Optus Mobile Review ALDI Mobile Review Amaysim Mobile Review Belong Mobile Review Circles.Life Review Vodafone Mobile Review Woolworths Mobile Review Felix Mobile Review Best iPhone Plans Best Family Mobile Plans Best Budget Smartphones Best Prepaid Plans Best SIM-Only Plans Best Plans For Kids And Teens Best Cheap Mobile Plans Telstra vs Optus Mobile Optus NBN Review Belong NBN Review Vodafone NBN Review Superloop NBN Review Aussie BB NBN Review iiNet NBN Review MyRepublic NBN Review TPG NBN Review Best NBN Satellite Plans Best NBN Alternatives Best NBN Providers Best Home Wireless Plans What is a Good NBN Speed? Test NBN Speed How to speed up your internet Optus vs Telstra Broadband ExpressVPN Review CyberGhost VPN Review NordVPN Review PureVPN Review Norton Secure VPN Review IPVanish VPN Review Windscribe VPN Review Hotspot Shield VPN Review Best cheap VPN services Best VPN for streaming Best VPNs for gaming What is a VPN? VPNs for ad-blocking Just as professional graphic artists have a speciality range of screens to meet their obsessive chroma accuracy needs, Gaming monitors are a sub-class designed to maximise the enjoyment of the most extreme forms of interactive entertainment. The DNA of a desirable gaming screen leans less toward size or insane 8K resolutions and more toward responsiveness and motion/fluidity. To not have this is to ruin the “there-ness” of fully inhabiting your on-screen avatar. Your gaming monitor also needs to know how to play extra nice with your dedicated graphics card, which can make this an expensive proposition indeed. That said, you should be aware of some shortcomings here and there. The 4ms response time is bordering the absolute limit of what a serious gamer would accept. Having 1440p resolution but no HDR stings a little as well. Be that as it may, this four-year-old set punches quite a bit above its weight. The benefit of being a little longer in the tooth is that you can scoop it up on the cheap. Basically, you’re looking at a Full HD panel that boasts 144Hz, 400 nit brightness levels, and a respectably wide viewing angle (always a plus for those of us who always seem to have an audience hovering beyond our shoulders). The real icing on the cake, though, is that the VG259Q takes no sides in the battle of the screen-tear tech– it happily supports both the FreeSync and G-Sync. Though we doubt they’ll be used by many of you, this unit also comes with some halfway decent stereo speakers (they’ll seriously pale in comparison to some decent gaming headphones). You can expect all of the latest cutting-edge AAA games to be delivered to you in a ludicrously bright and clearly detailed fashion, providing you have a HAL-9000 desktop that can power such a visual odyssey. If you do own such a beast, this 27-inch HDR-enabled behemoth deals in some truly vivid visuals which (more importantly) look buttery smooth in motion. You can thank a 144Hz refresh rate and the screen-tear banishing tech known as G-Sync for this. The only downside that can be levelled at this unit: it’s a bit sparse on the connectivity side of things. Mind you, the sheer picture quality you’re getting far outweighs that minor peccadillo. If it’s the latter, you need to look into a dedicated gaming panel like Samsung’s CRG9 Ultrawide Monitor. It offers a great balance of crazy resolution along with decent response times and refresh rate (4ms and 120Hz, respectively). Providing you have the desk space needed to accommodate the CRG9’s impressive footprint, it’s a life-changing experience playing a game on this 32:9 49-inch, 5140 x 1440 wonder. One thing interesting to note: Samsung has tweaked the features a little. Whereas the CRG9’s predecessor boasted a 144Hz refresh rate, that’s been lowered to 120Hz here (but hey – you also get a higher resolution, FreeSync2 tech and HDR1000). Conversely, if you’re a sim gamer playing by your lonesome, you’re going to favour bigger screens and bigger resolutions (possibly even a curved screen) to maximise the sense of immersion you’re seeking. Heck, you might be better served by securing a bunch of more modestly performing, bargain-priced panels to link together to create your own wall-screen gaming battle-station.
