Fast-reaction games like Valorant(Opens in a new window) and Apex Legends keep soaring in popularity—and so does the demand for the highest possible frame rates to stay competitive. To that end, more gamers than ever are wondering where they can get an ace of a gaming monitor for the right price, packing a high refresh rate and low input lag.
Here at PCMag, we’ve been exhaustively testing budget gaming monitors across a range of resolutions to find the best models out there. We evaluate everything from the build quality of the panel down to every last gaming feature included. While the depth of features can be thin in the budget aisle at times, every model we’ve included here has earned its spot on our pick list.
We’ll get into pricing—and what “budget” or “cheap” means, in a larger sense—a bit further on in this guide. But first: What exactly should you look for in a budget gaming monitor? And how to get the best balance of performance, design, and game-day extras? First, we’ll break down our top picks in more detail, followed by a guide to how to buy the right budget gaming panel.
The Best Gaming Monitor Deals This Week*
*Deals are selected by our commerce team
Deeper Dive: Our Top Tested Picks
ViewSonic VX2418-p-mhd
Best Cheap Gaming Monitor for Most People
Bottom Line:
If you know exactly what you want from a modest-size gaming monitor—and those things are affordability and picture quality—the ViewSonic VX2418-p-mhd should fit the bill nicely.
PROS
- Great picture quality for both gaming and content watching
- Low input lag
- Supports VESA mounting
- Very high contrast for a low price
CONS
- Limited OSD with no gaming features
- No frame sync tech (FreeSync, G-Sync) onboard
- Considerable ghosting in games testing
- Minimal stand adjustability
BenQ Mobiuz EX2510S
Best Cheap Gaming Monitor for 1080p Play
Bottom Line:
A minimalist panel for high-refresh gaming at 1080p, BenQ’s Mobiuz EX2510S is good for twitch gaming, but less of a star for watching video and other content consumption.
PROS
- Exceptional gaming performance
- Low input lag
- Well-designed OSD menu
CONS
- Stand and cabinet design may not be for all gamers
- No USB ports
- HDR performance is middling
MSI Optix MAG274QRF-QD
Best Cheap Gaming Monitor for 1440p Play
Bottom Line:
The MSI Optix MAG274QRF-QD is a 27-inch gaming monitor that offers incredibly wide colors and excellent motion performance in an affordable package.
PROS
- Vivid colors
- Very low input lag
- Relatively inexpensive for the screen size and specs
CONS
- Modest contrast
- Colors can be a bit oversaturated out of the box
Dell 32 4K UHD Gaming Monitor (G3223Q)
Best Cheap Gaming Monitor for 4K Play
Bottom Line:
While the Dell 32 4K UHD Gaming Monitor offers a solid HDR implementation, a lightweight frame, and even HDMI 2.1 ports, its low brightness and high input lag steal its visual thunder.
PROS
- Lightweight cabinet
- Good HDR brightness
- HDMI 2.1 support
- Solid color accuracy
CONS
- Dim when viewing SDR content
- Very high input lag
- Low contrast ratio
Samsung 24-Inch CF396 Curved LED
Best Cheap Curved Monitor for Gaming
Bottom Line:
Samsung’s 24-Inch CF396 Curved LED Monitor has the modest port selection and 1080p resolution of a typical under-$200 display, but the panel is bright and vibrant, with some surprising features on call.
PROS
- Curved screen
- Great sRGB color coverage
- Bright for a budget monitor
- Mini-joystick controller
CONS
- Sparse port selection
- Stand limits you to tilt adjustment
- Meager one-year warranty
NZXT Canvas 32Q Curved
A Solid Alternative to the Samsung 24-Inch CF396 Curved LED
Bottom Line:
NZXT’s first foray into monitors is a successful one, as the Canvas 32Q Curved impresses with its handsome design and low input lag.
PROS
- Attractive design
- Affordable price
- Good color range and low input lag
- DisplayPort-capable USB-C included
CONS
- Limited screen settings
- Color accuracy, HDR implementation don’t impress
- No built-in speakers
ASRock Phantom Gaming 34 (PG34WQ15R2B)
Best Cheap Ultrawide Monitor for Gaming
Bottom Line:
ASRock’s Phantom Gaming 34 could be sturdier and brighter, but it’s a reasonable value for a big ultrawide monitor for casual gamers.
PROS
- Impressive color range and accuracy for the price
- Includes Wi-Fi antenna
- Built-in speakers
CONS
- Wobbly base
- Speaker sound isn’t great
- Low default SDR brightness
Dell 27 Gaming Monitor (G2723H)
Best Cheap Monitor for Esports Games
Bottom Line:
Dell’s G2723H gaming monitor opts for 1080p resolution and a 240Hz refresh rate to nail a reasonable price, making it an appealing pick for hardcore twitch-style gamers on a budget.
PROS
- High refresh rate for a budget panel
- Surprisingly nimble stand
- Support for both Nvidia G-Sync and FreeSync
CONS
- Spotty color accuracy out of box
- No HDR support
- No built-in speakers
- Input lag could be lower
Compare SpecsThe Best Cheap Gaming Monitors for 2023
Buying Guide: The Best Cheap Gaming Monitors for 2023
When it comes to budget gaming monitors, the size of your panel and its resolution are intertwined. Native resolution has traditionally been limited to 1080p (1,920 by 1,080 pixels) in monitors under 32 inches in panel size.
That’s changing, though, as more manufacturers broaden their range of available models. We’ve been able to include both 1440p (2,560 by 1,440 pixels) and 4K (3,840 by 2,160 pixels) options in this roundup, and that diversity will only continue to grow as the economics of panel production follow the natural curve of tech product cycles: bigger, better, cheaper.
High-resolution models at the 32-inch size, like the Aorus FI32Q, demand a premium.
(Credit: Kyle Cobian)
In our testing across the budget gaming monitor market over the past few years, we’ve seen three size categories take hold as staples: 24-inch, 27-inch, and 32-inch. While other size offerings lie above and below those goalposts, these three are the most commonly produced by many of the major manufacturers, with 25-inchers as an occasional interloper.
Who wants the smaller sizes? Space-strapped folks, sure, but also a surprising contingent: esports professionals. In general, we recommend starting any serious gaming career by looking at 24-inch panels, as this is the most popular option for esports pros around the world. It’s considered just large enough to fill your field of vision, but not so large that you lose details on the periphery. If you take your multiplayer matches seriously, 24-inchers are a pro-approved starting point, and some might argue exactly as large as you should go.
(Credit: Kyle Cobian)
For those who want a slightly more cinematic experience and play a mix of AAA titles and low-intensity multiplayer games (and who also watch a lot of content at their desks), the 27-inch and 32-inch brackets fill their respective roles better, in our opinion. Generally speaking, however, expect to pay more at these size tiers. The economics of panel production in the current marketplace, along with the raw cost of materials, both can have an effect on the final list price of a monitor.
Perhaps the most determinate factor in the price of your next gaming monitor, though, is the type of panel packed inside. Let’s get into that.
Which Panel Technology to Get in a Cheap Gaming Monitor?
The reason we didn’t present you with a straight pricing chart above—one that tells you specifically what you should expect to spend for what size of panel—is because the type of panel also helps determine a gaming monitor’s price range. As you shop, you’ll see several different panel technologies out there, and each has its own set of benefits and drawbacks.
Twisted Nematic (TN): TN panels are often the most affordable of all the types we’ll discuss in this section. They are popular among gamers because they offer fast pixel response times and refresh rates. The downsides of TN? TN panels can exhibit low brightness levels and poor contrast, and they aren’t generally a good choice for general content watching or if you want AAA games to “pop,” as it were. Think of TN’s role as the ultimate budget driver for games like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive or League of Legends, and not a whole lot more.
Vertical Alignment (VA): VA screens are known for their high native contrast ratios, robust colors, and ability to display deep blacks. But they are also known to produce noticeable ghosting effects, which can mar multiplayer gaming performance. If you’re more of a AAA gamer who doesn’t need response times that break records, and who prefers color vividness to outright speed, VA will be your best bet in the budget segment.
In-Plane Switching (IPS). IPS panels provide the best all-around color quality, as well as strong grayscale performance and wide viewing angles. But they can’t match the pixel response of TN panels and can be subject to motion artifacts. They are the best general-use panel type, but discriminating gamers and competitive esports types may take issue with IPS panels.
Fast IPS (FIPS). Some newer technology changed the IPS narrative in 2019, when LG developed a new IPS panel type, which various monitor makers may dub “Nano IPS” or “Fast IPS” or something else, depending on the company. FIPS claims 1-millisecond gray-to-gray response time with overdrive turned on. These panels use a thin layer of nanoparticles applied to the display’s backlight that enables wider color-gamut coverage and reduces response times, a combination that makes them the now-dominant choice for almost every midrange and premium gaming monitor. If you have room in your budget, they offer the best balance of gaming performance to image quality nowadays.
For the true budget gamer, if you spot any FIPS or Nano IPS monitor on sale and it fits within your price range, push it to the top of your list. Even the worst FIPS- or Nano IPS-backed panels we’ve tested are well ahead of the best VA or TN panels in color quality, response times, and input lag figures.
A high-end OLED Alienware model: Not budget!
(Credit: Molly Flores)
Organic Light Emitting Diode and Quantum Dot OLED (OLED, QD-OLED). OLED panels still remain squarely ultra-premium picks (and QD-OLED ones are just starting to trickle out). We don’t foresee them in budget models anytime soon. Just like with OLED televisions, these two ultra-beautiful panel types are inescapably expensive to produce (for now), and the few OLED gaming monitors that even exist are anything but cost-conscious.
Specs to Watch: Pixel Response, Input Lag, and Refresh Rate
Gaming monitors at the budget level need to make compromises on aspects like panel type. Many of the specs important to gaming monitors that have usually been strong only on premium models—input lag and pixel response time, for starters—have gotten a lot better with the budget set of late. (Our overall gaming monitors guide gets deeper into the background of what these specs mean.)
Some of the best budget monitors we’ve tested in the past year also have some of the lowest input-lag figures. Also, while models with ultra-high refresh rates remain a bit pricey despite their 1080p native resolution, plenty come in at quite affordable prices, while putting up stellar gaming performance results across the board.
.
(Credit: Kyle Cobian)
Overall, in the budget tier for gaming monitors—which starts to transition into mid-tier around $350 to $400 these days, depending on who you ask and what screen size you are talking about—you should set your spec expectations as follows. For refresh rate, expect the spec to be from 100Hz to 165Hz, though some 200Hz and 240Hz models go on sale every now and then and create exceptions to the rule.
Then there’s response time: Your new budget panel should maintain gray-to-gray response times of 1-millisecond (1ms) or less. And as for input-lag figures, they can drift below 3ms comfortably without hurting your wallet too much (or your multiplayer ranking, if you’re an esports hound).
Adaptive Sync and HDR: Are They Worth Paying For?
Before we close out this guide, know that two other features can pump up the cost of a gaming monitor, but you might want them anyway: support for an adaptive sync anti-screen-tearing technology, as well as for high-dynamic range (HDR) content.
HDR doesn’t really start getting good until HDR 600.
(Credit: Kyle Cobian)
Adaptive sync encompasses a couple of technologies from AMD (FreeSync) and Nvidia (G-Sync), the two big video card makers. Adaptive sync’s job is to smooth out distracting “screen tearing,” which is misaligned, partially drawn portions of your screen that occasionally occur. FreeSync and G-Sync each come in one of several “levels” of capability, depending on the monitor.
Where you do see adaptive sync in a budget monitor at all (not all have it), AMD’s FreeSync tends to be more common. The upper levels of G-Sync, like G-Sync Ultimate (which require specialized circuitry in the monitor), cost extra and aren’t in budget monitors. Your make of graphics card determines which of these you can use, but know that some FreeSync monitors are also what’s called “G-Sync Compatible,” which means they will work with GeForce cards, too. Nvidia maintains a list of G-Sync Compatible monitors here(Opens in a new window). (See our general gaming monitors guide for more on these technologies.) For a budget gaming monitor, you’ll want to make sure you have adaptive sync support that matches your video card’s.
HDR is less essential a creature comfort for gamers, more geared toward enhancing color and brightness. HDR specs are defined by their own set of “levels” that express the intensity of the effect, and higher HDR specs tend to reflect how expensive your monitor might get.
You will see “HDR 400”-rated monitors floating around the budget-display category, but more often than not, you’re better off without it, or at least not paying more for it. HDR doesn’t start producing eye-popping visuals until the HDR 600 mark, and it’s only really worth the ticket price at HDR 1000 and above, to our eyes. We’ve laid eyes on a lot of “budget HDR” panels over the past few years, and while a few monitors on our pick list do HDR 400, they have strong reasons to be there unrelated to the HDR support. (See much more about monitor HDR in Windows in our primer.)
Our general buying advice in this department? Go for the highest rating of compatible adaptive sync you can fit within your budget, and mostly ignore HDR as a sideshow. We’ve yet to see an HDR 400 budget monitor that merits an “HDR” designation at all. Conversely, plenty of budget gaming panels with FreeSync or G-Sync Compatible badges are great entry points for aspiring esports pros, or those who want a little more smoothness in their AAA gaming experience.
So, What Is the Best Cheap Gaming Monitor to Buy?
Finding the best budget gaming monitor is all about compromise, but that’s no bad thing. Balancing the right panel type at the right size, with the right refresh rate, will come down to personal preference and the kinds of games you like to play most. The chart below comprises the best models on the market we’ve reviewed, which you can use to jump-start your journey.
For more of our monitor picks, check out our top gaming monitors overall, regardless of price level. Gamers can also check out our top-picks coverage of other peripherals such as gaming keyboards and gaming mice to complete their PC gaming package.
Hits: 2
