I can't believe it's been more than a decade since I outfitted my gaming PC with what was, at the time, basically the top of the line in monitor technology: a 1440p, 144 Hz IPS display with G-Sync. The high refresh rate was amazing, even on the desktop. The smoothness of G-Sync handling variable framerates was even better.
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A high-end OLED is still a luxurious purchase for any PC Gamer, but it's the one upgrade I'd recommend wholeheartedly to anyone right now. It's better than a GPU that can do fancy ray tracing. You'll certainly feel the difference more than with 16 gigs of extra overpriced RAM.
And this might sound backwards when talking about going all-out with a fancy monitor, but I'm actually a big advocate for sticking with a 1440p monitor instead of upgrading to 4K. That's why I think the Asus PG27AQDP is the pick to go with this Black Friday (apologies to PC Gamer's Joshua Wolens, who may have just traded a kidney for a different OLED monitor).
While the image clarity of 4K is fantastic, thanks to the higher pixel density, a 27-inch 1440p monitor is still the sweet spot for my PC setup. I like to use two monitors, so I don't really need a 32-incher; at my desk, my face is only about two feet away from the screen. And at 1440p, 27 inches, I can run Windows at 100% scaling with no complications.
More importantly, though, 1440p is still the ideal resolution for gaming, just as it's been for years. Even as upscaling algorithms like FSR and DLSS get better, 4K gaming is incredibly demanding if you want to hit framerates of more than 60 fps.
And I'm not yet convinced that AI-driven frame generation is the universal answer to the performance hit double whammy of 4K and ray tracing. Yes, it's going to keep getting better, but the latest and greatest usually ends up locked to a new GPU generation every couple of years.
Gaming at 1440p still presents a great balance. On a GPU like my Radeon 9070 XT, I can hit framerates like 120 fps with "balanced" or even "quality" upscaling in graphically demanding games like The Finals. And if I do want to turn on fake frames, I can hit 240 or even the 480 fps this Asus monitor supports (at least in more lightweight games). This will finally make me good at Counter-Strike, right?
Okay, nothing will ever make me good at Counter-Strike. But today, being able to run games at 480 fps with the image clarity of an OLED screen is every bit as stunning as 144 Hz with G-Sync was a decade ago. Maybe even more so.
But unlike a graphics card that will stop offering the latest in upscaling/frame gen tech as soon as a new generation arrives, a premium OLED will still be a killer monitor years from now. If you're like me, this is not an upgrade you make often, so it's worth investing in it for the long term. Maybe by the time we go for another one, 4K and ray tracing will actually be worth aiming for.
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1. Best overall:
MSI MPG 321URX QD-OLED
2. Best 1440p:
MSI MPG 271QRX
3. Best ultrawide:
Gigabyte MO34WQC2
4. Best budget ultrawide:
Alienware 34 QD-OLED AW3423DWF
5. Best WOLED:
LG UltraGear 32GS95UE
6. Best 27-inch:
Alienware 27 AW2725Q
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