A gaming monitor is a critical component of a gaming rig. Whether you're a competitive gamer or prefer to engross yourself in an FPS game, you'll need a high-quality monitor with a powerful graphics card to ensure a smoother gaming experience. Advancements in technology have led to the development of premium gaming parts and selecting the best competitive gaming monitor can leave you feeling overwhelmed, especially with the plethora of options and technical specifications available in the market. Are you looking to pick out the best gaming monitor but don't know what to look out for? Not to worry, this article explores three characteristics of a high-quality gaming monitor.

 

With the development of more competitive games, pro gamers are increasingly looking to gain an edge, and a monitor with a higher refresh rate will do just that. The refresh rate of a gaming display refers to how often the panel can refresh with new information. What's more, it controls the frame rate. In gaming, the faster a monitor switches images, the smoother the gameplay and the monitor's refresh rate ultimately determines how quickly it can refresh images.

Standard monitors are often 60Hz and a display with a 60Hz refresh rate can refresh the image on display up to 60 times per second. However, the best gaming monitors usually have refresh rates of 144Hz and 240Hz. The significant advantage of having a monitor with a higher refresh rate is the improved reaction time and choosing a monitor with a high refresh rate won't make much difference without a powerful GPU to push a high frame rate.

When purchasing a high-quality monitor, it helps to consider the display resolution to ensure you get the best visual experience. The display resolution of a monitor refers to the number of pixels it can accommodate. Gaming monitors essentially comprise tiny pixels that display various colors at different shades, which combine to display a single image.

Generally, the more pixels a gaming monitor has, the greater the image quality and a gaming monitor's resolution determines the number of pixels it has. The best value gaming monitors feature 1080p FHD, 1440p, and 4K resolutions. Interestingly, things are looking up with the emergence of 8K, OLED, and HDR resolutions. Monitors with high pixel density tend to cost more than monitors with lower resolutions. Remember that a higher resolution gaming monitor requires more processing power to function optimally; so, a good rule of thumb is to select a gaming monitor that can handle the pixel density set by your GPU.

If you don't have an A-list computer system, you may experience difficulty running a higher resolution display at a good frame rate, so consider purchasing a 1080P monitor. In addition to being affordable, they can run optimally on a low-budget graphics card. Moreover, 1080P display resolution can play your favorite games.

 

Gaming monitors come equipped with TN, VA, or IPS panels and each of these panel types has its pros and cons. TN panels are unarguably the most prevalent panel in use today and the significant disadvantage is that they produce low-quality images and viewing angles. On the other hand, IPS panels produce the best picture quality due to better color accuracy and viewing angles.

What's more, the IPS panel technology features a 4ms response time, which is considerably higher than TN panel technology.

Lastly, VA panels offer excellent viewing angles and top-notch picture quality than TN panels. However, this panel technology is reputed to have issues with ghosting owing to higher response time. Competitive gamers tend to choose TN panels because of their quick response time and low input lag.

All in all, the characteristics listed above should give pro gamers an idea of what to look for in a competitive gaming monitor to ensure you make the best purchase decision.