Things to Note When buying Monitors for Gaming

If you are seriously into your First
Person Shooters, then you may
enjoy the realism of actually
having to move your head to see
all of the screen at once. I have a
buddy who plays Call of Duty on a
60 inch flat screen. Though this is
certainly not the ideal setup for
everyone.

Playing a game is different from
watching a movie or tv show.
Sometimes bigger is not actually
going to be better. It is far more
about trying to find a size that is
comfortable to play with.

gaming monitor

What Resolution Do You Want?

Wait… isn’t resolution the same
thing as size? Wrong.

Resolution may be related to how
many pixels are available for the
screen to use but this does not
mean that it is as simple as being
the size available. You may find
one monitor that is 22 inches, that
has a resolution of 1920×1080 but
then at the same time you can
have this resolution on a 23 inch
monitor.

It is not as simple as the more
pixels the better either, even
though this can be a useful guide.
If two screens have the same
resolution but are a different size,
then this simply tells us that the
pixels are smaller on one or
further apart.

The way a human eye can focus
on these differences actually
become quite subjective for many
people, as the discernible
difference between a pixel that is
actually .027 inches wide can look
quite different to a pixel that is
.0303 inches wide.

The main thing to keep in mind
when deciding on a resolution is
that it is not the same as the size,
and it can also be a subjective
experience. Try out a few
different resolutions ratios and
see what feels best for yourself!

Refresh Rate vs Response Time?

Refresh rate (measured in Hz) is
the rate at which the monitor will
refresh the images that it is
showing. If the refresh rate for
your monitor is 120Hz this means
that the image that is being
displayed changes 120 times
every second.

Typically, the higher the refresh
rate then the better the
experience will be, however keep
in mind that having a higher
refresh rate will actually use up
your GPU quicker, which may
place additional strain on your
system.

It is also important to note that
having a higher Hz alone is not
enough to make sure that your
screen is updating frequently
enough to show what is
happening in the game. The Hz is
the frequency with which the
image is updated, but does not
actually dictate whether the new
image will be the correct image.

Sound confusing?

Picture this, you are playing a
game of League of Legends, every
second counts and your reaction
speed is crucial to being able to
get the upper hand.

The time between seeing an
attack coming, and you being able
to react comes down to many
factors (some of which have not a
great deal to do with your
monitor).

So, there is a spell coming at you,
you need to use flash asap to get
away. The point in which the
other player casts the spell
instantly sends the attack your
way.

Your monitor must then take an
input from the game that is
instructing it to show the attach
coming, you will see the attack
come once the screen refreshes
the display.

This however, is not necessarily
the same as the Hz of your
monitor. Even if a 120 Hz monitor
refreshes 120 times per second,
that is not to say that each and
every one of those refreshes is
actually new or updated
information. It can quite often be
the same thing simply being
repeated.

The missing metric to this
conundrum is the response rate.

The response rate is measured in
milliseconds (ms) and dictates
how quickly the monitor can
respond to new information.

Now, we know your 120 Hz
monitor is going to refresh itself
120 times per second, however if
it is taking 5 milliseconds to
receive new information, then it
is going to take longer to show
you that incoming spell than if it
had a refresh rate of 2
milliseconds.

The key takeaway from this is
that you can not judge how
responsive your monitor will be
on Hz alone, you also need to
judge it by ms also.

Understanding each of these
metrics can take time, and then
matching the metrics up against
your available budget can take
even more time and research!
You can check out this highly
detailed run down of the best
gaming monitors if you need
some assistance with matching
your budget to your needs in a
gaming monitor.

When it comes to purchasing the
ideal monitor it always helps to
know exactly what each of the
various metrics are that people
are advertising with. This can
help you avoid the pitfalls and
simple mistakes such as a massive
screen with low resolution, or a
screen with a massive and
impressive seeming refresh rate,
that still has a sluggish respnonse
rate.