Gaming monitors have been going through a sort of renaissance over the last few years. We've seen high resolutions, ultrawide screens, record-breaking refresh rates, and scores of Mini-LEDs, OLEDs, and QD-OLEDs become much more common and relatively more affordable. The good times continued with CES 2025 as almost every major manufacturer unveiled their new monitor lineup for the year.

While we saw some truly bleeding-edge products like LG's 45-inch bendable 5K2K display, 27-inch 500Hz 1440p QD-OLEDs from MSI and Samsung, and even a 1080p 600Hz TN monster from MSI, the ones that impressed me the most were the new 27-inch 4K OLED 240Hz screens from the likes of MSI, Samsung, and Asus. This fantastic combo hasn't really been seen before, and there are more reasons than one that one of these fancy new displays can be the ultimate gaming monitor for most gamers.

5 A 27-inch screen is perfect for a monitor

Just before the point of diminishing returns

"The bigger the better" is actually true when you're talking displays (monitors or TVs), but you need to strike the right balance between size and other aspects of a gaming monitor. A 50-inch 4K TV might look great in your living room, but a monitor is situated much closer to you in comparison. You can't just put a 50-inch monitor (or even that 48-inch 4K OLED from LG) on your desk and expect things to go smoothly.

For one thing, most gamers don't have enormous desks to accommodate 32-inch monitors, let alone anything bigger. The 27-inch size is in the sweep spot of immersion and manageable size, and the majority of gamers will never need anything bigger. Secondly, on larger screens, things like icons and text get harder to see because you'll need to step up the resolution as well.

Lastly, being the most popular screen size for monitors, 27-inch displays enjoy the most variety and availability when you're buying a new gaming monitor. Whether you need a 1080p, 1440p, or 4K display, or a 144Hz, 240Hz, or 500Hz panel, or even an IPS, OLED, or Mini-LED screen, 27" monitors have it all.

4 The 4K 27" crispness is unbeatable

As sharp as it gets

A large screen is the starting point for immersive gaming, but you need your games to look pixel-perfect, which is where a high enough resolution comes in. Now, 1440p or QHD looks perfectly fine on a 27-inch panel. In fact, 27-inch and 1440p is the most common size-resolution combo you'll find on the market. That said, moving up to 4K without stepping up the screen size takes things to a whole other level in terms of sharpness.

PPI or pixels per square inch is used to measure the crispness of a display, and for FHD, QHD, and 4K resolutions on a 27-inch screen, the PPI goes from 82 to 108 to a whopping 163. Anything above 100 should look fine for a gaming monitor, but that 163 number you see for a 4K 27-inch display unlocks a much more premium level of gaming immersion. Even the text will look smooth as butter when you're working or browsing the web, which is something I can't honestly say for my 27" 1440p screen.

Gaming on 4K, especially the latest titles, is computationally expensive, and you'll need a seriously powerful graphics card to keep up, but I'm guessing there's a significant overlap between the shoppers for high-end displays and the best graphics cards.

3 It doesn't get better than OLED for gaming

The pinnacle of gaming displays

Just like you need a display capable of displaying true blacks and spectacular highlights for enjoying a movie to the fullest, you need a monitor capable of real HDR for top-tier gaming. A large and crisp panel without a high contrast ratio, peak brightness, and color depth, along with a wide color gamut and excellent local dimming, can't really deliver exceptional gaming immersion. Plus, you obviously need a low pixel response time to eliminate motion artifacts.

What I just described is an OLED gaming monitor. The latest wave of 4K 27-inch OLED or QD-OLED monitors has all but eliminated the few limitations of OLED screens, such as low peak brightness and burn-in concerns. The individual, self-lit pixels of an OLED screen work perfectly when displaying the inky blacks needed to depict dark scenes, as well as turning on and off instantaneously. This is the reason for the infinite contrast ratio and near-zero response time of OLED monitors.

The prices of high-end OLED monitors, especially the ones showcased at CES this year, will undoubtedly stay sky-high for quite some time, but it's great to see the industry move toward the 4K 27" OLED 240Hz utopia. It's not long before we'll see these displays cost well under a grand, making them within reach of many gamers.

2 240Hz is the sweet spot for high-refresh-rate junkies

The latest GPUs might finally be ready for 4K at 240Hz

A monitor isn't really fit for gaming unless it has a high refresh rate. While 144Hz–165Hz screens are more than enough for most gamers even today, a 240Hz display is fast becoming more popular. If you're playing mostly single-player, narrative-driven games, then you might not need a 240Hz monitor. However, most gamers play a mix of titles that also include competitive shooters, arena shooters, sports games, and more.

A 240Hz panel lets you break through that 200 FPS barrier in titles where your GPU is capable of delivering the required frame rates. Going from 144Hz to 240Hz might not feel like the jump from 60Hz to 144Hz, but you'll still feel a significant difference in motion fluidity and lower input lag. Even in non-gaming scenarios, such as scrolling web pages, working on documents, and navigating between windows, the 240Hz refresh rate will feel much more premium than, say, a 144Hz–180Hz display.

Again, driving 240 FPS at 4K is no easy feat. Hell, even the RTX 4090 can't do it with all the AI support of DLSS and Frame Generation in the latest titles. However, the latest RTX 50 series GPUs are looking really promising — Nvidia claims up to 248 FPS performance in Cyberpunk 2077 at 4K max settings with RT Overdrive on the RTX 5090. Granted, most people won't buy the $2,000 RTX 5090, but even the RTX 5080 and the rest of the SKUs will be able to make full use of your high-end 240Hz display.

1 DisplayPort 2.1a keeps pace with premium gaming

It's time for next-gen displays

These latest gaming monitors, with their 4K 240Hz promise, might sound phenomenal, but delivering such high-resolution, high-refresh-rate signals demands serious bandwidth. The current popular connectivity standards i.e. HDMI 2.0, HDMI 2.1, and DisplayPort 1.4, aren't built for 4K 240Hz. The maximum that they can manage is 4K 144Hz on HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 1.4.

Even that is possible only with Display Stream Compression (DSC) which compresses the video signal so that your monitor can display the signal. While most people won't notice any degradation in image quality with DSC, DisplayPort 2.1a is capable of delivering 4K 240Hz signals without DSC, essentially enabling the monitor to display a lossless image.

Enthusiasts will appreciate the upgrade, and besides, some people report random display issues like the screen sometimes going dark when DSC is in play. DisplayPort 2.1a will solve all these challenges, fully supporting the capabilities of the latest 4K 240Hz monitors. It feels like the connectivity standards have finally reached a point where manufacturers can start providing truly next-gen displays to gamers without relying on compression technologies.

I have a new upgrade goal for my gaming monitor

A few months ago, I firmly believed that I would not need a monitor upgrade for the foreseeable future, but these new gaming monitors seem like I could finally have something to look forward to. With 4K resolution at 27 inches and 240Hz OLED panels, the latest wave of cutting-edge gaming displays from the heavyweights of the industry promises a next-gen gaming experience that will soon be accessible to a large section of gamers.

Prices will be high in the near term, but as this new standard of gaming monitors is established, GPUs have become capable of delivering 200+ FPS assisted by AI, and people start feeling their 144Hz displays are a bit outdated, affordability will increase to keep up. Your monitor is often the component that dictates the kind of hardware your PC should have. If you can't visually experience the gaming performance of your PC, what's the point? With next-gen displays like the ones we saw at CES, the bar has definitely been raised.