The 12 Best Computer Monitors (2025): Budget, OLED, 4K, and More

Once you’ve decided on a size, there are a number of other important aspects of your next monitor to consider. Some of these factors may be more important for certain uses — for example, gamers are generally more interested in higher frame rates than office workers — but it’s easy to know how to get into.

accuracy: The larger the screen, the higher resolution it will benefit from. This will allow you to have application windows that take up less space but remain legible. Most monitors today are typically 1080p (1920 x 1080), 1440p (2560 x 1440), 4K (3840 x 2160), or 5K (5120 x 2160). There are also some new 6K displays with a resolution of 6144 x 3456.

Refresh rate: This refers to the number of times the screen can update the image per second, and is measured in hertz (or Hz). A higher refresh rate makes all movements and animations look smoother because you see more information. For throughput, 60Hz is probably enough, but gamers will generally need a panel that can reach at least 120 or 144Hz. 240Hz has become the new standard for high-end gaming monitors, but there are now extreme models that reach 500Hz and above. You’ll need a powerful enough computer that can maintain a high frame rate to take advantage of these high refresh rates, and you’ll usually have to enable this feature in the display settings of your operating system.

Panel type: Monitors usually have some type of LCD (liquid crystal display). Three of the most popular options—twisted thread (TN), vertical alignment (VA), and in-plane switching (IPS)—are all different types of LCD panels, and they all use TFT (thin film transistor) technology as well. Each is popular for different reasons: IPS for colors, VA for contrast, and TN for speed with higher refresh rates and response times. IPS technology has become particularly popular thanks to its increased refresh rate speeds. Mini-LED uses a more advanced backlighting solution that uses a number of lighting zones to control pixels more precisely and efficiently. These tend to be the brightest displays you can buy. OLED (organic light-emitting diode) panels take this even further, allowing the display to control individual pixels, including turning them off completely to create intense contrast. These have become very popular in gaming monitors, in particular. You should consider what’s most important to you (great color? Slim form factor? Maximum brightness?) to choose the best panel type that suits your needs.

Nvidia G-Sync/AMD FreeSync support: These two features, which are standard for gamers, allow monitors to adjust their frame rates based on the games they are playing. This reduces screen tearing without affecting performance. G-Sync is made by Nvidia and FreeSync comes from AMD, and while FreeSync monitors can usually work with most modern Nvidia graphics cards, G-Sync does not work with AMD cards, so make sure whatever you have is compatible when you purchase.

HDR Support: This isn’t critical for productivity, but if you watch a lot of media or play games, it’s nice to have. Just like in TVs, HDR dramatically expands the range of colors a screen can reproduce, as well as producing more vibrant images. But you have to be careful, as many displays claim to have HDR, as displays must have very high contrast and be very bright to create an HDR effect that is strong enough to be noticed. For example, DisplayHDR 400 certification means the display only reaches 400 nits. That’s not bright enough to create any meaningful HDR sensation. In almost all cases, the display needs to use Mini-LED or OLED. The Mini-LED can get very bright, over 1,000 nits in HDR. The important thing is that you need to make sure you have enough dimming zones, preferably more than 2000. A few hundred dimming zones will not do. OLED doesn’t tend to get as bright as Mini-LED, but OLED has the advantage of lighting each pixel individually, which increases contrast dramatically. It still needs to get bright, preferably at least 1,000 nits in HDR.

Port availability: One crucial but easy to overlook factor is the type of ports the monitor has for connecting your devices. Most typically come with one or two HDMI inputs and a DisplayPort input, which will cover most needs, but it’s always a good idea to check your setup needs. More expensive monitors can act as USB hubs, allowing you to connect all of your peripherals and accessories directly to your monitor. Conversely, check out our guide to the best USB hubs if you need to expand your computer’s port options without paying for a more expensive monitor.

Built-in KVM switch: A KVM (Keyboard, Video and Mouse) switch is a device that helps you easily switch your monitor, keyboard and mouse between two different computers or source inputs (such as a game console). If you have one setup for both a work PC and a PC, or a PC and a gaming console, having a KVM switch built into the monitor means you can easily switch everything between the two machines without needing an external KVM switch.