Monitor and you want to know how to set it up properly to ensure you're getting the most out of it well you've come to the right place because today I'm going to go over the best way to set up a monitor some neat tricks to ensure everything is working and a few tips based on my experience testing hundreds of gaming monitors even if you've already set up your display and think everything is working correctly you still might learn a few things in today's video there should be something for everyone the first step to setting up a monitor is to take it out of the box now you might think this is very straightforward but there is one simple thing I've learned over the years that everyone should do and that's leave the protective packaging sleeve over the display until the monitor is on your desk with most monitors you can attach the stand legs while the display section is still in its sleeve either because the sleeve has a slid in it or by shuffling the sleeve up and fitting the stand in under it then when moving the monitor to your desk by holding the stand not the display section you can get it in position without any risk of getting fingerprints on the screen when you're done it's now the best time to take that sleeve off and remove any marketing stickers the screen should be pristine if you do it in this order a common mistake I see from people getting into PC gaming for the first time is plugging the monitor into the wrong port on their PC make sure you hook up the display cable to your graphics card not the motherboard the graphics card is typically lower down on the rear panel of your PC and horizontal while the motherboard is closer to the top and vertical it doesn't doesn't matter which of the ports you choose so long as you plug it into the graphics card because this ensures the best compatibility and performance you can verify you've done this correctly in the Windows settings menu under system display Advanced display under display information it should say the display is connected to whatever graphics card you have if you've incorrectly hooked it up to the motherboard it will say it's connected to like Intel Graphics or AMD radi Graphics without giving any specific model name or the display just may not work at all all you might be wondering whether you should connect your monitor via display port or HDMI as modern monitors and graphics cards support both options the safer bet is usually to use display port as it's more likely to support the maximum resolution and refresh rate of your monitor but this is only best practice for PC of course as game consoles will need to be hooked up over HDMI after the display is hooked up correctly we need to ensure the resolution and refresh rate ass set correctly to their maximum capabilities otherwise you aren't getting what you've paid for we'll tackle the resolution first the easiest way to change resolution is in the Windows settings menu under system display underneath scale and layout you'll see the display resolution option you'll want to set this to the resolution of the monitor you just bought so for example if you bought a 1440p monitor set it to 2560 by 1440 this will often be the highest or recommended resolution in the drop- down list if you're unsure what resolution you have check your displays spec sheet but it's important to know that the actual resolution of your display is not always the highest option and isn't always the default or recommended option either this is because some monitors support downscaling from higher input resolutions like downscaling 4K to 1440p useful for input sources like game consoles on PC for the best image quality you'll want to avoid downscaling and run your monitor at the native resolution instead which is why you need to pick the resolution that matches the monitor that you've bought next next up set your monitor to the maximum refresh rate for firsttime PC Gamers this is another thing that is easy to miss as your PC may not default to the maximum refresh rate so you might be accidentally gaming at 60 HZ on that nice new 144 HZ monitor you bought to ensure this is working correctly head to the Windows settings menu under system display Advanced display you'll see the choose a refresh rate option in the drop- down menu select the highest available option this highest option should match the advertised refresh rate of your monitor if the highest refresh rate available in that drop down doesn't match the advertised refresh rate there's a few extra steps you might need to take some monitors restrict the highest refresh rate to an overclocking or OC mode which you need to enable in the onscreen display controls this is as simple as navigating to the overclocking setting and turning it on the exact naming of that setting will differ between monitor Brands across hundreds of displays I've tested I've never once had an issue with enabling the OC mode despite the occasional warning when you go to turn it on but if you do see issues with flickering or instability then disabling the OC mode is an option it's also possible that at times the maximum refresh rate won't show up in the windows dropdown menu in these circumstances you might need to adjust the refresh rate in your GPU control panel particularly if you have an Nvidia GPU on Nvidia gpus this option is found in the Nvidia control panel under display change resolution you'll see a refresh rate drop down there and AMD and Intel gpus don't have this weird secondary refresh rate option and instead fully use the windows setting so radon or Arc owners don't need to worry about it pretty much every gaming monitor these days supports variable refresh rate technology as well often called adaptive sync vrr gsync or freesync they all basically mean the same thing so let's make sure that is working correctly most monitors will have adaptive sync enabled by default in the onscreen settings but some don't so the first step is to ensure adaptive sync is enabled by navigating to that setting in the OSD and enabling it don't worry if your monitor's OSD doesn't have the setting though because not all monitors do some of them just default to Adaptive sync on then on your PC you'll need to verify adaptive sync is also enabled on Nvidia gpus open the Nvidia control panel and navigate to the setup g-sync menu option you'll need to make sure gsync is enabled and on some monitors you'll also need to check the box at the bottom that says enable settings for the selected display model you should do this even if a warning says the display is not jent compatible as this checkbox is essential to get variable refresh rates working on non-certified monitors don't worry if your monitor is not validated as gsync compatible in my experience monitors that are not validated practically always work just fine I also typically recommend users select the enable for window and full screen mode option as that allows for the broadest compatibility with games on AMD gpus open AMD software and navigate to gaming display the first option under display options is the variable refresh rate option which could be labeled differently depending on what technology your monitor supports adaptive sync or AMD free sync are the most common labels anyway you'll want to turn that setting on pretty simple on Intel gpus open AR control and navigate to the display section under General you'll see the variable refresh rate option make sure that's set to enabled also under the global tab you can select whether vrr applies to full screen or full screen and windowed games I typically recommend full screen and windowed for the broadest compatibility with games same as on Nvidia while these settings will enable variable refresh rate it can be a little finicky to actually activate vrr in game so it's always a good idea to verify vrr is working in your game after you launch it the best way to do this is to use your monitors built-in refresh rate readout not all monitors have this feature but a lot do when enabled it will show the current frame rate on the display as reported by the monitor itself if variable refresh rate is working correctly in the game provided your in-game frame rate is below your monitor's maximum refresh rate EG 100 FPS on a 144hz monitor this onscreen refresh rate counter should be varying and roughly matching your current in-game frame rate on some other monitors you can view an accurate refresh rate readout in the OSD menu itself even if a permanent onscreen counter is not an option if you're playing a game and have variable refresh rate enables but your actual refresh rate is not varying as expected there's a few Solutions I typically find will resolve this one is to make sure for NVIDIA and Intel gpus that variable refresh is enabled for both full screen and Window mode gaming another is to Simply reful screen the game by hitting the Alt Enter shortcut twice to jump into a windowed mode then back into a full screen mode this will usually remind your GPU that the game you are playing is the active window and thus should be used in a variable refresh rate state it may also take some mouse clicks or other input into the game window for variable refresh to begin working ideally it would always work flawlessly but verifying in this way ensures you are making full use of vrr with variable refresh rates enabled and a frame rate inside your monitor's refresh rate range I would also recommend switching vsync on in your game while the general experience with vsync on and off is very similar vsync on will prevent occasional micro tearing both setting choices should work fully compl with variable refresh though and provide a variable refresh rate with low input lag and no screen tearing so ultimately it doesn't make too much difference the next step for a lot of users will be to improve the color performance of their monitor via tweaking the display settings or running it through calibration software I have a full guide for calibration available on Hardware on box that runs you through how to do this including some setting tweaks and tips if you don't have access to the hardware necessary for full calibration a lot of settings are subjective though things like brightness should be adjusted to whatever level is comfortable for you one easy setting to adjust though for some people will be switching your monitor into its srgb mode if you are primarily playing games in SDR and you have a wide gamut display and notice the image is too saturated for example skin tones appear too red almost sunburnt your monitor's built-in srgb mode will likely help to alleviate that issue it depends on your exact monitor as to whether this mode provides a more accurate experience and is worth using but on many displays today it's one of the more Simple oneclick Solutions to improve color performance but do note that enabling the srgb mode will make your wide gamut display appear less saturated and might change the color temperature as well this isn't necessarily making the display look worse or less accurate but it might be a change that will take a short while to get used to if you have an HDR capable display with true HDR Hardware capabilities there's a few other things you'll want to set up activating HDR in games comes in many forms these days but the one setting that pretty much always needs to be enabled is the HDR setting in Windows this is found under system display use HDR clicking on this setting not just on the toggle you do need to enable the toggle but you can click on the setting as well that will expose several other settings like tone mapped brightness although this brightness slider is ignored while HDR gaming on top of activating HDR and windows some games require you to enable HDR in the game settings other games will use the HDR toggle in Windows to decide whether HDR is used or not and they don't have a setting some games will override the windows HDR setting so if you have HDR set to off in Windows but set to on in the game HDR will be enabled for HDR gaming though make sure you have all the relevant settings enabled and many games have HDR image calibration options that are worth optimizing for your display as well with proper HDR displays my general recommendation is that you should enable HDR for gaming but then disable HDR for desktop app usage and SDR content consumption this is because your monitors SDR mode is typically the most accurate way to display SDR content and has the widest range of available settings tone mapping SDR content into HDR for your monitor's HDR mode can look bad at times depending on the monitor you have or be less flexible with settings Windows has a very easy built-in shortcut to toggle exra on or off it's win altb so use that for quick toggling as you switch between HDR and SDR content this will also be a good thing to use if your monitors HDR presentation doesn't look great for desktop apps there are some monitors that really don't look very good for the windows OS in general when you turn hdr on again toggling between HDR and SDR can fix that problem for you I'd also strongly recommend running through the windows HDR calibration app to optimize HDR performance on your display you can search for this app in the Microsoft store or use the shortcut in the settings menu under system display use HDR HDR display calibration the app comes with full instructions and is very straightforward to use like with v gaming there are some games and applications that are more finicky than others to get working with HDR so it's good to verify that HDR processing is occurring for non full screen apps like a web browser playing an HDR YouTube video the easiest way to confirm HDR is working is to adjust the SDR content brightness slider in the HDR settings when adjusting this setting the window with HDR content should stay at a constant brightness while the rest of the OS should shift in brightness along with the change in the SDR content brightness slider if an application that you are expecting to produce an HDR output actually does change in brightness when this slider is shifted even if you are running in the HDR mode that's an indication the app is not actually producing an HDR output and should be reconfigured to enable HDR while fulls screen gaming there's a few useful tricks to assess whether HDR is working and even with all the HDR settings enabled it sometimes just doesn't work right on an Nvidia GPU the easiest way is via the GeForce experience overlay if you have the overlay enabled which requires installing GeForce experience bring up the overlay in game using alt Zed look at the UI elements especially the green Parts if this green is an overpowering bright acid green HG is working correctly if the green is dimmer yellower and more normal the game is producing an SDR signal on an AMD GPU my trick here is to set the SDR content bright and slided to zero in the window settings then in the game open the radon software overlay using alt R if HDR is working correctly the overlay should be bright and visible if hgr is not working or is disabled the overlay should be very dark toggling hdr on and off in the game should show this difference pretty clearly you'll also notice a much more vibrant and Brighter Image with HR enabled in the steam overlay if you are playing a steam game which is accessible using shift tab Intel gpus seem to handle HDR a little differently so there's no easy trick there although the steam overlay can often provide some insights like it can on AMD and Nvidia gpus now these are not 100% foolproof but generally they work well enough to quickly press a few buttons to check whether HDR is working as intended without needing to install other utilities if you are expecting the game to be producing an HDR signal and it doesn't appear to be usually re-enabling HDR and windows or the game itself will fix the issue sometimes reful screening the game can work so again AL enter twice to do that there's a few other General monitor setup tips and tricks that are worth knowing one is that monitors have both a warm-up time and settling time before they reach Optimal Performance if you're experiencing more backlight bleed or IPS glow than you were satisfied with it's possible you will see small improvements over the course of 1 to two weeks after taking your new monitor out of the packaging this is because the manufacturing and packaging process can slightly compress the display's layers and materials which slowly expand and settle back to a normal state after the monitor is set up this won't always happen so your mileage will vary but it's something to look out for also monitors do take between 30 and 60 Minutes to fully warm up in most cases after they're switched on colder monitors tend to run slower and warmer monitors run faster and there are implications for color accuracy as well so if you're wanting to assess response time performance or more crucially calibrate the display ensure it's fully warmed up before processing if you're wondering about bit depth so whether you should set your monitor to 8 bit or 10bit this doesn't typically make a huge difference on most monitors that use native 8bit panels my preference is to use a higher bit depth where possible but only if that ensures full RGB color at the highest refresh rate and resolution this can be checked in your gpus driver software turn the bit depth up but make sure all the other elements are preserved at maximum quality lastly in my opinion any dead pixels are unacceptable on a brand new gaming monitor even if the dead pixel warranty specifies that some dead or stuck pixels are acceptable and won't lead to a monitor replacement I think that's crap and if you turn on a new monitor and see dead pixels you should attempt a replacement regardless some retailers and manufacturers might do it anyway it's definitely worth a shot if that doesn't work leave a negative review online and send the company to this video where they can listen to the following message hello company you've been sent this portion of my video because you sold a customer a monitor with dead pixels and are refusing to replace it you are bad and should feel bad I don't care what you warranty says you should be ensuring every pixel actually works before selling a product putting in writing that actually it's fine if some pixels don't work because you're scared of the cost of replacing defective units is pathetic and cowardly no I don't think my standards are too high when spending hundreds of dollars on a piece of technology brands that do the right thing and treat customers well are more likely to retain that business and I'm more likely to recommend them right here on my popular monitor reviewing channel do the right thing don't be as scumbag anyway that's it for this one hopefully after following this guide you've gone through and are now getting the maximum performance that your monitor has to offer with all the advertised features and settings enabled if you did appreciate this video then please do give it a like and consider subscribing to monitors unboxed we've got plenty of monitor recommendations and reviews on this channel as well as other various different tips tricks and other videos that we'll be producing over time so yeah thanks for watching this one if you want to support the channel directly we've got patreon and float plan links in the description below you gain some cool benefits like our Discord Community ICC profiles so software profiles that we generate during our monitor reviews and all sorts of other good stuff so thanks for watching and I'll catch you in the next [Music] [Music] one

Channel: Monitors Unboxed

Views: 237,016

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Id: Sq3_XvjvQCE

Length: 18min 30sec (1110 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 15 2023