Gaming Monitors are designed to display the power of your graphics card and CPU as best as possible while gaming. They are responsible for displaying the end result of all your computer’s image rendering and processing, but can vary greatly in their display of color, motion, and image sharpness. Only the best gaming monitor will give you the best type of display for your setup, needs, games, and preferences.
A gaming monitor can help you get better at your favorite game, take care of your eyes during long gaming sessions, and give you the most enjoyable gaming experience with the highest quality displays available on the market.
We think it’s one of many ways to guarantee an instant upgrade to your setup too; After all, gaming monitors offer the literal way to see, experience, and witness all the amazing games we all play. However, finding the best monitor for gaming can be tricky it’s a huge market and it’s constantly changing with exciting new entries arriving, and old favorites regularly being phased out.
Curved Vs Flat Gaming Monitors
You also need to decide whether a curved monitor or a flat monitor is the best choice for your gaming setup. Each of them has its pros and cons, but the choice you make will depend on your gaming style and ultimately your personal preferences.
Flat Monitors
Flat panel monitors come in 21:9 and 16:9 formats (to name just two). They’ve been on the market for years and are the kind of monitors you probably grew up with. They tend to be a bit more budget-friendly than their curved counterparts and offer a fantastic gaming experience despite their lower price.
An Ultrawide monitor also gives you a wider field of view, which is especially beneficial in multiplayer games. (if the game developer has allowed it). In general, flat monitors offer better gaming characteristics with better response times, refresh rates, and color accuracy.
They are also a good alternative to a multi-screen setup and save a lot of desk space. However, flat panel displays also have drawbacks. The first is that not every game supports a 21:9 aspect ratio. This means that the edges of your screen might be left blank and unused, which is known in the gaming world as “black bars”. However, we assume that this won’t remain a problem for long.
Curved Monitors
Curved monitors are relatively new on the gaming market. The curvature of the screen is measured with “R”, and unlike conventional measurement systems, the lower the value, the stronger the curvature. For example, a monitor with a curvature of 1800r has a stronger curvature than a monitor with 4000r. There are three common curvature measures to choose from for curved monitors: 1800r, 3000r, and 4000r.
So we know that the lower the number “r”, the more curved a monitor is. Think about how we see the world around us with the naked eye. Length, height and width are three-dimensional to us, and curved monitors give us a wider field of view. This makes for a more immersive gaming experience.
It also means that curved monitors put less strain on the eyes while gaming. That’s because the image is held right next to the eye, so you don’t have to adjust as much as you would with a flat monitor. But it’s not all positive. Yes, curved monitor technology continues to evolve with each new iteration, narrowing the performance gap between flat and curved alternatives. However, curved monitors still lag behind smaller flats on average when it comes to gaming performance and even more so now that the latest 360 Hz monitors are hitting the market.
Panel Type
The most basic aspect of a monitor, and probably the most important, as it affects almost every aspect of the screen, except perhaps the sound. There are three main varieties of LCD monitors with different characteristics. However, they all have their merits and the differences are not necessarily night and day.
TN (Twisted Nematic)
Still the fastest panel type. So if you see a 360Hz monitor, it is almost certainly TN. TN panels offer the highest refresh rates and the fastest response times, and they don’t disappoint. The downside is that they still have the narrowest viewing angles and the least responsive color reproduction. However, the black value and contrast are okay.
VA (Vertical Alignment)
Excellent contrast, respectable response time, good colors and better viewing angles than TN. VA panels are somewhere in the middle, and that’s why they’re so popular, especially for larger monitors and TVs. They have a slight tendency to ghosting, but improved technology has largely eliminated that flaw. They’re not as fast as TN panels, but definitely close.
IPS (in-plane switching)
It is the most competent in terms of color performance and viewing angles. Response times and refresh rates are similar to VA, slower than TN, but still good for most needs. The biggest advantage of IPS technology is color reproduction, which is far superior to the other two LCD variants, although IPS has a reputation for not having as good contrast and black levels.
Size of Gaming Monitors
The best monitor size for your gaming setup depends on how far away you will be sitting from your monitor and what resolution you want. If you’ll be sitting farther away from the monitor, you’ll want to get a larger monitor so you can see all the details. Smaller monitors have the advantage of allowing you to see more of the game in your field of view without having to move your eyes as much.
Larger monitors allow you to see more of the game’s details. They give you the feeling of being immersed in the environment, like in a movie theater. For example, you’ll get the best results with a 27-inch monitor with a resolution of 1440p or 4K. Make sure your computer can handle the higher resolution. If you’re a console gamer, both the PS5 and Xbox Series X can support 4K resolution.
Resolution
Resolution is an essential feature of any monitor. It measures the width and height of the screen in terms of pixels or “picture elements,” the tiny points of illumination that make up an image. For example, a screen with a resolution of 2,560 × 1,440 pixels has a total of 3,686,400 pixels. Common resolutions are 1,920 × 1,080 (sometimes called “Full HD” or FHD), 2,560 × 1,440 (“Quad HD,” QHD, or “Widescreen Quad HD,” WQHD), or 3840 × 2160 (UHD or “4K Ultra HD”). Ultrawide monitors are also available with resolutions such as 2560 × 1080 (UW-FHD) and 3440 × 1440 (UW-QHD), 3840 × 1080 (DFHD) and 5120 × 1440 (DQHD).
Sometimes manufacturers specify only one measurement for standard resolutions: 1080p and 1440p refer to height, while 4K refers to width. Any resolution higher than 1,280 × 720 is called high definition (HD). The pixels counted in these measurements are generally rendered in the same way: As squares in a two-dimensional grid.
To see this, you can either move closer to the screen (or zoom in) until you perceive individual blocks of color, or you can zoom in on an image until it becomes “pixelated” and you see a staircase of small squares instead of clean diagonal lines. The higher the resolution of your screen, the harder it becomes to see individual pixels with the naked eye, and the clearer the image becomes.
Native Resolution
Monitors can also change their resolution. Modern monitors have a fixed number of pixels that defines their “native resolution,” but they can also be set to approximate lower resolutions. When scaling down, objects on the screen look larger and blurrier, the screen area shrinks, and there may be visible jaggies due to interpolation. (Note that this was not always the case: older analog CRT monitors can actually switch between resolutions without interpolation, as they do not have a fixed number of pixels).
Scaling
With 4K screens and higher resolutions, there’s another scaling issue: At ultra-high resolutions, text and user interface elements like buttons can start to look small. This is especially true on smaller 4K screens when you use programs that don’t automatically resize text and user interface.
Windows’ screen scaling settings can increase the size of text and layout elements, but at the expense of a smaller screen area. Even when this scaling is used, the higher resolution still has an advantage: screen content, such as an image in an editing program, is displayed in 4K resolution, even if the menus have been scaled around it.
Refresh Rate
Ah, now we get to the real gaming specs. When you’re looking for a gaming monitor, be sure to pay attention to the refresh rate, which is measured in hertz (Hz). This indicates how many times the monitor updates the screen per second. Higher values are better. Simple monitors and TVs reach about 30 Hz, some even 60 Hz. For games, 60 Hz is recommended as an absolute minimum.
If you want to be precise: Higher refresh rates benefit gamers by ensuring that what you see on the screen matches what’s happening on the computer. Think of it like this: If someone is running in front of you in a game with a low frame rate of 30 Hz, the image on the screen may not show where they are in the game world. That may seem like an incredibly short time difference – it is – but games require incredible precision to get your shot off, and human reaction time can tell the difference.
Today, 60 Hz is considered the absolute minimum, but there are now also many 144 Hz screens on the market. This is highly recommended for serious gaming. You can tell the difference between 60 and 144 Hz, and this difference can help you improve your own response times. There are even 240 Hz monitors available if you opt for the top-of-the-line model, although it hasn’t yet been proven whether this is beneficial for the average gamer.
Response Time
Together with the refresh rate, the response time of a monitor determines how smooth and fluid your gaming experience will be. Any discrepancy between your graphics card and the monitor will cause judder and tearing. And a monitor with a slow response time will cause more input lag, which can be noticeable in-game, especially in fast-paced games. Manufacturers usually quote gray-to-grey (GtG) and moving-picture response time (MPRT) to express how fast a monitor is. MPRT is more useful for measuring the likelihood that a monitor will show blur or ghosting.
GtG is useful as a general measure of a monitor’s response time, as it reflects the ability to change pixel color quickly. Both values should be as close to zero as possible, but this is not possible. For GtG, a value of less than 4 ms is acceptable. For MPRT, you should choose 1 ms if possible.
Technologies like FreeSync and G-Sync, known as variable refresh rate, help synchronize your monitor with your GPU to avoid screen tearing. However, for overall input lag (the time between pressing a key or button and the corresponding action on the screen), you are mainly dependent on your monitor’s internal features.
Exclusive Features of Gaming Monitor
Now that you’ve decided which screen size, resolution, refresh rate, and screen type suits you best, you can look for specific features that some gaming monitors offer.
AMD FreeSync And NVIDIA G-SYNC
You’ll find that some gaming monitors come with either AMD’s FreeSync technology or NVIDIA’s G-SYNC technology or in some cases, both. Both technologies give you a variable refresh rate that allows the monitor to dynamically change its refresh rate, eliminating visual artifacts like screen tearing and stuttering without affecting input lag like VSync.
AMD’s FreeSync and NVIDIA’s “G-SYNC Compatible” technologies are based on the open standard of VESA Adaptive Sync protocols in DisplayPort and HDMI. Depending on the monitor, FreeSync can be supported over both HDMI and DisplayPort, while G-SYNC Compatible is mainly supported over DisplayPort – and over HDMI 2.1 on some newer displays. Unlike G-SYNC Compatible, G-SYNC (often referred to as native G-SYNC to avoid confusion) is not based on Adaptive-Sync, but has an integrated module in the monitor.
Color Gamut
The color gamut for gaming monitors is basically the total number of colors that a monitor can display. Simply put, it is a specific range of colors that the human eye can perceive. The more colors your gaming monitor can display, the better it is. This results in more vibrant, crisp, and realistic game graphics. A monitor’s color production varies from brand to brand, and color gamut helps us see those differences.
Furthermore, these differences are made clear and the colors used, which are the same on different devices, are calmed down by color matching on devices with different reproduction properties. It is generally expressed as a percentage of the color space and shown in a triangular area enclosed by the color coordinates of the monitor’s green, blue, and red colors.
The color scale consists of the three components of hue, saturation and lightness, and there are mainly three types of color scales
- sRGB
It is technically the smallest of the most common options. It is the most common gamut that can be easily found in modern electrical devices.
It is so popular for a reason, as its input and output have very little delay or inconsistency. These advantages have led to sRGB becoming the most popular color gamut currently available. Look for 100% sRGB in your monitor.
- Adobe RGB
Adobe RGB was first developed by Adobe in 1998. It is intended to provide a borderline color gamut and represent colors more realistically. If we compare this to sRGB, Adobe RGB has greater coverage in the cyan greenhouse.
- DCI-P3
It was initially chosen by the Society of Motion Pictures and Television Engineers to create its own color standard. DCI P3 is merely a broader standard than its sRGB counterparts. It has since become increasingly popular in smartphones and all-in-one computers. It is typically found in the iPhone X’s internal cameras and plays a role in defining a display as HDR capable.
Viewing Angle
This measures how obliquely you can view a screen and still enjoy true color and a distortion-free image. A wider angle is generally more desirable as it gives you more flexibility in your position relative to your screen.
HDR
Some gaming monitors also support HDR, which gives you higher brightness, contrast, and color gamut for compatible content. To truly enjoy HDR, a display should offer at least a peak luminance of 1,000 nits, a minimum contrast ratio of 20,000:1, and a DCI-P3 color space of at least 90%.
Achieving such high brightness and contrast requires an expensive full-array local dimming implementation, which is available in some high-end gaming monitors like the Samsung Neo G7. Less expensive models with HDR support are also available, but these can only give a small glimpse of what HDR can really do.
In most cases, these HDR monitors have the VESA DispalyHDR certification, which clarifies the screen’s capabilities. However, you can’t rely on VESA certifications to ensure a flawless HDR experience.
You need to pay attention to whether the monitor has either an OLED panel or a full-array local dimming solution. Gaming monitors that support both FreeSync/G-SYNC and HDR may also have AMD’s FreeSync Premium Pro or NVIDIA’s G-SYNC Ultimate certifications, which ensure that VRR and HDR work smoothly and simultaneously.
Motion Blur Reduction Technology
Look for a gaming monitor with strobe technology, usually referred to as 1ms Motion Blur Reduction (MBR), NVIDIA Ultra Low Motion Blur (ULMB), Extreme Low Motion Blur, 1ms MPRT (Moving Picture Response Time), and so on. When enabled, this feature further reduces motion blur during fast-paced games using strobe lights.
Note that enabling this technology reduces the maximum brightness of the screen, so use it only when gaming. Also, you cannot enable FreeSync/G-SYNC and Blur Reduction technology at the same time unless the monitor has a special feature for it, such as ASUS’ ELMB Sync or Gigabyte’s Aim Stabilizer Sync. Ideally, look for a monitor with Blur Busters Approved certification, which ensures impeccable MBR performance, such as the ViewSonic XG2431.
Flicker-Free
If you stare at your screen for long periods of time, you should buy a flicker-free monitor. This technology is very common and available in monitors of every price range. These monitors do not flicker at any brightness level, so people who are sensitive to flicker will appreciate it.
ELMB
Some computer monitors are equipped with ELMB (Extreme Low Motion Blur) technology, which drastically reduces the blur of fast-moving objects while ensuring minimal side effects. This means there is no ghosting, making your gaming experience even more immersive. ELMB was specifically designed by Asus to reduce motion blur during eye tracking. Like standard motion blur reduction, it uses backlight strobing technology to outperform the monitor’s response time.
The difference between the two, however, is that ELMB has a response time for moving images of only 1 ms. This means that fast-moving objects are displayed with sharp, clear motion. It should be noted that ELMB can only be used at fixed refresh rates (e.g. 80 Hz, 100 Hz, 120 Hz), which is something you need to consider if you’re looking for a gaming monitor.
Frame Rate
The monitors create the illusion of movement by displaying dozens of still images one after another in a second. Each individual still image is called a “frame”. “Frame rate” is how many frames per second, or FPS, your GPU is sending to your monitor. The more frames per second, the smoother your game can look.
Contrast Ratio
In conjunction with HDR, contrast is a good measure of a monitor’s image quality. When a screen has a wide dynamic range, the result is a more realistic and pleasing image produced by the panel. VA panels generally offer the best contrast ratios when it comes to gaming monitors, although IPS panels aren’t far behind either. TN panels are mostly average and are well suited for gaming.
Ergonomics
Finally, you need to consider the physical ergonomics of the monitor itself. This includes factors such as the size of the monitor, the quality of the stand, and the degree of freedom of movement the stand offers. You need to consider the space that your PC desk offers and choose the size of your gaming monitor accordingly. With this in mind, you should also not buy an ultra-wide or super-ultra-wide 5K monitor that extends beyond the confines of your desk. This is a consideration that needs to be made on an individual level.
Other important factors are the quality and functionality of the monitor stand. If you don’t have a way to mount your monitor to the wall, or if you’re only buying a single monitor, be sure to consider the monitor stand. Pay attention to the range of motion the stand offers in each direction, such as height adjustment, tilt, rotation, etc. You should also pay attention to whether the stand offers the ability to stand the monitor in portrait mode, if that’s what you want.
Port, Cоnnесtіоn Tуре or Vіdео Іnрutѕ
We all know that a PC monitor is more than just a normal monitor. A gaming monitor needs to be equipped with a variety of ports so you can stay connected to multiple PCs, other devices, and a computer (соnѕоlеѕ) like the PS4 and Macbook.
So you should consider the number and the number of devices available before choosing one. Some of the most important connections are HDMI, VGA, DVI and USB. Dual-HDMI devices are suitable for both DіѕрlауPоrt and DVI (соnnесtіvіtу).
The USB port is a new technology that allows you to connect controllers, mice, USB sticks and other devices. A full-fledged speaker with a built-in subwоfеr еnhаnсеѕ уоur gаmіng еxреrіеnсе аnd ѕаvеѕ dеѕk space, and a height-adjustable, tilting and swiveling head provides ergonomic safety for the whole night. A modern refrigerator has the following inputs and outputs, which are shown below at a glance.
HDMI
This interface was introduced in 2003. It is suitable for transferring high-definition visuals from your TV, computer, Blu-ray player, and similar devices.
HDMI 1.4 / 2.0
Dоеѕ not ѕuрроrt rеfrеѕh rаtеѕ аѕ hіgh іn higher rеѕоlutіоnѕ than DisplayPort, but juѕt as attainable for mіd-rаngе ѕоlutіоnѕ, іt also trаnѕfеrѕ vіdео and аudіо.
VGA
It is the oldest and most common connector on the board. It was first introduced in 1987. VGA has a high refresh rate and high image quality, but it cannot transmit images like DVI. It transmits analog signals, and due to this, there is a reduction in the final quality of the image.
DVI
The best solution for the VGA was introduced in 1999. The VGA connector is the same as the HDMI connector, but can not transmit audio signals. It can transmit a resolution of 1920 * 1200 and sometimes more. It displays a digital image of higher quality.
Dіѕрlау Pоrt
This is one of the most modern and newest types of connection, developed in 2008. It transfers images in high quality and can also be used to transfer audio and other documents. It is the best choice for PC video/audio transmission. The minimum standard your gaming monitor should support is DіѕрlауPоrt 1.4a.
3.5mm Audio Out
Designed as a more convenient way to connect headphones or speakers directly to the monitor instead of the back panel of the motherboard or the front panel of the case.
Conclusion
We hope you will find our Gaming Monitor Buying Guide helpful. We realize that choosing the right monitor for your system can be a minefield, especially if you want a monitor that has a decent lifespan and supports high-end gaming.
