Are you buying an upgrade for your already existing monitor or you want to buy a new one? We got you covered. In this article, we will guide you on how to choose the best monitors for gaming purposes. Regardless of whether you are looking for the best monitor for xbox series x, PS5, or a gaming PC, you will surely find this article useful. Without further ado, let’s start:
Determine the screen resolution you want
The screen resolution you require for video gaming is dependent on the specifications of your PC, or in case of consoles, whether you have the latest versions. Your budget will also come into play, since higher resolution screens have a corresponding higher price associated with them. If you want the monitor with top of the line resolution, you should also be prepared to spend a lot of money for it.
1080p resolution is the regular resolution used by consoles and most PCs, however 1440p and 4k resolutions are also gaining traction amongst gaming enthusiasts. These resolutions beyond 1080p require a great deal of processing power though, so make sure that you have the best graphics card, CPU and RAM for PC, or the latest console to prevent any problems in running a game.
Below is a detailed explanation of every monitor sizes and resolution, and the corresponding hardware that you will require.
- 720p
This resolution should virtually work with any modern hardware.
- 1080p
Works well with modern hardware, but you may experience some hiccups on ultra settings of some games if you are on a fairly low end system.
- 1440p
A rare monitor resolution, this requires a mid tier hardware to be able to run games smoothly
- 4K
Do not attempt to buy a monitor with this resolution unless you have the latest consoles or PC components
- 8K
New technology, we do not recommend getting a monitor of this kind for gaming since there are hardly any games with native 8K support out there. It can work fine for watching movies and doing other stuff, but you’ll not be able to enjoy gaming with it until 8K support becomes quite common.
Refresh rate
Even though refresh rate will not make the images on your screen appear crisper and more detailed, they are still important. This is because a higher refresh rate means that moving images on your screen will do so faster and more smoothly. This smoothness is noticed more on video games that can go higher than 60 fps, which makes them more suitable for gaming. After all, a high refresh rate screen is not going to make a 24 fps movie better, but a game that can offer the framerate will provide a noticeable difference.
The most common refresh rates are 60hz, 120hz, 144hz, and 240hz. Upgrading from 60hz to 144hz will provide you with a very noticeable difference, but going beyond that will not provide much in terms of noticeable differences.
