PWM in the monitor - what is it?

Have you ever heard such a name as a PWM monitor? Surely you would be interested to know what it is, especially if you find out that your eyes can quickly get tired.

Monitor PWM - what is it?

Many people know that old CRT-based televisions flicker and thereby damage vision, but few have heard that the flickering of modern displays is much more dangerous.

It is true that a large number of modern displays flicker during operation. This effect appears when the brightness level is reduced. This effect happens not only on PC monitors, but also on laptops, smartphones and other gadgets.

PWM is a pulse-width modulation, which is the process of power control as a result of adjusting the pulse duration at a set frequency.

In order to lower the brightness level of the equipment, you can use one of the following methods:

1. Reduce the power of the glow lamp. In this case, the lamp reduces the glow.
2. You can shine intermittently, this is necessary so that there is less light per unit of time. The lamp in this case will flicker.

In a shim technique, when you lower the brightness, the flicker becomes more noticeable, and this can negatively affect your eyes. The figure shows two methods for adjusting the brightness.

When using this type of monitor, in the event that you reduce the brightness of the screen, flicker appears, and this may very well cause your eyes to more likely get tired.

Want to see the features of comparison of the described methods? This can be seen in the figure below.

Is my monitor blinking?

There are monitors without PWM or in which flicker is carried out at minimum brightness. In the description of such a technique you can find the inscription "Flicker-Free". In translation, the inscription means that the equipment does not blink during operation, you can safely choose it for your purposes.

To check an existing monitor, you can use the “pencil test”. Take an ordinary pencil and draw it on the background of the monitor from one side to the other, like a fan. If you see a blurry pencil mark - it means your technique without the effect of flickering. If you see the divided pictures as a set of shadows - this indicates that the PWM is present. The test can be carried out at different brightness levels. This will determine the safe brightness threshold for use.