Key Takeaways
- A 27-inch 1440p gaming monitor will be a night and day difference compared to a 22″ Full HD one.
- A high-refresh IPS or VA panel will take your gaming experience to a new level compared to a 60Hz panel.
- If you want to experience true HDR and other advanced features, you may need a new monitor.
A great gaming monitor is a crucial element if you want the best experience out of your gaming PC. After all, it’s the display that delivers the high framerate, smooth motion, and brilliant colors of the image to your eyes. Today’s best gaming monitors have come a long way compared to just a few years ago. Features that were considered elusive and limited to expensive models are now commonplace in lower mid-range and budget gaming monitors.
If you’re rocking an old gaming monitor and are on the fence about making an upgrade, there are a few worthwhile reasons that could convince you to finally switch to a modern gaming monitor. And these reasons aren’t limited to gaming performance — having a great display can enhance your productivity and day-to-day workloads as well.
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6 Ergonomics and other features
Curved screens, USB-C, adjustable stands
If you’re using a really old monitor, chances are that it doesn’t have much in the way of ergonomics — adjustable height, tilt, pivot, swivel, etc. These features, while not essential, can make a big difference to usability. You can easily change your screen’s orientation to match your desires at any given moment. It can play a big role in eye and body comfort when working for long hours.
Other features you can get when upgrading to a new monitor are curved screens, ultrawide screens, motion blur reduction, USB-C hubs, built-in speakers, thin bezels, USB passthrough, HDMI 2.1, and more. Not all of these might matter to you, but they can help you in making a purchase decision when you’re comparing some similar models.
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5 You have a 22″ monitor
27″ monitors hit the sweet spot
22-inch monitors had a great run. Many people, including me, had their first taste of LCD/LED monitors on a 22″ panel after finally ditching their 15″ CRTs. That jump in screen size felt like a huge improvement, but over the years, monitor sizes have grown at a much more rapid pace. We now have 24″, 27″, and 32″ models for traditional form factors and up to 55″ models for ultrawide monitors.
The additional screen real estate will immediately capture your imagination, delivering a stunning gaming experience
If you’re using a 22″ monitor, you’re missing out on a lot. An upgrade to a 27″ gaming monitor — which is what I’d recommend to most people — will feel like a night and day difference. The additional screen real estate will immediately capture your imagination, delivering a stunning gaming experience. Even after that, you’ll continue to appreciate all the additional benefits that come with a modern 27-inch gaming monitor.
Those moving up to a 4K resolution panel can even consider a 32-inch monitor and enjoy the same level of gaming goodness.
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4 You’re playing at 1080p
Move from FHD to QHD
Full HD or 1080p remained the de facto resolution for gamers (and almost everyone else) for the longest time. But, when 1440p and 4K monitors started arriving on the market, gamers had more than one option when choosing their monitor resolution. Today, 1440p monitors have become the go-to choice for most new PC builders. Even though 1080p gamers still form the majority, the resolution is fast becoming outdated.
You get crisper and better-looking visuals and a higher PPI, depending on the screen size.
The jump from 1920×1080 to 2560×1440 resolution gives you nearly 77% more pixels, bumping up the image clarity significantly. You get crisper and better-looking visuals and a higher PPI, depending on the screen size. The accompanying increase in the GPU power required to deliver the same performance as before is also significant, but if you have one of the best GPUs for gaming capable of handling 1440p 60+ FPS gaming, I suggest you jump to 1440p.
4K gaming monitors can take your gaming experience up another notch, but I feel the jump from 1440p to 4K isn’t as dramatic. Although, if you have the budget, moving from 1080p to 4K is definitely recommended.
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3 You’re using a TN monitor
IPS, VA, and OLED are the way to go
TN used to be the predominant panel type in monitors before VA, IPS, and later OLED monitors became more common and affordable. Although uniquely suited to esports titles due to their ability to deliver ultra-high refresh rates, TN monitors suffer from poor color reproduction and viewing angles. Due to this, most gamers prefer IPS or VA panels today, with a small percentage willing to shell out a premium for OLED, Mini-LED, or QD-OLED monitors.
If you upgrade from a TN panel to, say, an IPS panel, you’ll be getting vastly superior image quality, viewing angles, and hugely competitive motion handling. IPS panels generally suffer from a lower contrast ratio compared to VA panels, so if you like playing in a dim or dark room, a decent VA monitor will prove better for you.
OLEDs or Mini-LEDs cost much more than these but come with perfect blacks, near-instant response times, and, in many cases, higher brightness. Whatever you go with, you’ll be getting a vastly superior gaming experience compared to an older TN monitor.
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2 You have a 60Hz monitor
Embrace high-refresh-rate gaming
60Hz monitors used to be more than enough around 10 years ago, when high refresh rate monitors were still pretty new and people were used to gaming on 60Hz. But, as 120Hz panels became more affordable and gamers got a taste of what 60+ FPS looked like, there was no going back. The market quickly came up with 144Hz and later 165Hz, 180Hz, 240Hz, and 360Hz monitors. Today, we even have 500Hz monitors available to buy.
Jumping to 240Hz isn’t worth it for most people, as not everyone needs or can afford to drive the higher FPS.
The jump from 60Hz to 144Hz is a pretty drastic one — provided your system can drive the frames, you’ll be shocked to experience 75+ or 100+ frames for the first time. The enhanced smoothness in gameplay and lower latency are game-changing. Jumping to 240Hz isn’t worth it for most people, as not everyone needs or can afford to drive the higher FPS. Plus, the added smoothness will not be as noticeable as it was when switching from 60Hz to 144Hz.
Modern monitors also have variable refresh rate (VRR) technology like FreeSync or G-SYNC, which dynamically adjusts your monitor’s refresh rate to the FPS being churned out by your GPU, preventing image artifacts and keeping things smooth.
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1 You want to experience HDR gaming
True HDR gaming needs serious hardware
HDR is a word that’s casually thrown around where gaming monitors are concerned. You’d notice many modern monitors slapped with the HDR10 certification but that rarely translates to anything meaningful in real-world usage. If you’ve been using an older mainstream monitor, you’ve likely still haven’t had your first taste of HDR gaming. Even today, you need to spend at least $600 on an OLED monitor if you want real HDR.
If you have the budget to spend on an OLED, QD-OLED, or Mini-LED gaming monitor, then they should be the only options you should be considering for HDR.
The hardware required for delivering a worthy HDR image is still pricey. You need hundreds (if not thousands) of dimming zones, ideally self-emitting pixels, and perfect calibration to extract a superior HDR experience from a monitor. But, when the best HDR monitors manage to get these right, the result is sublime. If you have the budget to spend on an OLED, QD-OLED, or Mini-LED gaming monitor, then they should be the only options you should be considering for HDR.
Fortunately, we have started seeing sub-$300 Mini-LED monitors with 400-600 dimming zones, IPS-beating contrast ratios, and decent brightness, so it might be worth waiting to see what this year brings next.
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Out with the old, in with the new
Gaming monitors have evolved greatly, keeping pace with more powerful graphics cards, CPUs, and memory. From humble 22-inch and 60Hz screens, we can now grab 32-inch, 4K 144Hz gaming monitors for around $400. While the sweet spot for most people is a 27″, 1440p high-refresh-rate IPS or VA model, it’s great to see high-end OLED, QD-OLED, and Mini-LED models flourish in the market.
Generally, the affordability of a decent, fast, and great-looking PC display has improved dramatically in just a few years. It’ll be exciting to see what’s in store for us next, as more and more affordable Mini-LED models arrive on the market this year.
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