There has never been a time with more availability of different configurations of gaming monitors on the market. Between size, shape, resolution and refresh rate, it can be somewhat daunting to find the right one for your needs.
Below, we discuss what all of these variables actually mean for you, to allow you to buy the best gaming monitor that your budget allows.
Size
Contents
One of the most important factors to take into consideration when buying a gaming monitor is its size. The consensus seems to be that bigger is always better, however with distances from the monitor and the resolution, this is really not the case. There are two main considerations to take into account when looking at the size of any gaming monitor that you may want.
- Distance – How far a monitor is placed from you will be a crucial piece of information to know when looking into a new monitor. Sitting too close to a large monitor while not only potentially damage your eyes but will make you miss important details on the screen as well. Below are the most popular monitor sizes and recommended minimum viewing distances.
- 20″ – 0.32 m / 1.0 ft
- 22″ – 0.35 m / 1.1 ft
- 24″ – 0.38 m / 1.2 ft
- 27″ – 0.43 m / 1.4 ft
- 28″ – 0.44 m / 1.5 ft
- 30″ – 0.48 m / 1.6 ft
- 32″ – 0.51 m / 1.7 ft
Keep in mind that these distances are the minimum to avoid eye strain, a larger distance will give you the best viewing angle.
- Resolution – Resolution is the number of pixels available on the monitor. While more will normally look better, under the 32″ size, anything over 1440p is considered to be diminishing returns.
Resolution
Resolution is the count of how many pixels are available in the screen, which is heavily tied to the size of your monitor. The common measurement for the resolution to size scale is Pixels Per Inch, or PPI for short. The usual recommended PPI value is 100 or over, as this will allow you to have a crisp, clean image while not being at a point of diminishing returns. For example, a 24″ monitor would perform best at 1080p, while a 29″ monitor would look grainy at 1080p and would perform much better at 1440p. While options like 4k are available, for gaming uses 4k is often considered to be too intensive for current consumer hardware. Between 1080p and 1440p is widely considered to be the sweet spot for gaming use.
Refresh Rate
The refresh rate of a monitor is how many pictures it can show per second. For many years, 60 was the standard for PC gaming, while 30 was the standard for console gaming. In recent years, we have seen a large spike in higher refresh rate monitors.
Having a higher refresh rate will make the games such as black lotus no deposit code feel even smoother and more responsive. 60 is still a standard for lower end hardware, while high-end hardware has the ability to run games at 144hz and sometimes even 240hz. This will be very dependent on the games you play, the resolution you play at and what computer hardware you have, as the higher the frame rate, the more powerful system you will require.