For most, a 4K gaming monitor is overkill. Trust me (or feel free to judge me), I have a 4K OLED at home and most of the indie darlings I play look just as stunning at 1440p. But if you're serious about 4K gaming and have the kit inside your rig to make a serious go of it—well, I'm guessing your funds are feeling a little depleted, and you'd probably appreciate a good deal on a gaming monitor.

To be upfront, the Acer Predator X32 is a curved, older generation OLED. Typically, that means you're looking at a slightly less face-melting brightness of around 250 nits for this type of QD-OLED in terms of full-screen brightness. This particular bad boy boasts up to 1,000 nits within a 3% window, so solitary points of in-game brightness—like a light bulb in a dark room or a far off bonfire—will still be faithfully rendered, which is what makes this an excellent HDR panel. Besides, the headline here is that you're getting a 32-inch 4K OLED for only $630 from Amazon.

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On top of a 0.03 ms response time, the Acer Predator X32 also enjoys a 240 Hz refresh rate. So, if your gaming PC can keep up with 4K gaming, then you're also looking at a fairly responsive screen to go along with it. Esports fiends may cry out for something speedier still, but that's why the sickos tend to go with much lower resolution TN panels. If competitive esports is not the name of your game, the Acer Predator X32 has plenty to offer.

As the X32 is an older OLED, you won't be getting the new RGB stripe subpixel layout enjoyed by Samsung and LG's latest panels. Though font-fringing isn't so much of an issue at the pixel pitch of a 32-inch 4K display, so it's not something you will hugely miss. Many modern gaming OLEDs tend to feature some font fringing because they use the subpixel layout of TVs, but characters in and out of game are crisply rendered here. That's good news should you need to spend just as much of time staring at documents as you do blasting back the demon horde.

The older generation of QD-OLED, however, does mean colour accuracy may be smidge off, with this older generation of OLEDs known for being a bit warm in terms of colour temperature. QD-OLEDs specifically are also known for having a slight purple tinge to them under brightly lit environments. Mind you, if you struggle to tell the difference between a duck egg blue and a maritime teal, then maybe the disappointing colour precision will be neither here nor there for you. Even as an older OLED, you're still getting those deep, true blacks thanks to HDR Black 400.

Mind you, with only 250 nits to play with, the fiery pits of hell will tend to look a little dull all the same. The problem can be exacerbated should you set this OLED in an uncharacteristically well lit gamer den; unfortunately, the finish on this screen tends to reflect a lot of ambient light, creating some unsightly glare and sapping the depth of those true blacks.

But let's talk about that 1700R curve. It won't be for everyone—much less all desk set ups—but for some, it offers an immersive gaming experience. If you've got the space for it, it's also meant to be fairly easy to adjust in terms of tilt angle and height. If you're in a side-by-side gamer arrangement, it's also easy enough to swivel this screen around for your player two. Any movement on my cluttered desk would absolutely take down about five different Miku Hatsune figurines, though.

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The memory crisis may be continuing to rage, and taking much of the internals of your PC with it, but gaming monitors have become some of the very best deals around.

If you're looking to get yourself the best budget mini-LED gaming monitor right now, KTC's M26T6S is $270 at Newegg with promo code 'EDF37346'.

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I have the honor of looking after both our picks for the best cheap gaming monitor deals and our picks for the best gaming monitors, and this little KTC wonder is in both right now. It's just that good.

With it, you're getting a 1440p 27-inch panel capable of a brightness of 1,000 nits, a response time of 1 ms and a refresh rate of 200 Hz. That's to say, even without that panel technology, it's no slouch in the specs department.

And, being mini-LED, you are getting absolutely sizzling HDR performance. As our Jeremy said in his 90% review, "where the KTC M27T6S really delivers is with HDR content."

KTC has done a wonder on its built-in algorithm to look great without zone popping, and it performs excellently in Cyberpunk 2077 in the areas where OLEDs tend to fail. Brightly lit desert scenes pop, and the in-game sun looks superb in action.

Now, just because it beats out an OLED in some ways doesn't make it the superior technology. Its lighting isn't as precise as an OLED, and OLEDs still take the win in their super wide viewing angles and true blacks. But then again, mini-LEDs don't have the risk of burn-in, which is certainly a concern for OLEDs in and around this price point.

Still, if you've been thinking of making the upgrade, this KTC panel is excellent, and downright budget thanks to its $80 discount.

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Can it really be well over four years since Alienware rolled out the AW3423DW, the first mainstream OLED gaming monitor? The AW3423DW wasn't perfect, but by many important gaming metrics, it absolutely monstered every LCD-based display. That model, of course, was a 34-inch ultrawide and now Alienware has released its most significant update yet for that form factor, the Alienware 34 AW3426DW.

So, what does four years of OLED gaming monitor development buy you? In really simple terms, some new threads, a bit more brightness, and a higher refresh rate. But when you dig down into the details, there's way more going on here.

Most importantly, Alienware has upgraded to Samsung's very latest QD-OLED panel tech, known as Penta Tandem. In terms of headline specs, that means a bump from 250 nits full-screen and 1,000 nits peak HDR brightness of that OG Alienware OLED, to 300 nits and 1,300 nits respectively. You also get an upgrade from VESA DisplayHDR 400 True Black to 500 True Black certification, again highlighting the punchier panel.

The refresh rate is up, too, from 175 Hz four years ago to 280 Hz today, albeit there was an interim Alienware 34-inch ultrawide OLED, the Alienware 34 AW3425DW, that upped the refresh to 240 Hz while keeping most of the other specs the same.

It's also worth noting that there are versions of this Samsung-sourced new-gen 34-inch QD-OLED panel with yet higher refresh, most obviously the MSI MPG 341CQR QD-OLED X36 which I reviewed earlier this year. Apart from the higher refresh, the MSI's panel specs are largely the same.

The MSI kicked off at $1,099 when I reviewed it back in January. Now it's available for $899. So, it's still $100 more expensive than the Alienware's $799 launch price. But let's park that value comparison for now and come back to the Alienware's overall value proposition later.

As with the MSI, the new-gen QD-OLED panel used here has plenty going for it beyond the simple brightness upgrade. The Penta Tandem emissive layer doesn't just produce more light. It makes the panel more resistant to burn-in. On that note, you get the usual Alienware three-year warranty including burn-in cover. So, you at least know burn-in isn't a worry for three years.

Next up is the RGB-stripe subpixel structure. Previous Samsung 34-inch ultrawide QD-OLED panels have used variations of a triangular subpixel structure. That can cause problems when the rendering pipeline is assuming the presence of a standard LCD-type RGB subpixel structure, where each pixel is composed of red, green and then blue vertical stripe subpixels.

The most obvious example is font smoothing technology like Microsoft's ClearType. The coloured text fringing that triangular subpixel structures can result in with ClearType enabled is most obvious with relatively low pixel density panels like this monitor, which comes in at 110 DPI. It's never really been an issue for gaming and, honestly, it was never that bad on the Windows desktop. But, in any case, it's now effectively a solved problem with the introduction of a true RGB-stripe subpixel structure.

Arguably more important are a couple of other panel tweaks. First, the characteristic purple tint that QD-OLEDs suffer from in bright ambient light has been reduced, albeit not actually removed entirely. That's welcome if, for instance, you position your monitor near a large window. In that scenario, this generation of QD-OLED maintains better contrast and black levels.

The glossy panel surface has also been revised with a tougher, more scratch-resistant surface. Owners of earlier QD-OLEDs with glossy coatings, which was nearly all of them, often reported that the screen scratched easily and extensively, for instance when cleaning the panel. This new gen panel should be more durable in that regard.

Elsewhere, this new Alienware AW3426DW looks pretty similar to its interim update sibling, the Alienware 34 AW3425DW. It uses the same AW30 design ethic with its rounded forms and deep-blue plastics. It's well enough slung together, though I actually preferred the slightly retro "Storm Trooper" vibe of the AW3423DW and its swooping white and black plastics.

Whatever, as with previous 34-inch Alienware OLEDs, connectivity is decent but not comprehensive. Along with a couple of HDMI 2.1 ports and a DisplayPort 1.4 interface, there's a USB hub that includes USB-A and USB-C data ports on the lower bezel.

However, there's no primary USB-C input and thus no option for single-cable connectivity to a laptop and likewise no KVM switch. Notably, the more expensive MSI MPG 341CQR QD-OLED X36 includes both of those features. So, you'd want to factor that in with the higher refresh into your value calculations.

Of course, what really matters is image quality and here the news is almost all good. Out of the box, the new Alienware 34 AW3426DW immediately has that little bit more pop that the OG Alienware OLED. It's not a life-changing difference in terms of full-screen brightness. But as with the MSI MPG 341CQR X36, it's getting awfully close to the point where it's hard to imagine anyone demanding more day-to-day punch from an OLED panel.

The reduced purple tint in bright ambient light is really welcome, too. This is a somewhat subjective call. But I'd say it will no longer be a nuisance for most users. It's also likely that whatever changes Samsung made to reduce the purple tint also contribute to improved colour balance. Previously generations of QD-OLED panels suffered a pretty obviously overly warm colour temp. This new panel is better, though again it still tilts a little warm.

If that all applies to regular SDR running, the HDR sizzle on offer is something special. On paper, LG's latest Tandem WOLED panel tech is brighter. But only because it includes an extra white subpixel to boost brightness. In terms of colour brightness and the subjective look of the panel, this new QD-OLED generation is absolutely competitive. It may even look more vibrant in some scenarios.

Alienware has also included just about every HDR mode you could wish for. Along with the standard VESA True Black 500 mode and the panel's Peak 1300 mode, there's a Peak 1300 Bright mode.

It's essentially the same idea as MSI's EOTF Boost mode. In both cases, it's an attempt to combine maximum full screen brightness, as per the True Black 500 mode, with the highest peak HDR brightness for small details. For the most part, it's very successful.

The monitor looks absolutely superb in contrasty HDR game scenes, the type where there's a mix of small bright details punctuating a dark overall vista. Nighttime sequences in Cyberpunk 2077 is the obvious example, here, and this panel absolutely rocks for that kind of play. It's so much better than any LCD monitor, it's not even funny. Once you're used to the vibrant, contrasty OLED experience, going back to the watery, light-bleedy LCD look is a bit of a bummer, that's for sure.

It's pretty darn good for daytime game scenes, too. I only hesitate slightly because full-screen brightness is still a slight limitation, even with this latest Penta Tandem QD-OLED generation. Would you really want the desert sun brighter than this panel can render it? It would feel a bit more realistic, but then you'd also be flirting with an uncomfortable level of brightness.

One thing that's for sure is that the SDR calibration in the Peak 1300 Bright mode is a little off. That's a pity, because it's very good in the other two main HDR modes and were it as good in Peak 1300 Bright, you could plausibly leave the panel in that mode for all kinds of content, all the time, rather than having to switch modes between SDR and HDR.

Unusually, Alienware has also included support for Dolby Vision. That's an HDR standard distinct from the HDR10 used by default by Windows. In truth, Dolby Vision is more relevant for video and movies than games, but it's a nice little extra.

Overall, the HDR implementation is really very good. But the deeper we get into these latest OLED panels, the more complicated the HDR proposition becomes in practical usage terms. Should most PC gamers really have to worry about things like multiple HDR modes, EOTF curves and all that stuff? Having options is great, but it's about time one of the major monitor brands had the confidence to work out an optimal HDR setup and make that a very clear default. And then perhaps bury all the other options in a submenu.

What else can I tell you? Well, there's good panel uniformity and none of the banding or "dirty screen" effect that some LG-based OLED monitors can suffer from. And as with pretty much every OLED, the pixel speed is fairly ludicrous. It's easy to gloss over pixel response given all OLEDs are so fast, but as the quoted 0.03ms response time implies, this panel is getting on for two orders of magnitude faster than any LCD monitor. It's a huge advantage in terms of in-game motion clarity.

While we're talking speed, Alienware has included an "Esports Mode" that will compress whatever signal you're sending to the display into a 25-inch 16:9 window. Obviously, the idea here is to mimic the typical 24-inch to 25-inch panels favoured for serious online shooter play.

LG offers a similar feature on its own monitors and while it works okay in both cases, I do struggle to entirely believe that anyone who is truly serious about esports is going to choose an ultrawide like this. Pretty obviously for the $800 launch price, you could have something running at well, well beyond the 280 Hz this Alienware offers, too.

More broadly, with this category of gaming monitor, you are making a trade off. The 110 DPI pixel density is relatively low. Even with the RGB-stripe subpixel technology, you're not getting super-sharp image detail and nice, crispy fonts. You could very much argue that a 32-inch 4K panel, like the Asus ROG Strix XG32UQWMS and its LG Tandem OLED panel, is a better overall compromise between gaming and general-purpose computing. It's certainly a lot sharper and clearer.

But then the immersion of a 34-inch ultrawide is something special, while the added pixel density of 4K comes with a lot more GPU load. For pure gaming, 34-inch ultrawide would be my pick. For a broader remit, it's a very close call, it really is.

So, this new Alienware is undoubtedly a very nice implementation of Samsung's new Penta Tandem QD-OLED tech. It's also cheaper than the 360 Hz versions of essentially the same panel, such as the MSI MPG 341CQR X36.

Personally, were I buying today, I'd still try to find the extra $100 for the MSI. The superior 360 Hz refresh isn't exactly critical, but it wouldn't hurt. And I'd want the USB-C connectivity and KVM switch for maximum utility and flexibility.

The thing is, the gap is only $100 because the MSI has dropped substantially from its $1,099 launch price to $899 of late. I doubt it will be very long before the new AW3426DW is offered at some kind of discount over its $799 launch price by Alienware. And it wouldn't take much of a haircut before it looked like the better deal versus the slightly better specified MSI.

Then again, if you think 280 Hz is plenty, and it probably is for most gamers, most of the time, and you don't care about USB-C, why pay more? Right now, and without any kind of discount, this is easily one of the most compelling gaming monitors on the market. It's seriously good.

The gaming PC market is in a truly horrible place. The memory crisis is sucking up tons of hardware, and causing memory, SSDs, and even graphics cards to surge in price as a result. Yet, the one single positive of the last six months of PC gaming is that monitors have only gotten cheaper.

If you fancy making an upgrade to an OLED gaming monitor, you can pick up a 27-inch 1440p Samsung one for just $300, almost half of its retail price.

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Though we'll get to its downsides, the upside of OLED gaming monitors is evident the second you turn them on. They offer great color reproduction, excellent contrasts with true blacks, and superb image quality. In fact, swapping to an OLED gaming monitor is arguably the greatest upgrade I've made to my gaming setup, making all my games look so much better.

And you aren't lacking on other specs either. 180 Hz is a strong refresh rate, and the 0.03 ms response time is super snappy too. Though you can technically get a 4K gaming monitor for less cash (like this Acer Nitro IPS one for $180), my money would be spent on this OLED here. A 4K resolution requires beefy graphics hardware, and even if you can run it, I'd often take 1440p on the lush OLED screen and enjoy superior frame rates instead.

OLEDs can suffer from burn-in (that and the price are the biggest downsides), but this display has got some built-in burn-in safeguarding tech and a three-year warranty if you're anxious it won't last you very long. We've also seen independent testing that suggests, while not a 10)% solved issue, you have to work pretty hard to burn in a modern OLED gaming monitor. Treat it right and you should get years and years without a hint of it.

You also get G-Sync and FreeSync here, so the Samsung is offering pretty much everything you want out of a modern gaming monitor, and at a price that genuinely shocked me a little when I saw it this morning.

I watch over our best cheap gaming monitor deals page every single week, so I'm used to checking the OLED market, but this is the cheapest I can remember seeing all year. This monitor is even cheaper than it was at the last Prime Day, and it was already an excellent deal back then.

If you want your games to really pop, and have a few hundred spare, I simply couldn't recommend the swap to OLED enough, and at 27 inches, it's also perfect as part of a dual monitor setup. I'd know, as that's exactly what I'm running at home.

As much as deals excite me (I promise you), I'm pretty relieved that Amazon Prime Day is over for the year. Nevertheless, I couldn't help but notice that one of the most appealing deals of the event, which was a hefty discount on the already very affordable KTC H27T22C-3 1440p gaming monitor, has dropped even further today.

The short version: that KTC panel is currently going for AU$177.64on Amazon, down from AU$208.99. It's much better than the AU$216.50 it was going for during Prime Day.

This, by the way, is our favourite budget 1440p monitor. It has a silky smooth 210Hz refresh rate, which is very good value in this price range. It has an IPS display, Freesync and G-sync compatibility, a 1 ms response time and 450 nits of peak brightness.

Honestly, it's above and beyond what you should expect in this price range.

Do keep in mind that this model seems to have received a cut to its RRP between now and early July: it used to be AU$289.99 at full price on Amazon, now that's dropped to AU$208.99.

In his review, Jeremy Laird praised this monitor's "punchy IPS panel" and the 200Hz refresh rate, while criticising its "limited" HDR capability and tilt-only stand. It's well worth reading the review if you want a fuller picture, but the H27T22C-3 is also a bit lacking when it comes to connectivity.

"The fear with a low cost monitor from a less familiar brand is that it might suffer from some or other really obvious flaw," Laird wrote. "Maybe the calibration is a mess, the overdrive doesn't work or the backlight is horribly dim. But none of that applies here. This isn't a perfect display, but it is pretty nice by any reasonable metric. And in the context of the price, it's pretty darn brilliant."

If that's not what you're after, check out our list of the best gaming monitors.

Asus isn't the immediately obvious pick when it comes to value-orientated PC hardware. But its mainstream Strix sub-brand does occasionally deliver some pretty sweet deals. Enter, therefore, the new Asus ROG Strix OLED XG32UQWMS.

It's a 32-inch, 4K gaming monitor based on LG's latest Tandem Primary RGB OLED panel tech, the specifics of which we'll come to shortly. And it's yours for $899, which is a pretty punchy price for a 32-inch 4K OLED with the very newest panel tech.

However, as a Strix model, the XG32UQWMS doesn't throw everything at the wall when it comes to features. Well, that's the theory. In practice, the XG32UQWMS has an awful lot of the stuff you'd want from a gaming display.

The one obvious omission is USB-C connectivity. But then that's not an unambiguously gaming-adjacent feature, albeit it is desirable for use with a gaming laptop and likewise if you're planning on sharing this monitor between a gaming rig and, perhaps, a work laptop.

Anyway, apart from the LG-supplied OLED panel itself, there's one little extra that's worth mentioning first. Along with the 240 Hz available at the OLED panel's native 4K resolution, there's also a 1080p dual mode running at fully 480 Hz.

Yes, these kinds of dual mode features are increasingly common on 4K gaming monitors. But given the Strix branding and relatively competitive pricing, not to mention the fact that not many OLED 4K monitors have yet offered it, you still might not have expected it on this particular model.

As for other specifications, this Asus represents a step up in terms of brightness compared with previous 32-inch 4K monitors with LG OLED models. The full-screen rating is now 330 nits, up from 275 nits on earlier models.

Asus is also quoting fully 1,500 nits for peak HDR brightness in a small window. Notably, both of those figures are well up on the 300 nits and 1,000 nits, respectively, that MSI claims for the MPG 322UR X24.

That MSI model uses the latest QD-OLED 32-inch 4K panel from Samsung. So, on paper at least, this new LG panel tech seems to have the edge over Samsung. For what it's worth, both this new Asus and the MSI get VESA DisplayHDR True Black 500 certification. Despite all that, the MSI is quite a bit more expensive, at $1,099.

There are a few other upsides beyond mere brightness that come with this latest LG Tandem OLED generation. First, there's a glossy panel coating. That's not to everyone's taste, but it certainly heightens one of the main strengths of OLED tech, namely contrast.

There's also more colour performance, now up to 99.5% of the DCI-P3 gamut and much more competitive in that regard with Samsung QD-OLED. Asus also says this generation of LG OLED panel tech is 60% more durable in terms of light-emitting lifespan and so should resist burn-in even more robustly, an issue which is covered in any case by the three-year warranty.

What you don't get, however, is true RGB-stripe sub-pixel structure. Confusingly, the "Primary RGB" nomenclature LG applies to this new panel tech refers to the layers of emissive material actually within each subpixel.

The sub-pixel structure itself remains the RGWB or red, green, white, and blue layout seen in many recent OLED panels. Strictly speaking, pure RGB and without the white sub pixel LG adds to boost brightness offers both better rendering precision and superior colour fidelity. For the record, Asus has announced a monitor with LG's new Tandem OLED panel that does have pure RGB-stripe subpixels, the ROG Swift OLED PG32UCWM. But that monitor is not this monitor, and the Swift models always command a much higher price.

Whatever, as is usual for all these OLED panels, response is rated at a startlingly scant 0.03 ms. In short, pixel response is essentially a solved problem with modern OLED panel tech. Rounding out the main features are dual HDMI 2.1 inputs, DisplayPort 1.4, a USB hub and support for G-Sync adaptive refresh technology on Nvidia GPUs and FreeSync on AMD GPUs.

Incidentally, this may be an Asus Strix model and therefore not its most premium offering, but the build quality is still decent. Okay, you miss out on pivoting the panel into portrait mode. But all the other adjustments, including tilt, height and swivel are included and, frankly, it's every bit as well put together as an 8K Asus monitor I happen to have in at the moment that sells for an incredible $8,800.

With all those details covered off, well, it's time to get to the main event. How good does this new LG Tandem OLED panel tech look in 32-inch 4K format and, likewise, how does it stack up against the Samsung QD-OLED competition as represented by the MSI MPG 322UR X24?

Out of the box, it's immediately apparent that this new panel has both more punch and more colour vibrancy that the previous LG-sourced 32-inch 4K OLED panel. But there are caveats.

Subjectively, the full screen brightness is a little disappointing. With a large proportion of the panel being driven hard, it's definitely duller looking, subjectively, than the MSI. If that seems to contradict the paper specs, well, this Asus monitor has to rely on LG's additional white subpixel to hit that 330 nits full-screen figure.

In practice, the white subpixel doesn't automatically boost brightness for colours as opposed to pure white. So, much of the time, that 330 nits rating is a bit notional. As with most OLEDs, you can boost the brightness by disabling the ABL or automatic brightness limiter, which Asus refers to as the Uniform Brightness setting.

However, more than with QD-OLED panels, the overall panel brightness varies substantially depending on how much of the panel is being lit up. It only requires a disappointingly small application window, such as a web browser, showing a predominantly white image, to have the panel dimming quite noticeably.

Even using dark mode for most apps, the panel will quite often dim in a manner that the QD-OLED competition doesn't, not quite. That said, this monitor can still deliver some spectacular visuals for HDR content.

It's at its best when rendering small bright details on a dark background. That's when you'll get the full 1,500 nits and a truly eye-popping experience. That's not the reality for most games, most of the time of course. And for day-to-day gaming I'd give the subjective edge to the MSI monitor and its Samsung panel. It's that little bit more vibrant, that little bit more immersive.

Of course one thing the MSI lacks is a 1080p dual mode. So, how does that factor into the equation? Certainly, this Asus Strix is lightning fast running at 480 Hz. The motion clarity is pretty stupendous ripping your mouse around in an online shooter like Counter-Strike 2, ditto the lack of latency.

The image quality at 1080p is also among the best I've seen in terms of pixel definition on a 32-inch 4K panel running in dual mode. But the thing is, if you're really serious about esports, do you really want to be playing on a 32-inch monitor?

I suppose you could mimic the apparent size of the preferred 24-inch monitor by pushing this thing further away. But I'm not totally convinced that's a satisfactory solution for someone who plays loads of online shooters. And if you don't, I can't see you using the dual mode much.

What I can say for sure is that I still give the slight edge to Samsung's QD-OLED tech. Yes, even the latest QD-OLEDs have a slight purple tint in bright ambient light that you entirely sidestep with LG's Tandem OLED panels.

But, overall, QD-OLED still feels noticeably more vibrant and colour rich. Moreover, the variable brightness on this Asus's LG panel when you disable uniform brightness in order to get the best performance is also more noticeable and more distracting.

All that said, there's a price differential to take into account. This Asus goes for $899 to the MSI's $1,099. Personally, I think the MSI is worth the extra $200 for a bit more subjective pop and USB-C connectivity. But the value proposition is certainly very tight between the two. And if you don't care about USB-C but would like the 1080p 480 Hz dual-mode feature, well, the Asus ROG Strix OLED XG32UQWMS is pretty compelling.

Is this the monitor cashed-up PC gamers have been waiting for? At last, a 39-inch ultrawide with decent pixel density thanks to its 5K2K resolution, plus the latest LG OLED panel knowhow? The new LG UltraGear Evo GX9 39GX950B certainly sounds pretty sweet, even if it also costs a pretty penny at $1,799 or £1,549.

The sordid matter of money aside, there's just one snag. The Ultragear 39GX950B does indeed offer LG's hot new Tandem OLED technology. But there's another otherwise almost identical 39-inch 5K2K panel from LG Display that has one notable advantage over this monitor, the inclusion of true RGB-stripe subpixel structure.

It turns out Alienware has announced a monitor using that LG panel, the Alienware AW3926QW, and, to be frank, it looms large over this new model from LG itself. However good it is, you'd really want to see how that Alienware shapes up before pulling the trigger.

Still, the LG Ultragear Evo 39GX950B does look epic on paper. We're talking 5,120 by 2,160 pixels across that 39-inch diagonal. To provide a little context and to define this panel in terms of pixel density and vertical screen size, this is essentially a 32-inch 4K 16:9 monitor taken out to 21:9 aspect and 39 inches.

For many fans of high-end gaming displays, the basic proposition here is just about perfect. The 143 DPI pixel density is enough for crisp fonts and lots of space for day-to-day computing and multitasking while also delivering oodles of in-game image detail.

At the same time, the ultrawide aspect and huge 39-inch panel size makes for epic immersion. Then add in the latest LG Tandem OLED panel tech and, well, you get the idea. This thing promises to be a bit special.

Beyond the basic form factor, of course, there are plenty of other details to absorb. In terms of brightness, ever a key OLED metric, LG claims 335 nits full screen and 1,500 peak HDR in a small window. Those figures are as good as PC OLED monitors currently get.

Speaking of HDR, the 39GX950B has VESA DisplayHDR True Black 500 certification, which is a hallmark of the latest LG Tandem OLED panels. Response comes in at 0.03 ms, which is standard for pretty much all current OLED panels and miles faster than any LCD-based monitor.

As for refresh, at the 5K2K native the 39GX950B tops out at 165 Hz. However, it supports various dual-mode alternative resolutions, the fastest of which can achieve 330 Hz. That's fairly nippy by any sensible measure, though it's pretty hard to imagine anyone really serious about esports and online shooters going for a huge ultrawide like this.

Having said that, the 39GX950B does offer the option of running at 1080p and 330 Hz in a 24.5-inch window, which pretty neatly mimics the preferred form factor for esports. The image quality is pretty clunky and pixellated, as it is in all of the dual modes. And I'm not totally convinced that many esports fans will actually want to play like that.

It certainly looks pretty odd to have a small 24.5-inch section of the huge panel active and rest fully blacked out. But there's no question it works and means this monitor is a thoroughly versatile gaming tool.

If the downscaling support is comprehensive with this panel, so too is the upscaling. Obviously, some kind of upscaling is now pretty much standard with any remotely recent graphics card, in the form of Nvidia's DLSS, AMD's FSR or even Intel's XeSS. But LG has included its own "AI" upscaling functionality with the 39GX950B via an integrated image processor. But hold that thought, we'll come back to how effective it is and how it might compare with GPU scaling in a moment.

Rounding out the speeds and feeds, you get HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 2.1 and USB-C connectivity, the latter with 90 W of power delivery for single-cable connectivity to a laptop, albeit a gaming laptop will typically need rather more than that.

Last and certainly not least on the specs, the panel has a matte anti-glare coating rather than glossy and a mercifully gentle 1500R curve. Most people know if they are glossy or matte fans, but suffice to say that the heavy majority of current OLED gaming monitors are glossy.

One further detail involves the warranty. Where most big monitor brands offer three-year cover, including burn-in, LG is only offering two years. That's disappointing on several levels. For starters, LG Display, the subsidiary of the sprawling LG empire that makes the actual OLED panel (as opposed to LG Electronics, which makes this monitor), says its new Tandem OLED panel tech is more durable than previous generations. So, why not back it with a three-year warranty?

Moreover, given the hefty asking price of around $1,799 or £1,549, the thought of being on your own when it comes to burn-in after just two years is pretty off putting. That alone makes this monitor tricky to recommend.

But let's park that caveat for a moment and consider this monitor's performance. What's it actually like? Well, it's definitely punchier than monitors based on LG's previous WOLED panel generations. Oddly, it's also a more consistent performer than the Asus ROG Strix XG32UQWMS I reviewed recently.

I say "odd" because that Asus uses essentially a 32-inch 4K version of the same LG Tandem OLED panel tech. But I found the brightness variability on the Asus to be awfully distracting if you disabled the uniform brightness feature in order to maximise performance.

The Ultragear 39GX950B does still suffer from that issue, and probably more than comparable OLED monitors based on Samsung QD-OLED tech. But not enough for it to be a major flaw. Overall, the full-screen brightness is pretty decent and this panel can actually be too bright if, for instance, you tend to run most applications in dark mode and then have a third of the screen lit up by a bright browser window.

Of course, that's a good problem to have. Turning brightness down is simple. There's not much you can do, on the other hand, if max brightness isn't good enough.

So, as a desktop general computing panel running in SDR mode, this LG is pretty sweet. Fonts are sharp and crisp, there's loads of desktop space for multitasking, and the panel is plenty bright enough. If you really want to split hairs, I think the latest Samsung QD-OLED panels still look a touch more vibrant and saturated. But it's not a huge delta.

For HDR content, meanwhile, it's likewise mostly good news. LG's OSD menu is a bit baffling, but once you've got everything properly set up, the results can be spectacular, especially on a panel this size.

As ever with an OLED panel, it's at its best showing small bright details on a dark background. Neon lights in a nightclub scene, fireworks in the night sky, a large flame burning in the inky darkness, that kind of thing. Then the full impact of the 1,500 nit peak HDR brightness really hits home.

It's a touch less impressive for outdoor daytime video and game scenes, where the full-screen brightness limitations can leave it looking just a tiny bit underwhelming. To be clear, it's far better than earlier LG OLED panel generations in that regard. But, again, my preference for that kind of rendering remains Samsung QD-OLED.

That said, it's an open question just how good LG's new RGB-stripe panel as used by the aforementioned Alienware will be by comparison. In theory, and because it doesn't rely on an additional white subpixel to boost brightness, that RGB-stripe panel should have superior colour saturation and look more vibrant. Exactly how that pans out, well, we'll have to wait and see.

While we're talking HDR visuals, the SDR calibration in the best HDR mode is pretty wonky to the point where you'd never leave it in that mode, day-to-day. You can actually get decent SDR visuals in one of the other HDR modes. But then that compromises HDR performance. Long story short, you're going to have to switch monitor modes depending on the kind of content you are viewing, which is a bit of an annoyance.

As for the AI upscaling feature, it's awfully hit and miss. For instance, it doesn't work at all at 3,440 by 1,440, which you'd think would be the ideal alternative setting to 5,120 by 2,160 native in terms of knocking the res down to release some performance.

At other resolutions like 1080p, meanwhile, it only works at certain refresh rates. Once enabled, yes it does make things a bit crisper, but it's really not comparable to DLSS or FSR. In short, in its current form the built-in AI upscaling feels pretty underbaked.

Still, if you add panel speed to this monitor's other qualities, the overall experience is frankly epic. It's so huge and so super sharp and so immersive and just so awesome. And yet I can't help having a few reservations.

First, I'd love to see the latest Samsung QD-OLED tech applied to a panel this size and resolution. I'd likewise like to see this monitor with a glossy coating. That could be fantastic in terms of heightening the sense of visual pop and contrast.

And, again, I'd really want to see that upcoming Alienware with its LG Tandem OLED RGB-stripe panel before pulling the trigger, especially as the Alienware looks like it could be as much as $600 cheaper.

Then there's the disappointing two-year warranty. It really is hard to look past that at this price point. All of which leaves me in a state of cognitive dissonance with this monitor. In some ways, it's the best gaming monitor I've ever seen. And yet it's ultimately impossible to issue a strong buy recommendation. At the very least, anyone considering the LG UltraGear Evo GX9 39GX950B really has to wait and see how that cheaper RGB-stirpe Alienware turns out.

Display manufacturer BOE has started mass production at its new OLED plant, an 8.6-generation-panel-producing behemoth said to be the first of its kind in China.

The plant will produce 10 million OLED panels this year alone, according to FlatpanelsHD, and significantly more in the second year of its operation. The plant took just over two years to build, cost roughly 63 million RMB (around $9.3 billion) and resides in Chengdu.

Representatives from Lenovo, Asus, MSI, Oppo, Vivo, Honor, ZTE, Transsion, Xiaomi and Nothing reportedly attended the opening ceremony, indicating that each will be using the OLED panels produced.

One of the first is said to be a 14-inch OLED panel for Asus, Acer, and Lenovo laptops. The high-end products (being 8.6-gen offerings) will feature stacked tandem panel layers utilising Low-Temperature Polycrystalline Oxide (LTPO), and support 240 Hz VRR refresh rates.

At first, the focus will be on small to medium-sized OLED panels, with no timelines currently announced for TV-sized variants. The plant will also have competition, as Samsung Display booted up a similar 8.6-gen facility in South Korea earlier this year. TCL and Visionox also have 8.6-gen OLED panel plants in the works, so it looks like it won't be long before we're flooded with even more OLED displays from a variety of sources.

This is likely a very good thing for those of us with a tasty new OLED in mind, particularly in our next gaming laptops. Vast numbers of new, high-specced panels entering the market will hopefully lead to some very competitive pricing, and we've already seen some smaller OLED gaming monitors dropping to much more reasonable money over the last few months.

Bring on the OLED pricing revolution, that's what I say. It's been long enough coming, at the very least.

With the price of everything else climbing sky high, I find it genuinely astonishing that you can pick up a great 1440p gaming monitor for under $200. In fact, I've found six of the beasties for well under that figure, with the cheapest 27-incher starting at just $110.

And for this sort of cash, I think it's time those of you on 1080p displays start thinking about an upgrade. Yes, it'll be slightly more taxing on your graphics card, so that's worth taking into account. But otherwise, the leap from an old 1080p panel to a shiny new 1440p model can be surprisingly significant in terms of your gaming experience.

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I've tried to make this a wide-ranging selection, so I've found a 100 Hz MSI IPS display for $130, a 180 Hz 27-inch Acer Nitro model for $160, and even a speedy 200 Hz Gigabyte panel for $180, among others.

Each of these gaming monitors represents fantastic value right now, and means you can pick up a relatively cheap upgrade for your gaming setup in 2026. Which, let's face it, is something of a rarity these days. To the pixelmobile!

Cheap 1440p gaming monitor deals

For PC hardware enthusiasts, the good news has been awfully slim pickings of late. What with the ongoing RAMpocalypse, new GPU generations apparently delayed indefinitely and the seeming inevitability of ever more expensive computer chips, it's nearly all gloom and doom.

Nearly, that is, but not quite. The glimmer of hope in the barren wasteland that used to be affordable PC gaming? That'll be monitors. They keep getting cheaper and better at the same time, a bit like computer chips used to. In fact, in the last few months I've reviewed the most affordable examples yet of two cutting-edge display technologies, mini-LED and OLED.

Both can now be had for under $350 in 27-inch 1440p format. Representing mini-LED is the remarkable KTC M27T6S, a monitor so good it actually shifted my view on mini-LED technology in general.

Stepping up for OLED is the Alienware AW2726DM. Alienware has form when it comes to bringing OLED display technology in at a lower price than the competition and the AW2726DM makes what many gamers see as the ultimate display technology more accessible than ever before.

We're not quite at price parity, of course. The mini-LED KTC monitor comes in around $290 to the Alienware OLED's $350. But they're close enough for cross shopping to be pretty plausible. So the question is, should you make budget mini-LED or budget OLED your PC gaming panel of choice?

What are OLED and mini-LED?

First up, it's worth understanding just how dramatically different these two display technologies are despite the fact that they both exist for essentially the same reason. The name of the game for both mini-LED and OLED, after all, is improved lighting control.

What you might call traditional PC monitors in the flat-panel era have typically used LCD technology with a big, dumb monolithic backlight. OK, you could vary the brightness of that backlight. But that isn't much help if you want to display both bright and dark image elements at the same time.

Mini-LED is actually still an LCD-based display tech. But it attempts to fix the lighting issue courtesy of an array of individually addressable backlight zones allowing different brightness levels across the screen. Current mini-LED monitors usually have in the order of 1,000 to 2,000 such zones, enabling much better lighting control.

Of course, the ultimate in lighting control would be on a literally per-pixel basis, with each pixel acting as its own light source. And that's exactly what OLED panels deliver. Indeed, it's worth noting just how much more precise OLED is than mini-LED in that regard.

While the KTC M27T6S's 1,152 mini-LED dimming zones might sound like a lot, the fundamental resolution of the backlight is extremely low, something in the order of 40 by 25 zones. With a native image resolution of 2,560 by 1,440, the result is over 3,000 pixels in each zone. But with OLED, each of a 1440p panel's 3.7 million pixels has individual lighting control. That's a huge difference.

OLED panel tech comes with other fringe benefits, too. They have much faster pixel response, not far off two orders of magnitude faster. LCD panels generally come in at about 1 ms claimed response, while OLED is typically rated at 0.03 ms. OLED also has better viewing angles.

Not everything goes OLEDs way, however. Full-screen brightness is a notable weakness and it just so happens that's something mini-LED does very well. Even the very latest OLED monitors top out under 350 nits full-screen, while some mini-LED monitors can exceed 1,000 nits.

OLED also comes with the worry of burn-in. The evidence is building that OLED burn-in is something that the vast majority of users won't have to worry about for many years. But it is a real problem and something you don't have to think about at all with mini-LED.

What's better for gaming, budget mini-LED or budget OLED?

On paper, the Alienware AW2726DM looks like the faster, more responsive monitor. It's got a slight edge when it comes to refresh, hitting 240 Hz to the KTC M27T6S's 200 Hz, or 210 Hz if you want to use the slightly silly "overclocking" feature.

The Alienware's Samsung-supplied QD-OLED panel also offers massively faster 0.03 ms claimed pixel response. The KTC's IPS panel is only good for 1 ms, and even that's only for the less demanding MPRT metric as opposed to the Alienware's grey-to-grey rating.

In practice, the subjective gap isn't nearly as big as the objective specifications. Yes, the Alienware is faster. But the difference isn't nearly as dramatic as 1 ms versus 0.03 ms would have you expect. That says a lot about how far IPS panel tech has come and the fact that the KTC has sourced a pretty nippy example of the IPS panel breed.

Put it this way. If the KTC M27T6S was superior in most other ways, you wouldn't take the Alienware AW2726DM just for its speed. It is faster, but that speed isn't a killer blow. A possible exception here is esports, where refresh is king in terms of latency. But then if competitive online shooters are your absolute priority, you don't want either of these monitors. You're better off with the fastest 1080p panel you can find for this kind of money, and it's probably going to be a TN.

Instead, where the Alienware really delivers is HDR visuals, albeit with some caveats. The Alienware AW2726DM is actually only rated at 400 nits for peak HDR brightness, where the KTC will hit 1,000 nits. But the way we dumb humans perceive brightness isn't as simple as comparing specs.

Contrast matters just as much for perceived brightness as outright brightness. And the Alienware absolutely nails contrast. It can do a single pixel hitting 400 nits right next to another putting out basically zero nits. That means it's far, far better at achieving precision lighting across the whole image and a subjective sense of contrast. Small, bright details actually look brighter because they are surrounded by greater contrast.

In other words, OLED black levels are actually, well, black. The go-to test that really emphasises the difference here is a starfield panning across the display. The Alienware's OLED panel has no problem perfectly lighting individual stars as they scan across the sky.

Mini-LED monitors always involve some kind of compromise with that kind of image. The KTC M27T6S actually does the starfield test better than any other mini-LED monitor I've seen, which is pretty remarkable when you consider it's a budget model. KTC has done a really nice job on the M27T6S's backlight algorithm, that's for sure. But it's still nowhere near as good as OLED.

If all that seems a little abstract, what this all translates into is a much more natural and immersive game world using an OLED panel. There's no backlight bleed, no glowing at the edges of the screen, just what feels like a window into a stunning game world.

The Alienware's glossy panel coating actually heightens that sense, it's so clear and crisp. KTC has gone for a fairly coarse matte anti-glare coating and it both slightly softens the image and further compromises perceived black levels and contrast. In darker game scenes, the Alienware QD-OLED therefore absolutely hammers the KTC mini-LED.

However, ramp up the brightness and the tables are somewhat turned. There are some desert scenes in Cyberpunk 2077 that really show what mini-LED can do with HDR enabled. The KTC M27T6S absolutely pops, it renders the afternoon so bright that it almost hurts your eyes.

Running the two monitors side-by-side, the Alienware OLED looks awfully dull by comparison, it simply runs out of pop when you try to light up a large proportion of the panel. Meanwhile, the KTC never looks anything but retina-searingly bright.

The thing is, however, the QD-OLED panel's deficiencies are much less obvious in isolation than they are when you've got the super-bright mini-LED monitor sitting right next to it. Your eyes adjust to the light levels, to at least some degree cancelling out the objective brightness advantage of the KTC. On the other hand, you never stop seeing the washed out black tones, the lack of contrast, the glow at the edges of the panel, with an IPS panel, even one with a mini-LED backlight.

What's better for daily computing?

First, let's square away something that is often overstated. Just as OLED's speed isn't quite as massive an advantage in the real world as you might expect, the mini-LED KTC M27T6S's font rendering is not, in truth, dramatically better than the QD-OLED Alienware AW2726DM.

Yes, that QD-OLED panel has a suboptimal triangular subpixel structure, as opposed to conventional RGB-stripe. And yes the KTC's fonts are clearer, but only marginally. The bottom line is that neither monitor has particularly good pixel density and even the KTC doesn't render terribly nice fonts. If that's what you care about, you need something like a 27-inch 4K panel or even a 5K model.

For daily computing, both monitors are likewise plenty fast enough. So, it's more the static image quality where the differences lie. As ever, the QD-OLED Alienware has much better black levels and contrast, the mini-LED KTC can run brighter.

There are caveats to all that, however. For starters, there's the question of how bright you actually want a monitor, day-to-day. Arguably, the KTC is too bright for daily comfort in SDR content when set to full reheat.

But what if you do tend to prefer a really punchy looking monitor? Does the QD-OLED Alienware fall short? The simple answer is yes, but it can be mitigated. In SDR mode, the Alienware only hits 200 nits. However, if you switch to HDR mode and then max out the SDR content brightness in the Windows Display Settings menu, you can get pretty good results.

It works best if you prefer to run apps and view websites in dark mode. As with pretty much all OLEDs, the more of the screen you light up in HDR mode, the lower the peak brightness you can achieve. With both monitors running Windows in dark mode, HDR enabled and SDR brightness maxed out, the brightness gap is substantially closed and the Alienware feels really very punchy. And at the same time, it retains its contrast and black level advantage.

The exception to that involves the characteristic purple tint of QD-OLED panels in bright ambient light. This can be problematic during the day, if you, for instance, situate the Alienware right near a big window that lets in lots of natural light. In that scenario, the QD-OLED will also look a little overly warm in terms of colour temperature, while the KTC's IPS panel looks more neutral.

So, what's the best budget panel technology overall?

This is going to sound like a massive cop out, but much of this comes down to personal preference. No question, there are some objective pros and cons. The Alienware and its QD-OLED panel is definitely faster, it has better black levels and contrast, plus superior viewing angles.

The mini-LED KTC, on the other hand, is clearly the brighter of the two and renders fonts more precisely thanks to its RGB-stripe subpixel structure. But what you, personally, make of those pros and cons will be another matter.

The fact that it's not an absolute slam dunk for one or other of the two options is in itself telling. But if you absolutely twisted my arm for a verdict, it would go something like this. It all comes down to brightness.

The QD-OLED option is better in almost every other way, so the question is what you make of its outright brightness. In standard SDR mode, I'd say the brightness of the Alienware AW2726DM is problematic. If I had to use it in that mode all the time, I'd still take it over the KTC M27T6S because of the far superior contrast, black levels, speed and viewing angles. But it would be a close run thing.

On the other hand, if I am allowed to switch on HDR mode, ramp up the SDR brightness in Windows and view basically all my apps in dark mode, then it's a much clearer win for the Alienware and thus for cheap OLED tech. But there would be times in games when it looked just a little bit dull and I'd know, deep down, the KTC and its sizzling mini-LED backlight would have given a more vibrant experience in that moment. As ever, you pays your money and you takes your choice. Good luck!

Hold up, I'm about to say something controversial: Not everyone needs an OLED—just ignore the 27-inch, 1440p screen I happen to be rocking. Cards on the table, I wouldn't have such a thing were it not for my job, because paying at least a grand for any hardware is too rich for my blood. So, let's take a look at some more budget friendly gaming monitors.

Most recently, KTC has proven particularly outstanding in this field. Take the recently reviewed KTC 25M1 24.1-inch gaming monitor, for instance. Sure, it's a TN panel, so don't expect outstanding colour or plenty of viewing angles. That said, it's still a decently fast screen with a 400 Hz refresh rate and an advertised 0.5 ms response time. If you're a fiend for the competitive gaming scene, you could do much worse than the KTC 25M1—especially as it's squeaking under $333 from Amazon right now.

Quick list

• KTC 25M1 | 24.1-inches | 1080p | 400 Hz | $333 @ Amazon
• KTC M27T6S | 27-inches | 1440p | 210 Hz | $300 @ Amazon

Gaming monitor deals

Now, to be clear, the KTC 25M1 is just a 1080p monitor, and if the thought of paying $300+ on a 1080p TN then you are not the target market for this panel. But if you are seriously into the competitive shooter scene and understand the 400 Hz sweet spot for monitor refresh rates, then this will be like cat nip to you.

Our Jacob (back in his latest Counter-Strike epoch) has recently tested the screen and gave it a heady 89% score.

"KTC has managed to deliver an outstanding monitor for competitive shooters here at a very reasonable price," he says. "It's not the best for casual gaming, but if games like Counter-Strike or Valorant are your go-to, you'll struggle to hit this sweet spot refresh rate in a nice panel for a better price."

If you only have a need for speed, this TN panel will have you more than covered for the money. However, if becoming an esports pro doesn't happen to be your dream, I've got a 1440p option for you too.

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The KTC M27T6S is a 27-inch, 1440p IPS panel you can scoop up right now for $300 (provided you remember to tick the tricksy ticky box for the $50 off coupon on Amazon). Our Jeremy isn't usually a fan of LCD panels with full-array local dimming, but really rated this mini-LED gaming monitor; he wrote in his KTC M27T6S review, "It's definitely a surprise to discover that one of, if not the best mini-LED monitors I've yet seen is this new budget-priced model."

Now, as an IPS panel, it's not as fast as the TN option; alongside a 200 Hz refresh rate, it also enjoys the "rather pointless" option to overclock up to 210 Hz, plus a comparatively slower pixel response of 1 ms. But like I said before, this is the option for those with a much less pressing need for speed.

"Where the KTC M27T6S really delivers is with HDR content," Jeremy explains, "There are all kinds of drawbacks to local dimming technology applied to LCD panels. You get blooming around bright objects, dimming zones visibly popping on and off, the inability to light up smaller bright objects on a dark background, weird brightness gradients across the screen, and so on. The KTC M27T6S doesn't solve or avoid all of those issues. But the algorithm KTC has come up with to control the zones does it as well, or better than any other monitor with a full-array mini-LED backlight that I've yet seen. At this price point, that's remarkable."

To put it another way, not everyone needs a swish OLED when the KTC M27T6S manages to "really light up your retinas" at such an affordable price point. Sure, an OLED still has this IPS panel when it comes to rendering deep inky blacks, and lighting precision. But if you're looking for a budget gaming monitor with full-screen brightness performance that's "on another planet, and one awfully near its host star," the KTC M27T6S steals the spotlight.

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This is the monitor I've been waiting for. As someone who has just entered another Counter-Strike arc that is sure to last an epoch, as my arcs tend to, I've been on the look-out for a 1080p monitor around the 360 Hz (ish) sweet spot that doesn't break the bank. Enter stage left: the KTC 25M1, at just $350. And I've already seen it on sale for under $300, which bodes well.

Of course, this price-to-refresh-rate ratio wouldn't matter if the monitor sucked, but I'm happy to report it doesn't. Far from it, I'm finding it a genuine pleasure to use for my late night Faceit matchmaking sprees. In what is proving to be both a blessing and a curse, gameplay is so smooth, clear, and snappy that I find it impossible to blame any blunders on the panel. Even if I could convince myself my opponents are using the $1,000, 600 Hz Zowie panel I recently tested, it wouldn't matter because the difference in practice is so slight that I highly doubt it would actually make my enemies any better.

The 24-inch, 1080p monitor, clad with detachable flappy side-wings (to prevent distraction), rear-side headphone stand, cable management feed, and the usual smattering of ports including a 3.5 mm headphone jack, is bred for one purpose: competitive shooters.

No matter how fast it is, you're probably not getting a TN panel for casual gaming or even competitive non-FPS gaming. Even though this panel's colour is damn good for TN, it's not as lush as an IPS and certainly not as vibrant as an OLED.

While it offers a solid 98% sRGB coverage, its DCI-P3 is only rated to 85%, meaning its HDR content is average at best, which is what I'd expect from a TN panel. That fits for my experience turning HDR on in Doom Eternal and eyeballing it: lighting seems a little more natural, but it's hardly night and day between that and sRGB mode.

The sRGB mode thankfully seems pretty well calibrated to my eyes. In addition to making casual gaming pleasant, this makes day-to-day use outside of gaming surprisingly comfortable, too—surprising, that is, for a TN panel.

HDR, though, is certainly not as good as what you get on the 320 Hz Alienware IPS panel I tested. Still, that was an IPS, not a TN. And more expensive esports TN panels like the 600 Hz Zowie one don't have it as an option at all.

For this monitor's real purpose, though, HDR is irrelevant. Sticking it in FPS1 mode but raising brightness a little, Counter-Strike displays flawlessly: enemies are clear and easy to spot, and movements are incredibly smooth.

I used an Nvidia Latency and Display Analysis Tool (LDAT) to test end-to-end latency—thus indirectly testing the response time—and it reported an average of 6.42 ms in-game over 150 muzzle flashes. That's well within a threshold where shooting feels and appears instantaneous to my eyes.

Latency performance

End-to-end latency

KTC 25M1

6.42

Alienware AW2525HM

6.09

Zowie XL2586X+

6.81

012345678910

Time (ms)

End-to-end latency Data

Product	Value
KTC 25M1	6.42
Alienware AW2525HM	6.09
Zowie XL2586X+	6.81

Tested using Nvidia's LDAT over 150 muzzle flashes in-game.

It's even quicker than the 600 Hz Zowie panel (6.81 ms), and only a little slower than the 320 Hz Alienware one with overdrive on (6.09 ms). These differences are all sub-millisecond, though, meaning they're imperceptible and for all intents and purposes we can say they perform about as well as each other when it comes to response times. I certainly didn't notice any difference in snappiness between the three when playing Counter-Strike.

For whatever reason, with this KTC monitor, I can't seem to find a mode that allows me to enable its 'Ultra Fast' overdrive, the fastest setting. But that's okay, because the middle 'Advanced' setting is snappy enough, and it's usually inadvisable to use the fastest overdrive mode in monitors anyway, as it risks inverse ghosting/halo effects. With the Advanced mode enabled, I haven't noticed any pixel overshoot.

Motion clarity is impeccable to my eyes, too, thanks to that 400 Hz refresh rate. As you can see from my slapdash moving photo of an also-moving UFO test, the high refresh rate really does make a difference. The top animation shown was running at 400 fps, the second at 200, the third at 100, the fourth at 50, and the bottom one at 25.

This difference is visible when eyeballing the moving alien targets, too: 400 Hz is just that much clearer than the rest. Admittedly, playing at 240 Hz in game will still be plenty clear, but this is just another example that goes to show what I've argued previously: around 360 Hz (or 400 Hz, in this case) is the sweet spot for competitive gaming.

To my memory, this monitor is also a bit clearer than I found the 320 Hz Alienware monitor to be when I tested it. I simply can't fault it for smoothness and snappiness.

The bonus here is you're getting the 360–400 Hz sweet spot for a damn good price. The 400 Hz Zowie equivalent costs $650, while this KTC monitor costs about $350 and can even be found for just shy of $300 when it's on sale. The 320 Hz Alienware monitor comes in cheaper than this, but honestly for the extra refresh rate and motion clarity boost, I'd say the KTC is worth it if you can afford it. If not, the Alienware will serve well.

With the KTC 25M1, you're hitting the refresh rate sweet spot just before diminishing returns kick in, which means you're getting some of the absolute best competitive/esports performance you can hope for before prices start to soar.

I feel KTC has struck the balance very well, keeping the price as low as possible for the performance on offer, and keeping things within a budget that doesn't only cater to pro players but also to your average competitive FPS gamer like yours truly. This would be the monitor I'd choose for competitive FPS gaming right now if my own money were on the line.

It's amazing the lengths to which advertisers will go to serve a juicy new pop-up ad on your screen. From Windows itself suggesting apps, to motherboards automatically installing software, now to monitors prompting users to download antivirus trials. No, they won't be covering the bill after the trial ends.

As noted by TechSpot, user Mags_Smash took to the PCMR Subreddit last week to show that the LG Monitor App Installer was prompting them to get a free 30-day trial of McAfee. They claim the LG Monitor App Installer was silently installed via a Windows update without their consent. After searching through the technical details of the reliability monitor in settings, they found the LG app had been downloaded via one of their three LG monitors.

They urge users to not only disable this from happening by clicking through settings and activating the 'prevent automatic download of applications associated with device metadata' option, but also suggest users should completely disable the Windows Store, where the app was downloaded.

The comments section on this thread has many other users complaining about seeing the exact same pop-up, linked to the silent installation of LG's software. One user claims they don't hate Windows for its bloatware, "but this is the first time I've had it install bloatware without my knowledge and genuinely made me think it was a virus."

Notably, LG isn't the only brand accused of doing this in the thread. One user complains their Alienware monitor asks to install Dell/Alienware software, and we've definitely had experience of continual pop ups from Alienware screens reminding us to download the Alienware monitor software, however nothing has ever automatically installed without our consent. Though they aren't the only user to name-check Dell in the comments section.

However, one thing does make LG stand out above the rest here, in a negative sense. Where some peripherals prompt users to download their software, or just download it without asking in the worst cases, LG is prompting users to get a subscription to a service it doesn't directly own. As well as this, users would have to pay for McAfee after the 30-day trial, so LG is incidentally prompting users to spend cash.

I have reached out to both LG and Alienware for comment on this story, but have not yet heard back. Either way, companies being able to serve ads to your PC without asking and prompt you to get a subscription to a separate service, because you've bought a monitor from them, certainly rubs me the wrong way. I don't particularly like anything installing software without asking, but attempting to get me to download even more bloatware is more than a minor annoyance in my book.

It seems gaming monitors are one of the only bits of PC hardware still available at reasonable prices, with the memory crisis taking so many components down with it. The silver lining here is that 1440p gaming monitors are finally starting to approach 1080 prices.

If you have been looking to make the upgrade for yourself, the 1440p Acer KA272U is down to a strikingly cheap $110 at Best Buy right now. That's even cheaper than its recent Prime Day price.

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Naturally, given it's at the low end of the 1440p market in regard to price, you aren't getting top-of-the-line specs here, but they certainly aren't bad either. The 27-inch size is serviceable as a main monitor and perfect in my eyes as a second screen.

The 100 Hz refresh rate is on the lower end for a gaming panel, but it's by no means bad, and the 1 ms response time is super solid too. It won't noticeably lag behind other gaming panels.

But let's face it, the reason you would pick this monitor is for its resolution, and 1440p IPS panels sit in an excellent sweet spot right now, being relatively rig-friendly, yet providing enough visual clarity to make games pop.

4K is nice to have, but it's a resource hog, and sometimes not worth the extra effort. And 1080p is only something I'd really recommend if you're on a super low-end rig or have a very tight budget.

This Acer monitor is a bit of a steal at nearly half its original price. I check our roundup of the best gaming monitor deals every week, and this Acer monitor is no stranger there, but I can't remember the last time I saw it dip down to such a reasonable price. It's so reasonable, in fact, that there's not a single 1440p monitor for cheaper that I would recommend right now.

It does, unfortunately, have a rather low 250 nits of full-screen brightness, so I wouldn't recommend putting it against a window, but that's a common compromise monitors make at this price point, and well worth it here. It's not a whole pile of money to make your games sing just that little bit more.

I won't bore you with another rant about the exorbitant cost of PC gaming in 2026. Buying RAM and storage is for the rich, browsing gaming laptops is wince-inducing, and don't get me started on pre-builds. I've been covering big sales events for PC Gamer for nearly a decade now and buying gear from any of these categories has never been more expensive. There's such a dearth of good deals, that these categories don't even exist on our Prime Day live blog.

Oops: that's a rant.

One thing this Prime Day has been good for is gaming monitors, especially if your budget is under AU$300, and especially if you're after a 1440p display.

The highlight is probably the Alienware AW2725DM 27-incher, at least in terms of the amount you're saving. The QHD display has a Fast IPS panel, a 180Hz refresh rate (more than adequate for mere mortals) and the usual adaptive sync compatibilities. It's usually AU$449.90, but Amazon is flogging it for AU$284.05. That's a good price for an Alienware display with these specs.

If that's still a touch pricey, you can pay around AU$70 less for the KTC H27T22C-3, which has comparable specs. Again, it's QHD, but the refresh rate gets pushed upwards to 210Hz.

I know what you're thinking: KT-huh? They're a Chinese monitor company who you may not have heard of, but this particular model is something PC Gamer can vouch for: it wins best budget 1440p display in our list of the best gaming monitors. You can read more in our full review, but the short of it? "This isn't a perfect display, but it is pretty nice by any reasonable metric. And in the context of the price, it's pretty darn brilliant."

Anyway, the already budget AU$289.99 price has been cut to AU$216.50 for Amazon Prime Day.

If you have less than AU$200 to spare, amazingly, there's an option just for you. The Lenovo LOQ 27Q-10 is, as the name kinda implies, another 27-incher with a QHD resolution. Like the Alienware above it has a 180Hz refresh rate on a Fast IPS panel.

This screen, usually bearing an RRP of AU$299, is currently AU$170 for Amazon Prime Day.

If you're looking for more expensive discounted monitors or, indeed, anything else going cheap during Amazon Prime Day, check out our rolling live blog.

You can't have too many screens. That's pretty much been the guiding moral in my life. Enter the new Asus ROG Strix XG129C and a minor existential crisis. This is a screen, but I have to ask—I can't believe I'm saying this—is there any real point to it?

For starters, this "gaming monitor" (Asus' words, not mine) measures just 12.3 inches. So, it's pretty puny. Actually, it's worse than that. It sports an ultra-wide 24:9 aspect ratio and thus isn't even as big as those 12 inches might imply. In terms of vertical viewable screen height, we're talking sub-4.5-inch.

But here's the thing. While I came in decidedly sceptical about the Asus ROG Strix XG129C, this isn't a proper monitor. It's a device for keeping track of, say, your PC's operating status or providing space for some supplementary application controls. Somehow, I ended up quite liking it. And not just because I'm a total sucker for screens. But more on my journey in a moment. First, let's cover off the core speeds and feeds.

The 24:9 aspect translates into a native resolution of 1,920 by 720 pixels and a pixel density of 166 DPI, the latter being about the same as a 27-inch 4K monitor. So, it's pretty crisp.

It uses IPS panel tech and tops out at 300 nits for brightness and 75 Hz in terms of refresh rate. Oh, and quite importantly, it supports capacitive 10-point multi-touch input. For the record, the touch functionality works essentially out-of-the-box provided you are connecting via USB-C.

Speaking of which, there are two USB-C ports. Both will drive the display, while one doubles as power in and the other supports 20 W of power out. So you can, for instance, connect via a single USB-C cable to both drive the display and power it, which is the ideal in terms of cable management.

That's easy from a laptop, but less of a given with a desktop PC. There are desktop graphics cards with USB-C out that support up to 30 W of power delivery and so would be able to power the display and drive it. But that setup would not support the touch functionality, which requires data passthrough.

So, for a true single-cable solution on a desktop, it all gets a bit complicated. In theory, you could do it with a motherboard that supports Thunderbolt and DisplayPort passthrough from the iGPU and thus have the Asus ROG Strix XG129C running from the iGPU in your CPU and your main monitor running off your graphics card.

I understand this setup is supported, for instance, on Intel Z890 motherboards, again in theory. In practice, results seem to vary and there can be issues with the Thunderbolt port supplying sufficient power. In a worst case scenario, then, you might need to use the HDMI port for the video signal, one of the USB-C ports to power the display and another to send touch data to your PC, which is pretty messy.

But I think a decent chunk of users will be able to get it working with two of the three ports hooked up. If one of those is the HDMI port, you'll then have one cable coming out of the side, one out of the top. It would have been tidier if Asus had located all the ports on one side. Never mind.

That ergonomic glitch aside, this is otherwise a really nicely built display. It feels high quality and the screw-in kick stand is very sturdy and capped with a rubberised foot to provide grip, as is the base of the display itself.

You also get a proper OSD with a joystick controller and full set of features, just like a conventional Asus monitor. What's more, you can control the OSD with the touchscreen input, which is a nice, well, touch.

If that's the features covered, what is the Asus ROG Strix XG129C like in use? Asus bundles a year's subscription to an OEM version of Aida 64, so you've got something to play with immediately.

That's handy, because it would be a nightmare to configure the standard version of Aida 64 to fit this display perfectly. As it is, you can use it to track CPU and GPU operating speeds and temps, storage use, that kind of thing. You'd have thought a permanent license would be part of the deal, but at least you have something to run immediately.

Outside of that, your mileage will vary depending on your preferences. You could use this display to do anything from keep track of social media feeds or work collab' platforms like Slack while you game, to using it to situate secondary controls or a timeline for video editing.

Much will depend on the exact applications you use and what kind of tools and controls they offer, how much configurability they support and so on. But what I would say is that, for this display to really deliver, those tools and controls need to be touch friendly.

That's generally quite a big ask, given that so many applications are either poorly or not at all optimised for touch. Ironically, that includes Asus' own Display Widget Controller app, which really doesn't work at all well on this display. Whatever, it's the ability to use the touch interface, as opposed to needing to "mouse over," and the immediacy that offers, that is most compelling.

Of course, that in itself can create problems with application focus, in-game. And there's no doubting the Asus RoG Strix XG129C works most reliably and consistently as a status display rather than something you directly interact with. But the shortcomings there are largely down to how Windows operates, rather than the display itself.

In the end, this little display is very much in the nice-to-have rather than must-have category. It's also the sort of device where your benefit from and use of it will depend on a whole range of factors.

Some people may be able to get quite a bit of value out of it as a touch device for controlling application tools and menus, such as video, image and music editing. But I would advise caution in that regard. You'll need to do a little homework to see what really works. Don't assume too much.

On the other hand, if you just like the idea of a small secondary display for keeping track of your PC's hardware status or viewing work and social feeds, you can be more confident that the Asus ROG Strix XG129C will deliver.

What's more, as someone who prefers a single ultrawide monitor to a pair of more conventional 16:9 panels, what this mini monitor offers is a way to have the status-tracking functionality that a second screen offers, but keep it small and ergonomically tidy. I don't need a huge screen to watch a bit of Slack or keep track of emails arriving in the background, in other words. The Asus ROG Strix XG129C does that kind of job rather nicely.

Which brings us to the final important factor, namely price. At $199, the Asus ROG Strix XG129C is either pretty reasonable for such a specialised device or crazy money given what 200 bucks buys you these days in the monitor market. This year during Amazon Prime week, I found some KTC 34-inch ultrawides for barely over $200, while $250 will get you a 27-inch 4K dual-mode panel and $150 a decent 1440p panel. It's all a bit bananas.

In that context, the Asus ROG Strix XG129C is definitely a luxury item rather than a value proposition. You'll certainly have to specifically want a smaller, and in some ways less functional, screen to choose it over a 27-inch 1440p panel for less money.

But, personally, I actually might. I already have a large ultrawide for my primary viewing. I don't want another full-sized screen hanging miles off to the side. This nifty little accessory display can sit below my main monitor and would be just the thing to have running discretely, keeping me up to date. I've just got to decide if that's worth $200 to me…

Even though memory kit and SSD prices are doing their very best to ruin PC gaming for everyone, it's a different story over in the world of gaming monitors. Compared to just five years ago, the quality of what you can get for your money is incredible, and there are plenty of screens to suit every budget and need.

Sometimes, though, you do need to wait to get a really good deal, but just like buses, when they do land, you get a whole pile of them at the same time.

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That's what you've got here: two top displays from ASRock and one from Asus. Whether you want 1080p or 1440p, super high refresh rates or curved immersion, any one of these three gaming monitors is well worth considering. And best of all, all of them are sporting a very nice discount.

The full details

👉Check out all of Newegg's gaming monitor deals here👈

Listen, don't fight me on this one. There's a sweet spot for 4K gaming monitors. And it's not 27 inches. It's 32 inches. Enter the MSI MAG 322URDF, a 32-inch, 4K, IPS beauty that's one of the very cheapest gaming monitors of its type, and yours for $345 on Newegg.

Of late, 27-inch 4K gaming monitors have been making lots of headlines, primarily on account of price. We've got models starting at as little as $190 on our Prime Day deals page, albeit the cheapest offering that'll do triple-digit frame rates at 4k is around $250.

But here's the thing. 4K is overkill for gaming at 27 inches. 32 inches is a much better fit. You still get good pixel density and therefore razor sharp-in game visuals, but with that comes a larger, more immersive vista.

• We're curating all the best Prime Day PC gaming deals here

Go larger than 32 inches at 4K, on the other hand, and pixel density really does begin to suffer. Likewise, 32 inches is great for general computing, allowing more physical space to make the most of all those pixels, again while maintaining good image detail and crisp text rendering.

If that's my elevator pitch for 4K gaming at 32 inches, generally, what about the MSI MAG 322URDF in particular? First up, it's IPS not VA. Until very recently, everything 4K and 32 inches at anything even close to this price point had a VA panel.

The usually meant sluggish pixel response and smeary motion clarity in games. But not the MSI MAG 322URDF. It's rated at fully 0.5 ms GtG, which gives it about the best pixel response currently available from IPS technology.

What's more it'll run at both 160 Hz native 4K and 320 Hz at 1080p. So, you could actually use this thing for competitive esports on the side.

Personally, I'd be all about graphically-intensive adventure titles and maybe a dash of military strategising. This thing will be great at all of that.

Of course, at this price point something has to give and HDR support is very much entry level. There's no local dimming. But then if you want proper HDR, you want OLED and that means spending at least $600, even on Prime Day.

The other obvious omission is the lack of USB-C connectivity. That's something I personally value, it makes it so much easier to share a monitor like this between a gaming rig and a laptop.

But USB-C would undoubtedly make this a more expensive monitor. So, I'm on board with the bares bonesness in that regard in order to achieve that spectacular price.

👉Check out Newegg's gaming monitor deals👈

Very recently, our Nick wrote about the Ultrawide Asus ROG Strix XG34WCDG for $649, and yes, I'm back with yet another cracking deal on an OLED. Two gaming monitor deals back to back may feel a bit much but, oo, I do love it when a bit of kit we gave a 90% comes tumbling down in price mere months later. The Gigabyte MO27Q28GR is a 27-inch gaming monitor that our resident oligarch of OLEDs, Jeremy, was particularly taken with. Now, you can see what all the fuss is about for even less ahead of the Prime Day sales.

In his Gigabyte MO27Q28GR review, Jeremy pitches this W-OLED panel as bringing "very nearly all of LG's latest OLED tech to the table, with the notable exception, despite the confusing 'RGB' branding, of RGB-stripe subpixel structure." Long, twisty story short, this is an excellent 1440p screen for the price—which is now only $455 from Amazon.

• We're curating all the best Prime Day PC gaming deals here

The Gigabyte MO27Q28GR is a show piece for LG's W-OLED tech, with this gaming monitor delivering "a seriously punchy HDR experience" according to Jeremy. He elaborates, "That's most notably the case in darker scenes with some small, bright highlights, where the details absolutely zing. And, of course, as with all OLED panels, there's perfect per-pixel lighting where off actually means off and thus there's zero light bleed, no halos around brighter objects, no backlight zones clumsily pinging on and off. You get the idea."

Speaking of shadowy scenes, Marathon's first proper season just started, and I'd say that's as good an excuse as any to really soak in all of its dark cyberpunk vibes by diving into Night Marsh with this gaming monitor. Jeremy did feel that Samsung's more recent QD-OLED monitors still have the edge when it comes to brighter scenes, but that doesn't mean the Gigabyte MO27Q28GR is a dull looking OLED by any means.

He, ahem, highlights the Gigabyte MO27Q28GR HyperNits feature in particular, explaining, "It's essentially the same as MSI's EOTF Boost mode, as included with the MSI MPG 341CQR QD-OLED X36 panel [...], and what it aims to do is maintain broader scene brightness in the HDR 1500 mode. Typically, the maximum peak HDR brightness modes on OLED panels allow for really high peaks but tend to crush overall scene brightness; HyperNits addresses that by boosting the EOTF curve."

Add to that this 1440p monitor enjoys a 0.03 ms pixel response plus a 280 Hz refresh rate, and the Gigabyte MO27Q28GR is great whether you're skulking in the dark or blasting Rooks in the cold, clinical light of day on Tau Ceti IV. But let's bring this short-story-made-long home by looping back around to what the lack of RGB-stripe subpixel structure means for this monitor.

Basically, while this is a great monitor for gaming, the choice to stick with RGWB subpixels means that fonts can be rendered a little fuzzily, although in this case you have to really get in close to notice. Sure, that will be far from a deal breaker for most PC Gamers, but as someone who spends all day everyday writing, reading, and editing text, my eyes sting just thinking about even a little bit of OLED font fuzz.

👉Check out all of Amazon's gaming monitor deals here👈

You'd be forgiven for thinking 5K resolution is a bit overkill for a 27-inch gaming monitor—and I'm not going to dissuade you from that notion. Squeezing 15 million into that space is perhaps one way to ensure you're getting the most bang for your buck this Amazon Prime Day.

The Asus ROG Strix XG27JCG is the smaller scale frame we're clapping our eyes upon today. This 27-inch IPS panel may be small, but Jeremy found it to be sufficiently mighty in his Asus ROG Strix XG27JCG review, awarding it a score of 80%. While we're on the subject of heavy-hitting figures, you can get this 5K gaming monitor for only $700 at Amazon this Prime Day.

• We're keeping track of all the early Amazon Prime Day PC gaming deals here

So, you already know you're getting plenty of pixel density for that price, but on top of that you'll also enjoy a fairly decent refresh rate of 180 Hz at the 5K native resolution. Again, that's not the speediest refresh rate out there, but as Jeremy puts it "180 Hz at 5K. Bananas, isn't it?"

But I've got good news for those desperate for a higher refresh rate; this is a dual-mode monitor with a refresh rate that goes all the way up to 330 Hz in its 1440p mode. It's definitely more than just a neat bonus, as Jeremy explains, "[The 1440p mode] promises to make this monitor usable with vaguely affordable GPUs and also a decent option for esports.

"After all, running at the full native 5K native in the latest games is a very big ask in terms of raw PC performance, not to mention largely pointless for online shooters where frame rate rather than image detail is king."

To reiterate, this is not an OLED, but even so this IPS panel can get decently bright. Enjoying HDR 600 certification, this screen can get to 600 nits of brightness which will be bright enough for most gamer dens, I reckon. Also unlike many OLEDs our Jeremy has reviewed in the past, this IPS panel enjoys crisply rendered fonts—especially if you happen to plug it into an Apple Mac, apparently.

What's more outstanding about this particular IPS panel though is the response time, which is 0.3 ms—couple that with the high refresh rate in the 1440p and you've got a real esports contender. That said, Jeremy does also note, "If online shooters are your priority, the problem is that you can get a higher refresh and faster responding 1440p OLED at this price point, and that's got to be a better fit."

To sum up, this is a small screen with some big screen ambition and pixel density that gives even the odd OLED a run for their money—though this panel won't melt your retinas with its 600 nit brightness.

👉 Check out the rest of Amazon's gaming monitor deals 👈

Andy rightly pointed out on Wednesday that there's never been a better time to buy a gaming monitor. There have been some stellar deals this Prime Day. Well, here's another pair of corkers, the KTC H34S18S and KTC H34S5, both 34-inch ultrawides, the first for $203 on Amazon, the other $212 and also on Amazon. They both look like rippers, but which is the budget gaming panel I'd go for from our current crop of Prime Day gaming monitor deals? Hold that thought.

34-inch ultrawide is one of my very favourite gaming monitor form factors. I love the immersion of an ultrawide screen and the 3,440 by 1,440 resolution delivers a sweet compromise between image detail and tolerable GPU load. You don't need an RTX 5090 to use a 34-inch ultrawide.

It's also great for daily computing duties and particularly for multitasking. Personally, I prefer a single ultrawide monitor to dual 16:9 panels. OK, the pixel density of this class of monitor is a little lacking. But then 4K comes with so much GPU pain.

• We're curating all the best Prime Day PC gaming deals here

Anywho, what exactly are getting for your mere $203? Apart from the basic size and resolution, the specs of the KTC H34S18S go something like this. It's a VA panel with 180 Hz refresh, 1 ms MPRT rated response and 300 nits brightness.

These are not, it has to be said, spectacular numbers. Buy they are essentially the same as every other entry-level 34-inch ultrawide out there. It's just the KTC H34S18S costs less, for now at least.

Of course, despite the 1ms rating this monitor claims, pixel response is the one aspect that might just disappoint thanks to the VA panel technology. If that has you worried, well, there's a possible solution. KTC has another 34-inch ultrawide, the aforementioned KTC H34S5.

That uses an HVA rather than VA panel. Yes, it's still basically VA panel tech, but it's optimised for faster response. The specifics are pretty technical, but as I understand it HVA panels "pre tilt" the liquid crystals which makes them faster to respond.

Whatever, guess what? The KTC H34S5 is currently available on Amazon for just $212, and thus barely any more money. It's the one I'd go for. $9 for faster panel tech is the textbook definition of a no-brainer.

One last thing you might be wondering about is the KTC brand. It's a bit of an up and comer. I've reviewed two KTC monitors and come away mostly impressed on both occasions, most recently by the KTC M27T6S, which brings mini-LED to a remarkably low price point.

So, while I haven't reviewed these two ultrawides, I'm pretty confident they should perform largely as expected.

👉Check out Newegg's gaming monitor deals👈

This is without a doubt the best monitor deal I've seen during this year's Amazon Prime Day… week… thing. And we're coming to the end of it, too, for at least a few months.

MSI's MPG 321URX QD-OLED is an absolute spectacle of a display (seriously, check out Jeremy's review). Uncompromising in practically every element of its design. 4K, 32-inch, perfect pixel density, 240 Hz refresh, and an astonishingly quick response time, backed up with fantastic color accuracy to boot. There's just everything you could want in a 32-inch 4K panel here.

Right now, (although for how long I don't know, because they're selling faster than second-hand SSDs on Facebook Marketplace), you can pick one of MSI's 321URX QD-OLEDs up for an impressively low $745 at Amazon, down from $830.

• We're curating all the best Prime Day PC gaming deals here

Now that's not a huge amount relatively in the grand scheme of things, but it's actually far more than that when you look at how this screen is already positioned in the market. The 321URX uses the same Samsung panel that you can find in Asus's ROG Swift OLED PG32UCDM, Alienware's equivalent, Gigabyte, and all the other gaming brands who've managed to snap a contract up off of the big Korean giants.

The difference is that those screens already cost $500, $300, $200 more than this thing did at launch, for effectively the same quality, the same monitor. That makes the price difference just massive by comparison.

Let's talk about the screen for a second here, and ignore the brand that's packaged it up in that cute little chassis, because it truly is a monster. You might be asking, why is this better? What's so good about QD-OLED compared to your stock standard LG OLED affair? And it mostly comes down to that quantum dot layer that sits on top and how both panel techs optimize for peak brightness in scenes.

Say you have an explosion, or you're casting Giant's Flame in Elden Ring, and the game demands high brightness on a rich and saturated color palette. A traditional OLED screen is actually comprised of four subpixels, RGB, and then an additional W (white) one to boost the brightness up. The issue with that is that the white light tends to almost desaturate a lot of the color on the fringes of that explosion or effect, leading to seemingly pastel colors instead of what they should actually be.

QD-OLED instead uses a global blue backlight that's shifted through the quantum dots into red and green to effectively pump up the brightness without impacting the color.

There's also some magic going on at the sub-pixel layer as well, that improves font and detail clarity at smaller sizes (more critical on a desktop PC than your mom's OLED TV), and there's some smart ambient-light reflection tech in here as well, stopping darker tones from refracting ambient lighting and changing tone.

In essence, QD-OLED is just that traditional OLED tech, but dialled all the way up, and bloody hell is it good. There's a reason this is our top 4K gaming monitor, and how MSI can afford to package all of that into the 321URX, and then discount it on top of that, is a mystery.

Oh, and one last mention, burn-in, because I know you're thinking about it, I'm thinking about it, everybody's thinking about it. MSI still provides a hefty three-year warranty cover, the same as everyone else, and there's plenty of tech in there to keep your UI in-game and not etched into your shiny new $745 screen for all of time.

Now, where exactly did I put my special SSD stash? Papa needs a brand new monitor.

👉Check out all the best Amazon Prime Day Monitor Deals👈

Do you look upon your everyday ultrawide monitor and scoff at its diminutive wingspan? If so, you'll probably want to check out the whopper that goes by the Samsung Odyssey G93SC, as it's at its lowest ever price of $855 at Amazon for Prime Day.

I say 'whopper' because this thing has a 49-inch panel making for a ridiculous aspect ratio of 32:9—that's 5,120 pixels on the horizontal and 1440 on the vertical. Oh, and did I mention it's a (slightly) curved OLED panel, too? Of course it is, it's got 'go big or go home' written all over it.

• We're keeping track of all the Amazon Prime Day PC gaming deals here

Our Jeremy reviewed it back in 2023 and called it 'outrageous', and that's about the best word for it. It's pretty much the same as the G95SC (with a '5', not a '3'), but it doesn't have all the fancy smart TV gubbins nor the IR remote.

The OLED tech here isn't the newest. It shares the same pixel density and kind of QD-OLED panel as other, less extreme monitors you might be familiar with like the wonderful Alienware 34 AW3423DWF. But it's still plenty punchy. And you just can't overlook the sheer scale factor. Here, I'll let our Jeremy explain:

"This monitor is simply gorgeous. It looks ultra modern and minimalist and feels very nicely put together... In truth, the actual image quality on offer probably isn't any better than the QD-OLED Alienware and Philips panels we've reviewed previously. But the added scale of the 49-inch form factor subjectively ramps up the subjective drama."

In addition to its scale, you're also getting a snappy, 240 Hz experience. And as I've argued elsewhere, jumping up to this refresh rate is substantial, literally improving end-to-end latency and potentially even improving how well you play in games that require quick reactions.

It's not perfect, of course. There's no power delivery for the USB-C-attached hub, for instance. It also has a gigantic power supply, and it can be hard to reach the sockets on the rear of the chassis.

It's also worth noting that in very bright conditions the panel can look a little grey, but that's not the case in normal lighting. And outside of gaming, as with all older OLED panels, text fringing can be an issue, given the subpixel layout and the fact the pixels aren't dense enough to prevent it.

Those caveats don't take away from the sheer outrageousness of this monitor, though, and that's pretty much why you get it: you want to experience ultra-ultrawide gaming on a punchy and snappy OLED. You're still paying a pretty penny for it, but this Prime Day discount makes it as cheap as we've seen it. So if you want something truly outrageous, it's worth a look.

Everything PC gaming is expensive now, right? Well, hold your horses for a second. One, we're in the middle of the Amazon Prime Day sales, and as a result there are tons of great gaming monitor deals to choose from. And lots of good deals on PC gaming hardware in general, to be honest.

And two, gaming displays have resisted the current memory-induced price increases, thanks to being... well, displays. That means there's never been a better time to pick up a gaming monitor for cheaper than you might expect.

• We're curating all the best Prime Day PC gaming deals here

I've picked out 15 gaming monitor deals, three in each major category, for your consideration and approval. The exception is 4K monitors, where I've added a load of dual-mode 4K/1080p displays, as these are the one's I'm finding for the best prices.

Highlights? Well, how about a 25-inch, 250 Hz, 1080p MSI for just under $100? Or a 27-inch, 4K/1080p IPS display for $250 at Newegg? Or, if you're going ultrawide, I've found a 34-inch 160 Hz LG monitor for $230. Should you wish for something ultrawide and QD-OLED, no less, may I suggest this magnificent Alienware display for $615 at Amazon? Lovely, isn't it?

But the cream of the crop is probably this Acer Predator X27U, which offers a 26.5-inch, 240 Hz QD-OLED panel for just $315. Whichever you pick, each of these monitor deals represents excellent value—so let's get cracking.

Amazon Prime Day 1080p gaming monitor deals

Amazon Prime Day 1440p gaming monitor deals

Amazon Prime Day 4K dual-mode gaming monitor deals

Amazon Prime Day Ultrawide gaming monitor deals

Amazon Prime Day OLED gaming monitor deals

Monitors are one of the few kinds of hardware that's actually doing well during the current market, which to my eyes, means now is a great time to get a competitive gaming upgrade. I just highlighted a 320 Hz panel for $230, and that's ideal if you're on a stricter budget, but if you can spend a bit extra, I really think this 400 Hz panel for $297 at Amazon is where it's at.

I've only been using it for a couple of days, so I haven't had time to get into the nitty-gritty with it, but what I can say is that my first impressions are ones of, well, being impressed. Very impressed.

• We're keeping track of all the Amazon Prime Day PC gaming deals here

It's a TN panel, and usually that means a less-than-spectacular experience when it comes to colour accuracy and general clarity, but I've been surprised to find the KTC does pretty well on this front. Better, I think—and dare I say it?—than a much more expensive Zowie TN panel I tried.

Enemies are so crisp and clear in Counter-Strike when on FPS1 mode, and general browsing and YouTubing seem pretty crisp, too. For sure, you're not going to be getting the kind of colour accuracy that you'd get on a good IPS, but it's not bad.

None of that should distract us from the main allure here: a 400 Hz refresh rate for under $300. If you don't play competitive shooters, and of course, if you don't have a system capable of churning out a high frame rate, this might not mean much to you. But if you do play games like CS2, Valorant, or Apex Legends, and if your system can churn out enough frames, 400 Hz feels unreal.

I've argued elsewhere that 360 Hz is a bit of a sweet spot for competitive FPS refresh rates, and 400 Hz is just about in that kind of range. Again, especially at this price point. Crucial movements like peeking (or spotting enemies that are peeking) in Counter-Strike are very clear and defined on this KTC panel, and more than anything, it feels like it just gets out of the way, so to speak, letting me play the game unhindered.

If you can stretch your budget up from the $230 Alienware monitor to this $323 KTC one, I'd say it's worth it for that extra 80 Hz and improved clarity. Plus, you'll be at a point with your refresh rate where you won't be wondering whether another upgrade (to, say, 600 Hz) is worth it. That'll only be worth it if you're rich and have an unlimited budget; otherwise, 400 Hz should be more than enough.

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I reviewed this exact keyboard last November (as well as its predecessor in 2024), and came away mightily impressed. Not simply content with giving it a score of 92%, I've been using the Kinesis Gaming FreeStyle Edge RGB Plus every day since then, and I still think it's the best ergonomic keyboard for gaming.

And now that you can get it for just a quarter over $149 at Amazon, it's the perfect time to step into the world of ergo keebs and give your shoulders, wrists, and overall posture relief from cramped, awkward gamer button bashers.

• We're curating all the best Prime Day PC gaming deals here

The Edge Plus is quite old-school in some ways, with a slightly dated design and feature set. But while you're not getting rapid trigger or snap tap keys, or even a simple media wheel, what you are getting is a highly adjustable and exceptionally comfortable ergonomic keyboard.

The permanently split structure means you can spread out the two halves such that your shoulders never have to rotate in slightly to accommodate a compact layout. The included lift kit offers three levels of tenting (raising the inside edge of each half) to prevent wrist strain from dealing with a flat keyboard.

Add in the fact that the tactile switches are lovely to use, the RGB lighting is subtle rather than overwhelming, and the extra keys on the left are easy to program for macros, and you've got a solid platform with which to work all day on, and then game for hours afterwards.

There are some aspects I'm not keen on, though. The wrist pad material is a sweat magnet, the delete key is a heck of a reach, the lift kit flaps about when you move the keyboard, and I'd prefer it if the cables were removable. But these are minor quibbles when you consider the whole package.

If you prefer linear to tactile switches, you can buy that version of the FreeStyle Edge RGB Plus for a fraction over $159 at Amazon, but since all the switches are hot-swappable, you can fit anything you like as long as they match Gateron's pin layout (which is pretty standard).

If you're a heavy PC user like me, you owe it to yourself to go ergo, and Kinesis' keyboard is a great way to do just that.

👉Find all of Amazon's ergonomic keyboard deals here👈

This is the monitor that showed me you really don't have to spend an extortionate amount to get a leg up for competitive FPS gaming these days. That's no doubt thanks to the fact that monitors in general are being priced particularly generously lately, especially compared to the wider PC gaming hardware market. For $230 at Newegg, I'd definitely give it a look if you're into competitive shooters.

$20 isn't the biggest discount ever, but when you're looking at a decent price even at retail, it's good enough for me. As I argued in my review of the Alienware AW2525HM as well as elsewhere, this kind of refresh rate and low latency offering here is a sweet spot for competitive gaming.

• We're keeping track of all the Amazon Prime Day PC gaming deals here

When you push up beyond 360 Hz, you do enter the territory of diminishing returns in my experience. So 320 Hz for just north of $200 sounds about right to me. So right, in fact, that I can say if I didn't already have a fast refresh rate monitor in front of me, I'd be considering spending my own money on this Alienware.

Moving up from 240 Hz, and certainly from 144 Hz, the improvement is noticeable, with flicks, quick peeks, and so on feeling much snappier and easier to perform at the higher refresh rate. I even measured a noticeable improvement in end-to-end latency when stepping up from 144 Hz.

One benefit of this one compared to some others designed for esports—say, the Zowie XL2586X+—is that it's an IPS panel, not TN. That's mainly a benefit for uses outside of competitive shooters, such as for casual gaming and general day-to-day use.

One thing the Alienware panel really impresses me with on this front is its HDR experience, which is lovely. Playing Doom Eternal with HDR on, I can easily notice the wider gamut and richer colour space, with dark contrast seeming genuinely and naturally contrasting.

That being said, a 1440p panel will still look nicer for casual gaming thanks to the increased pixel density. The main reason to get the AW2525HM is for playing competitive shooters like Counter-Strike, Valorant, Apex Legends, and so on. Assuming, of course, you have a computer that can pump out 300+ fps and make the most of that refresh rate.

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There are an awful lot of really great monitors deals this Prime Day, maybe more than in any other PC component category. But what would I buy, myself? I just spotted this awesome 32-inch 4K Asus for just $599 on Newegg, a price that's very hard to resist.

32-inch 4K is one of my favourite monitor form factors. Another top option is 34-inch ultrawide, but that monitor class is remaining stubbornly expensive with OLED panel tech, with the cheapest examples coming in well over $600.

So, the ASUS ROG Strix XG32UCDS for a whisker under $600 looks like something of a steal. If you're wondering how it can be this cheap, well, the most obvious compromise is refresh. It'll only do 165 Hz.

• We're curating all the best Prime Day PC gaming deals here

But then this is a 4K panel and you're hardly going to be driving it at 360 Hz in the latest games. The GPU that can achieve that simply doesn't exist. Meanwhile, if you're seriously into esports, then a 32-inch 4K panel won't be on your radar, anyway.

So, I would argue the refresh isn't an issue. Instead, what you're not getting at this price point is the latest Samsung QD-OLED panel tech. I reviewed the new MSI MPG 322UR X24 in May and was seriously impressed by it's upgraded QD-OLED panel.

It's not only brighter. It also suffers less from QD-OLEDs characteristic purple tint in bright ambient light. The only problem is that the MSI MPG 322UR X24 goes for $1,099, or nearly twice the price. It's very nice. But it's not twice as nice as the ASUS ROG Strix XG32UCDS.

Heck, this Asus even has a USB-C port with power delivery, albeit just 15 W. Given my work space is in a cellar and ambient light isn't an issue, I'm darn tempted to get two of these Asus panels and have pretty much the ultimate dual-panel OLED setup for about the same price as many single 32-inch 4K OLEDs. Pretty hard to argue against that, isn't it?

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OK peeps. I've done the hard graft, so you don't have to. I give you the Acer Predator X27U W1bmiiprx. Yes, that's the X27U W1bmiiprx, not the X27U Z1bmiiprx, and it's very likely the cheapest big-brand OLED gaming monitor ever at just $315 on Amazon right now for Prime Day.

It should be noted that Acer's product naming scheme for monitors is catastrophically bad. Along with this W1bmiiprx model, there are numerous other Acer Predator X27U models, including the A1bmiiprx, X1bmiiphx, Z2bmiiprx, Fbmiipphuzx and the aforementioned Z1bmiiprx, for which Jacob spotted a pretty sweet deal yesterday.

Making matters worse, Acer's own website often has incomplete or even inaccurate information, making it a minefield in terms of knowing what you are buying.

But like I said, I've done the leg work, so you don't have to. What you're getting with the X27U W1bmiiprx is a 27-inch 1440p QD-OLED panel just like all the other X27U models. But the devil is in the detail.

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This is one of a more recent class of entry-level spec OLED monitors using a somewhat downgraded Samsung QD-OLED panel. It runs at 240 Hz and offers 0.03 ms response. So, the speed is all there. It's in the brightness where you are making compromises.

Full-screen brightness is rated at 200 nits. Early QD-OLEDs hit 250 nits and more recent panel generations have achieved 300 nits. Peak HDR brightness in a small window is pegged at 400 nits, well below the typical 1,000 nits of most QD-OLED monitors.

In fact, the specs are pretty much identical to the Alienware AW2726DM I reviewed in May. I came away very much impressed by that Alienware at $349, so this Acer for $315 looks even more appealing.

There are caveats. The brightness is a limitation. I found with the Alienware that what you need to do is run it in HDR mode and crank up the SDR brightness in the Windows Settings menu.

Then basically run everything in dark mode and you get a nice, punchy experience. That may sound a bit convoluted. But I prefer to run Windows, apps and websites in dark mode, anyway. If you do, too, then this Acer could be a good fit.

In that scenario, you get all the usual OLED goodness. That means perfect per-pixel lighting, incredible pixel speed, fantastic viewing angles, yada, yada, yada.

One final warning to note involves ambient light. If you sit your PC next to a large window, this monitor may not be the best choice. Along with the brightness limitations, this is an OG QD-OLED panel and that means there's a purple tint issue in bright ambient light.

But that aside, for $315 this monitor is one heck of a deal and a very affordable way to get into OLED gaming.

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Even if you can afford to upgrade your PC gaming setup to sport the most powerful or latest hardware, that doesn't mean you should. That's because many components and peripherals are vastly overpriced in the current climate (looking at you, DRAM and SSDs), but there's one sector that's bucking that trend: OLED monitors.

And for $649 at Amazon, you can bag yourself a really epic and super-immersive ultrawide OLED display, safe in the knowledge that you're absolutely not paying over the odds.

• We're curating all the best Prime Day PC gaming deals here

The Asus ROG Strix XG34WCDG is essentially a lower-priced version of the ROG Switch PG34WCDM monitor we reviewed back in January 2024. It uses a different panel (Samsung QD-OLED vs LG WOLED) that isn't quite as highly specified, with the XG34WCDG sporting a maximum refresh rate of 175 Hz and a peak HDR brightness of 1,000 nits (240 Hz and 1,300 nits for the PG34).

The relatively high resolution of 3440 x 1440 is a boon for pixel density, but it will mean you'll need a beefy GPU for gaming at native settings, though with upscaling being as good as it is these days, you're not going to need anything too extreme.

What you lose in terms of outright performance, you gain significantly in bang-for-buck, as well as general comfort. The ROG Swift display has a very tight 800R curvature, whereas the ROG Strix is much easier to live with at 1800R (the bigger the number, the more gentle the curve).

Since it's a newer model, the XG34 also boasts Asus' OLED Care Pro tech, including a configurable proximity sensor which the monitor uses to determine if anyone is sitting in front of it. When there's nobody there, it switches everything to black to keep OLED burn-in at bay.

For truly immersive gaming, there's little that beats a hulking ultrawide, and while they're not necessarily perfect for general work scenarios, having all that real estate does make it easier to manage lots of Windows.

At $649, this Asus ROG Strix XG34WCDG is the cheapest it's ever been on Amazon and a full $350 under its launch MSRP. The RAMpocalypse might be doing its best to ruin the cost of upgrading your PC, but you can still treat yourself for less with this monitor.

👉Check out all of Amazon's gaming monitor deals here👈

An OLED panel makes everything look better. Whether it's Marathon in glorious HDR or reruns of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, this panel tech works its wonders either way. Moreover, with the price tag of components skyrocketing, but no such price hike for OLED panels, they're quickly becoming one of my recommended upgrades.

This Acer Predator monitor is a prime example of that price trend. It's $380 at Newegg right now, down from $550.

The Predator X27U here offers a resolution of 2560 x 1440, which is not too demanding for most modern graphics cards. The leap to 4K is a lot more costly, and in these trying times, I'll take the extra savings. That pixel count is spread over a 27-inch panel.

• We're curating all the best Prime Day PC gaming deals here

This monitor runs at 280 Hz, which may not always be attainable, but FreeSync Premium Pro support means you shouldn't experience an abundance of screen tearing either way. The screen will feel snappy to respond regardless, as OLED panels have wonderfully low response times. In this case, 0.03 ms (GtG).

This is a slightly older model, which means it's using an older QD-OLED panel from Samsung. Only the very latest panels are using a new subpixel layout that removes font fringing, so expect some of that here. Though all the other benefits of an OLED are all present and accounted for: deep black levels, vibrant colors, and speed.

Under the hood, you'll score a single DisplayPort, a pair of HDMI 2.0, and USB Type-C. It even has a pair of speakers, though if you've ever used the speakers built into a monitor, you'll know not to expect anything good here. Though for the most part, this is a really good price for some top-notch panel tech.

👉Check out Newegg's gaming monitor deals👈

Those who have ultrawide gaming monitors really stand by them, and it's easy to see why. You are getting more on-screen at any time, offering not only a tactical advantage in some games but also more immersive sights in others. And, they're only getting cheaper, too.

If you are looking to make the upgrade for yourself, you can pick up the Acer Nitro ED340CUR J9biip (silly name, I know) for $200 at Newegg, which is a healthy $50 discount.

• We're keeping track of all the early Amazon Prime Day PC gaming deals here

From the top, you are getting that ultrawide panel, and it comes in at 1440p with a 120 Hz refresh rate and 1 ms response time. The refresh rate is on the lower end of gaming monitors, but not awful at the same time.

As well as this, it's a VA panel, which means you aren't getting the vibrancy of IPS or the true blacks of OLED. But, at that price point, something has gotta give, and VA is not a bad compromise for an otherwise impressive monitor.

That 3440 x 1440 resolution screen, paired with its 1500R curve, should offer truly superb immersion. Thanks to the way it quite literally wraps around you, you'll find it easy to immerse yourself in Cyberpunk 2077's Night City. And in RTS games, you can cram more of the game into the screen than you would on a traditional monitor.

One downside of ultrawide monitors is that support isn't fully there for some games. Even the likes of Elden Ring lack official ultrawide support, shoving a pair of black bars on either side of the screen and displaying it in traditional 16:9. But programs like Flawless Widescreen have come a long way in implementing ultrawide support in games that don't have it natively.

Though you make compromises to get the format, ultrawide monitors do what they do well, and are well-liked for it. I keep track of the best cheap gaming monitor deals every week, and other choices regularly sit between $50 to $150 more than this one.

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Gaming monitors are in such a good spot right now. Despite many other PC gaming components getting driven up in price by the memory crisis, we are steadily getting cheaper and cheaper monitors with richer, more detailed and punchier panels.

If you're in the market for an upgrade, we gave the Gigabyte M027Q28GR a 90% just a few months ago, and it's already down to $480 at Amazon. That's a discount of $120, and a mighty fine price for a mighty fine monitor.

• We're keeping track of all the early Amazon Prime Day PC gaming deals here

To start from the top, this Gigabyte panel uses LG's upgraded WOLED technology, which means it's brighter and punchier than its predecessors, and it's hurtling fast at 280 Hz. That means it's perfect for gaming, and it even has a speedy 0.03 ms response time.

1440p is a good sweet spot for most rigs, looking nicer than 1080p but without needing a top-end rig for consistent 4K play. Our Jeremy said in his review, "Right out of the box it's immediately obvious that this new panel is an improvement on previous generations of LG OLED."

Unfortunately, despite being new, it does lack LG's RGB-stripe subpixel structure, which means it's still vulnerable to font fringing. Effectively, in a non-gaming application, you may notice edges on text. How much this will affect/distract you is naturally pretty personal, but for gaming, this shouldn't have an effect.

And, in gaming, it's a bit of a beast. It's super snappy and quick, with specs not far off being esports-ready, and the 27-inch screen looks great in action. You will get brighter panels, as this only offers a full brightness of 335 nits, but that's still an upgrade on some OLED panels, and noticeable in play.

The look of the rest of the monitor is pretty neat, too. It's got a classy-looking chassis and pairs it with a metal base and stand. You're also getting HDMI, DisplayPort and USB Type-C connectivity, with a built-in USB Type-C interface offering 18 watts of power. That's not massive, but it should be enough to keep your phone or a light laptop topped up with battery.

At full price, this OLED monitor got a huge score from us, and the $120 discount is the best we've seen yet. We have seen it previously for about $20 more, but it seems unlikely it will come down by much more this side of Black Friday. It rounds this out with a three-year warranty, which is just the cherry on top.

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Viewsonic has taken the wraps off a new 24-inch 4K monitor in what is likely to be a world's first. We've seen plenty of 4K monitors before, of course, just not in this relatively compact form factor.

Strictly speaking, the Viewsonic VX24G26J-4K measures 23.8 inches across its panel diagonal. But that puts it firmly in the 24-inch class. Combined with the 3,840 by 2,160 pixel native resolution, the result is a pixel density of 188 DPI.

That's well beyond the 140-ish DPI of a 32-inch 4K monitor and even a fair step up from the 163 DPI of a 27-inch 4K panel. However, in terms of currently available PC monitors, 5K 27-inch monitors like the Asus ROG Strix XG27JCG remain the pixel density kings at 218 DPI.

If you're wondering what the gaming relevance of all this is, well, that's a fair question. However, the new Viewsonic VX24G26J-4K is being pitched as a gaming monitor, rocks a refresh rate of 160 Hz and is also rated at 1 ms for response. So, this is a decently quick panel.

The benefits for gaming are still questionable. For sure, the heightened pixel density will make for sharper images. The extent to which you'd actually notice those extra crispy visuals actually in-game, on the other hand, that is a little dubious, especially compared to a 27-inch 4K monitor, which most would argue is plenty sharp enough for gaming.

More likely, this monitor will appeal to someone who wants really high-quality font rendering in a smaller package than was previously possible. That said, one intriguing possibility, given the 24-inch form factor and 4K resolution, is a 1080p alt mode using pixel doubling and running at a much higher refresh rate.

On paper, that would make for a 1080p 24-inch gaming panel, which is the preferred form factor for really serious esports types, that could switch into a higher resolution mode for day-to-day computing with nice fonts and crisp visuals instead of the blocky, pixellated experience you normally get on the Windows desktop from 24-inch gaming monitors.

However, as far as we can see, there's no mention of dual-mode support on Viewsonic's website. Indeed, it's only listed on Viewsonic's Chinese website (via TFT Central) for now, so perhaps that early listing isn't complete. But if it's accurate, this seems like an opportunity missed.

Whatever, what we definitely don't have right now is pricing right. However, this monitor is part of Viewsonic's value-oriented VX range and lacks USB-C connectivity, so it's likely to be relatively affordable. There's no word on when the Viewsonic VX24G26J-4K will get a broader release outside China, but we'd expect to see it land later this year.

If you've been on this planet as long as I have, you might remember the sentiment that your eyes can't see above 60 fps. At least, that's what console gamers seemed to tell themselves once the PC gaming scene moved on. But actually using 120 Hz or 144 Hz quickly put an end to that myth.

Something about it must have sunk into my subconscious, though, because until recently, I stuck to 144 Hz monitors ever since I got my hands on one around 2014. It's as if I'd accepted that while 60 Hz isn't the limit, perhaps 144 Hz is—or, more realistically, it's as if I'd assumed that diminishing returns might kick in soon thereafter.

I've since discovered that's incorrect. It might be true if you're kicking back in a third-person RPG, and it's certainly true if you're not hitting north of 144 fps in-game. But as I've discovered recently, for competitive FPS gaming, ultra-high refresh rates are genuinely fantastic and much better than sticking at 144 Hz or 165 Hz.

There is truth to the idea that there are diminishing returns to upping your refresh rate, but they don't diminish as drastically or as quickly as a lot of people seem to think they do. I'd say 360 Hz is the sweet spot before real diminishing returns start to kick in, but it's also a little more complicated than that.

I first discovered this when testing the Zowie XL2586X+. Zowie monitors are the most popular for tactical FPS esports pros, for a few main reasons. First, there's the fact that big tournaments often use them across the board, so it makes sense to practice with them—that's one reason for sticking to a 24/25-inch 1080p monitor, too, by the way.

Apart from that very pragmatic reason, though, there's the fact that these monitors have ultra-high refresh rates, panels and colour profiles that are tailored to popular esports titles, and DyAc 2 anti-blur tech.

Of all of these factors, though, I've found that having a high refresh rate is the most important, in my opinion. Which is good news because it opens the field to a whole load more monitors than just Zowie ones with DyAc 2.

I've recently been impressed, for instance, by the $250 Alienware AW2525HM, which has a 320 Hz refresh rate. DyAc 2 and better-tailored panels do give Zowie monitors the edge, but for my money, as long as a panel is generally accurate and clear, I'd take a cheaper one with a similarly high refresh rate.

The question then is: What refresh rate do you need?

One answer to this is, 'As high of a refresh rate as you can afford.' Another answer is 240 Hz, because most pros use either 240 Hz or 360 Hz Zowie monitors. Both of these answers are true in their own way, but neither is fully informative.

With both the 600 Hz Zowie and 320 Hz Alienware, I spent lots of time swapping between different refresh rates and testing things out in Counter-Strike. I came out the other end of this realising these main things:

• The jump from 144 Hz to 240 Hz gives a very noticeable improvement in the gameplay experience and how well I play.
• The jump from 240 Hz to 320/360 Hz gives a big enough improvement to gameplay experience that I think it would be worth paying extra for, but this improvement doesn't translate to making me play any better.
• Beyond 320/360 Hz, increasing to (say) 600 Hz does feel better, but the difference isn't as big as from 240–360 and is nowhere near as big as from 144–240, and it doesn't make me play any better.

In addition to just seeing how different refresh rates actually feel in practice while playing CS2, I also used an Nvidia Latency and Display Analysis Tool (LDAT) to test real-world response times—ie, the end-to-end latency between clicking and having your gun's muzzle flash appear on-screen. The muzzle flash is lower down on the screen, which means (given how monitors refresh from top to bottom) latency will be measured higher than towards the top, but what's important here is the comparison between the numbers.

End-to-end latency (ms)

144 Hz

7.5

240 Hz

7

360 Hz

7.38

600 Hz

6.81

02468

End-to-end latency (ms) Data

Product	Value
144 Hz	7.5
240 Hz	7
360 Hz	7.38
600 Hz	6.81

Tested on a Zowie XL2586X+.

As you can see, when you're using a really good monitor, there's very little in it. These sub-millisecond differences are all within a margin of error, as is made clear by the actual, non-averaged test results. I did 150+ tests at each refresh rate, and there was often variation of a few ms between different ones at the same refresh rate.

In practice, this means that sometimes clicking at 600 Hz will cause the corresponding on-screen effect slower than it will at 144 Hz, though more often than not the opposite will be true, but not by much.

What made more of a difference was whether the frame rate was kept capped or uncapped. I tested this on the Alienware monitor, comparing 144 Hz and 320 Hz, and found that this had a more definite effect on end-to-end latency, though again the difference was small and probably imperceptible in practice.

End-to-end latency

Latency, VRR on, capped (ms)

Latency, VRR off, capped (ms)

Latency, VRR off, uncapped (ms)

144 Hz

11.97

11.35

8.32

320 Hz

7.62

7.81

6.2

03.757.511.2515

End-to-end latency Data

Product	Value
144 Hz	11.97 Latency, VRR on, capped (ms), 11.35 Latency, VRR off, capped (ms), 8.32 Latency, VRR off, uncapped (ms)
320 Hz	7.62 Latency, VRR on, capped (ms), 7.81 Latency, VRR off, capped (ms), 6.2 Latency, VRR off, uncapped (ms)

Tested on an Alienware AW2525HM.

Note that the results are the same whether VRR (FreeSync Premium) was enabled or disabled. VRR only kicks in when frame rates are below your refresh rate, but even with frame rates capped so it could take effect, it didn't change latency.

Here are the two main takeaways from this:

1. It's better to have your frame rate uncapped if your system can churn out frames higher than your refresh rate, as this can lower your response time.
2. If your system can't produce a frame rate higher than your refresh rate, you might as well cap it just below and enable VRR to have the benefit of zero screen tears.

There are, of course, caveats to all of the above. For one, you shouldn't ignore differences between panels: if it's an OLED, it will have an ultra-low response time, if it's a VA, it will likely have a higher one, and if it's an IPS, it will very much depend on the panel.

You also shouldn't ignore differences between people. A younger pro gamer might, for instance, be able to derive more of an actual benefit to how well they play by stepping up from 240 Hz to 360 Hz, where I, as a 31-year-old non-pro, cannot.

And probably the biggest caveat is that all of the above is redundant if your system can't pump out enough frames to keep up with your refresh rate. It's also irrelevant if you mainly play casual games and don't care so much about having the snappiest response time and clearest view of enemies in motion. I don't particularly care for much above 144 Hz if I'm sitting back with a controller in a third-person shooter, for instance.

Ultimately, though, I think most people who are into competitive shooters will be similar to me in how they are likely to perceive differences between high refresh rates. For my money, I think 360 Hz is the sweet spot before diminishing returns kick in, not only in terms of how much it helps you play well but also how pleasant it feels to experience. 240 Hz isn't much worse, though, and if I were on a strict budget, that would be what I'd opt for—but no lower. 144 Hz and 165 Hz are certainly far from the limit before significant diminishing returns kick in.

It's rare that I review something that I would actually buy right at this moment in time. Even if it's a good product that I recommend, it's usually out of my own budget or just not quite at the top of my PC priority list compared to other upgrades. But with the Alienware AW2525HM, I can say that I would 100%, for reals, be considering hitting the purchase button right now if I didn't already have this review model in front of me.

That's because it seems designed for people exactly like me: people who are into competitive FPS gaming more than anything else, but who are also on a strict budget.

Not too long ago, I tried out the 600 Hz Zowie XL2586X+. That monitor is perfect for serious tactical FPS players like me, but it also costs *gulp* $1,000. This Alienware is a much more sensible proposition: $250 for a 320 Hz panel. Plus, here you're getting an IPS rather than a TN panel, and some pretty nice HDR to boot. That's irrelevant for competitive FPS gaming, but even if you only very occasionally dabble in casual games, it's nice to have.

Make no mistake, though, both the Zowie and the Alienware here are for a particular market, and that is the competitive FPS gamer. While most similarly priced panels are 1440p, 27-inch deals, monitors for this market skim off a couple of inches and drop down to 1080p resolution.

That's great for giving a full view of a tactical FPS scene and permitting split-second reactions, and it can help boost your FPS a little, but for other games, higher pixel density and a wider view are probably where it's at, even if you have to sacrifice some smoothness by dropping the refresh rate.

Jumping into Counter-Strike 2 with the Alienware AW2525HM after gaming on a 144 Hz IPS monitor for so long was a surreal experience: I couldn't quite believe just how much of a difference doubling my refresh rate could make. Flicking my aim felt incredibly smooth, and I felt like I was seeing animations—including, importantly, enemy movements—in more detail and more quickly than I had seen them before. It's hard to convey just how much better 320 Hz feels than 144 Hz if you're a competitive FPS gamer; all I can say is the difference is more than noticeable.

That being said, there's more to smooth and snappy gameplay than just the refresh rate, and this monitor isn't perfect in at least one other area. That area is motion clarity, which shouldn't be overlooked for competitive shooters. Unfortunately, the Alienware has significantly more noticeable blur—caused by pixels taking a long time to change colour—than a monitor like the Zowie one, which uses backlight strobing to keep motion very clear. I checked how the Alienware performs in the UFO test, and there's a definite blur behind the friendly green creature's flying machine.

Swapping from something as smooth and clear as the $1,000 Zowie, I certainly noticed the difference, even with the Alienware's overdrive settings enabled and on their highest. (Side note: I noticed little contrast between the three overdrive options, so I kept the middle one selected just in the name of caution, given the 'extreme' option would be the most likely to cause inverse ghosting.)

Saying all this, coming from another 144 Hz IPS—as I swapped back and forth between the two for comparison—I didn't really spot any additional blur in practice. The only thing I noticed was the buttery smooth, increased refresh rate. My brain simply doesn't register any perceived blur in the face of such a step up in refresh rate. If I had the choice between a 144/165 Hz panel with great motion clarity or this 320 Hz Alienware panel, I'd choose the latter without a doubt.

There is some competition in this budget, high refresh rate space, such as the 210 Hz KTC H27T22C-3, for instance, which our Jeremy rated pretty highly after testing. But we're talking 320 Hz here, and while going from 210–320 isn't going to be as big of a jump as from 144 or 165, it's still noticeable, and every little helps if you're playing competitive FPS games.

Going from 144 Hz to 320 Hz gives a night and day difference in terms of how enjoyable the gameplay is, and it can even improve your personal performance. Using Nvidia's Latency and Display Analysis Tool (LDAT), I witnessed an end-to-end response time of 7.9 ms at 144 Hz, but a noticeable decrease to 6.1 ms at 320 Hz, tested over 150+ runs each.

It's also worth noting that this kind of response time matches—in fact, even beats—the response time I saw with the Zowie monitor. It's as snappy as you could want for competitive gaming, and you'll only really get better if you opt for an OLED, but even then, any extra you gain won't be perceptible.

I should also note that I found the darkness stabilisation feature (on its lower setting) genuinely beneficial, which I didn't expect. This essentially boosts darker areas, which can help you spot enemies more easily in shadowy parts of the map. I now only play CS2 when this is enabled, although I do turn it off when I play casual games, to make sure I'm getting the fully contrasted experience.

Given all this, I'd say this monitor is aimed at, and is ideal for, competitive FPS gamers looking to upgrade from a 144 Hz or 165 Hz monitor on a budget. Assuming their PCs can churn out the 300+ fps needed to make the most of the Alienware AW2525HM, it will be well worth it.

If this doesn't describe you, it might still be worth it if you're setting your sights on 1080p gaming. Setting aside the main 320 Hz appeal, the monitor itself looks lovely, with nice thin bezels and an understated but nevertheless distinctly Alien-like adjustable stand. It also has two USB ports with pass-through and a handy shoot-out headphone hook on the left side.

From a casual gaming perspective, one thing I'm pleasantly surprised by is the HDR experience. I didn't expect much, but actually, after calibrating everything, playing Doom Eternal with HDR on is wonderful. Everything just feels that much more immersive and realistic with it enabled, thanks to the improved colour space and contrast. It's not advertised as being full-blown HDR, and it doesn't even seem to have a VESA certification for it, but the colour gamut seems to be wide enough to make for a very eye-pleasing experience.

In fact, the panel is pretty nice in general, too, even without HDR enabled. Brightness seems very uniform to my eyes, and colours seem accurate enough once greens are toned down ever so slightly. But I suppose the question is whether all this is enough in the face of 1440p monitors, which definitely do look sharper thanks to increased pixel density. Given the monitor isn't bad in respect to colour and brightness, if you think you can crank out the frames to make the most of the refresh rate at 1080p, I'd certainly not rule it out even for casual gaming.

That being said, for casual gaming, I'd still lean towards a 1440p panel. My 1440p BenQ monitor, which is now pretty old, looks better in terms of clarity and vibrancy than this Alienware, and I'd prefer using it for non-HDR games that I can't hit 200+ fps on—which will presumably be a lot of games for a lot of people.

So, that brings me back to the primary use case: competitive FPS gaming. If that's your jam and you're on a budget, the Alienware AW2525HM is ideal. It even works fine for some casual gaming and movie watching on the side. But if the latter are your primary use cases, I'd say steer clear.

If you're looking for an upgrade from that old 1080p monitor, there are arguably too many good choices. If you've got the cash, OLED and 4K look great, but we've been mighty impressed by mini-LED and its uber-bright ways.

KTC's 1440p M27T6S got a 90% score in our review literally yesterday, and it is not only a strong middle-ground for budget to mid-range rigs, but with a $50 coupon at Amazon, it's a great price for $300.

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So, what's this mini-LED thing all about, then? Effectively, instead of hiding a couple of LED strips behind the screen to provide light, it packs thousands of individual light-emitting diodes in there, making it not only super bright but also immune to burn-in and other long-term monitor complaints.

Our Jeremy started his review of the monitor sceptically, self-admittedly, but it managed to win him over in testing. That's because you get absolutely sizzling HDR performance, thanks to its 1,000 nits brightness and 1,152 dimming zones.

Whether you are gaming in a dark room or positioned near a window, this KTC panel can handle any lighting you want to throw at it. And good brightness isn't just strong for fighting the rays of the sun, it's also notable for game performance. If you want your screen to really pop, accurately displaying environments and capturing darkness, it's a strong choice.

It also has solid stats otherwise, like a 200 Hz refresh rate, 1 ms response time, and DisplayHDR 1000 support.

Although it's down to $300, that is arguably 4K pricing territory, with the dual-mode 4K/1080p MSI MAG 275UPD just $250 at the time of writing; even the 1440p OLED Acer Predator X27U Z1bmiiprx is only $80 more at $380. Still, all of these are very viable choices for different kinds of gaming setups.

The OLED will offer superior vibrancy and true blacks, the 4K choice is capable of processing a higher resolution (should you have the hardware for it), and the mini-LED gives truly great HDR performance. The KTC is a little cheaper on KTC's own website, too, though Amazon's free shipping for Prime members and generous returns policy would make that my choice, personally.

Though the memory crisis is continuing to tear apart the pricing of many PC components, gaming monitors are only getting more reasonable, and this KTC pick is truly great value, even at full price.

First, a confession. I'm not much of a mini-LED fan. You might even call me a dimming-zone snob. I've never found LCD panels with full-array local dimming terribly convincing, and of late it's been hard to argue with the latest OLED gaming monitors. So, it's definitely a surprise to discover that one of, if not the best mini-LED monitors I've yet seen is this new budget-priced model, the KTC M27T6S.

Am I giving away too much, too soon? Perhaps. But the fact that I came into this review pretty sceptical of LCD monitors with local dimming hopefully means that when I say I was impressed by the KTC M27T6S, it carries a bit more weight. This monitor does the local dimming thing remarkably well. Does it do it well enough to convert me to mini-LED technology? Now there's a question.

We'll answer that momentarily, but first let's cover the basics. This is a 27-inch model with a 2,560 by 1,440 native resolution. For gaming, that's just great. 4K is dandy in theory, but at just $290, this is not a premium-priced monitor and it's implausible to think the KTC M27T6S will be paired with the kind of $1,000 GPU you need to really make the most of 4K.

As for refresh, we're talking 200 Hz with an optional, and rather pointless ability to "overclock" to 210 Hz, plus pixel response of 1 ms (by the MPRT metric). The panel type is, as you would expect, IPS.

Of course, the whole point of LCD panels with full-array local dimming is to enable improved HDR performance. The KTC M27T6S duly has VESA DisplayHDR 1000 certification and can do fully 1,000 nits courtesy of 1,152 dimming zones. Youch.

Then again, so can plenty of other LCDs with local dimming, and I haven't liked many of those.

Rounding out the details are a stand that adjusts every which way, including pivot into portrait mode, plus DisplayPort and HDMI connectivity. The HDMI ports will only hit 144 Hz, for the record, and there's no USB-C for single-cable connectivity, nor a USB hub. That's probably not a surprise given the competitive price point.

Still, it's pretty nicely put together monitor, albeit largely from plastic, and the design is certainly slick with slim bezels and a mix of black and pale grey plastics from which many more expensive gaming monitors could learn quite a bit. It doesn't look or feel cheap.

Perhaps more importantly, they could learn a lot from its image quality, too. As an SDR monitor, the KTC M27T6S is impressive enough. It's awfully bright, cranked right up, and the basic calibration is pretty nice in sRGB or DCI-P3 modes, although for those who are particular about such things, the calibration of SDR content in HDR mode is a bit off with clearly over-saturated SDR colours.

It's fast, too, subjectively on a par with any remotely comparable IPS monitor. You'll need to be running something with ultra-high refresh and black-frame insertion, or similar, to experience a substantially better experience in terms of pixel response from an LCD monitor.

But where the KTC M27T6S really delivers is with HDR content. There are all kinds of drawbacks to local dimming technology applied to LCD panels. You get blooming around bright objects, dimming zones visibly popping on and off, the inability to light up smaller bright objects on a dark background, weird brightness gradients across the screen, and so on.

The KTC M27T6S doesn't solve or avoid all of those issues. But the algorithm KTC has come up with to control the zones does it as well, or better than any other monitor with a full-array mini-LED backlight that I've yet seen. At this price point, that's remarkable.

First off, there's no "zone popping" at all. That's a term I just made up and it concerns the really obvious switching on and off of individual backlight zones. You can induce it in many full-array dimming monitors by displaying a star field panning across the screen. And it can look absolutely awful as you track the zones popping on and off as stars pass across the screen.

The KTC M27T6S doesn't do that at all. It also handles a particular 4K HDR video of fireworks on a night sky—which I use as a mini-LED torture test—better than I've seen before on this class of display. It's not perfect. There's still some light bleed and some blooming. But the brighter explosions really light up your retinas. It's very impressive.

In-game is where I was really blown away, however. The brighter desert scenes in CyberPunk 2077 tend to find the weaknesses of OLED monitors; they simply can't handle how much of the panel needs to be driven hard to render the desert sun really well and so tend to look a bit dull.

But this dirt cheap KTC monitor absolutely smashes it. The sun is so bright, it almost hurts your eyes. This is a genuine HDR experience and a level of realism that's completely different from your usual entry-level HDR 400 monitor.

That said, if brighter scenes are where this monitor both literally and figuratively shines, it's after dark in Night City where things don't work quite so well. This is ultimately a backlit IPS panel and there's no avoiding light bleed and a bit of glow behind darker scenes and textures that also have some small, bright objects.

The dimming zones are handled deftly, but you can still ultimately see where the zones are firing hard and where they are not. The subjective black levels also aren't helped by the fairly coarse matte anti-glare coating, which tends to make everything look just a little grey.

There's actually an interesting comparison to be made here between this remarkably affordable mini-LED monitor and Alienware's budget QD-OLED offering, the AW2726DM. Okay, at $350 the Alienware is still more expensive, but it's not a huge chasm, price-wise, to this $290-ish monitor. So, it's plausible to think people might cross-shop. But which should they buy?

The full-screen brightness from this KTC is on another planet, and one awfully near its host star. But then the black levels from the OLED and the lighting precision and overall sense of balance and naturalness are far superior, there's none of the slight weirdness where you can see the backlight working harder in some areas of the panel than others.

That said, speed-wise, the subjective difference is remarkably small versus that cheap OLED. It's definitely lighting precision, not pixel response, that is the most telling difference. You also have to factor in superior font rendering on this LCD panel. There are now OLED monitors with conventional RGB-stripe subpixel structure that will render text as well as any LCD, but they are new and more expensive models, for now.

Ultimately, I'd still go with the OLED option; it does the things I care about most better. But I can absolutely understand why someone else might prefer this mini-LED option. It's really very good. It also solves a conundrum that's been bothering me for a while.

I have never understood why local dimming has historically added so much to the price of a monitor. This KTC confirms that not only that it needn't, but also there's no reason why affordable local dimming can't also be very good local dimming. At the price point KTC has hit, this is a pretty incredible monitor.

When it comes to gaming monitors, it feels like 2026 has been all about lording it with a long list of OLED displays. So, it's nice to be back among the proletariat with a mere LCD panel. I give you the Koorui 34E6UC.

Of course, this is a 34-inch ultrawide model, which is one of my favourite form factors and pretty generously proportioned. So, the Koorui 34E6UC isn't a truly poverty-spec display. It's just the panel tech is pretty pedestrian and the price positively punchy. There's no mini-LED backlight, no full-array dimming. Just plain old VA running at 165 Hz.

So the appeal here is that, at the time of writing, you can snag this 34 incher on Amazon for just $264 in the US or £199 in the UK. That's far less than you'd pay for an equivalent OLED monitor and, frankly, looks downright reasonable compared to many PC components of late, the prices of which are spiralling out of reach thanks to the AI bubble.

The other issue of interest here is Koorui itself. It's very much a lesser known brand, but part of a large Chinese corporation known as HKC that specialises in display semiconductor tech. So, the question is, can you add Koorui to your list of monitor brands that generally make decent displays?

Hold that thought while we cover off the main speeds and feeds. Aside from the 34-inch ultrawide proportions based on a VA-type LCD panel, you're getting the familiar 3,440 by 1,440 resolution, 165 Hz refresh, and claimed 1 ms pixel response performance. For the record, brightness is pegged at 400 nits and there's basic VESA DisplayHDR 400 certification.

Perhaps ill-advisedly, Koorui actually calls out esports as a primary remit for this panel. But here in 2026, 165 Hz isn't really the stuff of online domination. And, in any case, if you're really into esports, you're probably not going to be gaming with an ultrawide monitor.

Elsewhere, you get DisplayPort, plus two HDMI inputs. Just note the latter two top out at 100 Hz, so you'll need to use DisplayPort to get the full 165 Hz. Unsurprisingly given the value positioning, there's no USB-C and no USB-A hub.

Oh, and the stand offers height, tilt and swivel adjustments, plus the chassis is actually as well made as more expensive brands. So, at least no corners have been cut there.

That 34-inch panel, meanwhile, sports a fairly gentle 1000R curve and a matte anti-glare panel coating. So, it's all pretty conventional. Which is no bad thing. Ultimately, this monitor looks pretty sweet, on paper, for the money. But is it actually any good in practice?

Initial impressions are indeed thoroughly conventional, which is mostly for the better. This is a VA panel with 3,000:1 static contrast, so it blocks a bit more light and offers better black levels than a similar IPS screen.

The slight catch is that VA has worse viewing angles than IPS, so there's a bit of glow at the top and bottom of the panel when viewing dark backgrounds or gaming scenes. It's not a major problem, but it is one of many reminders that you're not looking at an OLED panel.

Still, it's certainly pretty punchy and also well calibrated in both sRGB and DCI-P3 modes, presets for which, incidentally, are provided in the OSD menu. Again, so far, so reassuringly similar to more familiar brands.

Where things are less impressive involves pixel response. VA panels obviously have a reputation for offering the worst pixel response of the major LCD panel types, which also include TN and IPS. Unfortunately, the Koorui 34E6U does little to dispel that notion.

You do get the option of three different levels of pixel overdrive in the OSD menu. But even set to the most aggressive mode, there's a fair amount of blur and smear visible in certain situations.

Exactly how much of an issue that is, well, that's a subjective call. It'll depend to a some degree on your frame of reference. Personally, coming from a series of OLED reviews, the in-game blurriness as you whip your mouse around was all too obvious.

That's especially true, actually, when playing more demanding games at lower refresh rates. Darker game scenes are the worst, suffering quite a bit of visible smear. However in, say, a brighter Counter-Strike 2 map like Dust 2 at native resolution, you can reach the panel's 165 Hz refresh with a fairly modest GPU and the clarity in that scenario is reasonable.

More to the point, none of this is out of the ordinary for this type of display. By way of example, it's about the same as the ASRock Phantom PG34WQ15R2B, which I rated pretty highly. Of course, I rated that screen pretty highly back in early 2023. So, what you're getting is pretty much the same experience, just for $100 less.

In the end, then, this screen is all about context and value. Put it up next to the latest OLED panels, and the shortcomings in terms of contrast, black levels, lighting control, viewing angles, pixel response, and more are pretty stark. But they're also pretty irrelevant if your budget is $250, or thereabouts.

At that price point, the Koorui 34E6UC is a decent effort and definitely buyable. Long story short, this kind of VA panel has weaknesses. But they're not specific to this particular monitor, which is generally well executed. All I would say is that if you can find a good 34-inch ultrawide with an IPS panel for not too huge a premium and you can afford the step up, that would be clearly preferable just for the pixel response.

I can't help but point out that you can also get a 27-inch high-refresh 4K IPS monitor for about $300 these days, too. But if $264 is already a stretch, and it's 34-inch ultrawide you want—and it certainly is a compelling form factor and a good fit with a reasonably attainable graphics card—this Koorui offering ain't half bad.

Indeed, in the current context, what with RAM prices going into orbit and GPUs increasingly costing more than their weight in unobtainium, gaming monitors are one of the few vaguely affordable PC component categories. So, it's great that you can get a decent 34-inch ultrawide experience for this kind of money, it really is.

Finally, on the broader question of Koorui as a monitor brand, the signs are positive from this first viewing. They're backed by a large Chinese corporate and this monitor is covered by a three-year warranty, much like the more familiar competition.

I'd also go so far as to say the simple fact the Koorui reached out to us seeking a review is a sign of a company that wants to engage with western markets, as is the fact that the company runs both US and UK websites with ecommerce facilities where you can order their monitors. Obviously I'd want to see a decent range of Koorui monitor models first hand to give a really authoritative recommendation in that regard. But I like what I've seen so far.

Here's a short tech support horror story for you: you're chatting with someone—maybe a not very tech-savvy relative—and they tell you, 'It's the darndest thing. I bought a whole new computer, and I just can't seem to log in.' Because you hate to see them struggle, you agree to take a look. But gazing upon their setup, that's when it hits you: they bought a cheap monitor thinking it was an all-in-one PC. Well, an exhibit at this year's Computex had me doing a double-triple take because it's actually an all-in-one PC and it boasts room for a graphics card.

The LP-3201 from Loop is a nostalgically chunky 32-inch WQHD monitor with a slot in the back that can accommodate graphics cards measuring up to 330mm in length. A sales representative told Hermitage Akihabara that the slot is best suited to Nvidia's SFF standard geared towards small form factor PCs.

What's especially neat about the LP-3201 is that it should be way more upgradeable than your average all-in-one PC. Typical AIO systems use laptop components in order to cram all of their hardware into a small space (such as the back of a monitor) and keep it cool.

As such, the average AIO only lets you upgrade maybe the DRAM or SSD, at most. The LP-3201 isn't so typical in this regard, in that it looks like a mostly normal PC that's been clown car-ed into the back of a monitor. As such, all of its guts should be just as upgradeable as a regular tower PC.

On the show floor, Loop exhibited the LP-3201 all-in-one PC with what appeared to be the Asus Prime GeForce RTX 5070 OC Edition. The sizeable Asus ROG Astral 50-series graphics cards are slightly too long to fit, and you'll definitely fail to crowbar in the even beefier ROG Astral GeForce RTX 5090 Edition 20 that was also announced during Computex.

Beyond the GPU, the showpiece's guts include a Micro ATX motherboard and the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K CPU (an Arrow Lake chip). Somehow, Loop has also found room for a liquid cooling system and an 800W PSU, too. To keep everything cool, there are pretty sizable air vents lining the back side of the monitor.

As for, you know, the monitor part of the LP-3201, you're getting 32 inches with a resolution of 2,560 x 1,440. The screen also enjoys a decent refresh rate of 180Hz to boot. It even comes in a gamer goo shade of bright green. You can class up the green version with wooden panelling across the air vents at the back, but a more traditional black colourway is available too.

Though currently sold as a bare-bones product (i.e., bring your own 330mm GPU, SSD, OS, etc) for the Chinese market, Loop is apparently interested in expanding into the Japanese market, so there's potential for it to travel further around the world.

Loop already offers a curved monitor with a similar all-in-one system (GPU included) called the LP 3200 AIO. That said, I'm a little unclear on whether you can pick this up in the US currently, or whether its successor, the LP-3201, will ever come Stateside.

The OLED gaming monitor tech announcements are coming thick and fast at Computex this year. One intriguing new monitor has been outed by Asus featuring a new WOLED panel from LG that we've not seen before.

The big news is that the Asus ROG Swift PG32UCWM features RGB-stripe technology. In other words, the panel's subpixel structure is composed of conventional red, green and blue vertical subpixels in that order.

Until recently, all OLED gaming monitors had panels with various weird and wonderful subpixel structures. LG's panels had an extra white subpixel to boost peak brightness. Samsung used a triangular layout, albeit with the standard RGB colours.

These non-standard subpixel layouts cause various issues. So, the ideal solution is an absolutely standard RGB-stripe structure. And that's what the Asus ROG Swift PG32UCWM's new LG WOLED panel offers.

Note that the "W" in LG's WOLED branding doesn't refer to a white subpixel, but the white colour of the base emissive OLED material, which is then passed through red, green and blue filters for each subpixel, respectively.

Anywho, the ROG Swift PG32UCWM is, as I said, a 32-inch 4K model. It runs at 240 Hz at 4K and offers an alternative 1080p mode at 480 Hz. It also sports VESA DisplayHDR True Black 400 certification. And that's where things get a bit tricky.

You can already buy 32-inch 4K Samsung QD-OLED based monitors, including the MSI MPG 322UR X24 I reviewed recently, that offer brighter True Black 500 certification. And Samsung has announced yet another 32-inch 4K panel with True Black 600 certification, 360 Hz refresh and RGB-stripe subpixels for later this year.

That latter panel in particular makes the new LG WOLED in the Asus ROG Swift PG32UCWM look a bit behind the curve, even as it launches. It'll do 350 nits full screen and 1,500 peak HDR.

The LG WOLED in the Asus, meanwhile, tops out at 1,000 nits peak HDR. Asus hasn't quoted as fullscreen figure. But it will likely be in the 250 to 275 nits range. These brightness figures are despite the panel using LG's latest Tandem OLED tech. And that's likely because of the removal of the white subpixel, which LG has thus far used to increase the brightness rating of its OLEDs.

Still, the good news here is that OLED technology is really kicking on this year. We're getting brighter panels seemingly by the week and RGB-stripe is being ever more widely adopted.

I wouldn't be surprised if most OLED gaming monitors are RGB-stripe by this time next year. Add in increased brightness and we're surely approaching a situation where the art of OLED gaming monitors is pretty much perfected.

Well, maybe with one final caveat around burn-in remaining. But the evidence continues to mount around existing panels that burn-in isn't a massive issue. And these newer panels are meant to be yet more robust.

Last year at Gamescom, I got to feast my greedy little eyes on a 540 Hz monitor from Asus ROG and was mighty impressed. That one is a 26.5-inch 1440p/720p dual-mode deal, though, so not necessarily for esports. As I've argued before, 720p is a bit low even for esports. And 26.5 inches and 1440p is too big on both counts. What's ideal then, you ask? 24–25 inches at 1080p, and it seems that's exactly what Asus ROG has teased and now announced in the form of a new 540 Hz OLED called the ROG Strix OLED XG259QWPG.

It's a 1080p monitor, of course. The CS2 pro's fave, which I tested recently, the Zowie XL2586X+, is 24.5 inches on the diagonal and has a maximum resolution of 1920 x 1080, and that seems to be what most high refresh rate esports monitors go for.

Most of those are TN or IPS, though, not OLED. Previously, the choice for 'casual' esports at home was between one such TN/IPS or a bigger 27-inch OLED. I've tried both of these options and definitely prefer the 24-inch form factor for competitive shooters, but there's no denying how nice OLED looks, nor its super-snappy response time and motion clarity.

When testing the Zowie, I also found I could tell the difference between 360 Hz and 600 Hz, so if your rig's powerful enough to churn out the frames, I don't think 540 Hz is overkill. It's not as noticeable a difference as moving up from 144 Hz to 240 Hz, or from the latter up to 360 Hz, but it's not nothing, either. And for competitive shooters at a high level, every little can indeed help.

The whole 24/25-inch thing confuses some who aren't used to it for esports, too. But essentially, this size can be better for allowing you to soak in the entire game scene—not missing a movement at the periphery, for instance—without having to move your eyes too much. After trying both 24.5-inch and 27-inch monitors extensively, I do prefer the former for playing a tactical FPS like CS2.

And with the panel being OLED, hopefully other games and content (movies, etc) won't feel too diminutive on it either—maybe that vibrancy can help make up for it. At any rate, for those of you like me who perpetually debate between a fast esports IPS/TN or an OLED, it seems the ROG Strix OLED XG259QWPG will have us covered.

Of course MSI was going to be talking AI when it comes to monitors at Computex this year. I mean, for the third straight year that's largely all everyone else is going to be talking about at the show, too. But still, "the world's first agentic AI monitor" probably wasn't top of my list for must-sees at the Taiwan tradeshow.

I'm way out west in Taipei, at MSI's HQ—which was originally MSI Factory 3—and I'm spending my Sunday prodding and poking a bunch of its new toys. I've had my hands on the new MSI Claw 9 EX AI+, with its fancy new Intel G3 Extreme processor, and I've had my eyeballs on a range of MSI's new monitors as well.

The $1599 MEG X was definitely one that stood out, though not necessarily for all the right reasons. This is the screen billed as that first agentic AI monitor, and it comes with a bunch of new AI-powered features. I would say most of them are of the sort that makes you wonder if someone told the designers they had to find a way to integrate as many features as possible into the screen that they could hang an 'AI' badge.

But there is one that anyone who has struggled with monitor on-screen displays (OSDs) will maybe appreciate: The MEG X has a feature which means you can just ask it to change a setting and it will do it for you.

• 34-inch / 5th-Gen QD-OLED / 3440x1440 (UWQHD@360Hz) / 0.03ms (GtG)
• Built in AI Processor delivers AI Super Resolution, AI Gauge, AI Scene, AI Audio Scene, AI Crosshair, and AI Vision+ to assist in gameplay practice.
• MSI's exclusive AI Care Sensor detects user presence to automatically adjust OLED Care settings.
• 5th-gen QD-OLED with Penta Tandem, 5-layer structure boosts light efficiency by up to 30%. RGB Stripe minimizes color fringing.
• DarkArmor Film delivers 40% deeper blacks and offers 2.5x better scratch resistance.
• Connectivity: 2x HDMI 2.1 input (UWQHD@360Hz), 1x DisplayPort 2.1a (UHBR20) input, 1x Type-C (DP alt.) w/ 98 W PD, 2x USB 5 Gbps Type-A, 1x USB 5 Gbps Type-B, 1x Headphone-out

Now, I'll grant you that's not a feature that would have me dropping $1599 on a new ultrawide 1440p OLED monitor, but it is still a feature I wouldn't mind seeing being used across the board. Mostly because I have a very rational hatred of monitor OSDs and the fiddly controls you're forced to use to access them.

The advent of the nubbin/joystick control was a game-changer, taking us past the days of trying to figure out what the unlabelled buttons under the bottom bezel actually did, but it doesn't change the fact that the settings menus for monitors are borderline impenetrable to the average user.

The MEG X and its LuckyClaw feature, however, means you can talk to a cartoon dragon with crab claws—which has the personality of an over-enthusiastic toddler/bro—and simply ask it to alter the brightness or enable the on-screen crosshair feature. I don't want to actually engage with the wee red guy, but the system seems sound.

It's all thanks to the micro-controller inside MSI's modern monitors which allows you to alter the monitor's settings from within Windows rather than the traditional OSD. It is simply linking up its AI software to that functionality to perform the adjustments on the fly, if you're in a game, for example.

Unfortunately, despite the MEG X reportedly being on sale from August 5 this year, this specific feature was not yet available for demo. But I did see a non-shouty-dragon version, just using an OpenClaw interface running on the already released MSI MPG 341CQR QD-OLED X36. That's a monitor which uses the same Samsung 5th Gen Penta Tandem panel with the striped RGB pixel layout, and is actually awesome.

There are a bunch of other, far less useful features, such as AI Super Resolution, which by MSI's own admission doesn't perform as well as either FSR or DLSS as it's just running on the monitors scaler, and a specific version of that which just upscales the area where your scope might be in the middle of the screen, and there's a light bar which can tell you which channel (left or right) music might be coming from, but shouldn't be used for games as that might be considered cheating.

BUT give me the AI settings feature in a less obnoxious-dragon kinda way, and I could potentially be convinced that an AI monitor isn't such a bad thing after all.

According to reports, LG has flatly denied a report claiming that it plans to sell its TV business to China's Hisense, much as Sony recently sold its own TV division to TCL.

The original report was posted on South Korean website EBN and titled, "LG Electronics to shut down its 'problematic' TV business? Discusses sale with China's Hisense." The story has since been taken down, while reports of a denial by LG of the entire story have emerged.

However, at this stage, it does not seem that LG has made an official statement of its own or spoken with a major news outlet. So, what to make of this mess?

First, the part of LG that sells TVs is quite separate from that which produces display panels, such as LCD or OLED panels. So, any purported sale of its TV business would not directly impact LG's WOLED tech as used in PC gaming monitors.

Speaking of which, LG's PC monitor division is part of the same overall group as the TV business, but so are a lot of other digital product types, such as laptops, and it's unlikely the deal with Hisense would include all that. So, even if it's true, it probably only applies to TVs.

But what's arguably more interesting is what this all says about the TV and broader display panel market. The original, now removed, EBN report pointed out that China-based TCL already owns 14% of the TV market in 2025, with Hisense close behind on 12.5%.

Others have noted that TCL, Hisense and Xiaomi together now have more TV market share than LG and Samsung combined, with the broader narrative that the arrival of the Chinese is squeezing margins heavily. Certainly, LG Electronics, which makes TVs, has been struggling of late, reporting a net loss for the last quarter of 2025.

Exactly what the implications are of any of this for PC monitors and, indeed, the LCD and increasingly OLED panels that go into them is complicated.

Arguably, China has already won when it comes to manufacturing LCD panels. LG sold its last LCD panel factory to TCL about a year ago, and China now reportedly owns over 70% of the LCD panel manufacturing market.

So, ironically, LG and Samsung's LCD TVs now largely use Chinese rather than South Korean-made panels. For now, LG and Samsung still dominate in the large form factor OLED panel segment as used for TVs and monitors, as opposed to smaller OLEDs for smartphones.

However, TCL's panel-making subsidiary, CSOT, has revealed plans to make its own inkjet-printed RGB-OLED panels with a view to taking on LG and Samsung. The good news is that it should mean plenty of competition.

OLED monitors have been getting steadily cheaper, with the Alienware AW2726DM recently launching for just $350. Presumably, competition from China would make OLED monitors even cheaper. Monitors are already pretty much the most interesting part of the PC hardware market right now, what with chip prices spiralling.

Of course, "cheap" isn't the only concern. OLED technology has been improving fast of late. We've seen some impressive new QD-OLED panels from Samsung this year, and the company has just announced a yet better QD-OLED panel that's due to go into production later in 2026.

Put another way, LG and Samsung are both at the cutting edge of OLED innovation right now, and it's not clear a price war would encourage further innovation as opposed to a race to the bottom. I guess we'll just have to watch this space.

Just the other day, I speculated that Samsung is closing in on perfection with its latest 4K, 32-inch QD-OLED panel for gaming monitors. Well, that perfection has quite possibly just arrived. Samsung has announced a new, upgraded panel with a higher 360 Hz refresh and true RGB-stripe subpixel structure. Oh, and it's the first consumer OLED monitor panel to get HDR True Black 600 certification.

Until now, OLED monitor panels, be they from Samsung or its main competitor LG, have topped out at a maximum of 240 Hz. So, the 360 Hz refresh is a clear upgrade. Notably, that panel also supports 680 Hz at 1080p via dual-mode functionality. So, this thing promises to be both great for high-end single-player graphics-led gaming and esports, too.

Next up is true RGB-stripe subpixel structure. Samsung introduced that earlier this year on its new 34-inch 1440p panel, a version of which I reviewed in the MSI MPG 341CQR X36, but somewhat oddly, it wasn't in the mix with the new 4K panel introduced at around the same time. We had a look at that new panel, incidentally, in the MSI MPG 322UR X24.

Until that 34-inch ultrawide, all QD-OLEDs had used some variation of a triangular subpixel structure. They were still RGB, rather than relying on an additional white subpixel to boost brightness as per LG's WOLED panels.

But the triangular arrangement is essentially non-standard from a PC computing perspective. For example, Windows assumes a vertical RGB-stripe subpixel structure to achieve subpixel addressing for features like ClearType font smoothing. Anywho, the text and fonts on this new panel should be pretty sweet thanks to a combination of 4K pixel density and the RGB-stripe structure.

The final major new feature is the HDR certification. "The new monitor panel is certified with VESA’s DisplayHDR True Black 600, achieving higher brightness than existing premium self-emissive monitors," Samsung says, adding that, "this exceeds True Black 500, which has been regarded as the highest grade in the existing premium monitor market."

Samsung hasn't actually quoted panel brightness. However, to meet the VESA True Black 600 certification level, it must reach 350 nits full-screen, a step up from the 300 nits of the latest currently available 32-inch 4K QD-OLED panel, again as seen in the MSI MPG 322UR X24.

So, this is surely an even brighter panel than that, which itself has only been fairly recently introduced. Long story short, this panel looks like it addresses two of the three remaining minor flaws of QD-OLED tech, full-screen brightness and subpixel structure.

The remaining niggle is the purple tint in bright ambient light conditions. The new-ish panels in the two MSI monitors I mentioned introduced a new film that reduced the purple hue a fair bit, but did not entirely eradicate it.

As I understand it, the problem is related to the use of quantum dot material, which is agitated by incoming ambient light and, in turn, then emits some unintended light of its own, leading the panel to turn slightly purple.

Presumably, the idea with the new film is to block ambient light from outside of the panel while allowing the actual generated light from the emissive OLED material to pass through. Samsung hasn't commented on whether this new panel gets that film or perhaps a further improved solution.

Speaking of emissive material, Samsung hasn't commented on whether the increased brightness of this upgraded 32-inch 4K panel is achieved courtesy of yet another generation of that. Again, the panels in those two MSIs both use Samsung's latest 3rd-gen emissive material.

It's possible this panel gets yet another new generation of material. Or perhaps, the brightness is achieved courtesy of something like subpixel aperture tweaks.

Whatever, I have to confess the specs of this new panel look absolutely killer. The only real issue is that it immediately makes the panel that's only just appeared in monitors earlier this year look redundant.

And that's a problem, if for no other reason than the fact that Samsung doesn't expect to begin mass producing this impressive new QD-OLED panel until the second half of this year. So, we probably won't see monitors with this until the end of 2026 at the earliest.

All told, this is an unexpected announcement from Samsung. I certainly didn't think it would announce another upgrade to its 32-inch 4K QD-OLED offering so soon. But I like the look of it. A lot.

We here at PC Gamer have tested very, very many gaming monitors over the years, and yet the MSI MPG 321URX sits head and shoulders above every other one. It is our pick for the best gaming monitor, after all. A 240 Hz 4K OLED panel that looks excellent and plays incredibly well, it's well worth its pretty big asking fee.

Luckily, if you're on the hunt for a deal, it is now at its lowest ever price over at Amazon, thanks to a coupon. By clicking the coupon button before adding to your basket, you can get it for $710. That's still a hefty fee, but you can't argue that you aren't getting a truly excellent panel in return.

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It may be hard to believe, but the MSI MPG321URX at full price is cheaper than its direct competition, and despite that, it looks absolutely lovely. We reviewed it in May 2024, and yet no company has managed to dethrone it in our list, and that's because it truly offers an excellent experience for the price. 4K is a bit much for some graphics cards, but if you have the rig to run it, it's hard to go wrong with the 321URX.

Its QD-OLED is absolutely lush, as is the norm for QD-OLED panels. I've been saying this for practically a year now, but the upgrade from IPS to OLED is arguably one of the biggest I've ever made, when it comes to day-to-day gaming. They offer true blacks and vibrant colours, making games absolutely pop.

At 32 inches, it's decently sizable and comes with a killer 0.03 ms response time and 240 Hz refresh rate. That means it not only looks incredible but offers near competitive-level play, should you want it.

As is common with OLED monitors, the 250 nits peak brightness is a bit on the low side, so it may struggle in front of a window. Still, outside of that application, you shouldn't have much of a problem with its brightness.

One thing we did notice here is that, like all OLEDs, HDR is a struggle. The DisplayHDR 400 mode works well for bright games with outdoor scenes, but the 1,000 nit mode works best in darker scenes with bright highlights. Unfortunately, being caught between two separate modes is a tad awkward, as you don't really want to swap between them as you play.

Generally, we'd advise the DisplayHDR 400 mode, but bright details can suffer from bloom and compression here, which removes some detail. Oh, and it's maybe worth noting that MSI's big OLED can use up to 270 W of power, so it can really heat up your gaming den.

Still, those are only slight quirks on an otherwise truly fantastic panel, and our favourite of the last few years. If you are in search of an OLED panel and can handle 4K gaming, it's not just a good choice, but the choice, in our book.

The march of OLED technology continues. According to market research outfit Trendforce, OLED monitor shipments are up by 78% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2026. Trendforce reckons increased supply of Samsung's QD-OLED panels is a key factor, but it's actually Asus that is selling the most OLED monitors.

Q1 2026's figures are actually down 11% on Q4 2025. But given tech products have distinct annual cycles driven by things like school schedules and holiday periods, the most representative comparisons are with the same quarter the previous year. In that context, OLED's continuing progress is clear enough.

Apart from the broader trend toward OLED, Trendforce reckons Samsung ramping up supply is a key factor. "The key growth driver was the increasingly abundant supply of QD-OLED panels, which enabled new market entrants to ramp up volumes and effectively fill gaps in the market," Trendforce says.

Perhaps somewhat surprisingly given its premium pricing, it's actually Asus that is selling the most OLED monitors, with 24% market share. "Its leadership was underpinned by a comprehensive OLED product lineup," Trendforce says, noting how broad Asus's OLED monitor range is.

Samsung (Samsung Electronics that makes monitors, as opposed to Samsung Displays that makes the actual QD-OLED panels) came second with a 16.4% share, while MSI clocked third with 12.2%.

This time around, Trendforce isn't quoting overall volumes of OLED monitor shipments. But to put all this into context, it previously said that the overall OLED monitor market amounted to 2.735 million units in 2025, a 92% increase on 2024.

While it's a somewhat subjective call, I'd say Samsung driving volumes of OLED monitors is a good thing. Samsung's QD-OLED panels tend to be more vibrant than LG's competing WOLED panels thanks to utilising a pure RGB subpixel structure where LG relies on an additional white subpixel to boost measured brightness in a way that doesn't always translate well into the real-world experience.

Put another way, Samsung's latest QD-OLED panel tech, as seen in the MSI MPG 341CQR X36 in 34-inch ultrawide form and the MSI MPG 322UR X24 in 32-inch 4K configuration, is pretty darn stellar.

I spent a lot of time trying out a 600 Hz esports panel recently, and I thought that it was about as good as you could get on the refresh rate front, at least for 1080p. But now, LG has announced the world's first 1,000 Hz FHD (1080p) gaming monitor.

The new LG UltraGear 25G590B is a 24.5-inch IPS panel that's expected to launch in "select markets" in the second half of this year. The company claims it delivers "ultra-fast visual response, motion clarity and consistent performance, enabling players to react more quickly and maintain precision in high-speed gameplay."

There's been a spate of 1,000 Hz monitors announced within the last few months, but these are dual-mode ones that can only achieve the full 1,000 Hz if you drop things down to 720p. Even for competitive gamers, that resolution is a little low.

1080p is a much better shout for the kinds of competitive games that will benefit from the high refresh rate here—games like CS2, Valorant, and PUBG. Most pro gamers in CS2, for instance, play at either 1080p at 16:9 or 1280x960 (4:3, stretched), and either way they'll be out of luck with 720p.

During my time testing the 600 Hz Zowie monitor (a TN panel, not IPS), I was surprised to find that, for competitive gaming at least, the benefit to using this refresh rate is definitely noticeable, even if only slightly so once you get above 360 Hz. That panel also has Zowie's DyAc 2 anti-motion blur tech, and here LG is claiming its own anti-blur tech called Motion Blur Reduction Pro. It also has a matte film to prevent reflections, which can be important for competitive gaming, depending on your environment.

Saying all this, I can't help but wonder just what kind of a rig you'll need to actually make the most of this monitor, even in less graphically intensive esports games. I, for instance, can 'only' hit about 500–600 fps in CS2 using an AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D and AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT. Given this, presumably 1,000 fps would only be possible when using a tippity-top tier CPU like the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D, and even then I'm not too sure.

Assuming you can get the frame rates to make the most of 1,000 Hz, it'll be a great choice for those who are very serious about competitive FPS gaming and have a bunch of money spare (presumably it'll be an expensive monitor), but apart from that niche it might be a hard sell. Unless you really like that stand and bezel, I suppose—and I wouldn't blame you, it's certainly more refined than the chunky Zowie design.

Due to what folks that aren't me may deem a cruel twist of fate, I've ended up with a blooming lovely OLED gaming monitor in my home office. While it's vibrant and illuminates the darkest crevices of my gamer den, it is kind of overkill for all the hours I've been pouring into Titanium Court. For most of what I play, a 1440p gaming monitor would more than suit.

As a lover of smaller games less obsessed with showing you every pore of a character's face, I know I'm not alone on that front. So, I've found deals on two 1440p gaming monitors very much alike in dignity.

Quick list

• ASRock Phantom PG27QFT1B | 27-inches 1080p 180 Hz | $130 @ Newegg
• Acer Nitro XV272U | 27-inches 1080p 240 Hz | $180 @ Amazon

Gaming monitor deals

If you frequently peruse best gaming monitor deals guide, then you'll know the cheapest 1440p gaming monitor that the hardware team recommends is the 27-inch ASRock Phantom PG27QFT1B. As an IPS panel, it's not as face-meltingly bright as an OLED, but it will offer colours that are accurate and plenty vibrant for the money—and speaking of, you can make this screen part of your own gamer scene for just $130 from Newegg.

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For those with particularly good memories, you'll note that it's now a few bucks more affordable than the last time we cast the deal spotlight on it a few months back. The ASRock Phantom also has AMD FreeSync and offers a refresh rate of 180 Hz. That's definitely not nothing at this price point. However, for all you esports fiends on a budget, I do have one more deal to draw your attention to.

On all the product images of the Acer Nitro XV272U, a legally distinct kaiju graces its IPS panel—that feels fitting because there's about to be a rumble in the budget jungle. For just fifty bucks more than the ASRock Phantom, the also 27-inch Acer Nitro offers a refresh rate of up to 240 Hz. That's definitely appealing for only $180 from Amazon.

I say 'up to' because that high refresh rate is only available via the Display Port—if you're connecting via the HDMI port, you'll be stuck with a 144 Hz refresh rate. At this price point, there's bound to be some compromise, but it may be worth it if you really want that 0.5 Ms response time.

Otherwise, there's really not much difference between the two monitors. Both are 1440p, both are 27-inch IPS panels, and both even enjoy AMD FreeSync for those with a team red rig. But 50 bucks is 50 bucks, and that refresh rate might just make all the difference for you. Not me though—last night, I literally spent two hours putting away virtual books in Librarian: Tidy Up the Arcane Library, and I have very few regrets.

The new MSI MPG 341CQR X36 is one of our very favourite gaming monitors. There's just one problem. It's hella expensive with an MSRP of $1,099. Well, now there's a new AOC monitor with the very same, sizzling 5th Gen Samsung QD-OLED panel, but it's significantly cheaper.

Actually, price isn't the only problem with the MSI MPG 341CQR X36. Availability is, too. Seems like we're not the only ones who like it and the thing keeps selling out, despite the painful price. It's currently sold out on Amazon, Newegg, BestBuy and Walmart. Yikes.

So, the good news is that the new AOC Agon PRO AGP346UCSD is now out and you can actually buy it right now on Amazon for $829. Indeed, the Asus ROG Swift OLED PG34WCDN also uses the same 5th Gen panel but is even more expensive than the MSI at $1,299.

The caveat here is that we have yet to review this AOC offering. However, the key attraction is that very same 5th Gen Samsung QD-OLED panel. And that means several really significant upgrades over previous QD-OLED panels.

For starters, it's brighter with a 300 nit full-screen rating. In practice, it's even brighter than that rating implies because QD-OLED doesn't rely on a white subpixel like LG's WOLED panels, so colour brightness as opposed to white brightness really pops.

Samsung has also reduced the purple tint of the panel in bright ambient light to the extent that I reckon it'll be a non issue for most use cases. Oh, and the panel is now good for 360 Hz refresh, up from the 240 Hz of earlier 34-inch QD-OLEDs.

The final flourish is a true RGB-stripe subpixel structure, which helps with stuff like crisp font rendering. Really, the only objection you could have bar price with the MSI MPG 341CQR QD-OLED X36—and so by implication this new AOC, too—is the basic form factor. If you don't like 34-inch ultrawide 1440p monitors, then it's not going to be for you.

The merit of the AOC Agon PRO AGP346UCSD specifically is really going to come down to fine tuning and calibration. But AOC generally gets that stuff right (and has also recently improved its OSD), so it all bodes pretty well.

One final minor note involves connectivity. The MSI monitor has a USB-C interface with 98 W of power delivery. This AOC also has USB-C, but only with 15 W of power delivery. So, the MSI is probably the better pick if you're planning to share a monitor between a gaming desktop and a work laptop, or similar.

If that sounds like you, it may be worth waiting for the MSI to come back into stock. Despite its lofty MSRP, it's been selling for as low as $899. That's arguably not a huge premium for a more usable USB-C port when it comes to keeping a laptop charged.