Many may think that there are other more important aspects to a computer but what they don't know is that picking a good monitor can save you headaches (even quite literally) as well as give you the ultimate gaming experience. Let's unpack all the things you need to look at when considering a monitor.

Type

There are three types of monitor to consider. These are the CRT (cathode ray tube), the LCD (liquid crystal display) and the LED (light emitting diode). While the latter is the newest in terms of technology, the first can still prove useful from time to time.

CRT monitors are those huge box-type monitors that are no longer being sold. If you do have one of these, treasure it because they are still in demand at times. LCD and LED are much of the same where they are both actually LCD monitors but the LCD uses liquid crystals while the LED uses an LED backlight. The image is slightly better and the contrast ratio is usually higher. One of the best parts about LED is that the monitor tends to last a longer than LCD's and they can be very thin.

Size

These days, monitors generally come as “wide-screen” which makes the resolution a bit funky. There are three different aspect ratios that monitors support and these are as follows:

4/3: This is the normal monitor format for the almost “square” shaped type of monitor

16/9: This is the wide format of monitors where most video starts out at.

16/10: This is also a wide format but the resolutions are a lot better and also go higher. If you want to run console games in full HD or computer games at the highest resolution, this is what you will need.

Each monitor is capable of running different resolutions related to the aspect ratio of that monitor. A higher resolution is not always the best because the higher the resolution goes, the more strain it puts on your graphics card. So running a 1920 x 1080 display may seem really fantastic but if your graphics card is not up to scratch, you will find that you obtain less frames per second than at a lower resolution in the same game. Many gamers tend to look around the 24 inch size for monitors these days (measurement is made diagonally).

Native Resolution

The native resolution of a monitor is the physical count of pixels on it. Other resolutions will be scaled in order to fit the physical pixels which results in an image that is not as clear, so it is always better to run your desktop and games at a native resolution. Native resolution is also dependent on how good your graphics card is.

Response time

So you have decided that you want to get a 24 inch LED monitor and that's great. There are a few fine details you need to look at though and response time is a vital one.

Most of the monitors that are around today generally come at 5ms which means it takes five milliseconds for the monitor to turn that pixel from white to black. It is generally recommended for gamers to get a monitor with 5ms at a maximum where 2ms is probably preferable.

Ever wondered why that 28 inch monitor is so cheap? It probably has a 24ms response time which would then lead to a blurring effect when things change too fast for the monitor to handle.

Refresh rate

The refresh rate of a monitor is the number of times in a second that a display will draw the data. This is not to be confused with frame rate which measures how often a video source feeds a frame of data to a display.

The attraction of the old CRT monitors was that the refresh was generally set about 100Hz which means that, for gamers, the image is refreshed 100 times a second.

Many LCD's and LED's today come in at 60Hz which is perfectly suitable for any gamer. Many first-person shooter gamers will tell you about a huge difference between 60Hz and 120Hz and in truth, they are mostly correct. The problem comes in when you can't even differentiate between the two. If you can notice a faster display with 120Hz and plan to do a lot of heavy gaming in FPS games, then I would suggest you look for a 120Hz screen, if not, then 60Hz will be suitable for you.

The point remains that if you won't be able to get 120 frames per second in a game, then getting 120Hz refresh rate is a bit pointless. If the monitor is not updating more often than say 80 times a second (80Hz) then rendering more than 80 frames per second (fps) isn't going to make a difference. That is why it's such a huge advantage with a graphics option called “Vsync” because it matches the frames per second with the refresh process so that no more frames are rendered than displayed.

“Vsync” though, will always set your refresh rate to 60Hz which inhibits getting full use out of your 120Hz monitor or your graphics card if it can perform well.

Price

This is another huge factor when choosing a monitor and perhaps a budget should be set out from the very start. When gamers start looking at 24 inch monitors with 120Hz refresh rates, the price can start climbing quite high. 60Hz monitors do cost less but then you sacrifice the faster refresh rate should you be able to generate enough frames per second with your computer.

Each and every option you weigh up in your choices needs to be equally weighed up with another. If you really want a 16:9 ratio LCD monitor, then don't expect to run games at 1920x1080 because the chances are the monitor won't support it. If you have a really powerful gaming rig at home and your budget can be stretched then there are few things better than hitting a constant 120 frames per second with a 120Hz refresh rate on a monitor.

Other useless details

Many people will speak about “brightness levels” and “contrast ratios” which are factors in monitors but are not necessarily that important. When someone says to you that his monitor has a contrast ratio of 60 million to one, that's great but means very little in the grand scheme of things.

The brightness in a monitor refers to the visibility of a monitor in a well-lit environment and is calculated by square meter in a measurement called “candela”. The contrast in a monitor is the difference between the brightest point and the darkest point of the monitor, so the colours tend to generally get better the higher the number goes. Most monitors of decent quality boast a 50000:1 contrast ratio but anything over 700:1 is generally good quality as long as this is true contrast and not dynamic, which is a “zing” word in the marketing world.

The contrast ratio will show you that the black colours are in fact black on the monitor while a lower contrast or a cheaper monitor will cast them as a dark grey colour, making it quite noticeable.

So there you have it, all the jargon and details of getting a good monitor explained.

*Rob 'GrIdL0cK' Clegg has been in the gaming industry for over 15 years and has competed in both local and international tournaments at the highest level. He is also a respected gaming critic as Telkom Do Gaming's lead reviewer and co-host of the Bits and Bytes Radio Show on Tuks FM. - Do Gaming

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