Do I need a 24, 27 or 34 inch gaming monitor? Is full HD, 1440p enough or should it be 4K? Curved or flat? Does HDMI 2.1 play a role in a gaming monitor? And what about HDR? If you are just about to buy a gaming monitor, these are just some of the questions you might have. Hopefully this guide will help you decide which one is right for you.
Buying a gaming monitor guide
Buying gaming monitors is a bit more complicated than buying other displays. Unless you don’t have a budget, just go with the best and most expensive. But why is buying a gaming monitor a bit complicated? That’s because you have to consider the type of games you play as well as the capabilities of your GPU. These points are important when you only have a limited budget available.
The size of a gaming monitor also plays an important role. Many professional gamers swear by 24 inches. For us personally, however, 24 inches feels small, especially when the monitor is used as a work display during the day or when playing games with expansive worlds.
If you want to connect both a console and a PC, almost any newer monitor will work. On the other hand, if you want all the features, it is often around 700 euros. You must therefore first weigh up whether you gamble more on the PC or on the console. Then choose a size. Personally, we find 27 inches very appropriate.
If your PC is not able to play a 4K image at 120 Hz, you do not have to buy a gaming monitor that has these features. Unless, of course, you are planning an update in the near future.
Gaming Monitor Bestseller
Are you just looking for a good gaming monitor? Then just take a look at the following bestsellers. The gaming monitors listed here are among the best-selling and most popular. The recommendations come from Amazon customers.
Gaming Monitor Buy Quick Guide
- Within your budget and desk space, get the largest monitor you can get for single monitor setups. You’ll rarely regret buying a monitor that’s too big, but you’ll often regret buying one that’s too small. There are also super widescreen monitors with a 21:9 aspect ratio (sometimes listed as 2.35:1), but many of these are 34-inch displays with less than 4K resolution.
- Consider the aspect ratios that your favorite games support. When they only offer 16:9 options, configuring a 21:9, 24:10, or 32:9 widescreen monitor can be annoying and frustrating.
- Recommended minimum resolutions for gaming: 24-inch, 1920 x 1080 pixels; 27 to 32 inches, 2560 x 1440 pixels; 34 to 39 inches 3,440 x 1,440 pixels; 43 to 49 inches, 3840 x 2160 pixels. Note that almost all 49-inch monitors have a resolution of 3840 x 1080, which is below my recommended threshold.
- Make sure the stand can be adjusted to a suitable height for comfortable use and can be tilted to a usable angle.
- Go for a model with cross-device lighting coordination, like Razer’s Chroma or Asus Aura Sync.
- For use with an Xbox Series X or PlayStation 5 console, you must have a monitor with an HDMI 2.1 port that specifically states that it supports 4K at 120Hz with Variable Refresh (also known as VRR) support.
- If you’re putting together a multi-monitor setup, look for thin bezels. A matched set of curved displays may also work better than flat panels.
- A gray-to-gray pixel response time of 5ms or less is good for gaming; 1ms is best for fast action on high refresh rate screens.
- For many games, HDR doesn’t matter because they don’t have many areas of high brightness or deep shadows, or don’t make good use of the larger tonal range. But you will probably get better graphics for AAA games, more scary horror games, less ambushes from the shadows in FPS games and so on if they support HDR.
- Contrast is important – higher is better – but the contrast specification provided by manufacturers is almost worthless. Anything over 1,000:1 should be fine. However, we recommend 1,400:1 or higher.
If you choose a gaming monitor from well-known manufacturers (Asus, Samsung, Acer, etc.) you will always get something good. However, keep in mind that gaming monitors are rightly more expensive than conventional ones. It should be clear to you that a 4K gaming monitor with HDR for e.g. 100 euros is “not a real” gaming monitor. Many dealers and unknown manufacturers like to use the term gaming monitor, although it is not.
