When buying a gaming computer, the monitor is often taken “for change”, believing that it would be much more reasonable to invest maximum money in a powerful processor and video card. But in vain - it's not worth saving on the monitor. Firstly, a good display makes the eyes much less tired. And secondly, a high-quality screen can improve the picture even more than buying a GeForce RTX 2070 graphics card instead of a GTX 1060. Finally, thirdly, a good monitor is also a very profitable investment because it can easily survive several PC upgrades.

Today we have prepared a list of quality gaming monitors for any budget. The information is current as of the end of July 2020.

The minimum monitor resolution for today is 1920x1080 (Full HD/1080p). In the case of diagonals from 30 inches and above, you should look at the resolutions of 2560x1440 (QHD / 2K) and 3840x2160 (Ultra HD / 4K) so that the picture is not too “pixelated”. But keep in mind that such a resolution will require an appropriate video card: at least the GTX 1660 for 2K and the RX 5700 XT for 4K.

The most important characteristic of the best gaming monitor under 200 is the response time - the speed of the matrix's response to an image change. For story games, 12 milliseconds at a frequency of 60 hertz is enough - it happens more, except perhaps in very old models and laptops. But in online games like Counter-Strike or Overwatch, a response time of 4 milliseconds or less is desirable - so you can quickly respond to a changing situation. At the same time, for games, just the value from gray to gray (GtG) is applicable - which is written in the characteristics. And not various attempts for some reason to calculate switching from black to white (BtW): this happens only in office work, for which the reaction of the matrix is ​​absolutely not important.

Also important is the refresh rate of the display - how many times per second the image on the screen changes. The minimum level for single games is 60 hertz - less than modern monitors and does not occur. For office work, it is recommended from 75 hertz, and for network games, 240 hertz models will not be superfluous.

You can ignore the brightness, as it is unlikely that you will often use the monitor during the day in the fresh air. The number of candela per square meter is more important for laptop screens.

But the lack of contrast makes itself felt regardless of the illumination. This characteristic is responsible for the difference between light and dark shades. And the smaller it is, the flatter and less natural the image will be. This is especially noticeable in dark scenes, when on screens with a low margin of contrast, the least illuminated areas merge into solid black. At the same time, it is static contrast that is important, and not marketing husk in the face of dynamic contrast with exorbitant values. Static contrast ratios never go above 10,000:1, so if you see numbers like 100,000:1, don't trust them.
 

On monitors with a high refresh rate, the picture will be jerky at low FPS in the game. G-Sync (for GeForce graphics cards) and FreeSync (for Radeon) technologies are struggling with this, which adjust the refresh rate to the current frame rate. So the gaming display should be taken with the support of this technology, and it is for your video card.

Do not take TN-matrices. The only advantage they have left today is low response time for a small price. VA and IPS monitors are better in everything else: color reproduction, contrast, viewing angles and eye strain.