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PC gamers can enjoy today’s competitive pricing in CPUs, graphics cards and memory, and build a highly capable gaming machine without having to overpay or spend a ton of money (unless you want to). We’re glad to report this PC builder’s friendly environment extends to gaming monitors as well, with dozens of great options at record-low prices for the kind of technology that you get.
This article is an extension to TechSpot’s Best Monitors that comprises professional, workstation and enthusiast oriented monitors, while this list is dedicated to high refresh rate monitors that are best suited for gaming. We’ve broken down our recommendations based on resolution and feature set, as we look for the best models that deliver on the specs, on the performance and on price.
Additional update: Best 1440p Gaming Monitors 2020
Best 1440p Gaming Monitor
If you want a high-end 1440p monitor, you’ll probably be looking at something that uses IPS LCD technology as it provides the best balance of decent response times, great color performance, excellent viewing angles, decent uniformity and a selection of mostly flat panels.
When you have tech that ticks all those boxes, it’s bound to be the high-end option that commands a price premium, however high-quality 1440p high-refresh IPS monitors have come down in price substantially in the last two years. Case in point, we can find flagship gaming monitors priced as low as $500, with budget offerings dipping below $400 for the first time.
Our recommendation for the best 1440p IPS monitor is the LG 27GL850 (read our full review), a hugely impressive monitor that offers TN-like response time performance with the color and viewing angle benefits of an IPS screen. This makes it ideal for gaming and especially high refresh rate gaming, given this is a 144 Hz display with adaptive sync support.
The differences between the 27GL850 and other 1440p IPS monitors is stark. The 27GL850 puts up an average grey to grey response of around 4ms in its optimal configuration, which is much faster than competing options that at best pack a 5ms average, or at worse are up near 7ms. Although this is advertised as a “1ms” monitor, performance is equivalent to TN displays that also advertise “1ms,” which is impressive any way you look at it.
The LG 27GL850 also has great wide gamut support, around 95% of the DCI-P3 spectrum in our testing, which is wider than any VA or TN offering we’ve seen. It lacks true HDR like most 1440p displays, but if you need wide gamut for creative work or just want a vibrant picture, the 27GL850 delivers. Uniformity and viewing angles are good, certainly better than most competitors, which allows the 27GL850 to deliver this great balance of color quality and performance.
Black levels and contrast ratio are not the best, which makes it a less ideal monitor for gaming in a dark environment. If you are in that position, we’d recommend a VA display instead. There’s also no blur-reducing backlight strobing mode, if you want that feature we’d opt for the Asus VG27AQ with its strong ELMB-Sync implementation.
Those two concerns aside, we strongly recommend the LG 27GL850 as the best all-round 1440p display on the market right now, and at $500, it’s honestly quite the steal.
One last thing to note is all high-refresh 1440p IPS monitors are currently 27-inch. If you want something larger, like 32-inch, you’re out of luck as the best panels at that size top out at a measly 75 Hz which we don’t recommend for gaming. If you want a larger panel, we wholeheartedly recommend the 32-inch LG 32GK650F (read our full review) which once held our best value 1440p monitor spot. It’s an excellent VA display that stands out because of its great performance. Most 144Hz VA displays at 1440p deliver response times in the 7-8ms range or above, with some pushing 10ms. The 32GK650F offers some of the best VA response times we’ve tested, at a 6.50ms grey to grey average, which is around the mark of a typical IPS display. This helps minimize a lot of the ghosting and smearing issues that early VA adopters have complained about.
If you want a high-end 1440p monitor, you’ll probably be looking at something that uses IPS LCD technology as it provides the best balance of decent response times, great color performance, excellent viewing angles, decent uniformity and a selection of mostly flat panels.
When you have tech that ticks all those boxes, it’s bound to be the high-end option that commands a price premium, however high-quality 1440p high-refresh IPS monitors have come down in price substantially in the last two years. Case in point, we can find flagship gaming monitors priced as low as $500, with budget offerings dipping below $400 for the first time.
Our recommendation for the best 1440p IPS monitor is the LG 27GL850 (read our full review), a hugely impressive monitor that offers TN-like response time performance with the color and viewing angle benefits of an IPS screen. This makes it ideal for gaming and especially high refresh rate gaming, given this is a 144 Hz display with adaptive sync support.
The differences between the 27GL850 and other 1440p IPS monitors is stark. The 27GL850 puts up an average grey to grey response of around 4ms in its optimal configuration, which is much faster than competing options that at best pack a 5ms average, or at worse are up near 7ms. Although this is advertised as a “1ms” monitor, performance is equivalent to TN displays that also advertise “1ms,” which is impressive any way you look at it.
The LG 27GL850 also has great wide gamut support, around 95% of the DCI-P3 spectrum in our testing, which is wider than any VA or TN offering we’ve seen. It lacks true HDR like most 1440p displays, but if you need wide gamut for creative work or just want a vibrant picture, the 27GL850 delivers. Uniformity and viewing angles are good, certainly better than most competitors, which allows the 27GL850 to deliver this great balance of color quality and performance.
Black levels and contrast ratio are not the best, which makes it a less ideal monitor for gaming in a dark environment. If you are in that position, we’d recommend a VA display instead. There’s also no blur-reducing backlight strobing mode, if you want that feature we’d opt for the Asus VG27AQ with its strong ELMB-Sync implementation.
Those two concerns aside, we strongly recommend the LG 27GL850 as the best all-round 1440p display on the market right now, and at $500, it’s honestly quite the steal.
One last thing to note is all high-refresh 1440p IPS monitors are currently 27-inch. If you want something larger, like 32-inch, you’re out of luck as the best panels at that size top out at a measly 75 Hz which we don’t recommend for gaming. If you want a larger panel, our next monitor category will be of interest to you.
If you want a high-end 1440p monitor for gaming, you’ll probably be looking at something that uses IPS LCD technology as it provides the best balance of decent response times, great color performance, excellent viewing angles, decent uniformity and a selection of mostly flat panels. Best of all, high-quality 1440p high-refresh IPS monitors have come down in price substantially in the last two years.
The best 1440p IPS gaming monitor is the LG 27GL850 (read our full review), a hugely impressive monitor that offers TN-like response time performance with the color and viewing angle benefits of an IPS screen. This makes it ideal for gaming and especially high refresh rate gaming, given this is a 144 Hz display with adaptive sync support.
The differences between the 27GL850 and other comparatively priced 1440p IPS monitors is stark. The 27GL850 puts up an average grey to grey response of around 4ms in its optimal configuration, which is much faster than competing options that at best pack a 5ms average, or at worse are up near 7ms. Although this is advertised as a “1ms” monitor, performance is equivalent to TN displays that also advertise “1ms,” which is impressive any way you look at it.
The LG 27GL850 also has great wide gamut support, around 95% of the DCI-P3 spectrum in our testing, which is wider than any VA or TN offering we’ve seen. It lacks true HDR like most 1440p displays, but if you need wide gamut for creative work or just want a vibrant picture, the 27GL850 delivers. Uniformity and viewing angles are good, certainly better than most competitors, which allows the 27GL850 to deliver this great balance of color quality and performance. Black levels and contrast ratio are not the best, which makes it a less ideal monitor for gaming in a dark environment. Those two concerns aside, we strongly recommend the LG 27GL850 as the best all-round 1440p gaming display on the market right now, and at $500, it’s honestly quite the steal.
Best of the best
Acer Predator X27 4K / 144 Hz 27″
If you’re the kind of gamer who wants the best of everything, has deep pockets, and owns a monster rig, then look no further than Acer’s Predator X27. This monitor ticks all the gaming boxes: 4K, 144Hz, G-Sync, true HDR with 1000 nits of brightness, and 384 zone FALD backlight. You will, of course, need a monster graphics card to get the most out of it, and while the $2,000 launch price has dropped, it’s still an eye-watering $1,649.
The ultrawide option
LG 38GL950G 38″ UltraGear
Fans of ultrawide gaming should check out LG’s two amazing choices at two well differentiated price ranges:
The LG 34GK950F offers 3440 x 1440 at 144 Hz, and does so with a curved IPS panel that’s excellent quality out of the box and offers over 95% DCI-P3 coverage for wide gamut work. The HDR experience isn’t great, but response times near 6ms and adaptive sync that works with AMD and Nvidia GPUs headlines a feature set that’s outstanding for ultrawide gamers. This monitor is one of best ultrawides for gaming, but it will set you back a handsome $850 which is actually considerably less than when it was released.
The newer and larger 38″ LG 38GL950G UltraGear is the best ultrawide monitor on the market bar none. Essentially it takes every feature we got with previous flagship ultrawide displays, and takes it up a notch. The resolution and panel are physically bigger, if only slightly, which we think is really good. We love this size and the bump up from 3440 x 1440 to 3840 x 1600 is handy. In our opinion offers a more immersive experience and it’s also better for split-screen productivity work. The only caveat, it’s much more expensive at $1,800.
Best 4K HDR Flagship Gaming Monitor
There are tons of monitors that claim to be HDR compatible, but don’t deliver a great HDR experience. Common issues include not supporting a high peak brightness, not including a full array local dimming backlight for increase contrast, and occasionally not even supporting wide color gamut.
Pretty much every monitor that passes DisplayHDR 400 certification doesn’t actually deliver a meaningfully improved HDR experience, and therefore isn’t worth buying as an HDR display. And it’s not much better at DisplayHDR 600, while only a small selection of DisplayHDR 1000 monitors pass all the required items in the checklist. Looking at these validation badges unfortunately isn’t enough to determine whether a HDR monitor is good.
Our advice for most people interested in HDR monitors, is the same as last year: don’t bother.
The risk of fake HDR is too high. It’s still too early to jump in to the HDR ecosystem, and we’d hate for anyone to buy an expensive HDR monitor only to discover later that they got something with fake HDR. If a monitor says it supports HDR, make sure it’s a good SDR monitor at a good price first, and then treat any HDR support as a free bonus. And don’t pay extra for HDR either, we’ve seen plenty of monitors where they offer HDR at an added price but the HDR mode isn’t any better than SDR.
With all of that said, if you have the means and are after a real HDR monitor for gaming, our recommendation goes to the Acer Predator X27, which is one of the only gaming-grade monitors we are happy recommending for HDR. It’s an expensive affair at over $1,600, but it is a wide gamut display with 384-zone FALD backlighting and 1,000 nits of peak brightness. It looks phenomenal while gaming.
It’s worth keeping in mind that several other high-quality HDR monitors are coming soon. The new ultrawide models with 512 zone FALD backlights and 200 Hz refresh rates are almost here, which could interest some buyers with deep pockets. Asus also has a new mini-LED model coming later this year, which is set to be similar to the Predator X27 but with a decent increase to the backlight zones. It could be worth waiting for these displays if you are planning to put down over $1,500 for a HDR monitor.
Best for Esports (240Hz)
For the fastest possible response times, highest refresh rates, and best overall performance with less consideration for colors, TN panels are your best bet. TN is known for speed, with other aspects like viewing angles, contrast and color performance falling well behind the other two display technologies.
Top of the line TN offerings are much faster than any current IPS/VA panels, combining the 1440p resolution with 240Hz refresh rates. This combo will punish your GPU, but it’s terrific for esports titles like CS: Go, Rocket League and Overwatch. The sort of motion handling you get at 240Hz is simply not achievable at lower refresh rates, and the only way to get this very high refresh is with a TN panel right now.
The 27-inch HP Omen X 27 is a great monitor, boasting of an elite 3ms response time average, allowing for a true 240Hz experience with very low ghosting and blur. Input lag is nearly 0, the fastest we’ve ever tested, and the adaptive sync experience is flawless. This is a really, really fast display, the fastest 1440p monitor you can get.
All the usual TN flaws and trade offs are still present — viewing angles, contrast ratios or wide color gamuts — this is not a monitor suitable for color accurate work, for example. But gaming? Oh, this is a beauty.
The Omen X 27 is available for around $580, which is not inexpensive, but it is much cheaper than its main competitor, the Lenovo Y27qg, which at around $900 we just can’t recommend. Get the Omen X 27 if you’re after a TN, and enjoy the blistering performance.
Spending less on a TN 1440p ~144Hz panel is harder to recommend as the monitors are not affordable enough to justify the trade-off, and most don’t perform significantly better than the best IPS offerings like LG’s Nano IPS range. The Viotek GFT27DB is one highlight offering with 4ms response times and decent color performance, but still suffers in the usual ways, like a lackluster contrast ratio and poor viewing angles. At $270 it could be a good option if you want fast response times on a budget, but maybe some of the budget options we’ll talk about next will interest you more.
Fast refresh at 1080p
Hardcore esports gamers sometimes will prefer smaller displays that have no more than 1080p resolution to keep those frame rates at max. The Asus ROG Swift PG258Q is a 24.5-inch 1920 x 1080 TN LCD monitor with a whopping 240 Hz refresh rate, combined with G-Sync, for the ultimate low latency, high refresh experience. Contrast and viewing angles aren’t fantastic, however default color quality is decent. Gamers should expect somewhat-near-sRGB accuracy out of the box and a very bright display, which leads to a good viewing experience with solid, vibrant colors. The Asus PG258Q presents a top of the line 240 Hz monitor choice for gamers that know their hardware won’t drop frames below 200 fps in the games they play competitively.
Best Ultrawide Gaming Monitor
For ultrawide montors, there are two directions you can go. Either you save some cash and opt for a 3440 x 1440 display at 100 Hz, or you go all out on the best 144 Hz models on the market.
When looking at 3440 x 1440 ultrawide displays at 100 Hz, all you have to spend these days is around $450, which is crazy considering a few years ago these panels were a premium $1,000+ option. Most of the budget-class models use the same Samsung VA panel, offering contrast around 3000:1 and response times in the 5-7ms range. It’s a high quality panel that’s well suited to gaming, and something we have no trouble recommending.
Our recommendation right now goes to the MSI MAG341CQ, which often sits at around $430. It’s widely available, delivers decent performance and is going to impress those who haven’t dabbled in ultrawides before.
Even better options, at a premium
If you have a more ample budget and want the best available widescreen gaming monitors, LG has two amazing choices at two well differentiated price ranges:
The LG 34GK950F offers 3440 x 1440 at 144 Hz, and does so with a curved IPS panel that’s excellent quality out of the box and offers over 95% DCI-P3 coverage for wide gamut work. The HDR experience isn’t great, but response times near 6ms and adaptive sync that works with AMD and Nvidia GPUs headlines a feature set that’s outstanding for ultrawide gamers. This monitor is one of best ultrawides for gaming, but it will set you back a handsome $850 which is actually considerably less than when it was released.
The newer and larger 38″ LG 38GL950G UltraGear is the best ultrawide monitor on the market bar none. Essentially it takes every feature we got with previous flagship ultrawide displays, and takes it up a notch. The resolution and panel are physically bigger, if only slightly, which we think is really good. We love this size and the bump up from 3440 x 1440 to 3840 x 1600 is handy. In our opinion offers a more immersive experience and it’s also better for split-screen productivity work. The only caveat, it’s much more expensive at $1,800.
Best Value 4K Gaming
For the best 4K monitor category there aren’t many displays in contention right now and we have reviewed all of them in detail already.
For most people, a 1440p 144Hz monitor will be a better option than a 4K 60 Hz display for gaming. Both cost roughly the same, but the 1440p models will have better gaming performance, better adaptive sync experiences, higher refresh rates and often better panel quality. The step up from 1440p to 4K isn’t nearly as large as the step from 1080p to 1440p in terms of visual quality either, so it’s not worth trading off all those extras – especially the higher refresh rate – for just a bump in resolution.
However there are a few monitors that offer the best of both worlds at a premium: a high-resolution 4K experience, with a high-refresh rate. Just make sure you have the necessary GPU horsepower to make the most of it.
The Acer Nitro XV273K (read our full review) will set you back around $800, delivering a 27-inch IPS display at 3840 x 2160 with a maximum refresh rate of 120 Hz. And we say 120 Hz here because despite being advertised as 144 Hz, the maximum refresh rate you can use in a practical setting is 120 Hz. Not that that’s a bad thing, it’s still a high refresh rate and something you’ll struggle to max out even with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti.
In our tests, performance is solid and it offers a wide color gamut if required. we’d ignore the HDR capabilities though, for that you have to go all the way to the true 4K flagships like the Acer Predator X27 and Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ.
Best Budget 1080p Monitor
In our last update to the best gaming monitors, we recommended the Viotek GN24C as the best 1080p display. Fast forward a few months and this excellent value option remains the best choice for gamers on a budget. It’s even come down in price slightly to just $180 from $200, making it even more of a steal than usual.
The Viotek GN24C is a 24-inch, 1080p, 144Hz display that uses a curved VA panel. There are many reasons why this is a great choice for gamers: first, that high refresh rate delivers smoother gameplay than slower 75 or 60 Hz options. Given you’re only saving $50 at best to drop down to 75 Hz, it’s worth spending the extra money on 144 Hz. Not only will this monitor’s better specs last longer, but many GPUs these days are highly capable of 1080p high refresh gaming, even in the mid-range class. So making the most of these specs isn’t as outlandish as it once was.
The GN24C also comes with FreeSync and it supports low framerate compensation, which effectively allows adaptive sync to work from 144 Hz all the way down to 1 Hz. This is a key requirement for gaming monitors and something you won’t get with cheaper 75 Hz monitors. Plus the GN24C works well with either AMD or Nvidia graphics cards.
We also like the size for 1080p. 27 inches is a bit too large for a modern 1080p display and you start to feel the effects of a low pixel density at that size. But 24″ just feels right, and the VA panel helps to deliver a decent contrast ratio of over 3000:1 in our testing. Response times are also excellent for a VA with a 5.2ms grey to grey average.
The only major downside to the GN24C is its availability: you can only get this monitor in the United States. But don’t worry, because basically the same panel is available in other territories in the MSI MAG241C. It’s a little more expensive than the GN24C in the US, but it’s still around that $200 mark which makes it a decent alternative. Don’t confuse it with the older MSI G24C though, get the MAG variant instead.
Understandably not everyone will want a curved VA panel. Some buyers might want a flat monitor instead, or something with better response times. In that case, we’ll point you towards either the Acer XFA240 or the AOC G2560FX, both are 24-inch 144Hz 1080p TN monitors at around $200. The picture quality isn’t as good as the GN24C but both are good budget options.
Masthead image credit: xNighthawk83 on reddit
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