Gaming Monitor - The Buying Guide

Introduction

Your gaming monitor is often the centrepiece of your setup, and yet it's still the component most players underestimate. You drop a fortune on a tower, you buy the mouse everyone recommends on Reddit… and then you keep the old 60Hz screen that's been sitting on your desk since high school. Big mistake.

Because no matter how powerful your PC is, if your monitor can't actually display the image, none of it matters. Same goes for your reflexes. You can have the best aim on the server, but if your panel is showing you the action a beat late, you're at a disadvantage before the round even starts.

So let's go through which gaming monitor to choose based on your needs and the games you actually spend your evenings on. We'll cover which panel type suits which genre and why, and we'll also look at the panels that give you both excellent in-game performance and excellent video quality, for when you want to switch to a series without leaving your desk.

What makes a good gaming monitor

Before we talk about specific models, you need to understand the three numbers that show up on every single spec sheet. Once you've got these down, choosing gets a whole lot easier.

Refresh rate (Hz)

This is how many images your monitor can display per second. A 60Hz monitor shows 60 frames, a 240Hz monitor shows 240. The higher the number, the smoother the motion and the sooner the information reaches your eyes.

In practice: the jump from 144Hz to 240Hz is most noticeable when tracking targets in FPS titles. Beyond that you're into diminishing returns territory, reserved for genuinely competitive players — but those returns are real, which is exactly why pros are running 360Hz, 400Hz and now 600Hz. One caveat: your PC needs to actually push the frames to match, otherwise you're paying for Hz you'll never see.

Response time (ms)

This is how long a pixel takes to change colour. When it's too slow, you get a trail behind moving objects — the classic ghosting effect. For competitive play you want 1ms or lower. The best panels now go down to 0.3ms, and OLED goes lower still.

Panel type

This is by far the most important spec, because it's what defines your monitor's personality. TN, IPS, VA or OLED — each one has its own character, and that's what the rest of this guide is about.

Gaming monitors for competitive play

If you play competitive titles, a monitor built around latency and speed is non-negotiable. What you're after is an ultra-low response time and a high refresh rate. Several panel types can do the job, but the vast majority of pro players on competitive FPS titles like Counter-Strike and Valorant are all running TN panels.

You've definitely heard of them: Zowie BenQ monitors are the ones you'll see at every Valorant and Counter-Strike event. They use Fast TN and TN panels built around response time and, above all, refresh rate, which stays extremely high across the whole range. Some models even reach 600Hz with a 1ms response time.

Other monitors like the AOC CS24A, also at 600Hz, have the major advantage of an Ultra-Fast TN panel: response time drops even further than a standard TN, all the way down to 0.3ms.

There is a trade-off, and it's worth being straight about it: colour reproduction and viewing angles on a TN panel are clearly a step below everything else. But when your goal is to spot a head peeking round a corner one frame earlier, that isn't really the point.

Gaming monitors for stunning image quality

If competitive play isn't your thing and 1920x1080 is starting to tire your eyes, let us introduce you to the best monitors for stunning image quality and perfect colours, whatever you're playing. You probably saw this coming, because everyone talks about it, but the OLED panel is hands down the best option for PERFECT image quality.

The colours on an OLED monitor genuinely make a difference, and one simple example proves it: the colour black. On OLED, each pixel switches off individually, which gives you true, deep black, where a conventional panel gives you a dark grey that's more or less convincing. If you play for the experience rather than the competition and you want full immersion, that changes absolutely everything.

And the best part is that OLED monitors are good at everything. Beyond the image quality, these are also extremely responsive panels with some of the fastest response times on the market. So you get a monitor with a stunning picture while keeping a display that's perfectly viable for competitive play.

The one real barrier is price, which sits noticeably above the other technologies. You'll also hear a lot about burn-in: on recent models, manufacturers build in dedicated protections and cover it in their warranty, so for normal use it's no longer the problem it was a few years ago.

The all-rounder gaming monitor

Some monitors are good everywhere without being exceptional anywhere. They're not quite on an OLED level, sure, but when you don't want to spend a fortune they're practical and they do the job very well. If you want a monitor that can handle competitive sessions on Counter-Strike or Valorant while still looking good for your series, your videos and your single-player games, an IPS or VA panel is the way to go.

IPS panels generally offer better viewing angles and colours that stay accurate even when you're looking at the screen from the side. Colours are precise and consistent, which makes this panel ideal if you also do photography, design or video editing. And response times hold up well on most IPS monitors these days.

VA panels deliver higher contrast and punchier images, especially when you're watching in the dark. Blacks are far deeper, which is great if you game or binge series with the curtains shut. Colours are very good, just a notch below IPS.

Which panel for which player? The recap

Panel	Strengths	Weaknesses	Best for
TN / Fast TN	Unbeatable response time, very high refresh rates, affordable	Limited colours and viewing angles	The competitive FPS player
OLED	Infinite contrast, perfect blacks, ultra-fast response time	Higher price point	Anyone who wants beauty without losing speed
IPS	Accurate colours, excellent viewing angles	Shallower blacks	The all-rounder who also works on their PC
VA	Very high contrast, deep blacks	Possible ghosting on entry-level models	The single-player and film enthusiast

What size and resolution should you go for?

One last call to make, and it matters more than people think: panel size and resolution go together. A big screen at a low resolution is rough on the eyes.

• 24-inch at 1080p — the absolute competitive standard. All the action fits in your field of view without moving your head, and it's exactly what pros use at LAN events.
• 27-inch at 1440p — the best compromise right now. You gain sharpness and comfort without wrecking your budget or your framerate, and it's still perfectly playable competitively.
• 32-inch at 4K — maximum immersion for single-player games and open worlds. You'll need the rig to back it up, though, or you'll end up dropping settings just to hold a stable framerate.

The questions we get asked most

How many Hz do you need for a gaming monitor?

144Hz is the realistic minimum for comfortable gaming today. If you play competitively, aim for 240Hz or higher. Past 360Hz, the gains become marginal unless you're playing at a high level.

24 or 27 inches for gaming?

24 inches if you're competitively focused, since everything stays inside your field of view. 27 inches if you play a bit of everything — as long as you move up to 1440p so you don't lose sharpness.

TN or IPS for competitive gaming?

TN still leads on raw response time, which is exactly why pros have never dropped it. But modern IPS panels have closed most of the gap and give you far better colours. If you're not playing in official competition, IPS is a very solid choice.

Do you need FreeSync or G-Sync?

These technologies sync your monitor's refresh rate with the frames your graphics card outputs, which eliminates screen tearing. It's a genuine plus, especially if you don't consistently hit your panel's maximum framerate. Most current gaming monitors support at least one of the two.

So which gaming monitor should you choose?

The short version: if you tryhard on CS2 or Valorant, go for a TN or Fast TN panel at 24 inches with as many Hz as your budget allows. If you mostly play single-player and want your games to look incredible, OLED is without question the best panel on the market. And if you do a bit of everything — competitive in the evening, series at the weekend, work during the week — a good IPS at 27 inches, 1440p remains the smartest choice.

The key is to start from how you actually play, not from the most impressive spec sheet. A 600Hz panel won't make you better if you spend your evenings on story-driven games, and a 4K OLED is wasted if you play on low settings to squeeze out frames.

Still not sure? Our team is made up of players, not salespeople — drop by our Discord or use the contact form and we'll help you make the call.