Gadgetory

what makes a monitor good for gaming well for one thing it needs to plug into a device that runs video games whether it's a PC a console or a kitchen appliance so let's kick things off with inputs most gaming monitors these days will have DVI DisplayPort and HDMI or some combination of the three if you're gaming on a PC and you want to keep things simple pick either the first two with confidence and go about your business although HDMI will work fine too as long as you don't need to run at a resolution over 1080p or a refresh rate over 60 Hertz HDMI 2.0 is coming soon to address these shortcomings but in the meantime don't worry because those HDMI connections might still come in handy you can use them for a secondary gaming device like a console and switch between your gaming devices with the push of a button convenient a so that's tip number one look for a monitor that has the inputs you need speaking of inputs size matters but not for the reason that many people think it does a larger monitor just puts a bigger image in front of your face and isn't any more difficult for your graphics card to power so pick a monitor that will be a comfortable size for the distance you want to sit from it the spec that determines how hard it is to drive is actually the resolution a 24-inch 4k monitor will be about four times more difficult to drive than even an 80 inch 1080p full HD TV because of all them pixels higher resolution displays adieu deliver better more retina light clarity so this isn't a problem per se it's just something that you need to factor into your overall upgrade budget but with the basics out of the way it's time to get into the more advanced stuff what makes a monitor great for gaming compared to another one personally I like to see great color reproduction and I'm willing to trade some of these things I'm about to talk about for that but that won't be true for everyone and color accuracy doesn't give you a competitive edge this stuff does first up is the response time pixels or dots on LCD monitors don't work the same way as a little tube style CRT monitors and when the image updates they actually gradually shift from one color to another the slower the pixels of your monitor the more motion blur or ugly streaking that you'll see behind moving objects on screen this is undesirable look for a monitor with great a great response times under 8 to 16 milliseconds for casual reuse or around 1 to 2 milliseconds for competitive use next the refresh rate of a panel expressed in hertz refers to the number of times an image is sent to the display every second BenQ has a great graphic that illustrates the benefit of this but I think it should be pretty self-explanatory if your eyes are getting more updates per second you're getting information slightly faster than your competitor if a definite advantage and very fast monitors today can run it up to 144 Hertz at 1080p that means you stand to get every frame up to 10 milliseconds sooner than a fellow combatant using a 60 Hertz display next up is a spec that manufacturers don't report but that's easily as important as the others input leg or display leg your PC outputs a signal sure but there are electronics inside your monitor that need to translate that signal into something that the panel can understand this processing introduces a delay that means you can be seeing an individual frame anywhere from a few milliseconds later than it was output by your video card all the way up to 50 milliseconds later or more for competitive use look for a display with input lag under 10 milliseconds but don't take the manufacturers word for input lag specs or any of this stuff LCD makers are notorious for just inventing completely meaningless specifications that suit their marketing purposes and nothing else so be sure to check out sites like blur Busters to get the skinny on the latest gaming displays and that's just still kind of the basics other features like 3d vision for stereoscopic gaming wider more cinematic aspect ratios low persistence modes with backlight strobing and finally g-sync or ActiveSync modes to let your graphics card tell the display when to update can all have a dramatic impact on your experience so with that said it's possible that this guide actually raised more questions than it answered for you but don't worry if that's the case and you still want some help drilling down on the details about these different specs or features or if you just want to be hands-off and pick the things that are important to you and then get someone else to help you pick an exact model head over to Linus tech tips comm where our friendly helpful community will set you on the right track speaking of friendly and helpful clothing sales people who hover around you constantly asking if you need help with that when you desperately do need help but you don't feel like you can ask because they're putting all this pressure on you back off commission junkie just trying to not 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first month that's $45 for a hundred and twenty dollars worth of clothing BAM guys thanks for watching please like dislike and share this video accordingly a tune your accordingly to your enjoyment level whatever I screwed that up I don't care and finally if you haven't already don't forget to subscribe for more fast as possible episodes just like this one