Gaming Monitors: Take Your Game to the Next Level

It's a fact that PC gamers have become increasingly demanding, pushing brands to evolve their products to take the gaming experience to another level.

FullOffice Learning created this blog as a guide for choosing a gaming monitor, because what's the point of having a cutting-edge graphics card if its results end up dulled by a low-quality screen?

There's a whole range of features to consider when getting a new screen, most of them determined by the gaming experience you're after, the space you have available, and of course your budget.

The first thing is to be clear about what you want a gaming monitor for, because let's be honest, playing a round of Among Us with friends now and then is not the same as pushing your monitor to its limits with the aeronautical graphics of a Flight Simulator, or needing it for solid streaming sessions. Any monitor will do for checking your email, watching Netflix, or scrolling through social media, but not all of them will guarantee an optimal gaming experience.

Here's what you need to keep in mind when comparing what different gaming monitors offer, and deciding how much of your budget you're willing to invest in them.

Size:

Obviously you're limited by the space you have for your screen, but you also have to consider that it's not about straining your eyes with a huge screen in a small space — your starting point should be comfort.

Between 21 and 27 inches, you can sit relatively close to the screen and comfortably enjoy good resolution and gaming quality.

If you want to get a monitor larger than 29 inches, it's best to have a reasonable distance between the monitor screen and where you sit while playing.

Resolution:

The higher it is, the better and sharper the image will be. After all, it's about the maximum number of pixels a screen can display, and that determines the quality and clarity of the details.

There are PC games that offer 8K resolution thanks to graphics cards like the GeForce RTX 3090, and it's true there's some room for this to become the standard for desktop gaming. On this point, our recommendation is to weigh a 2K versus 4K resolution based on the titles you usually play and the budget you want to invest.

Monitor type:
In some games, having a wider field of view gives the player a big advantage. In others, it creates an immersive experience that can only be described as spectacular.

An ultra-wide monitor gives you a seamless image, enhancing the immersion of every game and avoiding the side effect of small blind spots.

That said, with a few simple settings, Windows makes it easy to view the same content or game across multiple screens. Here, the limit is set by your budget and priorities. An ultra-wide screen is a significant investment.

A curved monitor creates a more immersive feel when getting into the game. It also reduces eye strain when viewing the outer edges of the screen, keeping the distance between every part of the display and your eyes fairly consistent. Choosing a curved or super-curved monitor is really worth considering if you tend to run long gaming marathons.

Color:

Can color make a difference in the gaming experience? It might not improve your win streaks, but with the right technology, game landscapes, heroes, and villains can look truly impressive.

For a while now, more and more games have embraced high dynamic range, also known as HDR, which is built on the premise of increasing the ability to display colors and contrast.

With that in mind, it's worth noting there are 3 main HDR technology standards:

HDR10, the open standard and the most common among manufacturers, with color luminance of up to 1,000 nits and 10-bit color depth.
HLG (Hybrid Log-Gamma), which is used to deliver HDR over terrestrial, cable, and satellite TV broadcasts.
Dolby Vision, the system from Dolby Labs, which not only delivers better results than HDR10 (color luminance of up to 10,000 nits and 12-bit color depth), but also includes precise instructions (metadata) in every frame.

Refresh rate:

Visual quality is the sum of a set of elements, with many factors to consider beyond resolution or color. And although many of these come down to specific hardware and components, like a good processor or a powerful graphics card.

That said, the refresh rate shouldn't be lower than 90 Hz. Ideally, 120 Hz.

Refresh rate is essentially the number of times per second the monitor updates its buffer. For an optimal gaming experience, you should go with a monitor that supports 144 Hz (6.94 ms gap), 200 Hz (5 ms), or 240 Hz (4.16 ms), all depending on your budget.

Finally, FullOffice Learning recommends the following connections your gaming monitor should have.

Enough USB ports for what you'll be using.
DisplayPort, definitely the best option for transferring video and audio on PC.
HDMI — it may not match DisplayPort quality, but it's versatile and widely used.
A 3.5mm audio output. A convenient solution for not having your headphones tethered to the computer. Though, of course, you can always go wireless instead.

Your monitor should adapt to how you use it, but it certainly doesn't hurt to keep FullOffice Learning's suggestions in mind.

If you have any questions and want to check out what FullOffice has to offer, don't hesitate to reach out — get personalized help right away by clicking the link below.

FullOffice Learning — the new way to learn about tech.

Lastly, here are a few gaming monitor options you can find at FullOffice.com

All FullOffice monitors.