You’re in the market to buy a new monitor or another monitor. You might be having a tough time deciding what type of monitor you want and how much you should spend on a monitor. Well, luckily our team has done hours of research to get you the best answer possible to how much you should spend on a monitor! We even give you some good quality brands to look at as well.
Type of monitor: gaming or business or casual
Gaming monitors and ideal stats for your monitor
- Resolution: Ideally 4k or 3840 x 2160 but 1080p is fine as well.
- Response time: .5ms to 4ms
- Refresh rate: 144 Hz. But 75Hz is fine too
- Flat vs curved monitor: curved monitor or curved panel is preferred
- Panel type: VA panel
- price of gaming monitor: depending on your budget: $300 to $1200
- Brands to consider: Dell and Samsung
Budget monitors
Budget monitor
If you are on a tight budget, that is ok! There are still good quality monitors that you can buy.
Typically, budget monitors or cheap monitors cost less than $200. The quality might not be great, but it gets you started with your pc or gaming pc. A mid range monitor costs roughly from $200 to $500. Some good brands for best budget monitor are dell, acer, and samsung.
- Resolution: Ideally 2k or 2560 x 1440 but 1080p is fine as well.
- Response time: 1ms to 5ms
- Refresh rate: 75 Hz is good
- Flat vs curved monitor: flat monitor
- Panel type: VA panel
- price of monitor: depending on your budget monitor: $100 to $300. Mid range monitor from $200 to $500.
- Brands to consider: Acer, Dell, LG, and ASUS.
General monitor
- Resolution: 2k or 2560 x 1440 but 1080p is fine as well.
- Response time: 2ms to 5ms
- Refresh rate: 60 Hz or 75 Hz is fine
- Flat vs curved monitor: flat monitor
- Panel type: VA panel
- price of gaming monitor: depending on your budget: $200 to $400
- Brands to consider: Acer, Dell, LG, and ASUS.
Most important aspects to know about monitors
- resolution
- response time
- refresh rate
- flat vs curved monitor
- panel type
- type of monitor: gaming or business or general purpose monitor
- price
Resolution
Resolution is the number of pixels in each dimension that can be displayed. You usually see the units in pixels ( width x height) . For gaming, the more pixels or the higher number makes the gaming experience much better . An example of a monitor’s resolution is 1920 x 1080 or 1080p or HD.
The highest quality resolution right now is 4k.
Least amount of pixels to most amount of pixels
- HD display 1280 x 780
- HD resolution or 1080p 1920 x 1080
- 2k resolution 2560 x 1440
- 4k resolution 3840 x 2160
- 5k resolution 5120 x 2800
Response time
Response time is the time it takes for the monitor to respond to an input from the computer. Usually, the response time is in .5ms to 10ms depending on the monitor. The shorter the response time the better, especially for gaming.
Refresh rate
The refresh rate is the frequency in which the display updates the monitor’s screen image. This is measured in hertz and the higher the number the better.
For example, if you are not gaming 60hz should be fine, but if you want to game you will want to get a monitor that has at least 75hz or more. Ideally, you get a gaming monitor that has 120 hz refresh rate, if you are a serious gamer.
Flat vs curved monitor
You can see the difference between flat vs curved monitor here.
For gaming monitors, we would recommend curved monitors. If you plan on video editing on your monitor, then we recommend curved monitors.
For business use, we would recommend curved monitors.
For casual use, we would recommend flat monitors.
Overall, we recommend a curved monitor, but if it does not fit in your budget that is fine.
Panel Type
There are three types of panels: VA panels, IPS panels, and TN panels.
VA panels: Vertical alignment
When there is no electrical pressure, the liquid crystals are vertical. However, when there is electrical pressure, the liquid crystals become parallel to the glass plates of the screen real estate. It is best seen on a curved monitor. A VA monitor has the best image quality.
IPS panels: In-plane panels
Liquid crystals in the monitor are horizontal and parallel to the glass plates of the screen. They rotate 90 degrees when electrical pressure occurs. IPS panels are easiest seen on a flat monitor.
Most people have an IPS monitor now. An IPS monitor has the second best image quality.
TN panels: Twisted nematic panels
TN panels help the monitor’s refresh rate to be faster, so playing video games or movies is easier than a monitor that has IPS panels or VA panels.
A TN monitor is the fastest monitor panel of the three, but has the worst image quality.
Gaming monitors and Gaming pc resolution
Gaming monitors
A gaming monitor you’ll want to look at different resolutions.
A 720p gaming monitor roughly costs anywhere from $300 to $400.
A 1080p gaming monitor costs from $500 to $1000 or a mid range monitor.
A 1440p gaming monitor costs $1200 or more.
A 4k monitor running at 60fps roughly costs at least $2,000.
Other things to consider
- warranty
- price
- input lag
- graphics card (nvidia graphics cards within the computer and adaptive sync)
- power supply of monitor