Gaming monitor buying guide: How to find a monitor for gaming

Ergonomics and size are also important when gaming, but the most important features of a gaming monitor are a high refresh rate and fast response times. I'll explain here what this is all about and what criteria you can use to filter our range of monitors to find your perfect gaming screen. The most important recommendations at a glance:

• Refresh rate: min. 144 Hertz
• Reaction time: max. 5 ms
• Size and resolution: at least 24 inches, no UHD
• Adaptive Sync technology: FreeSync or G-Sync (I'll explain what this is all about later)

Refresh rate and response time

Of course, speed is not important for every game, but it is for many. It's helpful if the image refreshes frequently and you can see your opponent a fraction of a second earlier. A higher refresh rate also ensures a smoother display of animations and other image content. This is more important when playing games than when surfing the internet, watching films or reading texts.

The refresh rate indicates how many frames per second a screen can display. The standard refresh rate for screens is 50 or 60 hertz. However, as games are much faster than films, for example, your gaming monitor needs more. It should be at least 144 hertz.

The response time indicates how long a pixel takes to change colour. If it takes too long, streaks appear during fast movements. This is why a gaming monitor should not need more than 5 milliseconds.

Size and resolution

From a size of 24 inches, a monitor is ideal for gaming. It should never be smaller. The space in your home and your budget will limit the upper limit. The larger the screen, the further away you should be able to sit from it.

Caution is advised when it comes to resolution in the gaming sector. A high resolution requires more computing power and still comes at the expense of frames per second (FPS). This is why a full HD resolution, i.e. 1920x1080 pixels, is still widely used for gaming monitors. It is better to have a less detailed image than a slower image display. This is why screens with WQHD resolution should be viewed critically for gaming and you should steer clear of UHD models for gaming.

Adaptive Sync: Nvidia or AMD

Adaptive Sync technology is very important when choosing a gaming monitor. It is designed to prevent frames from being displayed twice or skipped. As the graphics card does not provide a constant FPS value, this can happen if it is below or above the refresh rate of the monitor. Put simply, Adaptive-Sync brings the monitor and graphics card up to the same speed.

With "FreeSync" from AMD and "G-Sync" from Nvidia, there are two adaptive sync technologies that are not compatible with each other. If you want to take advantage of synchronisation, you need to make sure that your monitor supports the same technology as your graphics card.

Curved and energy consumption

A wide curved monitor looks great. However, it usually costs more than a classic screen. Even if it fits into your room and gaming setup, there is still one critical point that speaks in favour of classic dimensions: can your games be reasonably adapted to an aspect ratio of 32:9, for example, or are they only intended for 16:9?

Even when playing games, you can behave sustainably and at least pay attention to the energy efficiency class of your monitor. There is still plenty of choice in energy efficiency classes "A" and "A+". I would only opt for less efficient models if there are compelling reasons to do so.

If I feed this information - min. 144 Hertz, max. 5ms, min. 24 inches, Full HD or WQHD and at least energy efficiency class "F" - into our filters, these are the five most popular models at the moment.

If you want to filter for the right sync technology for your graphics card, require a specific connection or want to adjust other criteria, you can use the do it here.