A gaming monitor is a crucial element when it comes to building a good gaming PC. Often people try to avoid it due to its premium price. And it’s completely understandable. But what most new PC builders don’t see is the number of advantages gaming monitors have to offer. These latter are loaded with features designed specifically to improve your gaming experience and performance.
That’s why, today, we will explain to you why you should invest in a gaming monitor. We will also mention some tips that you should follow in order to choose the right one for you. However, please bear in mind that these tips and answers apply mostly if not entirely to main monitors. In other words, you don’t need to choose a premium monitor with amazing specifications in case you want to use it as a second one.
Without further ado, let’s dive to the first and most important question.
Is a gaming monitor worth it?
A gaming monitor is a key part of your system to enjoy a wonderful gaming experience. It provides you with a high refresh rate, low response time, a good resolution, and outstanding picture quality. And therefore, by investing in a gaming monitor, you will significantly improve your gaming experience and performance.
Does a gaming monitor really make a difference?
In short, yes, they do make a difference. When comparing gaming monitors with regular ones, gaming monitors’ features such as high refresh rate, low response time, and the better quality image will allow you to have a smooth and fantastic gaming experience. They will also affect your in-game performance significantly, especially if you are a first-person shooter player.
That’s why all competitive players opt for a gaming monitor equipped with these features.
Is it better to use a monitor or TV for gaming?
It depends on which gaming category you belong to. In other words, if you are a competitive gamer where your win rate is more important than anything else, then a gaming monitor will be a must for you. And the reason for that is, gaming monitors, come with a higher refresh rate, faster response time, and lower input lag than TVs.
On the other hand, TVs are more budget-friendly than monitors. Plus, a larger and wider screen makes it a good choice for single-player games as well as console players.
Therefore, they both got upsides and downsides, and the perfect one will be based on your own utilization.
What to look for in a gaming monitor?
Before you decide to purchase any given monitor, you will have to take look at these features, which are:
Refresh Rate
Refresh rate means the number of time that your monitor will update the image on display. In other words, the higher the refresh rate, the better performance you will have. Also, a high refresh rate can give you a significant advantage over your opponent.
Response Time
Response time is the time taken between shifting from one colour to another. Most modern gaming monitors feature a 1ms response time which is ideal for gaming. Also, even though 1ms and 5ms are close to each other, when it comes to gaming, they do make a difference. In other words, by switching from 5ms to 1ms, you will feel a big positive difference in your gaming experience.
Size
Your monitor’s size is also a factor that you should consider. For example, going with a 1440P 32 inches gaming monitor will allow you to immerse yourself into your prefered titles by delivering a fantastic image quality. But according to TomsHardware, there is a limit that you shouldn’t surpass; otherwise, you will hurt your monitor’s image quality.
If you would like to learn more about purchasing the right gaming monitor, we highly recommend taking a look at this article from TomsHardware, where they answer several questions regarding how to buy the right monitor.
What resolution should I choose?
When asking this question, most people would tell you the higher, the better, right? Wrong!! In order to pick the right resolution, you will have first to identify the capabilities of your graphics card. In other words, pairing an entry-level GPU with high resolution such as 1440P or 4K will lead you to a terrible gaming experience.
So what should you do? It’s quite simple. All you will have to do is to watch gaming benchmarks of the graphics card you own. By doing this, you will be able to choose the perfect resolution for you. However, please bear in mind that if your graphics card is able to provide you with good performance at a high refresh rate doesn’t necessarily mean that it should be your chosen resolution.
To put it another way, if you are a competitive player, it will be better to stick with your 1080P 144Hz monitor rather than going with 1440P 60Hz. As we have mentioned above, a high refresh rate provides you with a smooth gaming experience and a faster image update. However, if you don’t have any attention toward first-person shooter games, and all you want to have is stunning visuals then, it’s time for you to upgrade toward a higher resolution.
PS: Even if you prioritize visuals over smoothness, we highly recommend making sure that your graphics card is able to provide you with constant 60 frames per second at your chosen resolution. In our opinion, below 60 FPS, we believe that your preferred titles won’t be very enjoyable despite their fantastic storyline.
What is the best refresh rate for me?
In the gaming world, the higher the refresh rate, the better. This value varies between 60 Hz to 240 Hz. Generally speaking, 144 Hz displays are considered as the sweet spot.
Nevertheless, if you want to have every juice out of your monitor, then, in this case, you can opt for a 240Hz display or even 360Hz. However, please bear in mind that going above 144Hz refresh rate will not have a huge improvement in your visual experience compared to when switching from 60Hz to 144Hz.
How much it’s going to cost you a good gaming monitor?
The market is stuffed with a wide range of options from $50 to $1600 or even more. Actually, the cost varies parallel to specifications. But, in order to simplify things for you, a good gaming monitor will cost you between $200 to $300.
They are indeed quite expensive, but they definitely worth the investment. In addition to that, most of the reliable gaming monitors last for several years.
Conclusion
We hope that we could convince you in purchasing a gaming monitor as we know how important it can be for every gamer. We also know that gaming monitors’ topic is vast, and there are plenty of questions that we didn’t mention above. That’s why, if there is an important question that you want to learn about, you could simply leave us a comment below, and we will try to provide you with a helpful answer as fast as possible.
Therefore, we hope that we have given you some valuable answers to the few questions mentioned above. If you want to take action into purchasing the right gaming monitor finally, you can visit our review section, where we try to list the best PC components that worth your money.
