Are you in the market for a new gaming monitor to upgrade your current setup or enhance your gaming sessions? If you need recommendations, you’ve landed in the perfect spot.
I am also passionate about video games like you, I know that there is nothing better than playing with a gaming monitor that best meets your needs.
In this guide you will be informed about everything you need to know about gaming monitors and their characteristics, directing you towards the choice that best suits your playing style.
Here we had listed out some of the best models of gaming monitors that are given below.
Buyer Guide to Choose the Best Gaming Monitors
Choosing a suitable gaming monitor for a gamer is not easy, the models on the market are really many, starting from the cheapest bands up to the TOP of the range.
Each screen has different characteristics, for example, a gaming monitor has completely different technical specifications compared to a monitor addressed for office or graphic use.
What Is a Gaming Monitor?
Let’s start immediately with a consideration that may seem obvious but necessary: each monitor can be used for any purpose, in fact, it is not uncommon for a gaming monitor to be described as a very normal screen to be used on any PC.
However, this is not to say that each monitor can meet the needs of different users. The monitors marketed for the average consumer, standard multimedia monitors, will hardly find appreciation in the player looking for advanced experience and greater involvement as he sits in front of the game of the moment.
For this reason, monitors have been designed for those who love to play, whether they consider themselves a professional or not, monitors that have characteristics that distinguish it from all the other screens in circulation.
There are some peculiarities that make gaming monitors different from traditional ones, capable of enriching the user’s gaming experience.
What Is It For?
The answer to the question ” what is a monitor for gaming for ” is less trivial than you might think. It is obvious that it is used to play, but its purpose, the reason for choosing it, lies in many different aspects, all of equal importance.
There is a first consideration to make: a player spends many hours in front of the monitor, this implies that the first quality of a monitor should be precisely to affect the eyestrain as little as possible.
The games, over the years, have become incredibly realistic, what we ask a monitor, in this case, is to give support to this realism, guaranteeing bright colors, as similar as possible to the real ones, and a fluid movement of all graphic elements.
Then we ask that there is depth in the scenography and that the elements are well contrasted, so as to transmit even stronger the feeling of something real as if we were living that experience live.
These are some of the reasons why it is worth considering buying a monitor dedicated to gaming.
How does Gaming Monitor work?
The operation of a gaming monitor does not differ much from a traditional one, although there are some features to which you must pay particular attention.
Certainly among the first things to consider are the size and resolution. If you aim to play by living immersive experiences then the size of the screen should not fall below a certain value.
Let’s say 27 inches is a perfect size. It is true that this entails some logistical problems related to space management. If the room allows it, you can also evaluate a larger size, otherwise, you should not go below 24/25 inches. Greatness, however, matters little if it is not weighed against the resolution.
The market currently offers 3 main resolutions :
- Full Hd : 1920×1080 pixel resolution. This is the standard that allows you to keep the quality/price ratio under control;
- 2K Monitor: here the resolution is 2560×1440. It goes down a bit but we are still at a good level;
- 4K Monitor: the best one, or 3840×2160 pixels, to which you can also associate a machine with excellent performance, to make the most of it.
How to Choose a Gaming Monitor?
After deciding on the size and its resolution, at this point we see how to make a choice that is as conscious as possible.
In the next paragraphs, we will analyze the main features to watch out for when choosing the monitor model that best suits your needs. Also, we had shared some quick tips so that you can make a wise choice.
Panel Technology
The first feature is the panel technology. With LCD monitors there are 3 panels available on the market ( TN, VA, and IPS ), each with its strengths and weaknesses.
The word TN stands for Twisted Nematic. In this case, we are dealing with a panel with a high response speed, low consumption and high brightness, for this reason, they are also very cheap, but their defect lies in the annoying chromatic variation when we look at it from a lateral angle.
The angular vision is better in the VA panels, which are also characterized by a high yield of black, which perhaps makes them more suitable for films. The IPS technology, on the other hand, has a slower response time than the others but the color rendering is higher, even when viewed from the side angles.
Response Time and Refresh Rate
Response time is another factor of considerable importance, as is the refresh rate. The latter is expressed in HERTZ and it is good to remember that it does not affect so much the quality of the image but its fluidity.
Here you have to be careful, because the refresh rate value, which could be 120 or 140 Hz should be measured to the performance of the graphics card. It is not enough to have a high frequency if the graphics card is unable to process a number of frames per second appropriate to the frequency of the monitor.
The response time, on the other hand, is measured in milliseconds and tells us the speed with which the pixels go from black to white, in a more technical way it is called the time they take to go from one grayscale to another.
Ever Heard of The Ghosting Effect?
This is the effect whereby a moving image on the screen tends to leave the trail of itself. This depends on excessively slow response time. Usually, a value beyond which not to rise is 8ms.
Video Inputs and Extra Functionality
Finally, there are the extra features, which in some cases can make a difference. The first thing to pay attention to is definitely the outputs that the monitor has, so you can get an idea depending on the device to which you have to connect it.
In addition to the traditional HDMI output, it may also affect a Dual Link output or a DisplayPort. The presence of at least one USB port is also another aspect to consider, in some cases, it could be very useful.
If you do not want to equip yourself with a sophisticated external audio system, then there is also the presence of integrated multimedia speakers, and their quality.
Then there is the far from the secondary question of convenience. Unless you rely on impromptu inventions, it may be important to have a monitor that has some height and tilt adjustment system.
Most of the standard monitors in circulation do not include this type of option or do not allow particularly fluid movements, while a good adjustment of the height and of the horizontal viewing angle can greatly affect the gaming experience.
Resolution of A Gaming Monitor
Starting from the origin, a pixel is the smallest part of the display, therefore a tiny dot visible when you turn on the computer screen. Then, once all these dots join together, they form images, precisely those visible on the PC monitor.
At this point, it is possible to decipher the term resolution. It is a numbering that is given by the multiplication of vertical pixels with horizontal pixels. The higher the pixel count, the higher the resolution.
HD (High Definition): this term indicates a high-resolution monitor. It can be 1280×720 or 1920×1080. We often read HD Ready, but this happens when a monitor does not have the high-resolution feature, so it is always good to check before buying it.
The formats currently available on the market are 720p, 1080i, and 1080p, where the letter “p” indicates a real progressive resolution, while the letter “i” indicates a kind of computer system that has the aim of adding pixels to improve image quality.
Full HD (Full High Definition): it is considered an evolution of the HD format. The only thing is that this resolution must have cells of at least 1920×1080 pixels, which means free of any compression or reduction, as was the case for the previous resolution.
2K: is an intermediary between Full HD and 4K. There are several monitors with this type of resolution (2048×1080), but few are bought because there are no films, games or programs on the market with this resolution on the market, but they go directly to 4K or remain stable at Full HD.
4K: A big qualitative leap has been made here. The resolution is made up of 3840 horizontal pixels and 2160 vertical pixels. There are no television programs at this resolution, but it is possible to find films or TV series on some platforms. Even the DVDs have been marketed with such graphics, obviously, they have a higher cost.