OLED vs. LCD: Testing Power Draw, Surface Temperature, and Light Output in Gaming Displays

This research report compares a 2025 ASUS ROG Strix 27-inch OLED gaming monitor (ASUS) with a 2015 Apple MacBook Retina LCD (Apple) using five screen image examples: black, gray, white, a dark gaming screenshot, and a bright gaming screenshot. My report measures the monitors for power draw, surface temperatures, and light emissions for both monitors using each type of screen image. My goal was not to prove that one monitor’s technology was better than the other, but was to understand how the display types differ under various use case scenarios. My OLED monitor showed a strong connection between image brightness and power consumption, especially when comparing black, gray, and white screens. The LCD monitor showed more consistent results in some tests, but the light meter I used had difficulty collecting measurements in low-light conditions. Overall, the experiments I ran demonstrated trade-offs between image quality, power consumption, and heat dissipation.