One of the few bright lights in the dark, dark cloud that is the component pricing crisis is the current state of the gaming monitor market. They are getting better and cheaper literally every single day, and be it an OLED pick, an Ultrawide so big it will barely fit on your desk, or a 4K panel, there are sweet deals to be found in pretty much every major genre of gaming monitor.
If you want a 4K gaming monitor and want to pay as little as possible, my money would be on the Acer Nitro VG270K L1, and I wouldn't even have to think about it. That's because you can pick one up for $160 at Amazon right now. That's only really tens of dollars above the price of a decent 1080p panel, which is pretty incredible when you think about it.
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I look over our roundup of the best cheap gaming monitor deals every single week, and this panel is such a good price that it is clearly the cheapest 4K gaming monitor on there. In fact, the next cheapest option is the MSI MAG 275UPD, which is $90 more.
Naturally, at such a low price point, you expect to make compromises, and the biggest one here is the refresh rate. At 4K, the Nitro is down to a rather pitiful 72 Hz. If you have a super beefy rig, or are a huge fan of frame generation, you may want to go for something snappier. But if you are on a modest machine like me, that refresh rate is fine.
And the Nitro is a dual mode monitor, meaning you can bump it down to 1080p at 144 Hz for more competitive focused games, and bump the resolution up to 4K for something pretty. At 27 inches, it's plenty big for a desk, and the up to 0.5 ms response time is pretty killer too.
As well as this, you get HDR 10 support, IPS panel technology for strong colors and wide viewing angles, plus AMD FreeSync to cut out screen tearing. The refresh rate is naturally a pretty big caveat here, but it will cost you nearly $100 extra for a good 4K monitor with a better one, and it's therefore an excellent budget pick.
But if you're not satisfied with that, there are some strong value picks all around today. Koorui's ultrawide 1440p 180 Hz VA panel is down to $250, and the ASRock Phantom Gaming PG027QSA OLED 1440p 240 Hz gaming monitor is just under $300. The biggest problem with picking up a gaming monitor right now is that there are simply too many great deals to pick from.
1. Best overall / 4K:
MSI MPG 322UR X24
2. Best budget 4K:
Asus ROG Strix XG27UCG
3. Best budget OLED
Alienware AW2726DM
4. Best 1440p:
MSI MPG 271QRX
5. Best budget 1440p:
KTC H27T22C-3
6. Best 1080p:
AOC Gaming C27G4ZXE
7. Best Ultrawide:
Gigabyte MO34WQC2
8. Best budget ultrawide:
Koorui 34E6UC
9. Best competitive
KTC 25M1
