Screen savers – Are they really saving your screens?
Screen savers are relics of the days of old and are today quite irrelevant when it comes to saving power. Energy star rated products are already mandatory, capable of turning themselves off at pre-set intervals to prevent the old nemesis of the CRT tube, screen burn or phosphorus burn-in. The old problem of the screen getting imprinted with the most common image projected onto it by the electron gun.
Newer LCD displays do not suffer this problem though they can suffer from dead pixels or LED elements that burn-out prematurely due to faulty manufacturing procedures. This is expected though a few dead ones are hardly visible.
Unlike their older kin, LCD displays consume less power and thus may not have much to save in the first place compared to CRT’s. Most of these older types of CRT’s are being replaced with better and more efficient digital LED displays that do have better power saving capabilities. So whether these screen savers remain relevant, most of us stick to the default ones built-into our operating systems, not finding time to bother with looking for good looking ones.