In the past, replacing your computer monitor with any TV was impossible. These days, televisions are equipped with features and capabilities that make them better suited for PC and console gaming as well.
If you’re thinking of turning your TV as a monitor for a more fun gaming experience or buying a new TV for your PC, make sure to read this post.
5 Things to Look for When Buying a TV as a Gaming Monitor
- Low latency.
Latency, or commonly known as “lag,” is the most important thing to consider when shopping around for a gaming TV. It refers to the time it would take for a television to display images on the screen. Your goal is to find a TV with the least amount of lag, since it could actually affect how you react to your game, so if you’re playing a shooting game, you’d likely be killed first and lose the game.
Ideally, find a TV with a latency of about 50ms or less. If you plan to join competitive gaming, your goal is to pick the ones with as low latency as possible (around 15ms to 30ms).
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- Fast refresh rate.
A television’s refresh rate refers to the number of times the screen refreshes per second. The faster the refresh rate, the more times the image can update every second and the smoother the image will look.
Gamers look for monitors and TVs with fast refresh rates since this means it could keep up to the player’s movements in the game. While some people believe that this wouldn’t matter since the human eye can’t see the difference of 60 and 120Hz, others argue that the human brain can still catch even the slightest of change in the images.
When shopping for gaming TVs, a television with around 60Hz refresh rates is more than enough for most games. Professional gamers might opt for faster refresh rates ( 120Hz), which is now the default of newer TVs you’ll find in the market.
- Resolution.
How important is the resolution of a television for gaming? Should you future-proof your gaming TV and go with the most up-to-date?
Sony defines resolution as “the number of pixels (dots) that make up the picture on your television. For any given screen size, the more dots in the picture, the higher the resolution and the higher the overall quality of the picture.”
The most common resolutions are:
- 480i or 480p (SD/standard definition – measures 640 in width and 480 in height
- 720p (HD/high definition) – measures 1280 in width, 720 in he in height
- 1080p (HD/high definition) – measures 1920 in width, 1080 in height
- 2160p (4k or UHD/Ultra High Definition)- – measures 3840 in width, 2160 in height
If money is no issue, gamers recommend choosing a 4k HDR TV, but making sure that it offers a good refresh rate and low latency. There’s no use picking the newest technology if your gaming experience would suffer from lag or choppy images. If you’re on a budget, I recommend you find a 1080p TV (full HD) TV with low latency.
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- OLED vs QLED Image Quality Technology
Samsung’s QLED and LG’s OLED televisions may sound similar, but there are differences to note. It used to be that these two companies carry these technologies exclusively, but now TCL also has its QLED TVs, while Vizio and Sony have their OLED TVs.
OLED stands for “organic light emitting diode” and has pixels that emit their own light.
QLED or “quantum dot LED TV” according to Samsung is a sub-category of LED LCDs with quantum dot film sandwiched in between. This technology relies on a LED backlight to improve image quality.
QLED is known for having better image quality and brighter images than OLED. However, OLED gives off the best viewing angles and produces the blackest blacks and lightest whites of your videos quite accurately.
However, when it comes to resolution and other features, QLED and OLED are very similar with very minimal differences.
If you’ve decided that you want a gaming TV with 120Hz refresh rates, choosing either OLED or QLED may not be the right choice for you.
- Game Mode
Note all televisions have this feature, so it is best to check before purchase. Look under the display settings if you can turn the “game mode” on. This is a useful feature that removes unnecessary post-processing and improves lag to up to 75%.
As you can see, modern televisions are perfect alternatives to your PC’s monitor. But just like shopping for the perfect gaming monitor, there are serious considerations to weigh that could make or break your gaming experience.
With the factors above, you’ll be able to filter the brands and TV models quite nicely, since there are dozens of TV lines released each year that make it overwhelming to choose just one.
