The best gaming monitors to take you to the next level

Gaming isn’t just about skills, it’s also about visuals.You can have all the skill in the world, but that won’t make up for a slow refresh rate or response time. These are all important things to keep in mind when searching for your next gaming monitor.

Monitors are only getting better as technology advances, and it’s not impossible to get a really great gaming monitor for a low price. Then again, serious gamers will want all the bells and whistles more expensive monitors offer. And they get pricey.

That’s why we’ve researched some of the best monitors available, and picked a range of price points so that you’ll be able to get a winner no matter what your budget looks like.

Do you really need a gaming monitor?

This depends on what kind of gaming you’ll be doing. For some, visuals are the most important part of a gaming monitor. These shoppers may want to go large-screen, and for something uber immersive, such as a curved screen. High resolution will be the key here. Some prefer an ultrawide monitor, but we think that awesome audio is even more important to compliment a beautiful display. What’s cooler than a monitor that enables you to hear different noises from the game from different locations?

E-sports players, pro gamers, or those looking for something to enable multiplayer gaming will want to go with a monitor that supports high-speed gaming. While all the monitors we’ve included on this list work at great speeds, the best one for this type of player might be the ViewSonic Elite, which doesn’t compromise in speed or visuals. 

What are the most important things to consider when buying a monitor?

Purchasing something like a monitor can be tricky, becase there are so many options out there offering different specs and features. To help you get started, keep these things in mind:

Size — This is a given, but an important thing to nail down right at the start. What size display do you want? How much desk space do you have? What’s your budget? Usually, the bigger displays are on the more expensive side. Also, bigger isn’t always better.

Resolution — The higher the resolution your display can produce, the higher pixel count, which creates better visual detail and clarity. You’ll want something that is at least 1080p full HD, but if you want the best quality, aim for 2160p 4K.

Refresh rate — This measures the number of times your monitor can refresh an image per second. As long as you have a good GPU in your computer, you should be able to handle a smooth frame rate, and can go for a high Hertz count. 144Hz is a good middle ground to aim for.

Adaptive sync — This comes at no extra cost in most monitors, so it’s important to make sure your chosen display includes it. AMD FreeSync and NVIDIA G-Sync are some of the more common ones, and prevents screen tearing while you play.

Response time — Response time is a measurement of how much time a pixel needs to go from black to white. When it comes to gaming, this will mostly affect camera movement — the lower the response time, the less motion blur you’ll experience when you’re moving around during gameplay.

You’ll obviously want to think about things like price and style, but these features are a good place to start.

What are the best gaming monitors?

Make no bones about it, all the monitors we have lined up are spectacular. But we wanted to include monitors that span all price points, as well as monitors for different types of gamers. So you’ll find something for everyone and every budget in this list. With every choice, we kept resolution, refresh rate, and key features in mind.

These are the best gaming monitors in 2021.