7 Settings I Change on Every Monitor 

0:00 - Intro 0:27 - Brightness 1:06 - Correct White Point 3:09 - Correct Gamma 3:31 - Correct Colour Space 4:56 - Pixel Overdrive 6:20 - Backlight Strobing 8:08 - Adaptive Sync 9:42 - Black EQ

I've never understood why people want displays super bright. I run my LG monitor at 10% brightness. If I'm in the dark I'll sometimes set it to 0%. I don't think I've ever had it above 20-25%. Even on a bright sunny day I can still see it perfectly and comfortably. I also hate when my iPhone automatically switches over to HDR on RU-vid or Reddit, especially if I'm in bed. it's blinding.

While a bright monitor might not damage your eyes permanently, it can screw with your vision for days and in extreme cases up to a few weeks. If you play in a dim room with a really bright monitor for 8 hours a day it can cause problems with recognizing depth, focusing on objects further away and it can cause pain in general. You really don't need to have a super bright monitor as in most cases it won't actually help you see enemies better, try to find a good balance between bright enough and not too bright, on most monitors its around 40-70, I personally use 45. Other settings like contrast affect the perception of brightness but always try to balance things out and find what feels good for you and not copy whatever settings some pro player might use as they were already better than you without them.

Great video as always! One thing you didn't mention, probably because it's so basic, but that I think is super important is making sure in the advanced display settings in windows, that the monitor refresh rate is adjusted. With my monitor, windows set the refresh rate to 60hz by default and I didn't notice for a long time. Figuring this out and fixing it made a world of difference in my fps aiming ability.

This couldn't have come at a better time!! Just got a new monitor arriving in a few hours! You rock Optimum

You're really one of a few reviewers that is actually playing on a high level in competitive games, so you know what you're talking about. Also great quality content as always!

Thought I had my monitor fully optimized already, went and made a few adjustments and every game I play now feels brand new. Thank you so much for this!

Thank you so much Optimum never really delved into my monitor settings but this helped me a lot. Have a AW2518H and noticed tearing a long time ago but thought it was just part of the monitor. Turns out the pixel overdrive in their settings is called "Response time" and I set my response time to Super fast obviously! Having it on Superfast caused trailing and murky images. Then looked up a professional color tutorial for it and after playing around with what they recommended the blues and colors on my monitor look really nice. Love your videos only found your channel like 4 days ago and been watching a ton of your videos!

The quality of your videos never disappoints

A great video as usual, I love the effort you put into every single one.

Just found this channel and this is gold mine when you're trying to do things perfectly for your needs. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge & recommendations.

I never regretted my sub for you. All videos posted were useful!

Cap your frame rates with rtss to 3 hz under monitors maximum then you won’t get screen tearing and it’s more responsive than overloading your monitor with frames. Your gpu has a smaller render queue which means your frame time doesn’t move and is stable and it’s actually more responsive.

What I found really helpful is that having some bright light behind the monitor, like an RGB strip will help prevent eye strain....

this is literally my go-to channel now. even though i have ancient gear, i still learn a lot that's pretty useful!

DUDE you've been pumping out so amazing content lately (as always) thanks for the consistent content!

This video is amazing, recently got a new monitor, just want to say this was greatly appreciated. :)

This is what I needed so bad! Thank you. Going to fix my settings when I get home

I absolutely love your content. Helped me on a lot of purchases. Always a pleasure to watch! ^^

This is why I subbed to you, you provide information I didn't know I want to know about computer gaming and computers in general, thanks Ali.

This video could not have been out at a better time. Just got the mobiuz ex2510. Thanks Optimum

in a world full of overly saturated, mid gaming/tech youtube content, this man stays delivering top quality.. even for monitor settings lmao

I feel that one other angle for this type of content would be dual-monitor setups and the challenges involved. I had a mismatched dual-monitor setup for a while with a Gigabyte 1440p monitor on one side, next to an Acer 4K monitor on the other (I had bought and used the 1440p monitor by itself for some time first). And BOY, did the Gigabyte (M27Q) look bad color-wise next to the Acer. There was no amount of Nvidia nor monitor settings that could resolve it either. Even when I was able to get the color balance looking somewhat reasonable on the M27Q, the contrast and brightness still looked awful when set directly next to the Acer, and reds especially looked faded. I eventually just sold the M27Q even though smoother gaming at 1440p was preferable at times and two monitors made some things more convenient. Lesson being that either monitor seemed fine on its own to the untrained eye, but using them together was just unbearable for someone who values visual experience highly.

You deserve way more Subscribers. The video production alongside the highly accurate details is truly insane. Thank you so much.

Best video I've seen explaining this. Much appreciated after searching through the swamp of mis information.

I take my ipad's mini LED screen as a reference point and calibrate the monitor as close to the ipad as possible. Since iPad screen is very well calibrated, it becomes a useful tool.

really comprehensive video. will reference this when i get a better monitor

Great info, when many settings are available it's easy to get lost or confused aswell as thinking its all properly setup out of the box. Great video

unboxing my monitor today so perfect timing

Man I needed this mor my new monitor bro thanks

Right on the money with this upload

your tracking is insane !

Someone else posted a video saying that the best way to calibrate the colors of your monitor is to use your phone as another set of eyes. A set of eyes that has near perfect color accuracy and tinker with the colors until what your eyes see and your phone sees are the same. Is that valid? Or Sus?

Number one thing I change is the display settings in windows to the max refresh rate available for the monitor

Much needed vid as usual. Ali the goat

perfect video. just got a new pc and an acer xv272u 170hz monitor to go with it. this helped tremendously. I already had the settings at a good point, but this video helped me with getting the settings perfect. thanks so much brotha, you earned another sub. keep it up

Something to consider, at least on the XG27AQM (featured in the b-roll a couple of times and the main talking point when first discussing color temps, and is also my main gaming monitor) is that you can enable the sRGB mode and change brightness if u know what you're doing. By default the srgb mode is locked to 43%, which for me is way too bright. You can force override the brightness by entering service mode. The displayninja review has a how-to. I'd assume this is going to be similar on most ASUS monitors. Additionally, it has readouts on how to adjust the RGB values to get certain color temps.

my LG 27GP950 has got a great, easy on the eyes colour setting called "Reader" which I work on for 90% of the day, and then for gaming I enable a custom "Gamer 1" profile to get the most vivid and bright experience when gaming.

What a treat, monitor settings and Optimum Tech’s example monitor happens to be the same model I use

thank you so much i had my pixels on od and i finally got it fixed, you are a absolute legend!

0:55 Contrary to older wisdom, there's really 0 evidence that the brightness of tvs or monitors causes any eye damage (only temporary eye strain). There is slight evidence that the upper registers of blue light can cause long term macular degeneration over decades of use, but if this is a concern OLEDs produced 1/3rd as much as high wavelength blue light compared to LCDs, making them a healthier choice even when compared to lcds of half the brightness. EDIT: If you don't believe me do a search for 'permanent eye damage computer monitors and tv', you'll find loads of reputable sources (harvard health, webmd) that note expert opinion has shifted such that the belief is they can only cause eye strain and discomfort, not permanent degradation of vision.

Highly recommend linking research cited in the description. Great video regardless 👍🏻😊

8:41 This the best example I have ever seen for why you should keep VRR off in competitive games.

thansk for this i love these kinda videos

If you use MBR and don't like the reduced brightness, you can change it in the Nvidia control panel.

This was a really excellent video 👍

Thanks for another great video! I also have the ASUS XG27AQM (270hz 1440p) but am unable to find any good settings online for things like setting color temperature (setting white point, gamma, etc) and sadly no colorimeter. I was wondering if you could share your recommended settings for the XG27AQM? Thanks a lot!

In regards to GSync, pro tip if you have it on, plus V-Sync, and cap fps ingame or via the cp panel under your refresh rate, so this only really works if you have 240hz ( or above ) and a game that can do similar or higher fps. You basically get zero tearing and up to 1ms of delay, trade off is huge for the smoothest of gameplays ever. And this will work better and better with more hz down the line.

thank you so much for this video!

I use my monitors “game mode” only because it relaxes my eyes even when it sets the brightness to 100% automatically. When I use custom settings with brightness all the way high it’s really terrifying for my eyes might use dynamic brightness with custom settings, hopefully that works

dude, your videos are incredible. I have been a building pc's and such since i was 12 and i never thought to really change other monitor settings like this other than refresh rate settings. I have homework to do and things to check when i get home! lol. \m/

Awesome video Ali 🔥🙌🤩

love your content man keep it up!

Claim: That damage to your eyes is irreversible. > Studies literally show monitors don't damage your eyes. > Also, sunlight outside is an order of magnitudes brighter than a monitor.

played around with all kinds of settings for months and i gave up on trying to remove the ghosting and figured that my monitor was just shit and had too much ghosting and i couldnt do anything about it and then i find the overdrive setting and it fixed everything its so stupid how hard it is too find such simple solutions thx alot

Been using the XG27AQM for almost a year now, great panel. Looking forward to your review on it!

I suggest playing on brightness which is comfy for your eyes or get some anti-radiation glasses. I used to play on 100 brightness, I somewhat regret it because my eyesight got worse and I needed prescription glasses in which I have now. Play your brightness that's comfy for your eyes for long gaming sessions and make sure to rest your eyes from time to time during gaming sessions.

looking aesthetic af lately brah ;)

Great video dude, cheers

Loved the info. I can't wait to see the full review of that asus xg27 as it's on my wishlist currently

holy shit really needed this! Changed my gaming experience

I was just thinking about these and how on earth would I find a good video on this. Thank you. You're something else.

did this on my VG259QM asus monitor, stuff worked! Very nice video!

i see new Optimum Tech video, i click

YOU ARE MY GUY , Love your content

Needed this a lot thank you

If you love horror games or other dark themed, just buy a VA display. Those can visualize darker range clear and detailed. Your eyes will thank you long term. It's also better for movies. Sure you lose some % of color accuracy compared to IPS and some refresh Hz. But it's reasonably close these days while having significant advantages with near blacks.

Great video

This video is so informative. Thanks.

3:32 this frame is kinda hilarious to me big & muscly biceps man standing next to a cute orange cat

This vid made me realize how much I miss playing BF1, game was super solid

Damn Ali’s hair looks great

Already liked it because I know its a good video!

Does anyone by any chance have any settings they’d recommend for the Samsung Odyssey G7 ?

At what monitor price point is it worth to get color calibrator? Are the services that calibrate your monitors for a small fee reliable?

Techless is a great channel for monitor reviews and calibration!

Damage to your eyes is irreversible. Here sitting wearing glasses since I was in 3rd grade.

Ali, your cinematography is outstanding. Tasteful framing, always with the soft movements and such. Where, how did you find your style?

The damage to your eyes is not irreversible

My monitor can’t change brightness when in low latency mode. Hmmm

cant quite get ghosting to get as good as yours but it did reduce it thank you brother

super helpful

In my opinion, using sRGB by default is a good thing because it shows how the images are intended to be seen.

yessir been waiting on this one

Just got a new monitor. Several tips I didn't know about. 👌

Older monitors used PWM to dim the backlights, so some people max their brightness as a habit. Newer monitors should be using DC based dimming so should be fine.

I was just having this thought today as I was thinking of upgrading my monitor. Really helped :)))

When jt comes to monitor brightness, twinkle tray is literally the best program ive ever used. Period. Lets yoi cahnge the brightness in windows. Like the actual screen brightness. I genuinely dont understand how this is not a feature in every OS😭

Optimum please drop your work out routine, you look hugeee my man. much love

FINALLY a review using the xg27aqm! What color settings did you use on Racing Mode? This monitor has been out for a while now and still has no tested calibration settings recommendations from the likes of something like Rtings or Tftcentral (only Display Ninja and Bijan have reviewed it so far, still good they did at least but still don't know best calibration settings)

haven't been using OD since the start cause i couldn't figure out a good setting. of course the ufo test is how...im such an idiot. thank you

Thank you! I just bought my first gaming monitor and was completly lost

PC MASTER RACE!! LET'S GO! 💪🏼

One thing to remember - "cold" image settings are damaging for eyes - blue light is bad for your sight and sleep pattern, you should always choose more warm colors.

Auto brightness is like motion blur existed to be disabled

My AW2521H just arrived last night. What insane timing hahaha

hes back! with a video that isnt targeted to only some people! amazing.

What would you say is the best looking monitor?

You got a tan when I updated my settings lol

I love this guys cojtent