How to Choose a Gaming Monitor for Xbox One X or PS4 Pro?

If you have decided to improve your console gaming experience with a gaming monitor, this article is for you. After reading this article, you will know how to choose the best monitor for the most powerful consoles currently available from Xbox and PlayStation.

Your choice of gaming monitor may be influenced by a lot of factors: the games you play, the console you use, and your budget. In any case, the main gaming monitor specs that you should keep in mind are resolution, refresh rate, and HDMI bandwidth.

In this article, we will explain these features in more detail.

A general rule when buying a gaming monitor is that you should not buy anything with fewer than 1920 x 1080 pixels, also known as Full HD or 1080p. Many competitive gamers these days prefer 1080p since it is not too demanding for PCs to run and allows them to play more effectively. Quad HD (QHD) or 1440p and 4K (2160p) are significant graphical quality upgrades compared to 1080p, though 1440p isn't overly demanding, meaning it's a good middle ground between 1080p and 4K. Ultra HD 4K features a resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels and it is currently the highest resolution offered by mainstream displays. If you are looking for a crisp image, then 4K is for you. With 4K the image quality is simply outstanding. However, 4K demands great hardware resources to run properly in addition to more costly monitors. .

If graphics are important to you, make your visual experience even greater with HDR. Both PlayStation 4 (Slim and Pro) and the Xbox One (S and X) support HDR10, and you will want to choose a monitor supporting this function. With High Dynamic Range or HDR, the colors you see on your screen will be more vibrant and the image as a whole will be more dynamic and closer to what it looks like in real life. This is because this technology is capable of capturing a wider color gamut and variety of shades. It captures details in both darker and brighter parts of the picture without subtle detail loss. It prevents brighter parts from being too bright and the darkest parts from blackening out.

The Xbox One X and PS4 Pro are technically 4K-capable consoles. If you want to truly enjoy their capabilities, it is crucial to choose a monitor with HDMI 2.0 or later version. HDMI version 2.0 provides bigger bandwidth and can transfer more data. HDMI 2.0 can deliver up to 60 frames of 4K content without compromising quality. That is something older versions of HDMI cannot do.

If you are playing first person shooters, fighting games, or racing games, the screen's refresh rate is crucial. The faster the screen, the better your gaming experience and the more you can elevate your skills because the image on the screen can keep up with your fastest movements. For these highly competitive kinds of games like Call of Duty, Battlefield, Overwatch, or FIFA, faster refresh rates are beneficial. But the truth is that for most modern consoles, a refresh rate of 60Hz enough. Both the Xbox One and PS4 currently max out at 60 frames per second, and many games are locked at 30Hz. That is why in most cases paying extra and buying a monitor with 120Hz or 144Hz simply does not give you any extra benefit. BenQ EW3270U and EL2870U monitors feature all of the characteristics mentioned above for a better gaming experience.

For owners of Xbox One X or Xbox One S who enjoy competitive gameplay, it is theoretically possible now to play at a higher refresh rate of 120Hz per second with the newest update from May 2018. However, no games as of now run at 120 frames per second on any Xbox console. At the same time, Xbox One X is equipped with HDMI 2.0 that is currently not capable of transferring 120Hz in 4K

In this case, a good choice will be a 1440p monitor with a higher refresh rate. For example, BenQ`s EX3203R gaming monitor has a higher refresh rate of 144Hz. It also has 1440p resolution that is a good balance between graphics and performance.

It also supports FreeSync to avoid choppy playing experiences and image tearing due to differences in refresh rate between console and monitor.