Often times when people set out to build the perfect custom gaming set up, they put a lot of attention and time into things like processors and graphics cards and put little focus into what kind of monitor they’re going to use with their new set up, or even worse, they will reuse an old monitor from an outdated gaming build.
There is something that you need to know when it comes to gaming monitors, and it is that technology changes over time fairly quickly. If you’re still using an old outdated monitor, you could be missing out on powerful new technology that could give you an advantage in your competitive gaming. This isn’t really for casual gaming, but if you want to get the most out of your expensive gaming computer, then you will need a monitor that can display what your expensive computer can process.
What to look out for when buying a gaming monitor?
Resolution
One thing to keep in mind when buying a gaming monitor is your maximum resolution. If you buy a 1080p monitor, you should be able to display your desktop wallpaper at least 1920×1080 pixels. If you’re going to want to play games on their maximum settings however, the latest monitors are able to go above this resolution.
Pixels
You also have to keep in mind that a monitor has a set number of pixels that are calculated by the resolution. The more pixels, the more vivid and alive the colors will be on your monitor. So if you take at 1080p monitor, you would simply multiply 1920 by 1080 and you would get about 2 million pixels. The latest technology and monitors is already up to 4K monitors which give you significantly more pixels with over 8 million. So if you’re looking for the best possible monitor for gaming, then you should check out the latest 4K gaming monitors that can easily outperform anything that came before it.
What can your graphics card handle?
If you have a cheap graphics card then you should not get a 4K monitor. If you have an average or above average graphics card, you should still probably get a 1080p monitor, and avoid the higher performing monitors for until you get a better graphics card with at least 3 or 4 GB of memory.
Size of the screen
You should also a really put some attention into deciding how big you would like your monitor. I personally have a huge one that’s probably close to 27 inches and it is a 1080p HD monitor. However, for gaming professionally it is recommended to have something smaller, so aim for something above 19 inches, maybe closer to the 21 inch range, and get a 1080p monitor unless you can afford something more expensive. If you do want to use your monitor for entertainment purposes as well, then perhaps you should get something bigger in the 25 or 26 inch range. It’s really up to you and what purpose you’re buying the monitor for mainly.
Keep in mind screen sizes are measured diagonally from the bottom left corner to the top right corner or in reverse, the size of the screen is not horizontally from left to right, so a 30 inch monitor is not 30 inches wide, it is probably closer to 25 inches.
There many other things to keep in mind when choosing a gaming monitor such as the Hertz refresh rate, the ability to adjust your contrast, the weight of the monitor and other features that you might be interested in when choosing the perfect monitor for your gaming needs.