Why you can trust Tom's Hardware Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.
For gaming, the question of resolution has to be motion versus static. An image that looks great standing still won’t necessarily hold up when the player moves quickly through an environment. To achieve high motion resolution requires just one thing: a high frame rate. You can achieve this with an expensive video card, but when you cross the line to Ultra HD/4K, it won’t matter how much power your PC has, all but the newest, most-expensive monitors top out at 144 Hz. To get the ultimate gaming experience, you need to get over 200fps. You can do that expensively with a QHD screen or on a budget with FHD.
The ViewSonic XG2431 fulfills that mandate. For less than $350, you get decent pixel density, a bright picture, superb HDR, Adaptive-Sync and a truly usable 240 Hz refresh. The PureXP feature can take clarity even further if you’re willing to forgo Adaptive Sync and HDR. This monitor is clearly aimed at competitive gamers who need every possible advantage.
The only flaws here are relatively low contrast and a lack of gamma options. Most IPS screens can hit 1,000:1, but the XG2431 was a little short of 800:1. And with a slightly light gamma, the image didn’t quite have the pop that other monitors of this type have.
This was more than made up for by its HDR performance. With an effective dynamic contrast feature, it delivers a healthy 5,133:1 with saturated color and lots of dimension. The XG2431 is best used with HDR content. It is one of the best budget HDR screens I’ve seen of late.
Also impressive is the XG2431’s color accuracy. Though the grayscale benefits from calibration, it can be used without adjustment, and the gamut is spot-on. Extended color would be cool, but with accurate and complete coverage of sRGB, the XG2431 is capable for gaming or critical tasks. When you’re not exploring jungles or distant alien worlds, you can actually get some work done.
If you’re looking for a high-performance gaming monitor with excellent HDR, definitely check out the ViewSonic XG2431. It delivers everything necessary for a good experience and is built to last. And at this writing, it’s selling for less than $350, which is a superb value.
30-year-old Pentium FDIV bug tracked down in the silicon — Ken Shirriff takes the microscope to Intel's first-ever recall
Cyberpunk 2077 update 2.2 claims to improve Arrow Lake performance by up to 33%, theoretically matching the Ryzen 7 7800X3D
Empyrean Technology gives control to CEC after U.S. blacklisting — China’s top developer of chip design systems hands reins to state-owned firm
