A display deathmatch - should you buy a gaming TV or gaming monitor?

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(Image credit: Future/Jeremy Laird)

Love gaming? You absolutely need a good display. But do you want, or need, the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best gaming monitor or the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best gaming TV? Now that’s a tough question. In days of old, deep in the mists of the ‘90s and ‘00s, the answer was simple: if you're playing on the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best gaming PC, you get a monitor. For console?🤡 That’ll be a TV.

But it's no longer so clear-cut. Some of the latest TVs have gaming-centric features that make them a great fit for a certain kind of PC gaming. And the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Series X and PS5 also both work better with at least some gaming monitors than any previous generation of gaming boxes - and there are new heights in gaming TVs, generally, as the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best TVs for PS5 and Xbox Series X show.

Long story short: both TVs and monitors can now be a great fit for either PC or console gaming. The catch? That needs qualifying, as it doesn’t apply universally. But tha🐟t’s exactly what we’re here to investigate. When and why, exactly, should you choose a monitor or a TV for gaming?

Going big with a gaming TV

Gaming TVs

Best for: Most type⛦s of console and big-screen PC gaming; but not serious esports on the PC.

Pros:
- Superior HDR performance
- OLED tech is super speedy
- 120Hz refresh and adaptive sync are now available
Cons:
- Quite expensive in the ideal spec
- Subpixel payout can be problematic on PC
- Sheer size is not always ideal for PC use

Big, dumb, and almost certainly slow - so it used⛄ to go for early flat-panel TVs. Sure, you got a much larger screen than most monitors, but the resolution was low, the pixel response was poor, and the input lag? In a word,ꦉ chronic.

For a certain kind of mainstream console gaming, that was fine - all you wanted was a big, bold screen for bouncing around in your Mario Kart. And, anyway, your console didn’t support PC-style high resolutions. But now consoles like the Xbox Series X and Sony PlayStation 5 are much more demanding iಌn terms of resolution, refresh rates, and the rest, while console gaming has expanded to include genres that live and die on latency, like competitive online shooters.

Happily, recent TV technology has kept those original characteristics. For starters, 4K or 3840 x 2160 pixel native resolution is pretty much the norm, even on budget sets. Just as important, the big brands like LG and Samsung now pay attention to i🍎ssues like input lag, which used to be so debilitating to responsive gaming on old TVs.

What’s more, OLED technology is now widely available in the TV market and the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best OLED TVs are more affordable than ever. Th💖at matters because OLED panels have inherently superior pixel response to any LCD monitor. Grey-to-grey pixel response, the most commonly quoted meaꦰsure, is sub-1ms for an OLED. Full on-off response is in the region of 1-2ms. Full on-off response for a modern gaming LCD panel? Anywhere from 5ms to 15ms. OLED is far faster.

Rounding out the most significant gaming-relevant advances, you can now get TVs with true 120Hz refresh support, including at 4K, adaptive refresh, and the all-important HDMI 2.1 interface. These form the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best 4K 120Hz TVs currently going and the HDMI 2.1 is essential for hitting high resolutions and refresh rates, at the same time, a capability that defines the latest generation of console🐷s. 

The go-to example here is LG’s C Series OLED, including the LG CX from 2020 and this year’s updated 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:LG OLED C1 and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:LG OLED G1. You get 4K resolution, 120Hz refresh, HDMI 2.1, adaptive refresh, and low latency, plus all the usual benefits of OLED tech including es🔯sentially infinite contrast and that uber-fast pixe♕l response. 

LG OLED C1

(Image credit: LG)

Fire up a graphics masterpiece like Cyberpunk 2077 on a high-end gaming PC, and it will look utterly stunning on an LG C Series. The same goes for console gaming: Dirt 5 or Forza Horizon 4 on, say, a 55-inch C Series will blow your mind. Frankly, everything looks great, strategy titles on PC like the Total War franchise, epic RPG adventures like 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Valhalla, the lot.

One caveat is when it comes to pricing: you can get 48 an🎶d 55-inch versions of the CX for around $1,300 / £1,100 (at time of writing). Not exactly budget pricing, but as a long-term investment, arguably pretty reasonable - particularly given that it'll likely be used in other ways too for home entertainment.

But, there are limitations, of course. TVs topꦓ out at 120Hz for true refresh rates, so d🔯on’t be fooled by sets claiming 240Hz or similar (this typically involves frame insertion technology and not actually updating the image at 240Hz). Meanwhile, gaming monitors running up to 360Hz can now be readily bought. For esports, the higher the refresh, the better. However, that’s arguably most relevant for PC. After all, even the latest consoles top out at 120Hz, so you’ll get no benefit in that regard from teaming one of them with a faster monitor.

It’s also worth noting that if you want the very best in HDR performance from a TV, you have a tricky choice. OLED panels have far superior black levels and contrast, but the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best QLED TVs like the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Samsung QN95A offer much better brightness and as a consequence also offer better ✤detail in brighter HDR scenes✃. Currently, there is no one panel tech that’s better for HDR across the board. For that, we’ll have to wait for micro-LED panels to become affordable.

Best QLED TV: Samsung QN95A

(Image credit: Samsung)

The final issue regarding a TV as a PC gaming monitor is sheer size: 50-inch plus sounds great, but it’s not hugely ergonomic as a desktop monitor. Similarly, the bigger the set, the bigger the pixels. Sure, you could go 8K and quadruple your pixel density. But good luck finding a GPU even among the very 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best graphics cards tha🌳t will be able to play the latest games smoothly at 8K.

Anyway, a suitably specified TV makes for a fabulous console gaming panel and an excellent screen for big-screen PC gaming. Just don’t assume it’s going to be ideal as an all-aroꦐund PC monitor, some issues remain.