Question Do monitors lose black/white contrast over time ?

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I have a Dell UltraSharp U2412M 24-inch Monitor that I purchased in 2011 and EVGA GeForce GTX 950 SC Gaming card that I bought in 2016. Perhaps it's my eyesight, although I wear glasses that are very close to my current prescription, but I've wondered for awhile if my monitor has been losing black/white contrast. Does that happen? Otherwise no issues with the monitor (I like the 16:10 ratio and have it adjust to 115% in Windows and 80-90% in browsers). One thing that has especially caught my attention in that direction is how relatively foggy screenshots have become with the Windows 10 Snipping Tool (I'd like to upload a screenshot, but don't see a way to do it directly; Insert Image wants a link and on OneDrive, it's much foggier, which wouldn't give an accurate picture). Thanks,

 

[Eximo]

Most people post to imgur and link here.

Yes, LED monitor backlights fade over time so maximum brightness will go down, either the LED driver is going bad or the LEDs are starting to wear out. The LCD itself is a physical device and that also can be worn out. Usually you start to see dead pixels or increased ghosting.

14 years is a good run for a monitor. If it is bothering you, time to replace it.

 

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Thanks for the reply. I'd never heard of imgur, although they show my username as unavailable, which has happened maybe once in twenty years. In any case, here's a link to the screenshot, which is also poorer than if I had been able to upload a file directly:

https://imgur.com/H0R9nJR

View: https://imgur.com/H0R9nJR


Now the decision is between buying time with a "refurb" or going for one of the pro models. Is there a difference in picture quality between an HDMI or DP 1.4 and USB 3.2. I ask because my EVGA board has the first two but not USB. I'd have to use the built in ASROCK/NVDIA 950 board, which does have USB 3.1.

 

[Eximo]

That looks more like a typeface or zooming causing a rendering error. The monitor has nothing to do with screenshots, it is just displaying the pixels give to it.

USB would not generally be used for display input to a desktop monitor, though Type-C can carry DP or HDMI signals. Doubtful you have display capability coming from the motherboard via USB.

No difference in picture quality, unless you run up against the data limits of a cable or output/input device. DP 1.4 should be able to handle anything up to 4K 120hz 8bit. HDMI 2.0 is basically 4K 60hz, HDMI 2.1 is variable depending on what features they enabled, but generally 4K 120hz is the target for many devices.

 

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Well, I've got a Dell Pro 16:10 P2425 coming later this week, so I'll find out. Can always be returned. It will include a DP cable. The EVGA board, ASRock NVIDIA board and the monitor coming support DP 1.2, so I imagine that's what I'll try, as I read it's better than HDMI, at least for some things.

 

[Eximo]

Well, I've got a Dell Pro 16:10 P2425 coming later this week, so I'll find out. Can always be returned. It will include a DP cable. The EVGA board, ASRock NVIDIA board and the monitor coming support DP 1.2, so I imagine that's what I'll try, as I read it's better than HDMI, at least for some things.

HDMI and DP are actually incredibly similar, essentially a short distance ethernet standard. HDMI was essentially created by Sony/others and is a licensed product. DP is open source and unlicensed, generally it is a step ahead of HDMI, though HDMI is more ubiquitous and tends to make it into products sooner.

HDMI's main issue is the branding standards. 2.1 can be listed on the product, but in reality it could mean as low as HDMI 2.0b support up through the 48Gbit that is the current maximum, supporting 4K 120hz on late model TVs.

DP 2.1a supports 80Gbit as a max. There are practically zero products with this level of support yet. That would be 8K 60hz, or 4K at 300Hz with DSC.

 

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The EVGA board supports HDMI 2, the NVIDIA specs don't say and the Dell monitor is 1.4. Since they are including a DP cable and I have an extra HDMI 2.x around, I might give both a try. I'm not a gamer, but do stream and watch some movies/TV programs on the desktop. Here's the monitor:
https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-pro-24-plus-1610-monitor-p2425/apd/210-blwx/computer-monitors

 

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To pick up, the new Dell Pro 24" P2425 monitor came yesterday and it is a bit of an improvement (it is a Pro model, after all). Everything seemed to work ok until I went to my email program (Sylpheed). Tabs, arrows, right-clicking and typing worked, but not much else:

1) Drag and drop doesn't maybe works once if I'm lucky, then not at at all moving an email to a folder (drag and drop does work in a file manager). Unless I first click on an email and right-click and choose reply and then close it.

2) After opening an email folder, the folder won't close without considerable delay. If I instead click in a browser page and then go back to the email program, the folder might then close. But then it usually won't readily reopen. Unless, again, I do the workaround mentioned in the previous item.

3) Within the email program, if instead of drag-and-drop I use right-click>Move to get emails to a folder, that works, but if the folder has subfolders, they won't open, unless I've done it prior to starting.

4) If I try to click on Send for an email, it also might send the first time, but then everything up top quits working (except the very top row -- see screenshot. Same with other buttons up top.

I re-checked the previous Dell U2412M monitor and it works fine. I also downloaded the latest Dell driver for the new monitor and the problems mentioned seemed resolved. But after a later reboot, they came back in force. I spoke with Dell support, but they are inclined to want to blame it on an old self-built computer (so old that it's Win 11 compatible). Three screenshots below show the areas I'm referring to and a summary of my system.

Sylpheed top row.JPG

Sylpheed folders.JPG

System Summary via Speccy.JPG