What to look for in a gaming monitor: The specs that matter

Gaming monitors are awesome, but which one is right for you? Let us guide you through the specs you should care about.

- IAN PAUL

Running a gaming PC is a lot like being a car enthusiast. You want to get the best parts available, tune them to your liking, and then get out onto the open road, so to speak. The funny thing is, even with the best graphics card and CPU, a gaming PC can’t demonstrate its full glory without a solid gaming monitor to bear witness.

But what to look for? Display shelves are packed with myriad choices, and a variety of specs: 1080p, 2160p, 4K, HDR, refresh rate, response time, color gamut, IPS, ultrawide, curved, and so on.

With so many options, where do you begin and how do know what matters most? Choosing the ideal gaming monitor gets easier once you decide on the resolution you want, and understand how different features will affect your experience. Price matters too, of course, but with sale periods like Black Friday, Prime Day, and general deals throughout the year, pricing can be more flexible for the patient shopper.

Here’s a look at the key features you want in a monitor, as well as some recommendations on what to buy.

RESOLUTION

The first thing to think about is the monitor’s resolution, and this depends entirely on what your graphics card is capable of. There’s no point getting a 4K monitor, for example, if your graphics card can only handle the lower resolution of 1080p. The only caveat to that would be if you plan on upgrading soon and want to “future proof” by getting a higher resolution monitor before you get the new GPU.