When it comes to upgrading our PCs, we so often forget that one of the most important parts of our system is the big black box sitting right in front of us, which is why we’re here to help you find the best gaming monitor to suit your needs and budget. Let’s face it – buying a new monitor is hard. It’s one thing to look at the specs, but trying to judge whether that screen actually produces a good picture or not is nigh on impossible to do from the comfort of your own home.

Fortunately, we’ve done the hard work for you, as below you’ll find a list of all our top recommendations across a multitude of different screen sizes and resolutions. Tried and tested at Castle Shotgun itself, the only monitors you’ll find here are the ones we’ve had sat in front of our own eyeballs and measured with our trusty X-Rite Display i1 Pro calibrator. Naturally, this means we’ll be updating this list as and when new gaming monitors come in that we think deserve a place on our coveted hot list. Case in point: BenQ’s new EW277HDR, which sits newly-crowned as our best 27in 1080p monitor.

We’ll also take you through everything you need to know about screen sizes, resolutions, refresh rates, panel types, inputs and adjustable stands. By the time you’re done here, you’ll be fully equipped to find the best gaming monitor for you. Let’s begin!

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Given they share all but three of the same letters, you’d think the AOC G2460VQ6 would be pretty similar to the G2460PF I reviewed a couple of weeks ago. To some extent, they are – both share an almost identical outward appearance with an understated red stripe down the lower bezel, and each has a 24in TN panel that supports AMD’s adaptive frame-rate technology, FreeSync, which makes your games appear smoother if your graphics card happens to be struggling a bit.

The main difference comes down to refresh rate. Whereas the PF went all the way up to 144Hz, the VQ6 maxes out at 75Hz. The VQ6 also comes with a slightly different set of ports, offering VGA, HDMI and DisplayPort, but no USB hub or DVI-D, and has a fixed, tilt-only stand. Essentially, it’s a stripped down version of its PF sibling, and comes with a price to match, the lowest I’ve seen being £135 compared to the £210 now demanded by its superior stablemate at time of writing. Is it worth considering over our current 24in champion in our best gaming monitor rankings, though?

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Take one look at the AOC G2460PF’s price of £170 (at time of writing) and you’d probably think it was a pretty standard kind of display. After all, 24in Full HD monitor prices often start around the £100-200 mark, and you can find several screens around the same £170 mark that don’t have anything to shout about other than a mildly adjustable stand.

AOC’s G2460PF, however, is anything but ordinary, and it’s one of the best gaming monitors around. Despite its low price, this monitor has a 144Hz refresh rate and AMD FreeSync support, plus a height-adjustable and rotatable stand. It’s not overly garish, either, as the only concession it makes to being a so-called ‘gaming monitor’ is a thin red strip that runs along the lower bezel. Otherwise, you can happily put this on any kind of desk and not be embarrassed about it.

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Behold the stunning breadth of its super-wide proportions. Marvel at the lustrous sheen of its impeccable anti-glare coating. Is LG’s new 38-inch, 21:9-aspect FreeSync-capable masterwork not every gamer’s ultimate fantasy? You’d think so. But it just goes to show how complex the monitor market has become, especially for we gamers, that the LG 38UC99 falls surprisingly short as a gaming companion. There’s a broader lesson in here, I reckon, when it comes to picking gaming panels. Read the rest of this entry »

This didn’t go too well for AMD’s FreeSync technology last time around. But lo, a shiny new version of FreeSync is inbound. Give it up for FreeSync 2: This Time It Actually Works. OK, that’s a little unfair. But hold onto your mechanical keyboards, folks, because FreeSync 2 is as much about streamlining the PC for HDR support (and indeed making AMD your weapon of choice for HDR gaming) as it is syncing your graphics card and your monitor nicely. Confused? You aren’t the only one… Read the rest of this entry »

It feels like whole months since there was a good old fashioned fisticuffs between AMD and Nvidia. They do so love a PR punch up. But this one’s a bit different. Nvidia’s G-Sync technology versus AMD’s FreeSync isn’t the usual trench warfare over fractions of a frame per second. It’s much more interesting than that. It’s all about something called dynamic or adaptive refresh and how that can make games run much more smoothly without necessarily upgrading your video card and even at modest frame rates. G-Sync has been available for a while. But now the first FreeSync panels are out battle can commence…

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