How to choose a Monitor?

When asked what they are looking for in a gaming monitor, most gamers will answer that they’d like a large screen with high resolution for a low price. In reply, a retailer may joke that two out of three ain’t bad.

Most gamers who do not want to splurge will have to compromise on either the size or resolution of a monitor. Quality of images rendered and refresh rate are easily the most important feature of a monitor to most gamers. The single most crucial contributor to this is the resolution. Higher resolution becomes more affordable as the size of the monitor screen goes down. If you demand both vast screen space and ultra-high resolution, be prepared to pay for it.

Most popular gaming monitors these days are between 24 and 32 inches. The most common resolution you will see in monitors in this range will be 1920x1080 (also referred to simply as 1080p). Also available in this range are (albeit for a higher price) the resolution of 2560x1440 and ultra-resolution which is also known as 4k resolution. Higher resolution means smaller pixels, which result in a noticeably sharper image. Before you go for broke on a monitor with the highest possible resolution, there is one thing to consider. An increase in resolution from 1080p to 1440p translates to leap from 2,073,600 to 3,686,400 total pixels.

All of those extra pixels to drive are going to put more strain on your PC’s hardware. You may have tricked out your PC with the absolute best in breed hardware on the market today, but it will still feel the burn running the most demanding games on the highest detail settings at 4k resolution. So you will need to know what is under the hood in your PC in order to match it with the right monitor.

A key piece of hardware in this equation is the graphics processing unit or video card. Basically, if you are working with less than a new high-end graphics card like the NVIDIA 2060, going for 4k would be wasteful (this is doubly true if you want to play the latest games). Going with RTX 2070 or above card will be advisable for 4K gaming.

Somewhat larger 16:9 screens are available with 1920×1080,  2560×1440 and 4K. If you really desire the extra screen space, it’s safe to go with one of these larger models; their resolution won’t differ much from the 16:9 monitors. (Also check out some of the even larger monitors now available.) Today’s games tend to move at very rapid speeds. So along with sharpness of images, the monitor’s ability to render movement accurately and swiftly matters.

The most important factor to check out in this area is the monitor’s refresh rate along with the technology behind it (Freesync and Gsync) indicated by the number of Hz. Most monitors will have a rate of 60 Hz. Some have 120 to 240Hz, These types of monitors will make a noticeable difference in fast-paced action games. Some other features to pay attention to display contrast, black levels, and color accuracy. Sometimes manufacturers give their own figures for things like dynamic contrast, but there is no standardization of these measures in the industry, so they can’t be trusted.

Reading reviews from trusted IT sources is a better way to compare monitors. Browse our huge selection of monitors on the Gear-up.me product pages. If you have questions about finding the right one for you, contact our awesome experts @ support@gear-up.me.