Best Gaming Monitor for 2025

Pros

• Excellent display quality for gaming, including 4K/240Hz and 1080p/480Hz modes
• Great speakers
• Free LG Calibration Studio software (to create/update built-in profiles)
• A ton of settings

Cons

• Controller utility doesn't have many of the settings that are in the OSD
• No DisplayPort 2.1 or USB-C, which you'd expect for the price and class
• So many settings it's hard to keep track of them
• Some artifacts on small text

It's expensive, but the 4K OLED Ultragear 32GS95UE has a great balance of features, design and performance. It's got excellent display quality -- all the benefits of and OLED monitor, including true blacks for high contrast, full P3 gamut coverage, good color accuracy and fast pixel refresh. LG throws in a ton of panel features, such as 240Hz/480Hz dual-refresh rate support (although 480Hz is only in 1080p), built-in color profiles that are updateable via LG's software and an optional color calibrator, almost over-granular control over display settings and more.

In addition, the monitor has terrific integrated under-screen speakers that are significantly better than those you typically find in any monitor. They're loud enough to be usable (and definitely louder than the usual pair of dinky 2W drivers), and are definitely up to ambient audio gameplay, music and movies; the drawback to the design is that off-angle the sound gets a bit muffled.
It's my top pick at the moment, but that's because it offers a good balance, not because it's flawless. It has quite a few flaws -- for a monitor in its price class -- including no DisplayPort 2.1 support, no USB-C (for either video input or power delivery) and artifacts on small text that may be a deal killer for some people. The stand is pretty standard, and while sturdy, it feels a bit plasticky.

My test measurements showed decent but not stellar accuracy out of the box -- not sufficient for color-critical work, at least. Standard white points are generally around 6300K, gamma 2.2-2.3 and brightness is about 265 by default but can hit as high as 400 nits in SDR. Accuracy averages under 3 Delta e 2000, but you can probably improve it with a calibration tune-up. HDR peak brightness hovers around 650 nits for a 10% window -- that's with peak brightness set to low but which has the best tone-mapping curve -- but you can push it to over 1200 nits in a 1% window if you crank everything. You really don't want to.

The display is nominally priced at $1,400, and I don't know that I'd pay that much for it. I've seen it as low as $1,100 during discounts, so if you can find it for that or less it's a solid deal.

Pros

• Smart, small-footprint design
• Full array local dimming for excellent local contrast
• InZone Hub gaming PC software allows you to control almost everything
• Bright with good contrast for an IPS screen
• 24.5-inch mode with placement option

Cons

• Some blur and ghosting (motion blur reduction makes it worse)
• Moderate maximum refresh rate of 160Hz
• No USB-C

I like the original InZone M9 -- InZone is Sony's line of gaming PC/PS5-adjacent accessories -- but it had some really irritating drawbacks. For the second generation, Sony fixed several of the issues with the 27-inch IPS monitor, incorporating a clever and more functional stand design, adding a 24.5-inch mode, improved default settings and a slightly higher (but still not great) 160Hz maximum refresh rate.

The stand is more conventional than the older, more striking (but stupidly big footprint) design, it's conventional and done well. The base is extra small and flat, so you can now use the space beneath the display, and it can now swivel and pivot. Rather than swiveling the display, the base actually has a recessed turntable, so the whole stand rotates; that means you can rotate it completely from left to right, which is more than usual. The silicone band cable organizer is a low-tech but good solution for a stand and displays that you may be adjusting a lot, and is definitely better than the old, tiny plastic piece.

For the price, the DisplayHDR 600-certified M9 2 is especially good for inexpensive HDR. OLED monitors are higher contrast than the IPS screens used by monitors like the InZones because it turns the illumination off entirely for blacks, but it also tends to clip shadows a lot; it's easier and more visually acceptable to remap bright highlights to bring them into the displayable tonal range rather than increase gain for the black/shadows (noisy), which is why the brightest-of-brights are hyped. but clipped shadows make me nuts and you need shadow detail for many games more than you need details in brights.

In HDR, the M9 2 tests out with a 96% P3 gamut, a white point of approximately 6300K and a peak brightness of 795 nits in a 10% window; plus, it has several HDR presets for gaming, movies and generic DisplayHDR parameters. The local dimming gives it excellent contrast and allows the minimum black to get very low (at least as low as my colorimeter seems to be able to measure, 0.017 nits). The SDR default setting measured pretty cool -- about 7400K with local dimming off -- but it hit 400 nits in a full window and had a 2.2 gamma. The SDR gamut is just 91% P3.

The only color profile is for sRGB, which is accurate (average Delta e 2000 of 1.11, 99% gamut coverage, 2.2 gamma and 6200K white point). It has a lot of gaming presets, which take advantage of a ton of the settings options beyond the usual brightness, gamma and white point: They include sharpness, saturation (RGB values for each), local dimming level and more. It has specific brightness settings for all of the presets, something which is done for reference display profiles but is not as common in consumer models.

My biggest gripe with the M9 2 is that Sony removed the USB-C connection that's on the older model. The display does have some motion blur. Sony added backlight scanning for motion blur reduction, but all it does is trade a little blur for unsightly haloing.

The manufacturer price of $800 is a little higher than it merits, but you can probably get it for less during sale seasons. The holiday pricing of $700 is better, but I kind of want to see it at about $650 given the not-very-high refresh rate.

Pros

• Some nice design touches, like a height scale on the stand
• Good antireflection coating
• Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos passthrough
• Two USB connections under the front bezel for easy access
• Lots of presets

Cons

• Can't use USB-C for video
• A little too "smart" for its own good, changing a lot of settings automatically
• Cable management is awkward, since it feeds through the bottom of the stand
• No DisplayPort 2.1, which you'd expect for the price

OLED screens tend to be glossy, which a lot of people like; colors pop more and they tend to look a little slicker. If you're in front of the screen for hours or there's particularly reflective stuff behind you (like a window, for example) your eyes and brain will thank you for a less reflective screen. The Alienware AW3225QF's fits the bill. It's also important because the display is curved, which means it can potentially reflect objects on your sides, depending on the environment.

In addition to that, there's more to like about the monitor. It still suffers from my Alienware monitor pet peeve -- the video connections aren't easy to get to but it's better than earlier years' -- it's otherwise reasonably well and strikingly designed. It's curved, with a lot of venting and heat dissipation around the electronics section and a height scale on the stand for consistent adjustment. I'm not wild about the fussy cable management, which requires you to feed them into a small opening at the base of the stand, but I've seen worse.

It's got a boatload of game presets, both for SDR and HDR, plus three Dolby Vision options and a couple of color profiles built in for DCI-P3 and sRGB. Dedicated DCI-P3 profiling isn't rare, but it's not very common, either: It requires a specific white point, gamma and low brightness that differs from the more common D65 P3. This one's just okay, partly because it seems to have the wrong gamma setting (2.2); you can manually choose gamma separately if that's an issue. The sRGB is sufficiently accurate, with an average Delta E 2000 of 1.1 (max 2.6) white point of about 6200K, 2.2 gamma, and 97% gamut coverage (which is a little low because of the way it's calculated by my software).

On the default settings, it's somewhat dim (170 nits) and warm (6,000K), but everything is adjustable to your taste. It's also set to Smart HDR by default -- like many of these automatic HDR preset pickers, there's a Desktop mode that maps HDR to the SDR color and tonal range used by the operating system. But it all means there are a lot of automatic changes being made that are flying under your radar. Luckily, you can turn them on and off manually. In addition to the standard set of HDR presets (game, movie, DisplayHDR), there's an HDR Peak 1000, which hits 1000 nits in a 2% window. Normally it's about 450 nits in a 10% window.

For a 240Hz 4K HDR monitor, especially one at its $1,200 price, I miss niceties like USB-C video output (it's a 5Gps data connection with 15w power delivery) and DisplayPort 2.1. If you can find it on sale, it's a lot more attractive; for instance, over Black Friday/Cyber Monday 2024 it dropped as low as $900, which is a good price.

Pros

• Decent contrast and brightness
• High refresh rate for the money
• Speakers aren't good, but they'll serve in a pinch

Cons

• Usual VA-panel problems, including off-angle color shifts
• Too low brightness to consider it HDR as Lenovo claims
• Overly large stand given the screen size

When you're budget-strapped and shopping, "cheap" doesn't mean something's an amazing bargain. It means "manage your expectations, all ye who enter here." For gaming monitors, the cheapest ones are usually 25 inches and make notable tradeoffs which may be fine for some people but deal breakers for others. That's what it's all about for the 25-inch Legion R25f-30.

In exchange for a 240Hz refresh rate and OK-in-a-pinch low-power speakers, you get a high-contrast VA screen that's not great off-angle. You also get a weirdly big stand. It can overclock to 280Hz, but it's probably not worth it. You might see a mention of HDR support, but it doesn't do it. It can just do the math.

Lenovo's "official" pricing is always a lot higher than the typical prices, so don't let the nominal $200 put you off: It's closer to $140 or so. (If you see it for $200, just laugh and move on.) Given all the caveats, if you're short on cash but want a gaming monitor with a little speed on it, this one's in a reasonable ballpark.