Elevate your game with a gaming monitor that plays as hard as you do. These are the key things to look for in a gaming display, along with our top-ranked models. We’ve got deep-dive reviews of the best gaming monitors on the market.
Whether you’re a serious PC gamer or a casual after-hours warrior, your hardware can be the pivot point between victory and defeat. To get the most out of the latest first-person shooter (FPS), sports, racing, and other fast-action games, you’ll not only need a gaming PC with a powerful graphics card, but also a monitor that can render the action without subjecting you to blurred images, flicker, tearing, and other motion artifacts. In this guide, we’ll help you choose a display that gives you an edge over your opponents while delivering a smooth, immersive gaming experience. These are the factors to consider when choosing a gaming monitor. Read on for those, as well as our current favorites derived from testing. Panel Size and Resolution When it comes to gaming monitors, bigger is almost always better. That said, in some select cases you’ll want to keep the size of your monitor at 27 inches or under. If you’ve watched any esports tournaments over the past few years, you’ve probably noticed that all the players are playing on screens smaller than that size. (A 24-incher seems to be the sweet spot, especially in esports-focused models like the Asus ROG Swift 360Hz PG259QN.) Why? Well, if you’re playing a highly competitive title such as Counter Strike: Global Offensive or League of Legends, having a smaller screen means you can keep the monitor closer to your eyes while also keeping more of the frame in view. Being able to see every element on the screen at once is a vital advantage in a competitive multiplayer environment. The larger you go in screen size, the more difficult it is to keep every enemy combatant in your peripheral vision. If you have the room and don’t care so much about the competitive gaming world, though, a larger screen provides plenty of space for your onscreen characters to stretch out and offers the opportunity to go beyond full high definition. Many newer models are Wide Quad High-Definition (WQHD) monitors with maximum resolutions of 2,560 by 1,440 pixels (also dubbed «1440p»). The higher pixel count provides much sharper imagery than full HD, but you’ll need a reasonably powerful graphics engine to play the latest games at the higher resolution, especially if you have all the effects enabled. This holds double for 4K Ultra-High Definition (UHD) monitors, with a resolution of 3,840 by 2,160 pixels, such as the Acer Predator XB3. If desk space is an issue, there are plenty of 24-inch monitors out there, but with these, you’ll be limited in most cases to a 1,920-by-1,080-pixel resolution. If you have lots of space, and money is no object, even bigger monitors are available. A 30-inch 4K UHD monitor will deliver a stunning picture with amazing resolution; you can go all out with a 34-inch ultrawide monitor with or without a curved panel; or you can pick up something larger still. (We’ve tested displays up to 65 inches.) Ultrawide monitors typically have a 21:9 aspect ratio (as opposed to the usual 16:9) and offer a much wider field of view than a standard widescreen monitor, but they take up a lot of room. A curved-panel ultrawide monitor has enough of a curve to make you feel a bit closer to the action, and in some games will also give you a competitive edge. Battle-royale titles like PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Apex Legends both support full 21:9 resolution. What this means: Rather than simply squashing and stretching the image like some games do, these games (and others that natively support 21:9) will actually display more of the battlefield on either side of the screen than you would see on a 16:9 monitor. Battle-royale players in particular will benefit from this increased real estate. A player on a 16:9 panel may not see an enemy standing on a hill way to the right in the periphery, but a 21:9 player might be able to spot the danger without having to turn their character. Panel Technology You’ll see several main monitor-panel technologies used in various gaming monitors, and each has its pluses and minuses. Twisted nematic (TN) panels are the most affordable and are popular among gamers because they offer fast pixel response times and refresh rates. Their biggest drawback? They are prone to color shifting when viewed from an angle. Vertical alignment (VA) screens are known for their high native contrast ratios, robust colors, and ability to display deep blacks, but they are also known to produce noticeable ghosting effects, which can hurt gaming performance. (It depends on the model, and that is where reviews come in.) In-plane switching (IPS) panels provide the best all-around color quality, strong grayscale performance, and wide viewing angles, but they can’t match the pixel response of TN panels and are subject to motion artifacts. They’re the best general-use panel type, but discriminating gamers or competitive esports types may take issue with IPS. This trend is beginning to change, however. LG has developed a new IPS panel (dubbed «nano IPS», or «Fast IPS,» depending on the manufacturer) that claims 1-millisecond gray-to-gray response time with overdrive turned on, and the first monitor to feature this technology is already on the market, the LG 27GL850. Early reviews have noted that the ghosting and artifacting is significantly worse in this mode, though, which can negate any benefits that a 1ms response time would bring with it. With the 27GL850 acting as a pioneer, however, we imagine these issues will get ironed out as time goes on. The second time we’ve seen it is in the Fast IPS-based ROG Swift 360Hz, and both color accuracy and artifacting were much improved in this version. Perhaps the technology just needed a bit more time in the oven before it was ready to come out. Because TN, VA, and IPS each has its own such traits, we recommend looking at samples of each at your local electronics mega-mart, if possible, to get an idea of the «feel» and which specific compromises matter the least to you. Also bear in mind that not all panels of a given type are created equal, so seeing the actual display before you in person, if possible, is always good. Pixel Response, Input Lag, and Refresh Rate Gaming monitors should have a fast pixel response time and a high refresh rate, the latter commensurate with the frame rates your PC can push.
