Pick Your Poison: 27-inch or 32-inch 4K gaming monitors are no longer a luxury. With falling prices, OLED advances, and better tech across the board, 2025 is a great time to upgrade – whether you're on a budget or chasing the best.
The Best 4K Gaming Monitors: No Longer a Luxury
- Thread starter Scorpus
- Start date
Thatsdisgusting
Posts: 534 +616
SirDigby
Posts: 1,089 +1,101
I'm lucky enough to have got 3 4K27" monitors from my old job, when I left they let me keep them as they were ordered bespoke for me, they're not HDR or gaming specific but they're pretty good. I'm hoping to replace 2 with a 49" superultrawide curved monitor, probs the Odyssey, eventually.
MarcusNumb
Posts: 273 +483
It's still a luxury since in order to enjoy it, you will have to pay more than 1200 usd/euros for a GPU.
I'll stick with 1440p for now. I don't have the luxury to shell out the money for the video card to drive it.
yRaz
Posts: 9,527 +16,808
I can play most of my games from the mid 2010s at 4k120 on a 6700xt, but anything these days looks like upscaled mess at even 1080p. I want to get a 9070xt but I can't find any that are less than the low $800s right now in the US.
TrevorD
Posts: 14 +6
I have a 32" Asus Pro Art 4K screen and two 24" 1920 x 1200 displays that I use mostly for Photoshop. I also have an XenceLabs 16" Pen Display that is also 4K. This is with Windows 11, and the problem I have found is that Windows no longer allows scaling to be set differently for each display. Even at 32" I have a problem seeing the Photoshop UI at 4K, and there's no chance with the 16" Pen Display. I had to compromise setting scaling to 125% but I was still struggling with the Pro Art display. It broke my heart to do it, but I eventually had set the Pro Art to 2K. I only have the document window on the Pen Display, so that is not a problem.
So not ideal. I try to get 16:10 screens when I can, because the extra height (1200px as opposed tp 1080px) is very useful for fitting all of the Photoshop panels, and I had to compromise my custom workspaces. I've been working with this set up for a while now though, and it is OK now I am used to it, but I sure wish I could scale each screen independently.
So not ideal. I try to get 16:10 screens when I can, because the extra height (1200px as opposed tp 1080px) is very useful for fitting all of the Photoshop panels, and I had to compromise my custom workspaces. I've been working with this set up for a while now though, and it is OK now I am used to it, but I sure wish I could scale each screen independently.
Theinsanegamer
Posts: 8,922 +18,222
TVs have WAY worse pixel response time. I cant stand them after being used to normal PC monitors for so long.
The Ghump
Posts: 13 +9
Don't get me wrong, because I am definitely looking for buying one of those monitors at the moment. But when monitors that cost 15-20% of these ones does a perfectly adequate job for most people, then yes! Yes they are absolutely most definitely by any definition still a luxury item!!
We all want the best of the best. But if we have to settle for less, it's not like we cannot work, cannot watch movies or cannot have great fun with our games. Everyone talks about a night and day difference etc. but somehow the boring crappy games will still be boring crappy games no matter what they look like. A luxury monitor will not change that. We all want the most from our great games, of course we do. But looking back at some of my best gaming moments, somehow I still managed to have them over the years without having an OLED monitor in front of me. So again, yes by all definitions they are luxury items!
We all want the best of the best. But if we have to settle for less, it's not like we cannot work, cannot watch movies or cannot have great fun with our games. Everyone talks about a night and day difference etc. but somehow the boring crappy games will still be boring crappy games no matter what they look like. A luxury monitor will not change that. We all want the most from our great games, of course we do. But looking back at some of my best gaming moments, somehow I still managed to have them over the years without having an OLED monitor in front of me. So again, yes by all definitions they are luxury items!
Last edited:
60FPS is a relic. 100FPS is the baseline I target.
I'd rather have a premium gaming monitor to use than fight my wife over using the TV or shoehorning a TV in the office.
TVs also aren't cheap if you want something with HDR and a good response time.
TAA is often a mess and older FSR versions were pretty nasty, as well. I'd recommend DLSS upscaling, though FSR4 looks good for the games that support it.
Tell that to my <1ms 48" C1. $300 120Hz OLED I picked up last Spring. But now I'd probably recommend a used C2 or C3 instead for longevity, and because those come in 42" sizes too. WOLED (VERY low chance of burn in) and glossy.
42 in 4k HDR tv for $300 is what I'm using; but I grew up on OG NES and APOLE IIE; so I'm less pampering dependent.
This fact has been mentioned numerous times over the years in reviews. It's common knowledge at this point. If you don't have tight control of the lighting in a room, don't buy a QD-OLED.
QD-OLED provides the best image available, bar-none, when implemented correctly. Putting one in a bright room is not a fault of the tech, it's USER ERROR.
I use the first gen Alienware QD OLED and the blacks really blow away even my VA panel monitor. In practice, reflections aren't an issue in real-world content. Never noticed a purple tint. And this is in a room that gets some external light.
I would describe QD OLED as transformational coming from IPS and MVA.
That said, I would not want a television with the reflective qualities of my monitor, as our living room is bright and my wife likes to tilt our TV to all different angles while she does things in the room. But I also will go for a mini LED for our next upgrade instead of any OLED in such a bright room.
Ditto. Recently bought a new TV. Can't believe that after 9(!) years, television screens haven't gotten significantly better when it comes to response times. Hate it.
I grew up on the same machines and still enjoy a high end visual experience.
Do you also try and shame people for carrying a cell phone instead of waiting until they can go home to their rotary landlines? So silly!
Similar threads
Latest posts
-
4GB vs. 8GB VRAM: The 1080p Benchmark- Steve replied
-
Samsung Odyssey G80HS 32" Review: Going 6K
- fadingfool replied
-
Google is testing a new homepage that buries the search button for AI- OortCloud replied
