Choosing a Good Gaming Monitor
When you’re looking for the right gaming monitor there are a couple of things that you should keep in mind. Here’s a couple points that just might help you to make a decision.
Response Time is Important, but can be Misleading :
Manufacturers who sell monitors listed for gaming always promote response time as the most important specification. Response time is the time it takes for a pixel to go from black to white and back again. While some monitors advertise response times under 1ms, the truth is that they list the GTG or gray to gray response time rather than the black to white to black response time. For the most part any monitor with under 8ms response time is more than fine to use for gaming. This includes many low response time / input lag IPS panel monitors as well.
Input Lag:
Input lag is often confused with response time but is something completely different. Input lag is a specification which, in my humble opinion, is even more important than response time because its the lag in time from when you enter in a command with your controller or keyboard and when its actually shown on the screen. Most of the monitors I’ve listed below have sub 1 frame input lag, or 16ms. which is what you want. Manufacturers do not list input lag, but you can find the input lag of many monitors by doing a simple Google search.
Refresh Rate:
Your monitor’s refresh rate is basically the amount of times per second that it draws the data. Many monitors made specifically for gaming in 2013 have a refresh rate of beyond 120Hz. This allows them to display up to 120 frames per second.
Is there a reason to get a 120Hz or greater monitor if you aren’t getting above 60FPS?
If you aren’t getting more than 60 FPS or frames per second with your graphics card, then there is no reason that you would have to have a higher refresh rate monitor. On the other hand, having above 60FPS does matter even if you don’t have a higher refresh rate monitor as it lowers the input lag of your mouse and keyboard.
Response Time is Important, but can be Misleading :
Manufacturers who sell monitors listed for gaming always promote response time as the most important specification. Response time is the time it takes for a pixel to go from black to white and back again. While some monitors advertise response times under 1ms, the truth is that they list the GTG or gray to gray response time rather than the black to white to black response time. For the most part any monitor with under 8ms response time is more than fine to use for gaming. This includes many low response time / input lag IPS panel monitors as well.
Input Lag:
Input lag is often confused with response time but is something completely different. Input lag is a specification which, in my humble opinion, is even more important than response time because its the lag in time from when you enter in a command with your controller or keyboard and when its actually shown on the screen. Most of the monitors I’ve listed below have sub 1 frame input lag, or 16ms. which is what you want. Manufacturers do not list input lag, but you can find the input lag of many monitors by doing a simple Google search.
Refresh Rate:
Your monitor’s refresh rate is basically the amount of times per second that it draws the data. Many monitors made specifically for gaming in 2013 have a refresh rate of beyond 120Hz. This allows them to display up to 120 frames per second.
Is there a reason to get a 120Hz or greater monitor if you aren’t getting above 60FPS?
If you aren’t getting more than 60 FPS or frames per second with your graphics card, then there is no reason that you would have to have a higher refresh rate monitor. On the other hand, having above 60FPS does matter even if you don’t have a higher refresh rate monitor as it lowers the input lag of your mouse and keyboard.
Overall you want something fast, but that’s also functional for what you do the most. While some monitors made for tournaments may be fast, they aren’t for everyone and may not provide the picture, resolutions, or functionality that casual gamer may be looking for in a monitor they also use for work.
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