Key Takeaways
- Don’t overlook monitor presets – they’re made for a reason and can enhance image quality effortlessly.
- Resolution matters for a clear and sharp image – choose the highest resolution your monitor and GPU can handle.
- Refresh rates impact gaming speed – higher Hz means fluid moving images, important for FPS games.
Once you have your monitor all plugged in and ready to go, one of the first things you will want to do is make sure it looks as good as possible. There are multiple settings that you can change to help with this and in this article, we are going to cover seven settings that you can change in minutes to be sure you are getting the most from your monitor. As always, you will need to consider your use case to help you decide which settings will be best. For instance, you may want to use different settings depending on what genres of games you will be playing. FPS gamers may want brighter settings with higher Hz, while RPG or open-world adventurers may want the best graphics quality possible. Most of these settings are very straightforward to find and can either be found on your monitor settings menu or if using Windows, in the Display Settings.
7 Resolution
The higher, the better (In most cases)
When it comes to providing a crisp and clear image, the resolution is one of the biggest and easiest to change factors. Ensuring your monitor is running at its maximum resolution is crucial as the higher the resolution, the more pixels you are using. Most monitor resolutions are measured in width x height, such as 1920×1080, 2560×1440 or 3840×2160 so make sure to choose the best resolution for your needs.
Pixels are essentially small dots on your monitor that output colors to make up the image you see on your screen. The more pixels you have, the smaller they are, which is what allows them to offer a sharper and clearer image. However, when it comes to gaming, it will also depend on your PC components, specifically your GPU, and if it is powerful enough to run your game at your desired resolution. You can always check if your hardware is good enough by looking at the game’s required specifications, which can normally be found on the developer’s website. Or, you can use sites like Can You Run It to help see if your system is up to the task.
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6 Monitor Presets
Making your life as easy as possible
If you are unsure where to start, most monitors these days already have some presets included that the manufacturer has deemed as the preferred for certain games or movies. Using these presets will change things such as brightness, contrast, gamma, color temperature, and more to give you an easy solution for obtaining a better image quality.
These settings are normally straightforward and will be found in your monitor’s settings. A lot of the time, they will have presets for FPS, racing, standard, movie, and photo, and can be changed in a matter of seconds once you find them. Most monitors will also come with a user setting, so you can define your color profile and save it to the monitor should you want to try this out.
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5 Brightness and Contrast
Light or dark images and overall image quality
Your brightness and contrast settings will depend on what you are playing or watching on your monitor. FPS gamers may want things as bright as possible, so they can see their enemies better. Whereas RPG players may want their game to look more dark and moody. You will want to change these settings to find the desired look for what you are doing at the time.
The brightness setting is going to do just that and make whatever you are looking at on the monitor either brighter or darker. When it comes to contrast, the higher it is, the more depth and detail your monitor will have, which will enhance the overall display quality.
4 HDR
Brighter whites and deeper blacks
HDR stands for High-Dynamic Range and will allow your monitor to display a wider color palette and give a better brightness level. This is going to make your games or movies look even more realistic, and you may even notice new textures in games you’ve never seen before.
However, it’s not all fun and games. HDR thrives at a 4K resolution and using it at lower resolutions may not output the same level of detail. It can also affect your FPS when gaming, depending on what hardware you are using. If you are not to sure about it, give it a try as it can always be turned back off again if need be.
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3 Color Temperature
Warm or cool, color temps can affect output colors on your monitor
Color temperatures are how a certain color will appear when it is measured using the Kelvin scale. Warmer colors will give off a more orange/yellow color while cooler colors emit a more blue/white look. Most monitors will set the standard color temperature at 6500K, which is right about where the blue color starts to come into effect.
One thing to consider when it comes to the color temperature setting is the ambient lighting where you are. If the sun is shining on the monitor, colors may already appear to look warmer, which means they may need more of a correction to look how you want. However, you will also have to account for when the sun goes away, as you won’t want to overcorrect. The standard color temperature is 6500K and in most cases, this is fine.
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2 Refresh Rates
Getting the jump on your enemies
Refresh rates are measured in Hz (Hertz), which is the number of times the image on your monitor is updated per second. The higher the Hz, the faster your monitor is updating the image, which means you should essentially see things that are moving quicker and more fluidly. This is essential in gaming, especially FPS, as it allows you to get the jump on your enemy.
The standard refresh rate is still 60 Hz, but we are seeing many more companies using 100 Hz as the minimum. When it comes to gaming, you can get various refresh rates, such as 120Hz, 144Hz, 165Hz, and 240Hz, and some companies even offer a massive 500Hz, such as the Alienware AW2524HF.
1 G-Sync and FreeSync
Make your games look even better
Source: Nvidia
A lot comes into play when considering G-Sync or FreeSync. Not only do you need a compatible monitor, but you are also going to need a compatible GPU. Newer NVIDIA GPUs offer G-Sync and new AMD GPUs offer FreeSync. Both G-Syng and FreeSync offer very similar features to each other. You will also need to look at the game you are interested in to see whether it supports these technologies.
Both of these are adaptive refresh technologies that sync your monitor with your GPU to combat input lag, stuttering, and even screen tearing. This will make your gaming experience much more enjoyable.
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Getting the most from your gaming monitor
As we have now seen, it is quite easy to make sure you are getting the most from your new gaming monitor. There are a myriad of settings that can be changed to help enhance your viewing pleasure, even more than we have covered here today. The best part is, generally, once you get everything set up to your preference, there is no need to change it!