When I got back into building PCs about a decade ago, the monitor that every gamer wanted was the Asus VG248QE, a 24" FullHD (1080p) TN panel running at 144Hz. I bought one not long after release, and it was fantastic compared to the low refresh rate and HD (720p) panels that I was used to. Time and technology have marched on, and nowadays, 1080p monitors are mostly found on lists of the best budget monitors unless you're an esports pro. What used to be the price per performance king for monitor resolution is now outdated, with 1440p as the new champion. 4K at high refresh rates is still too much for most graphics cards to deal with, even if you buy one of the best 4K graphics cards, making 1440p the "new 1080p," as it were.

5 GPUs are more powerful

The most common GPUs can push 1440p with no problem

Not that long ago, pushing a 1080p resolution screen to 144Hz or higher required a flagship GPU. That meant 1440p monitors were few and far between, and many were only 60Hz, which is fine for productivity work but very jarring to return to once you've used a higher refresh rate panel. Now, according to the Steam Hardware Survey, 1080p is still used by the majority of gamers, with currently 55.73% of the respondents using a Full HD display. Steam doesn't break that stat down into laptop or desktop users, or collect what refresh rate those displays are capable of, but one thing is clear. 1080p is now the baseline specification, the minimum that you should be using.

Nowadays, seven of the top ten GPUs on the Steam Hardware Survey are capable of 60FPS+ at 1440p in pretty much any game you name, as long as the in-game settings are turned to reasonable levels. Out of the other three, two are laptop GPUs that are predominantly paired with 1080p displays, and one is the Nvidia GeForce GTX 2060, which is fine for esports titles. And with nearly 22% (and rising) of those gamers picking 1440p displays, it shows that 1440p is the new resolution for most gamers to aim for. 4K gaming is still very niche, with only 3.68% in the same survey using a 4K monitor, and the 4K-capable graphics cards are all getting 1% or so of the share each. Enthusiasts are always going to go for the best, highest numbers they can afford. For most PC users, 1440p is the endgame right now.

4 1440p monitors are now affordable

And with better features like high refresh rates

As with the shift from HD to Full HD as the most common resolution for computing monitors, the price has a huge part to play in 1440p adoption. While it's still less common for laptops, you can get a truly awesome 1440p desktop monitor for under $300, as IPS and VA panels have dropped in cost drastically in recent years. It's truly difficult to find a bad monitor these days, with even lesser-known brands knocking it out of the park. That's more because LCD technology is mature enough and now can be found with added extras like refresh rates over 144Hz, Mini-LED backlighting, or quantum dot film for better color accuracy. While 4K pricing has also come down, it's much harder to drive, meaning a higher cost for your graphics card.

Even for early adopters and enthusiasts, aiming for 1440p means the latest OLED and QD-OLED displays are more affordable and can be picked up for under $1,000. That's a far cry from the price tags of 4K resolution monitors with high refresh rates using OLED panels, and it means you can enjoy the latest and greatest display technology at a more wallet-friendly price.

3 More tailored for gamers

High refresh rates are more common

There's a reason 1440p monitors make up most of our best gaming monitor lists, whether they're for budget-conscious gamers or not. Well, okay, there are plenty of reasons, but the main one is value. High refresh rates of 165Hz or more on a 1440p panel used to be a small fortune to buy just a few years ago, but they're now easily available for under $300 from multiple manufacturers. Those monitors also usually have adaptive sync support, better-than-average color accuracy, and decent stands with multiple points of adjustment. That's all you really need when gaming, after which it becomes a game of diminishing returns on your investment really quickly.

2 The new sweet spot

Performance and visual quality, perfectly balanced

With desktop PC users moving towards a 27-inch monitor as the new normal, it's time to retire 1080p panels. For a crisp image on your screen, you want as high a PPI (pixels-per-inch) as you can without moving into a resolution that's taxing on your graphics card. For a 27-inch display, a 1440p resolution gets you a PPI of 108, and that's right in the sweet spot for pixel gazing. A 4K resolution, for example, is 163 PPI, and that's slightly higher than the 100 to 150 PPI range we usually recommend keeping your monitor in. It's crisp enough for more detail to be shown without appearing pixelated, and gives a little more effective screen area for multiple apps or windows to be shown at once. When gaming, it's also perfect for quality visuals and means you can either turn the graphics settings up for more fidelity or down for a higher refresh rate without sacrificing much in the way of overall quality.

1 The right pixel density

1440p is perfect for the usual seating distance from your desk

More factors than resolution and refresh rate factor into the best monitor for use at your desk, and a 1440p resolution is optimal when your sitting position is around 2ft from the screen. That's about the average desk dimensions, which is a nice serendipity. But as to why that's the case, let's dive into some science. The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers suggests that you sit at a distance from your screen so that it fills up at least 30 degrees of your field of vision. At two feet away from the screen, that translates to a screen size of around 22 inches, slightly below the most common 24-inch size. 27-inch monitors are also becoming more common, and here's where a higher resolution comes into its own.

At the same two feet away from your display, a 1440p resolution is optimal until you reach a screen size of about 30 inches. That gives you enough pixels per degree of vision to avoid the pixelated "screen door" effect that plagues VR headsets and lower-resolution displays. A sharper picture makes your experience better, so you might think 4K would be better, but having to scale up UI elements so you can see them better detracts from the benefits, and the difference between 1440p and 4K at the typical desk distance isn't that great.

1440p is the right mix of price, performance, and visual quality for most users

As 1080p once was, now 1440p is the sweet spot for the majority of people buying a new monitor. It offers crisp visual fidelity while not costing an arm or a leg, gives you more effective screen real estate than 1080p, and is easier to read than a 4K resolution without scaling UI elements up. You can get a high-quality 1440p monitor, including mini-LED variants, for an affordable price. A similar price, in fact, to how 1080p high-refresh-rate monitors were not that long ago, which will eventually turn 1080p monitors into a niche product for frame chasers.