Best Gaming Monitors 2023: Budget, Curved, G-Sync and More

It's an exciting time to be a PC gamer needing a new gaming monitor. There are many panel sizes, panel types, resolutions, aspect ratios, refresh rates, and features to choose from produced my numerous popular brands. For example, do you need AMD FreeSync or Nvidia G-Sync support? Do you prefer a traditional flat monitor or a more immersive experience with a curved monitor? The best thing about having so many available options to the consumer is that you can ideally pick the perfect monitor based on your gaming needs.

When seeking the best gaming monitor for your rig, different panel types are vying for your eyeballs — IPS, TN, VA and even OLED — each with its own pros and cons. Of course, you can't forget about screen size and aspect ratio, which affect your views, desk space and, again, bank account. And we haven't even discussed bonuses, like speakers, RGB or port selection. So many options are available to gamers, so some guidance is necessary to make the best possible pick.

For a deep dive into how to pick the best monitor, check out our PC Monitor Buying Guide. Below is a list of the best gaming monitors currently available based on our own tests.

The Quick List

Best Gaming Monitors in 2023 

Best Gaming Monitor

The Dell S3222DGM is just a great, all-around pick as the top gaming monitor thanks to its excellent image quality, plentiful features and typical solid build quality. At the heart of this display is a 2560 x 1440, curved VA panel that supports both AMD FreeSync and Nvidia G-Sync at up to 165 Hz.

The S3222DGM's delivers an enviable contrast ratio thanks to its 1800R curved VA panel. While the IPS competition often struggles to break much past 1,000:1, the S3222DGM's VA panels shot to 4209:1 in our tests. The display also reproduced 122 percent of the sRGB color gamut and 85 percent of the DCI-P3 gamut on our tests along with an incredibly accurate gamut error rate of 2.07dE. 

On the connectivity front, the S3222DGM features two HDMI 2.0 connectors and one DisplayPort 1.2 port. 

For anyone looking for an excellent gaming monitor that won't break the bank, it's hard to argue against the Dell S3222DGM. 

Read: Dell S3222DGM Gaming Monitor Review

Best Ultra-High Refresh Rate Monitor

As the world's first 500Hz gaming monitor, the Alienware AW2524H plants its flag in the ground for all to see. While 360Hz displays are commonplace today, Dell's new entry ensures no frame tears or motion blur with flagship graphics cards capable of pushing 400+ frames per second.

In addition to its outright speed, the AW2524H commands a 2ms advantage in control lag over its 360Hz peers. Regarding competitive gaming, the AW2524H is an excellent tool for your arsenal. Throw in Alienware's usual excellent build quality and color performance, the AW2524H is among the best gaming monitors available on the market.

The AW2524H has no real flaws of consequence, but you will need high-end hardware to utilize its performance fully. You'll need a performant Alder Lake or Raptor Lake processor with a GeForce RTX 4090 graphics processor. The other thing to consider is pricing; the AW2524H is way more expensive than its 360Hz peers. For example, the Asus ROG Swift PG259QN is priced at around $450, while the AW2524H costs $829.99.

But for gamers with the budget and the hardware to pull it fully utilize it, the Alienware AW2524H is hard to beat.

Read: Alienware AW2524H 500 Hz Gaming Monitor Review 

Best OLED Gaming Monitor

There are many great gaming monitors out there, but only an elite few are good enough to earn our Editor’s Choice award and a five-star rating. However, the Asus ROG Swift PG27AQDM is one of the monitors for a good reason.

For starters, Asus has endowed the ROG Swift PG27AQDM with a 26.5-inch OLED panel. While Mini LED panels have become very good in recent years, OLED panels are still superior when it comes to contrast. Not only does the panel offer a wide and accurate color gamut, but the overall image quality is simply stunning.

For eSports performance enthusiasts, the ROG Swift PG27AQDM has an impressively low 0.03ms response time and a 240Hz refresh rate with AMD FreeSync support. While Nvidia has not certified the monitor for G-Sync compatibility, we found that it works just fine with the standard in our testing. In addition, total lag time was comparable to faster 360Hz gaming monitors.

Given that this is a gaming monitor, Asus includes all the usual frills like an aggressive design, RGB lighting elements, and a lighting system that projects a ROG logo onto your desk. 

The Asus ROG Swift PG27AQDM is costly, as witnessed by its $1,000 price tag, but this monitor's overall image quality and performance are tough to beat in this class.

Read: Asus ROG Swift PG27AQDM OLED Gaming Monitor Review 

Best Widescreen Gaming Monitor

Desktop-class OLEDs used to be a rarity in the gaming monitor segment, but over the years, prices have come down, and more entries have entered the fray. The latest comes to us from Alienware, and it’s the jaw-dropping AW3423DFW.

This is a 34-inch ultra-wide monitor with a 1800R curve and a resolution of 3440 x 1440. However, the most important spec is its use of a Quantum Dot OLED (QD-OLED) panel, which offers an extremely wide color gamut and the blackest blacks you’ll find in a gaming monitor.

The QD-OLED “heart” of the AW3423DFW gives it unmatched contrast and excellent color saturation and we felt no need to calibrate the panel further out of the box. Throw in premium build quality – as we expect from Alienware – and top-notch video processing and the AW3423DFW hit all the high notes without any demerits worth mentioning for enthusiast gamers.

If you can get past the $1,100 price of entry, the AW3423DFW would make a perfect companion for Nvidia’s newest graphics cards, like the GeForce RTX 4090 and RTX 4080.

Read: Alienware AW3423DW Gaming Monitor Review 

Best 170Hz Gaming Monitor

We love a good value when it comes to gaming monitors, and the MSI G272QPF is a true standout in this category. The G272QPF features a 27-inch QHD panel, which is the sweet spot for gamers who don’t have a super-powerful flagship graphics card to drive FPS. And while 165Hz is the standard for a monitor of this class, MSI ekes out just a bit more at 170Hz, which is accessible from the OSD.

In addition to nailing the fundamentals, the G272QPF has excellent SDR and HDR color performance, and you don’t need to go through an exhaustive calibration process to achieve those results. In addition, input lag is low and MSI’s usual good build quality shines through here.

We should mention that the contrast ratio is a bit on the lower side (1,000:1) compared to typical IPS panels, and gamma is a bit on the light side. However, there’s very little to complain about here for a monitor that’s retailing for around $240.

Read: MSI G272QPF Review 

Best 4K Gaming Monitor

The Samsung Odyssey Neo G8 is just a great overall gaming monitor that gets all the basics right, then goes above and beyond for discerning gamers (like its maximum 240 Hz refresh rate).

Samsung also equipped this 32-inch monitor with 1000R VA panel that features Mini-LED lighting with 1,196 dimming zones. We measured contrast at 25,000:1 versus the 3,000:1 typical of VA panels. The excellent contrast should come in handy as you’re lurking in the shadows looking to cap opponents in your favorite first-person shooters.

When the Odyssey Neo G8 debuted, it had a street price of around $1,400. Now, however, the monitor can easily be found for around $1,200 or lower.

Read: Samsung Odyssey Neo G8 Review

Best 165Hz Gaming Monitor

The HyperX Armada 27 is one of those standout monitors that offers the whole package. This is a 27-inch QHD display with a 2560 x 1440 resolution, 165Hz refresh rate HDR and premium built quality that we expect from HyperX.

One thing that makes the Armada 27 stand out (along with its smaller Armada 25 sibling) is the inclusion of a gaming mount for attaching the monitor to your desk instead of a traditional stand. This gives customers greater flexibility in positioning the Armada 27 for height, swivel and tilt.

Video processing on the Armada 27 is solid, with an excellent overdrive implementation, low input lag and minimal motion blur from the backlight strobe. Throw in handy calibration tools and good image quality, and the Armada 27 is a definite winner. We had only a few minor quibbles with the monitor, like the lack of speakers, but that doesn't detract from HyperX's rock-solid entry into the gaming monitor field.

Read: HyperX Armada 27 QHD 165 Hz Gaming Monitor Review 

Best Gaming Monitor for Color

If you like your games to look extra colorful, the MSI Optix MAG274QRF-QD is the best gaming monitor for your rig. This monitor posted the widest color gamut we’ve ever recorded: 112.19% of DCI-P3 after our recommended calibration. 90% of DCI-P3 would be impressive, so this is one color-saturated screen. 

Contrast is also strong for an IPS panel, hitting 1,129.1:1 after our calibration. And for those concerned about speed, this 165 Hz screen kept up with the 170 Hz Gigabyte M27Q in our testing 

Color purists, however, will lament the lack of an sRGB mode, considering the MAG274QRF-QD’s sRGB coverage is at 166.33%. Its backlight strobe for fighting motion blur is also a disappointment. You can’t use Adaptive-Sync with it, the brightness goes down by about 50% and it created ghosting that resulted in a parallax effect with fast motion. In addition, this is yet another gaming monitor to offer HDR but without any noticeable image boost over SDR.

But if you can get past those caveats, you’ll enjoy the most colorful monitor to ever hit our lab. 

Read: MSI Optix MAG274QRF-QD Review 

Best 1440p Gaming Monitor

Corsair has made a name for itself by delivering high-quality and sometimes unorthodox gaming monitors (we’re looking at you, Xeneon Flex 45WQHD240). Corsair’s Xeneon 27QHD240 still delivers OLED goodness for enthusiasts but does so in a smaller and much cheaper package.

The Xeneon 27QHD240 spouts off three of its major specs right in its model name. This is a 27-inch monitor with a QHD (2560 x 1440) resolution and a 240 Hz refresh rate. As you might expect from a premium gaming monitor, it supports AMD FreeSync and Nvidia G-Sync technologies and boasts a response time of just 0.03 ms.

Other specs include a maximum 1,000 nits rating for brightness in HDR mode, while SDR content tops out at 450 nits. Black levels are an obvious benefit of OLED panels, so you won’t be surprised by the 1,500,000:1 contrast ratio.

We were impressed with the excellent overall image quality and contrast of the Xeneon 27QHD240 in our instrumented tests (and by simply using our eyeballs). The panel’s accuracy was near-flawless from the factory, meaning that users won’t need to tweak settings in the OSD to fix any obvious flaws.

Gaming performance was also outstanding, and as is usually the case with Corsair, the monitor’s overall build quality was stellar.

With a price tag of around $900, the Xeneon 27QHD240 is hard to beat for anyone looking for a sub-30-inch OLED gaming monitor.

Read: Corsair Xeneon 27QHD240 Gaming Monitor Review

Best Budget Curved Gaming Monitor