Updated at: 19-04-2022 - By: Leo Hall

If you’re wanting to improve the quality of your gameplay, these are the best 4K gaming monitors. Excellent image quality is a byproduct of using high-quality pixels. No surprise that 4K monitors are popular with PC gaming. In order to ensure that your favorite games look as lifelike and sharp as possible, the display has 8.3 million pixels (3840 21603840). The best webcams may be viewed here, which is useful for streamers.

Besides having the highest resolution available on today’s best gaming monitors, 4K also allows you to increase the size of your display without sacrificing visual quality or sharpness. With a pixel-packed army, you can increase the size of your screen to 30 inches and still see the pixels. Nvidia’s RTX 30 and AMD’s Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards, for example, make the move to 4K more enticing.

There is a price to pay for this level of image quality, however A 4K monitor is pricey, and anyone who’s seen one in action will know this fact. It’s true that 4K is geared toward high-res games (and other media)

Because of this, high-quality gaming specifications, such as 60Hz+ refresh rate, sluggish response time and the choice of the adaptive-sync, are likely to be needed (Nvidia G-Sync, or AMD FreeSync, based on the graphics card of your system).

To play in 4K, you’ll want to factor in the cost of a powerful graphics card. If you’re not ready for 4K, check out the Best Gaming Monitors page for some low-res options. For those who are ready for ultra-high-definition gaming, we’ve compiled a list of the best 4K gaming displays for 2021.

VG289Q

The VG289Q’s design isn’t much to behold. Slim bezels, a basic stand that can tilt, pivot, and swivel, and red accents on the bottom give it a gaming-inspired flair to the otherwise simple exterior.

The monitor’s IPS panel boasts a large color gamut of DCI-P3 and a wide viewing angle, and it also supports HDR. This makes for a beautiful display. This HDR Gaming monitor has great contrast, especially for an IPS panel, but its peak brightness and lack of local dimming make it unsuitable for gaming. However, when it comes to SDR, it surely delivers. It boasts 60 Hz refresh rates, a reaction time of 5ms, and AMD FreeSync, which operates in the 40-60 Hz range, so it’s really fast.

In contrast, this particular version of FreeSync does not support HDR or LFC, and it has a very narrow range of compatibility. When the FPS dips below 40, FreeSync will stop working. Even while this isn’t an issue with 4K resolution, your GPU and the application you’re running both play a role.

The only issues we have with TUF Gaming VG289Q are the following: There has been a noticeable lack of HDR performance on the Asus TUF Gaming Gaming VG289Q, as well as a basic implementation of FreeSync that is incompatible with HDR and won’t operate smoothly when games don’t hit the 40 FPS threshold when using HDR.

As a matter of fact, this is the most affordable 4K gaming monitor on the market at this time. With the X-Force 4K, you may save money while still getting a 4K display that meets your requirements.

LG 32UN500

However, it’s important to note that it’s less appealing than Asus’s offerings. Although it doesn’t appear to be a gaming monitor at first glance, the internal components more than make up for the lack of a traditional black-and-white frame and a tilting stand. The LG 32UN500 The LG 32UN500 has a 32-inch screen with 4K resolution, making it the largest 4K TV on the market. Excellent color fidelity and wide viewing angles are also provided by the VA panel. However, despite its lack of color accuracy, it is more than adequate for gaming purposes.

The LG 32UN500 can produce deeper blacks than either an IPS or TN panel, which is one area where VA panels outperform their IPS counterparts. This HDR-capable display, like its Asus counterpart, isn’t anything special. This monitor’s HDR capabilities aren’t quite as good as those seen on televisions and high-end monitors, despite the enhanced contrast.

Compared to a typical VA screen, which is notorious for ghosting and smudging, this ultra-high-resolution 60Hz display has a 4ms response time and offers superior performance. These flaws aren’t totally hidden by this monitor, but they shouldn’t be a problem for most gamers. The monitor’s FreeSync compatibility ranges from 40 to 60 Hz, just like the Asus VG289Q.

The LG 32UN500 has a larger screen and better picture quality than the Asus VG289Q, despite the fact that it costs more. While the display isn’t particularly eye-catching, FreeSync isn’t the most reliable and isn’t suitable for customers that place a high value on the screen, so if you don’t mind the huge screen’s diagonal, this won’t be the best buy in this price range.

MSI Optix MPG321UR-QD

SPECIFICATIONS

32-inch screen / 16:9 aspect ratio

+ 4K Ultra-HD Display:

IPS is the panel type.

+ 144 Hz Refresh Rate

One millisecond (GTG)

For less than $900, the MSI Optix MPG321UR-QD provides a fantastic blend of high performance and a plethora of features. 4K gaming display is bright, has amazing color and is calibrated out of the box. HDR quality is impressive for this price point. It also has HDMI 2.1, a 144Hz frame rate, and a reaction time of 1ms GTG, making it ideal for games.

With HDR content, we were able to achieve a maximum SDR luminosity of 424 nits and a luminosity of over 700 nits. On top of all that, its color gamut was exactly 117 percent of DCI-P3. But even though this monitor was one of the brightest we’ve tried, we wished it had gamma controls and was correctly calibrated. brightness and contrast were reduced as a result of the display.

Asus ROG Strix XG27UQ

SPECIFICATIONS

Aspect Ratio: 16:9 & Screen Size: 27″

IPS is the panel type.

+ 144Hz refresh rate

One millisecond (GTG)

You may be surprised to learn that the best 144Hz 4K gaming monitor on the market is the Asus ROG Strix XG27UQ for under $800. Because of an efficient edge-array backlight and a dynamic dimming feature, the XG27UQ’s HDR performance is remarkable despite the lack of a premium FALD backlight.

For all input lags, ROG Strix XG27UQ did quite well in our tests with the ROG. Acer Predator X27 and Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ 144Hz monitors had lower input lag than this one. Both items are priced at roughly $2,000. It’s marketed as a FreeSync screen, however the monitor worked perfectly with G-Sync on it.

Acer Predator XB273K

SPECIFICATIONS

Aspect Ratio: 16:9 & Screen Size: 27″

IPS is the panel type.

+ 144Hz refresh rate

Response Time (GTG): 4ms.

Compared to the other monitors on this page, the Acer Predator XB273K is the best 4K gaming monitor at 144Hz for value-conscious gamers. There was no obvious blurry effect in fast-paced games at the maximum settings.. When used in conjunction with an Nvidia graphics card, G-Sync had good results in combating screen tearing. Compared to other 144 Hz screens, the panel worked well. To put it another way, it topped both the ROG Swift from Asus G27UQ and Acer Predator X27, which are roughly $2000 monitors in terms of input delay.

The PredatorXB273K has a ratio of over 4,000:1 in our testing and more than 2,000:1 following our calibration in terms of image quality and color accuracy. The Predator XB273K may not be as sharp as monitors with FALD backlights, but it’s the best HDR alternative we’ve seen.

Asus ROG Swift PG32UQX

SPECIFICATIONS

32-inch screen / 16:9 aspect ratio

IPS is the panel type.

+ 144 Hz Refresh Rate

Response Time (GTG): 4ms.

The Asus ROG Swift PG32UQX is a pricey but fantastic purchase if you’re looking for the best 4K gaming monitor for HDR movies and games. For the first time, a gaming display has been equipped with Mini LED. A contrast ratio of 180,820.8:1 was achieved because to its high-tech backlight. Although the Alienware displayed on this page has an OLED display, the PG32UQX has a brighter screen. On the HDR test, it reached 1,627 nits brightness.

We had a great time watching HDR movies on our screens, but the screen does not support Dolby Vision. Not all games will be affected, but 4K Blu-ray discs and Netflix movies generally employ Dolby Vision. However, help is available for 24p film cadences.

The PG32UQX also performs admirably as a gaming monitor. In our input and reaction time tests, it outperformed many other 144-Hz panels, including HP Omen, which you can see on this page. Using the OLED display at the bottom of the screen, you can see the refresh rate, GPU and CPU temperatures, and more.

How to choose a monitor

Screen Size

Additionally, the monitor’s size can have a considerable impact on the quality of images. What is a good monitor diagonal for gaming?

A 24-inch or 27-inch diagonal is widely accepted as the ideal desktop screen size. Although 4K displays have a greater pixel density, OEMs are building larger monitors to make the most of this resolution because of the higher pixel density. It’s for this reason that 27-inch or smaller 4K gaming displays are so scarcely available.

In smaller resolutions, screen dimensions are more essential since a huge panel with insufficient pixel density might appear unsightly from a distance. When it comes to 4K resolution, it’s all about what you’re most comfortable with on your desktop.

You can, of course, go with a 32-inch monitor if you’d like, but it would be pushing the boundaries of what is considered comfortable for a desktop gaming monitor.

Refresh Rate and Response Time

Two of the most important aspects of panel performance are the refresh rate and the response time.

The number of times the display panel can refresh the displayed image every second, and thus the number of frames per second, is expressed in Hertz. Therefore, a 60Hz refresh rate panel can only display 60 frames per second. 144 fps is possible on a display with a 144Hz refresh rate. There are monitors with greater refresh rates, but 144Hz is the maximum for 4K displays.

When it comes to gameplay, a higher framerate/refresh rate delivers a more fluid and pleasurable experience. When playing competitive multiplayer games, this can be extremely useful. However, some gamers prefer to play at higher fps even if it means decreasing the picture settings.

Is the 144Hz frame rate worth it in 4K? That depends on your own preferences and your budget. With the most recent AAA games, even if you have an RTX 3090 or RX 6900 XT, you will not be able to maintain stable triple-digit frame rates without lowering the graphics.

There’s also the millisecond response time. In computing, this is the time it takes for pixels to change their color. As a result of the high response time, motion blur and ghosting can appear, but this is no longer a problem because the latest gaming monitors have extremely low response times built in from the start, or use other technologies like backlight strobing to reduce motion blur and ghosting when necessary.

IPS vs VA

To get a sense of how well a monitor can perform, it’s important to know what kind of panel it uses in its panel. In the case of 4K gaming monitors, IPS and VA panels are the two most common options. What distinguishes them from one another?

For its vibrant colors and wide viewing angles, the in-plane switch (often referred to as “IPS”) is one of the most popular display panel types. There are some 1ms-responsive IPS panels available, but they are more expensive and of higher quality, so expect to pay more if you want to use one of these. IPS panels have a low contrast ratio and backlight leaking issues, which are the biggest drawbacks.

VA is a reference to the vertical alignment of a structure. In terms of color accuracy and viewing angles, they’re not quite as good as IPS, but they’re still a good alternative. Contrast is what they have to make up for the lack of color saturation. As we’ve already said, they have several drawbacks, including issues with ghosting and smearing that aren’t present in IPS panels.

Although these are simply generalizations, the panel’s quality has a significant impact on both general performance and image quality when comparing IPS and VA panels in particular.

HDR

HDR (High Dynamic Range) is a technology that began to gain traction in consoles and TVs in the late 2010s. Do you know what HDR is and if it’s worth looking into for a gaming monitor?

With HDR, also known as High Dynamic Range (HDR), photos are brightened at the top and contrasted to appear more realistic and natural than they would be with standard dynamic range (SDR) imaging techniques. Clearly, this is a sought-after feature on today’s displays and television sets. Is it advantageous for a gaming display, for example?

HDR10 is supported by a large number of monitors, however not all of them can deliver a true HDR experience. In our post, we’ve already discussed a number of the contributing elements. As a starting point, you should consider how bright the backlight is. There is also a comparison to make.

Additionally, an LCD display must be able to deal with local dimming in order to achieve the appropriate contrast. Local dimming reduces the brightness of the screen’s dark areas by turning off some of the monitor’s backlight.

Any HDR600 or lower isn’t worth it for people who want to see HDR as it was meant to be seen, and HDR1000 is the ideal option for those who want to get the most out of HDR in their viewing experience. It’s not only about technology when it comes to HDR; media and games must be able to support HDR in order to display HDR content, but not all games do.

The fact that HDR10-compliant screens aren’t capable of providing the entire HDR experience means that HDR isn’t an all-encompassing feature in gaming, but it’s still a big step forward.

FreeSync and G-Sync

VRR (variable refresh rate) technology has long been utilized in gaming monitors to ensure tear-free gameplay at high frame rates. Nvidia G-Sync and AMD FreeSync are both available. Is there any difference between these two technologies?

As a matter of fact, both G-Sync and FreeSync use scalers to ensure that display refresh rates and the framerate are in sync, no matter how much FPS fluctuates. Scalers are the fundamental distinction between the two. G-Sync is a proprietary Nvidia technology, whereas FreeSync is an open-source alternative.

The scaler module for G-Sync monitors must be purchased directly from Nvidia, therefore FreeSync is more widely recognized and less expensive to use because of this. In recent years, however, AMD and Nvidia have offered three unique FreeSync and G-Sync and G-Sync variants, indicating a shift in the market.

You’ll face the following issues with FreeSync:

  1. Standard VRR for FreeSync (screen tear and stutter removal using low latency)
  2. The LFC (Low Framerate Compensation) feature included in FreeSync Premium assists when the framerate drops below the FreeSync range limit.
  3. LFC is still supported, but HDR is now included with FreeSync Premium Pro as well.

In addition, you’ll notice the following for G-Sync:

  1. Motion blur reduction overclocking as well as variable drive are added benefits of implementing G-Sync – VRR.
  2. Nvidia’s scaler module is required for G-Sync-certified monitors to deliver the additional features of basic VRR.
  3. G-Sync Ultimate — HDR support and low latency are included.

If you don’t mind spending a little more money, G-Sync Ultimate and G-Sync monitors are definitely worth the extra money because they offer additional capabilities that FreeSync or G-Sync Compatible displays don’t have.

Conclusion:

Monitors like the ones above are our best picks for the year. If you keep your needs in mind, any of the displays on our list will be a great choice for you. With regard to their needs and talents.