Monitor Glossary. Comprehensive coverage with SA insights, Rand pricing & practical recommendations for local buyers.
Shopping for a monitor in South Africa exposes you to a wall of acronyms and technical terms that manufacturers use interchangeably, inconsistently, and sometimes misleadingly. Understanding what these terms actually mean cuts through the marketing noise and helps you match a screen to your real-world needs - whether you're gaming in Johannesburg, designing in Cape Town, or studying online from a res room. This glossary covers the most common and most misunderstood monitor terms you'll encounter on SA product listings.
Monitor specifications describe a screen's image quality (resolution, colour gamut, panel type), motion performance (refresh rate, response time), and connectivity (ports, sync technology). Knowing the key terms - IPS vs. VA vs. TN, Hz vs. ms, HDR tiers, and adaptive sync standards - prevents you from overpaying for features you don't need or buying a screen that doesn't suit your workload.
IPS (In-Plane Switching): Delivers accurate colour reproduction and wide viewing angles. Preferred by designers and content creators. Most SA monitors in the R3,000–R8,000 range use IPS or Nano IPS panels.
VA (Vertical Alignment): Higher contrast ratios (3000:1 vs IPS's 1000:1) with better blacks. Good for movies and single-player games. Slightly slower pixel response than IPS at equivalent prices.
TN (Twisted Nematic): Fastest pixel response, lowest price, but poor colour accuracy and narrow viewing angles. Increasingly rare on new SA listings.
Resolution: The pixel count. 1080p (1920×1080) is Full HD. 1440p (2560×1440) is QHD or 2K. 2160p (3840×2160) is 4K UHD. Higher resolution requires more GPU power to drive.
sRGB / DCI-P3 / Adobe RGB: Colour space coverage. sRGB 99%+ is fine for most uses. DCI-P3 90%+ matters for video editors and photographers.
HDR (High Dynamic Range): Tiered standard. HDR400 is entry-level with limited impact. HDR600 and HDR1000 (True HDR) deliver genuine brightness and contrast improvements but cost significantly more in SA.
Refresh Rate (Hz): How many frames per second the monitor can display. 60Hz for general use, 144Hz for smooth gaming, 165Hz–240Hz for competitive play. Higher Hz does not improve image quality - only motion smoothness.
Response Time (ms): How fast a pixel transitions between colours. Lower is better for gaming. 1ms (MPRT/GtG) marketing claims vary - GtG (grey-to-grey) is the more meaningful figure. 4ms GtG on an IPS panel is perfectly fine for most gamers.
Adaptive Sync / G-Sync / FreeSync: Technologies that synchronise the monitor's refresh rate to the GPU's frame output, eliminating screen tearing. AMD FreeSync is royalty-free and widely supported; NVIDIA G-Sync Compatible monitors also work with FreeSync. Check Evetech's GPU range to match your card to the right sync standard.
MPRT vs. GtG: Two different ways to measure response time. MPRT uses backlight strobing and produces lower numbers. GtG is more representative of real pixel switching speed. Always compare GtG to GtG.
HDMI 2.0 / 2.1: HDMI 2.0 supports 4K@60Hz or 1440p@144Hz. HDMI 2.1 is needed for 4K@144Hz. Check your GPU's HDMI version before assuming bandwidth.
DisplayPort 1.4 / 2.1: DisplayPort 1.4 handles 4K@144Hz with DSC compression. DP 2.1 supports 4K@240Hz and higher. More common on gaming monitors than on laptops.
USB-C / Thunderbolt: Allows video, data, and power delivery over a single cable. Increasingly common on SA business monitors. Confirm wattage for laptop charging.
PIP / PBP: Picture-in-Picture / Picture-by-Picture. Lets you display two sources simultaneously - useful for streaming setups or dual-PC workflows.
Q: What does "1ms" mean on a monitor spec sheet in South Africa? A: It refers to the panel's response time - how quickly pixels shift between colours. Most monitors advertise their best-case MPRT figure using backlight strobing; the real-world GtG figure is typically higher. For gaming, anything under 5ms GtG is comfortable.
Q: Is HDR worth paying extra for on a South African budget? A: HDR400 monitors add little perceptible benefit and aren't worth a premium. If HDR matters to you, budget for at least HDR600. Below that threshold, save the money.
Q: What refresh rate do I need for gaming in SA? A: 144Hz is the sweet spot for most SA gamers. 60Hz feels noticeably sluggish once you've experienced higher refresh rates. 240Hz+ offers diminishing returns unless you're playing competitive shooters professionally.
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Monitor Glossary for South Africa available at Evetech.co.za with local warranty and fast delivery.
Monitor Glossary for South Africa - check Evetech for latest stock and SA pricing.
Depends on your use case. Monitor Glossary for South Afr offers good value at current Rand pricing.
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Edge default search engine controls searches typed in the address bar. Choose a supported search provider in browser settings, then test the address bar separately from a website search box or a new-tab page before assuming the change failed.
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