When we choose peripherals, there are always a lot of parameters and aspects to see and take into account. Some, it may even seem strange to you and you don’t quite understand their meaning or importance. Today we are going to explain, quickly and easily, how important the color gamut of monitors is.
Color gamut is determined by the monitor’s ability to display different colors and how accurately it can display them. There are different ways to measure or quantify this parameter. A parameter that is highly important in video games, but above all it is important in photo and video editing tasks, where great color fidelity is required.
Differences between color range and coverage
You may be familiar with the DCI-P3 and sRGB color gamuts, which are represented by percentages. What you probably don’t know is how good these ranges are. Well, we are going to try to give you the necessary information so that you can acquire a gaming monitor with all the guarantees.
Color gamut refers to the color space that a screen can display. The greater this range, this means that the greater the number of colors that it can show us.
We must bear in mind that there are technical limitations that prevent it from displaying the full CIE 1931 range. For those who do not know what this parameter is, it is a mathematically defined color space created by the Commission Internationale de l’Éclairage in 1931. precisely define the three primary colors from which all other colors are created.
Since it is technically impossible to create panels that cover this range, so-called coverage rates have been created. These cover a part of the CIE 1931 range, seeking to offer as wide a color area as possible.
We have, on the other hand, the volume of the range of colors. Refers to the contrast value between the range of colors that a screen can display and the range of the standard color gamut. Not only can it exceed 100%, being a ratio, it is outside the range of the standard color gamut.
This is how they sell you “bad” monitors
The standards referred to in gaming monitors, currently, are DCI-P3 and sRGB. These aren’t really the best ranges, but they are the most “easily” achievable. Let’s say that, at the panel production level, they are the ones that make it possible to have cheaper panels.
DCI-P3 is a wider range than sRGB, so it’s really the former that we should care about. The reason is that sRGB falls under DCI-P3. To give us an idea, a DCI-P3 color coverage of 99% is equivalent to a sRGB color coverage of 121%.
These two are the standardized ranges for gaming monitors, since they are “easy” to get on commercial panels. You should keep in mind that the greater the color gamut within a range, the more technically difficult it is to achieve. Hence, highly color accurate professional monitors can cost up to 20 times more than a gaming monitor.
Although the DCI-P3 and sRGB color gamuts are far from the best, they are more than perfect for gaming. They offer good quality and vivid colors, but with a great balance of cost for the user.
