The monitor has always been one of the most undervalued key pieces of a gaming PC, and more so with the appearance of high definition panels for televisions, which has reduced that difference with respect to consoles. Long ago, the PC user enjoyed their games in glorious, at that time, 1024 x 768 pixels, while the console user had to settle for playing at 240p and with very low definition and image quality. Today the advantages of gaming monitors have focused on high frame rates.
What should I look for when buying a gaming monitor?
It’s simple, you just have to follow a series of basic precepts when making the choice, which will help you eliminate potential models that do not suit you from the list.
- The first thing we have to do is discard everything that is superfluous in games and that does not contribute anything except an extra cost. While it is true that it is preferable to have a panel with HDR support for higher image quality, we must rule out things like sRGB color support or sRGB color calibration they are elements for graphic designers and not for playing games.
- Another point is the aspect ratio, the standard for gaming is 16:9 and any game played on other types of monitors is going to be distorted. So always look for those that support resolutions like: 1920×1080, 2560×1440 either 3840×2160. Which are the standards used in games.
- This does not mean that an ultrawide is not a good choice, it is for certain genres, such as a driving game or strategy games, where having access to the entire map at once is crucial.
- We cannot forget about the graphics card in our PC. Our advice when choosing a monitor to play is that if the manufacturer recommends a card for 1440p, for example, do not be afraid to use it at 1080p. The requirements of games grow over time and the graphics card model that works like a silk in Quad HD today will be ideal for Full HD in a few years.
What kind of player are you?
If you plan to play eSports where a high frame rate is important, then a monitor that can achieve high frequencies and therefore reproduce a high number of frames per second is ideal. That is, if you are going to play things like Valorant, Counter Strike, Call of Duty, DOTA 2, League of Legends, etc. Then a monitor of this type is convenient for you and the choice will be determined by the brand of your graphics card, since in order to avoid image problems such as Tearing or Stuttering, techniques are used with NVIDIA’s G-SYNC and FreeSYNC from AMD. Unfortunately few are the monitors that support it.
On the other hand, if you are into more cinematic games, usually for a single player and not intended for competitive games, such as GTA V, Red Ded Redemption 2, God of War, The Last of Us and the like, then pay more to have a high frequency monitor will not compensate you. The best guy for us? The first, since they allow us to play all kinds of games without problems. Of course, it will depend on your budget.