Your monitor is one of the most important things on your PC, and it doesn’t matter if you have top-of-the-line hardware if it is not displayed on the right monitor.
Just because we live in techy times, finding the right gaming monitor should be an easy job for you. Since there are many different gaming monitors, there are some things you should consider in order to pick the right one for you. Whether you are going to use your monitor primarily for gaming, browsing the latest NBA trade rumors on the TwinSpires Edge, or watching movies, there are few things to consider.
Screen Size & Resolution
The screen size of your gaming monitor won’t impact your gaming performance and it comes down to personal preference. Most people think that the larger the monitor, the better, which is not always the case.
Since the monitor will be sitting about 3-4 ft. away from you, the perfect size is to go for anything from 24” to 27”.
When it comes to screen resolution, the minimal goal is to go for 1080p, but the higher pixel resolution the better. Most gamers go for 4K gaming monitors or at least 1440p, but make sure that your PC has the optimal hardware since the resolution can seriously impact its performance.
Refresh Rate
What is the refresh rate?
Refresh rate is the number of times a monitor refreshes the image on the screen. In other words, the higher the refresh rate, the smoother gaming experience you’ll get. The refresh rate should be your starting point when choosing a gaming monitor, especially if playing fast-paced games.
There are different types of monitors when it comes to refresh rate, starting from 60 Hz, 120hz, 144hz, and 240hz.
These numbers result in a blisteringly fast picture refresh rate, but it all comes down to how fast the human eye can process the image. When you compare 60 Hz to 144 Hz there is a notable difference, but after that, it is hard to tell if the picture smoothness is improving.
Type of Panel
The three most used panels in gaming monitors are TN, IPS, and VA.
TN
TN panels are usually more budget-friendly option monitors that are the least expensive of the three. The viewing angles as color accuracy are not as good as the IPS panel, but they do have blisteringly fast response times. In other words, you’ll get the most performance, but it won’t look as good.
IPS
Monitors with IPS panels are often considered as the superior of the three, with a price tag to match. In-plane switching monitors offer much better viewing angles and color accuracy than both VA and TN panels.
They have a decent response time of less than 5ms, which will definitely satisfy your gaming needs. With that said, TN panels are faster and better for performance.
VA
Finally, we have a VA panel that stands for vertical alignment and this panel offers a much better contrast ratio and deeper black levels than IPS and TN. It also provides more accurate color and viewing angles, that fall between the IPS and TN.
Basically, the VA monitor panel is great for graphic designers and people who are looking for color accuracy and better picture quality.
Response Time
Response time is also very important when choosing a gaming monitor. Response time is the time it takes to shift from one color to another and it is measured in the time it takes from black to white and back to black screen in milliseconds.
The average load time of an LCD screen is 10ms, but that is too high for a gaming monitor. Most TN and IPS panel monitors average out a response time of 5ms which is perfect for gaming.