Best Gaming Monitor 2021 – 4k, 1080p, 1440p, 144hz and more!

Let’s start with a real heavy hitter. You’ll want to make sure you have a high-end GPU if you plan on gaming in 4K. The MG28UQ from ASUS is our top pick at the moment because it comes a large screen size (28 inches), a great response time (1ms), 4k resolution, some other useful features, and a great price.

For inputs, you’ll get two HDMI ports, a DisplayPort, and two USB ports.

You can tilt it sideways to make it easier to work on spreadsheets (or browse reddit.) It also has a built-in framerate display, an option for custom crosshair overlays, the ability to have a timer overlay, and other features that are very specific to gamers.

This epic FreeSync monitor by ASUS, the MG279Q , has a 178 degree viewing angle, it’s 27 inches, and has FreeSync. It’s less expensive than similar G-Sync monitors in the same class, and has a 144hz refresh rate.

If you’re using an AMD card with a monitor that supports FreeSync, this is your best bet, hands down. It has come down in price, too, making this a great time to pick it up.

The max resolution is 1440p, but you can go lower if you need to in order to max out your graphics settings on an older GPU. It’s been out for a couple of years already, so it’s priced a lot less than the current “top of the line” options with the latest tech, but it’s still a fully capable monitor with great specs, the only different is that now the price makes it almost impossible to pass up.

Looking for something that’s solid, but not as expensive as some of the other top picks? We’ve got you. The ZOWIE by BenQ is 1080p, which is a big part of why it’s less expensive than the others we’ve featured so far.

Also, it’s 24 inches, which is still a great size for a desk, but not so much if you plan on sitting at a distance from the monitor (like if you want to be gaming from the other side of the room on a couch or something.)

It has a lighting-fast 1ms response time, full-tilt adjustment to  get it sitting just right, the ability to mount it, and a nice place on the base to rest your controller.

You’re missing out on some of the specs from a high-end monitor, but you’re also getting something very capable for under $200. All things considered, this is our top pick for a budget gaming monitor. We’re still got 7 more to go, so we’ll be looking at other affordable options. We think this is a solid choice for our #3 best gaming monitor list. 

With larger monitors, a slight curve can make the viewing experience a little easier than having to practically look from one side of your room to the other to see the whole monitor at once. This ASUS monitor has a 34 inch curved screen, which looks absolutly stunning sitting on your desk, and gives you a great field of view for gaming. It has G-SYNC along with features to help reduce strain on your eyes.

It comes with Display-Port and HDMI inputs, it has an IPS panel, and an intuitive joystick for adjusting controls, along with an assortment of other features that appeal to gamers in particular.

Next up let’s take a look at another solid budget monitor. This is the cheapest one we’re going to be featuring, so you’ll definitely be making some major sacrifices in certain areas, but overall if you don’t have a lot to spend, this one will still definitely get the job done better than a monitor that wasn’t designed for gaming at all.

With a 75hz refresh rate, it’s better than 60hz. It’s only 1080p, but you can still get some amazing visuals, especially since the size is 21.5 inches. 1080p stretched out on a massive 32 inch monitor isn’t going to look as crisp as 1080p on a smaller size screen, and if you’re sitting close to it anyways, this is a good opportunity to save some dough. 

Here’s one that’s slightly more expensive than the one we featured at #5, but it’s also larger and still has the 1ms response time, and is still just 1080p. If you don’t have a super new high-end GPU, playing at high settings on 1080p is probabally going to be better than having to lower your graphics settings to play on 1440 or 4k, anyways, so a 1080p monitor is still an excellent value.

The big plus to this monitor is the 144hz refresh rate, which is a huge step up from the #5 monitor by AOC hich is 75hz. Technically speaking, this one should be ranked higher, but we also took price into consideration. This monitor is also availiable in a 27 inch version for less than $100 more.

Here’s a step up from the last couple monitors. The AOC brand can be a good way to get solid specs while spending a bit less, but it’s also not a bad idea to get a protection plan, depending on where you buy it from.

This monitor featurds AMD FreeSync tech, it has ports for HDMI, VGA, DVI-D and DisplayPort, along with USB.

It features 4K resolution, and a 1ms response time. The knock on this one is the 60hz refresh rate, which is less than ideal. You get a higher resolution, extra ports, but suffer in the

Looking for something a little bigger? Here’s a 27 inch from Acer with 1440p resolution, a 144hz refresh rate, and a 1ms response time, which is really good across the board and perfectly capable for gaming.

One area where it lacks, that may or may not be relevant to you, is that it only has 1 display port and 1 HDMI 1.4 port. If you plan on using one of those to connect it your computer, you’ll still have the other one available to connect something else to the monitor like a gaming console, but if you need more ports then it could be an issue.

Most people don’t need more ports, and only use their monitor for one thing – their computer – so in that case this one still leaves them with an open slot, but it’s worth mentioning either way, since there really isn’t much else to complain about with this gaming display.

Looking for something a little bigger? Here’s an LG 34 inch ultrawide monitor with an IPS display. The IPS will give you great color accuracy, making this an excellent option for design and work, too. The wide aspect ratio means you can have multiple windows open side by side for productivity, and a wide field of vision for gaming.

The resolution is 2560 x 1080, so it’s like 1080p except wider, with a 21:9 aspect ratio. This 28 inch gaming monitor 2 HDMI ports and 1 DisplayPort.

Where it falls short from some of the other options is the 60hz refresh rate, but it makes up for that for some users by being a good multi-purpose monitor for design, development, productivity, along with gaming.

Once again, it’s all about finding the balance that suits you the best. The monitor that show up lower on our list aren’t necessarily worse than any others, they just fit a more narrow series of use-cases.

Last but not least, here’s a curved gaming monitor from Samsung. The 1ms response time and 144Hz refresh rate are both excellent for gaming, as is the giant 32-inch size that it boasts, along with the slick curve it has. Not to mentoin the stand looks pretty great, too.

There are some downsides to this 1440p gaming monitor, however. You may need to fiddle around with some of Window’s settings in order to get crispy looking text on your screen. The display itself has been described as “beautiful”, however you’ll need to get it adjusted just right, since you’ll want to be looking at it dead-on for an optimal experience.