Best Gaming Monitor 2021 | Buying Guide for 1080p, 1440p, 4K | PC PS5 XBox

you're looking to buy a new gaming monitor but what's a good refresh rate and response time does it matter what resolution you get and does it matter what kind of games you play for what kind of monitor you want to buy we're going to go through all of this and more and give you some very specific product recommendations at every budget level coming right up [Music] hi welcome back to pc builder i'm jason today we're going to go through a subject that confuses even veteran pc builders and pc gamers and that is what is the best monitor and what kind of monitor do you need in order to play the kind of games that you're looking to play so we're going to go through a buying guide today we're going to break down all in a very brief way all the various details that you're going to be looking for when you're out buying a monitor and then i'm going to give you some very specific product recommendations that are in stock right now and that to me represent the best monitors you can buy at every budget level as we get started here of course if you're getting value out of this remember to like the video subscribe and click the bell icon because we'd love to keep doing this together that'd be awesome so the five most important things for gaming i'm only going to give you five look monitors are very very complicated you don't want to know how to design a monitor you just want to know how to buy one right so the five things that i think are the most important are number one the resolution obviously you got to figure out what resolution you want to play in we'll go over that in a second then you want to figure out what the refresh rate is of the monitor this has to do with the fps and again we'll we'll discuss just a moment then of course there's the panel type there's also the response time this deals with ghosting and artifacts and then of course there's a big debate right now curved versus flat monitor let's start with resolution so modern resolutions are probably the easiest part of it there's basically three main types of resolutions that is there's 1080p there's 1440p and there's 4k and you can see right here there's a representation of each one of them in their relative size you want to buy the monitor that you want to in the resolution that you want to game at it's not the best idea to downscale your monitor you certainly can but i wouldn't necessarily recommend it because you can get some fuzziness and things of that nature so the one thing you want to think about is what resolution is your graphics card going to be able to support this is an area where you're just gonna have to do a little bit more digging on the graphics card that you're looking for in the games that you're looking to play in these various resolutions there's always people who go out and benchmark this stuff so i'd recommend checking out some benchmarks after you watch this video and the rest of it obviously now of course there isn't just three standard resolutions there's actually even more than that and that's because we have the aspect ratio of 16 by nine that means there are 16 pixels across for every nine pixels up that's where we get resolutions by 1920 by 1080 2560 by 1440 for 1440p and 3840 by 2160 for 4k but there are widescreen resolutions as well one popular form is 21x9 widescreen you can get that in 1080p you can get in 1440p you can even get it in 4k if you're willing to spend a stupid amount of money then of course there's by nine which is ultra wide screen that means it's the same amount of pixels high it's just much longer and gives you a much larger field of view typically you'll see widescreen and ultrawide screen in curved orientations and we'll talk about that when we get to the curved section refresh rates don't confuse this with response times which we'll get to in just a moment refresh rates are expressed in hertz on monitors often abbreviated hc and you can just think of them as a stand-in for fps so a 60 hertz monitor you can get 60 fps on 144 hertz monitor you can get 144 fps on so on and so forth now depending on what kind of games you play is really going to dictate how high a refresh rate you want now just for regular casual games i i can see a difference between a 60 fps monitor and 144 hertz monitor pretty simply i'm just looking at the two panels side by side however as you get above hertz you're really getting in a territory where you really just need that super accuracy for things like competitive shooters like think of a sniper shot doing a flick shot you want to make sure that when you press the mouse button what your eye sees the frame that's displayed is actually there and you're not waiting to load another frame because your monitor is fast enough to load the most current frame and of course those refresh rates go all the way up to 240 hertz 360 hertz there is diminishing returns and i would argue anything really over 160 maybe 240 is is solely reserved right now for people who are super dedicated to high level competitive shooters for everybody else 144 165 those are really really good refresh rates and frankly for very casual games there's nothing wrong with 60 or 75 hertz refresh rates whatsoever let's talk briefly about amd freesync versus nvidia g-sync while we're on refresh rate it used to be when you had slower refresh rate monitors you'd need some kind of adaptive sync otherwise your graphics card could overwhelm that monitor with too many frames and you'd get screen tearing that's where these technologies came from now in the intervening years amd cards will now use nvidia's technology and nvidia's cards will now use amd's technology and frankly they're both really interchangeable you'll find amd freesync on cheaper monitors you'll find nvidia g-sync on more expensive monitors it has to mostly do with the licensing costs although yes i think nvidia g-sync has some very very slight advantages to it but probably most you'll never actually notice just make sure that you whatever you do you get a display port input on your monitor and use the displayport output on your graphics card to connect the two because that's where amd cards will support nvidia's solution and nvidia cards will support amd's solution at least until it's the new hdmi standards roll out let's touch on panel type really briefly because this is actually mattering less and less as the technology advances it used to be that you for gaming it was tn panel or bust because they had the fastest response rates you could get the most fps out of them even though the image quality wasn't as good as a va or ips panel and even though the side viewing on them didn't didn't look as nice however i will say this in the last 18 months in particular ips and especially va panels have really really come head and shoulders where they were to the point where i think some of the best gaming monitors right now are actually va panels and to some extent even an ips panel so i would put a lot less emphasis on this than i would have in the past and i would just say go on the individual reviews of the monitor itself and for the best image quality it's still va all right let's go over response time so what is response time put simply it's expressed in milliseconds you typically want one two or three millisecond response time anything over that what happens well it's the amount of time it takes for a pixel on your screen to go from one color state to another color state the longer it takes to do that you get things that are called ghosting it looks like the image is still there even as it's moving across your screen how do you know what the response time of your monitor is well unfortunately there's two different standards for it there's the old standard which i and others prefer which is g gtg gray to gray that's how long it takes the pixel to go from one shade of gray to another and this has been standard for a long time however as monitors have introduced motion blur reduction technology particularly through backlights they've introduced well manufacturers have introduced a new spec called mprt or moving picture response time what does that mean well it's basically it just it's the perceived amount of motion blur it takes if you add in their motion blur reduction backlight technology that they've got on the monitor now i've seen them use mprt on certain monitors where they don't actually have the motion blur reduction technology and that is called cheating so don't get a monitor where they're going to use mprt if they also don't have the motion blur reduction technology typically a backlight curve monitors versus flat monitors it's as simple as it sounds monitor curvature is expressed in terms of r now you'll see these values anywhere from like 1800 r all the way up to 4000 r what does that mean the smaller the value actually the more curvature it has and the larger the value the less curvature it has now while i said the standard is around you know 15 or 1800 all the way up to 4 000 one of the monitors i'm going to show you today the samsung odyssey g7 actually has a curvature of a thousand it's super curved why do people buy curved monitors well and especially why are the ultra wides and the wide screen monitors typically come curved now well they say it has to do with increasing your field of vision and your immersion in the actual game itself it has to do with the fact that we view things in a conical view we don't view them in in just a flat plane so there are some potential drawbacks with curb monitors but i think they're easy to overcome and really the only one is you know you might get some glare on the side depending on your lighting setup you can typically accommodate that with changing your lighting or changing the angle of your actual monitor itself all right let's put this all together now let's talk about what monitor is right for you based on your budget and based on the type of gaming that you do and then we'll go through some very specific models so if you're a budget conscious gamer or you just do super casual stuff mostly do office productivity stuff you want to play some games in your spare time there's nothing wrong with getting a 60 to 75 hertz monitor 1080p with a 5 millisecond or better response time to it i would just make sure you get something with freesync or g-sync get displayport on it if you can i do recognize that some of the super budget monitors they don't come with displayport they're hdmi only probably going to be okay there now for most of you who are aaa casual gamers or somewhere kind of in that in that realm and you've got the budget to spend you want a decent monitor i would recommend getting something that's at least hertz either a 1080p or 1440p panel i would lean towards 1440p depending on your graphics card and what it can handle and for that monitor i recommend three millisecond response rate or better excuse me response time 4k is also good here just recognize that the response times on 4k monitors and the refresh rates on them are are much worse because you got to change a lot more pixels there of course if you're somebody who's super into competitive shooters and you need max fps to make sure you have the ultimate competitive advantage then i would recommend at a minimum getting a 165 hertz 1440p or 1080p monitor i would recommend the 1440p 165 hertz otherwise i'd go all the way to 240hz on 1080p or 360hz on 1080p take your pick now it's all going to be depends on what you can spend on your budget of course and finally let's talk about what monitor size is right for you well really it comes down to personal preference but 24 27 inch and 32 inch are really the standard sizes right now i personally wouldn't go any smaller than 24 inch again personal preference can you get a smaller monitor of course you can but let me ask you this is it going to be worth the 15 20 35 that you save on it over the life of your computer remember it's a gaming computer the main output is what you can see and what you can hear so the major areas i would not skimp on is necessarily the monitor for those of you out there who want to buy a wide screen or ultra wide screen in terms of the size of the monitor i just do want to note that note that those monitors typically have lower refresh rate and higher response times because they have a lot more pixels to refresh on the screen so just something to note when you click over from the 16x9 version of a monitor to the ultra wide make sure you double check the other specs as well so let's kick off our monitor recommendations links of course are going to be down in the description and i'm going to check this video once a week if something goes out of stock and looks like it's not coming back in i will put in an alternate product that i think is a great recommendation so make sure to check the description for anything i've recommended since the video came out as well starting off at 1080p displays now 1080p is two types of gamers still play here those who are budget conscious and can't afford to jump into 1440p or they don't have a graphics card similar reason they can't afford to jump up or you're super into high refresh rate really competitive shooters so we're going to start at the bottom end of that and we're going to talk about budget gamers there still are really phenomenal deals at 1080p one of them is the aoc 24 g2 24 inch ips gaming monitor now this is a 1080p monitor with a one millisecond response rate and 144 hertz refresh rate comes with amd freesync displayport hdmi it's got a height adjustable stand overall this is a phenomenal phenomenal value yes it's 180 and yes there are some cheaper monitors that are almost in it same class but honestly for me i think spend the extra 20 or 30 bucks this is a super great value and i think anybody who gets this one would be really really excited about it of course if you're looking for something a little bit bigger a 27 inch panel i would recommend the gigabyte 27-inch 144 hertz 1080p gaming monitor now this is an ips display of course it does have a one millisecond response rate however that is mprt it's not gray to gray so just fyi on it however this is overall a really good panel really well reviewed panel and if you're looking for something a little bit bigger i would definitely recommend this for just 209 right now at amazon and i'll include links to other outlets as well the other folks who are still of course gaming at 1080p are people who are really really into competitive shooters and they want the absolute max refresh rate so they can get the max fps for those of you i've got a really phenomenal monitor get your wallets out though it's the asus tough gaming vg279qm that's a mouthful isn't it 27 inch hdr monitor now this is 1080p fast ips panel so you're going to get really nice color on it 280 hertz that means you're going to get 280 fps out of this thing does come with g-sync compatibility as well as it's got the extreme low motion blur sync on it with a one millisecond response rate and that's greater grade too so that's really really phenomenal this is a 27 inch panel it's 380 over at amazon i'll include links to other retailers if i can find it there if that's a little rich for your blood but you still want this level of performance you're willing to drop down to a 24 inch model they have one for 310 dollars and i'll also include a link to that one as well now we're going to jump over to 1440p 1440p is still the second most popular resolution after 1080p however it is probably the most fast growing resolution because a lot of people are moving out of 1080p and into 1440p especially as graphics cards have advanced over the last couple years so we're going to start off at the quote unquote budget now there's no such thing as a super budget 1440p monitor that's any good another gaming one but we're going to start off with a samsung 27-inch odyssey g5 now one interesting thing about this monitor yes it's got 144 hertz and one millisecond response rates which is really great with amd freesync on it but this monitor has a 1000r curvature so the curvature on this monitor is pretty extreme i'm not going to lie to you however a lot of people like it a lot of people feel like it's much much more immersive and in particular the odyssey line for samsung you're going to see more of these monitors as we progress because they are really phenomenal panels 270 dollars right now over at amazon this will get you in 1440p this monitor will probably carry it for the next five years if you're looking for something in the 32 inch size range at 1440p and you want to stay within that same budget range let me introduce you to the dell 32 inch curved gaming monitor is an s32 20 dgf 380 over at dell again 1440p resolution 165 hertz refresh rate with adaptive sync freesync on it and it comes with hdr high dynamic range so you're going to get really really super crips colors out of this thing the response rate is a little higher than some of the other monitors i believe this one's a four millisecond however i think the colors and the picture on this along with that refresh rate are really gonna keep it competitive if you're not looking to spend six seven eight hundred dollars yet of course if you have to have the best of the best of the best in 1440p gaming especially right now the 4k monitors are just not there yet in terms of price and everything let me introduce you to the samsung 27 inch and the 32 inch variant odyssey g7 now this is a 240 hertz refresh rate monitor with a one millisecond response rate on a va panel which is really phenomenal and when tested by the likes of hardware and boxed they found that this panel just completely blew the others out of the water the other thing reviewers all remark on on this monitor is the fact it's got a 1000 r curvature it's a very aggressive curvature and a lot of folks were saying it just really sucked them into the overall experience now you know listen if you can afford to spend six hundred dollars on a 27 inch monitor it's on sale right now i would grab it it normally sells for 700 it's on sale for 600 the 32 inch is on sale for 700 it normally sells for 800 i'll leave links down in the description for newegg amazon and best buy these are the three major outlets for it check around find the cheapest price again if you want the best of the best there really is no beating this monitor it isn't a class by itself at least until something else hits the market for those of you looking for an ultra wide experience let me give you a 1440p ultrawide monitor again we're going to go with samsung 34 inch odyssey g5 samsung is just killing it in the 1440p range at the very high end now this is going to set you back 600 bucks this is not a cheap monitor however it's 165 hertz refresh rate one millisecond response time again with that really crisp panel to it and the 1000r curvature which is really going to kind of suck you in an immersion one i think is really critical in these wider screens that are 34 inches wide so again not a cheap monitor but if you're looking for a really immersive experience and you don't want to drop that frame rate all the way down to like 100 hertz which you'll see in a lot of other ultrawide panels their 16 by 9 resolution monitors will be up there 165 or 180 to 200 and also they'll drop down to 100 or less with the ultra wide then this is definitely the way to go let's talk 4k gaming at high refresh rates there is just not a lot out there yet it's still developing we need the new hdmi standards new display port standards it's hard to transmit that much data through the single cable without uh digital compression and not all the monitors support that yet however there is one monitor here that i would recommend if you don't mind spending the money which is for eight hundred dollars the lg 27 gn 950b it's a 27 inch 144 hertz one millisecond response rate monitor now this is an ips display so you get really good color out of it and honestly it's kind of this and then there's nothing really else there's one other monitor that's in the stratosphere i'm going to include it just to give it to you so you can see it but honestly until more products hit the market maybe later this year this is kind of the king right now in terms of anything in human being price range so if you're dedicated to gaming at you know 4k and you've got an rtx 3090 rtx 3080 rx 6800 or 6900 xt then this is a monitor that will take full advantage of those cards we're going to round out the 4k monitors with a monitor that i'm just going to be honest i would not buy myself just because i would i can't see spending twelve hundred dollars on a 27 inch panel when i can get a 1440p panel or the lg panel however the lg panel has had stock issues and if you are if money is no object for you then i got i got something for you and it's the asus rog strix 27 inch 4k now this is an hdr monitor so you're going to get really phenomenal color out of this thing it's an ips panel 144 hertz one millisecond response rate again not much to say other than this is kind of the best of the best of the best of monitors it comes with g-sync enabled again it's got the high dynamic range uh so you're gonna get phenomenal color out of it it's got some pretty cool rgb on it as well if money is no object and or if the lg monitor is sold out that i recommended because it's often sold out then really this is the next thing for 4k and if this is not also available i'd go get the gal the odyssey g7 at the 1440p range i'm not really sold on a lot of other 4k monitors so to me it's either this the lg monitor or i'm going to go get that g7 because it's a kick-ass monitor that's a quick romp through how to buy a monitor and some of the best monitors right now again links are down in the description and if things are going out of stock i'll check this video once a week and i will replace uh the monitors in there with things that i would also buy at that same price range you know what to do if you like the video please make sure to give it a like it makes a big difference to the channel even more than subscribing but i want you to do that too uh subscribe of course it's free for your support thank you so much for joining us and we'll catch you on the next one you

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Keywords: best gaming monitor 2021, best gaming monitor, best 1440p gaming monitor, best 1080p gaming monitor, best 144hz gaming monitor, best 240hz gaming monitor, best 4k gaming monitor, best monitor for gaming 2021, best gaming monitor for ps5, best gaming monitor for xbox series x, best gaming monitor under 200, best gaming monitor 240hz, best gaming monitor 144hz, best budget gaming monitor, ps5 monitor, gaming monitor, best ps5 monitor, best monitor 2021, best 1440p 144hz monitor

Id: CWSMeZTyPRc

Length: 22min 57sec (1377 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 27 2021