TV vs Monitor: Which Dominates in Gaming

Whenever you are deciding a display for yourself, you will often run into deciding between going for a TV or a monitor. This debate between TVs and monitors has existed for a long time and still manages to find its way in your buying experiences in the modern day. This is why we have decided to put things to rest and help people gain the knowledge and better understanding of what they should be going with and what they should be avoiding.

The thing about TVs and monitors is that they happen to be so similar on so many fronts that people think that they can be interchanged with one and the other without any issues that might come in the way. However, that is not the case as they are inherently different than each other.

In order to make things simpler for you, we are going to look at different aspects and see whether a monitor would be good in that aspect or a monitor. So, let’s have a look. For anyone who is looking to buy the best monitor that they can, this guide can actually prove to be of great help.

Screen Size

The first thing is the screen size that most people have to look out for. The thing is that whenever people are buying a TV, the one thing that they consider the most is the screen size. However, you must know that screen size does not play that big of a role. The resolution and type of panel are more important.

Whatever the case might be, it is important to know that when it comes to TVs, you will have some decent screen size options available. However, the resolution should always be your priority.

Deciding a winner would be pointless here as the screen sizes are in abundance here. Whether you are buying a TV or a monitor, you can find a decent screen size with ease.

Winner: None.

Resolution

Most of the modern day TVs are available in either full HD or 4K. This actually ends up limiting the options. Because full HD on a screen size that is huge is not going to look good, the same goes for 4K.

As far as the monitors are concerned, you have the option to go with 2K or QHD resolution monitors as well. Then you have the option to opt for UWQHD or UWFHD resolutions that are available on 21:9 ultra-wide monitors. The thing here is that as long as you are looking for good resolution options, the monitors are the way to go.

Plus, you have the ability to choose aspect ratios as well, which is a win-win situation on all fronts.

Winner: Monitors.

HDR

HDR or High Dynamic Range is a feature that happens to be one of the most demanded features in the modern day and age. Many people are calling it the game changer as far as visual fidelity and quality is concerned.

Most of the high-end modern day TVs come with this feature, and platforms like Netflix have full support for it, too. You can even play console games using HDR if you have the proper console and the game supports it, too.

On the other hand, most of the monitors are now coming with support for HDR, which only means that you can enjoy both gaming and other content in HDR with ease.

Winner: None.

Input Lag

Input lag is one of the biggest issues that has plagued the TVs for some time now. If you are gaming on a console, buying a TV would be a good thing since you would be gaming on a couch but even then, make sure that you have a TV that comes with some sort of game mode that will reduce the input lag to a point that you would be able to play with ease.

Sadly, this tech does not work well with PC gaming so you do have to connect a monitor, which comes with a very low input lag, making it easily playable.

The good thing, here is that if you do happen to have a 4K monitor, you can use it for both console and PC gaming without having to worry about any input lag since it happens to be rather non-existent.

Winner: Monitors.

Response Time

Response time is an important thing that you need to look for. Sadly, whenever you are buying a TV, you are going to have to do some research in order to find the response time of the panel since it is not something that is explicitly mentioned in the spec sheet.

The higher the response time the more noticeable the ghosting and input lag will be. For instance, if you are looking at a monitor with an IPS panel, it will have a really low response time of 5ms or so. However, on TVs, the panel might have a response time of 15ms or more, which can really make a difference under several circumstances.

Winner: Monitors.

Refresh Rate

Another thing is the refresh rate. A good gaming monitor can go as high as 240Hz at 1440p resolution while a TV can do 60Hz in most conditions, and if you really want to spend a lot of money, there are some TVs that offer true 120Hz but the resolution is limited to just 1080p. These TVs can be good for a monitor replacement but only if they are cheaper than the monitors.

Another thing to look out for is making sure that the high refresh rate TV is actually giving you a higher refresh rate and not a fake one using motion interpolation, which is also known as the soap opera effect.

Overall, the winner here is the monitor simply because you have so many options to go for whenever you are thinking about buying a monitor or a

Adaptive Sync

The last thing we are going to be looking at is the adaptive sync. This is a technology that is mostly found on gaming monitors that are available in the market.

Currently, you have AMD’s Free Sync 2.0 and NVidia’s G-Sync as two of the only dominating technologies available in the market.

These technologies are currently only limited to monitors. If you are wondering how these work, it is rather simple.

If you are getting 55 frames per second on a monitor that has a native refresh rate of 100Hz, the G-Sync, or Free Sync will lower the monitor’s refresh rate to match the refresh rate of the game you are playing. Ultimately removing any jittering or lag from the game and allowing you to have a smoother experience.

Winner: Monitors

Conclusion

It goes without saying that drawing a conclusion here is not that difficult, at all. Sure, TVs are getting better and better as the time passes by but if you are to compare a TV with a monitor, a monitor will always come at the top as long as the comparison is for the purpose of gaming. Also if you are interested in a fast and aesthetically pleasing monitor, we recommend checking out the HP Omen 25 144hz Monitor.