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For many years, 1440p 144Hz monitors were considered ideal for gaming because they combine a fast enough refresh rate for PC gaming with a high enough resolution to see details in your games. However, as more high refresh rate monitors have become available, the 1440p 144Hz monitor market is more limited, and most of these options now are ultrawide displays with a 21:9 aspect ratio. These monitors are still good if you don’t need the highest refresh rate or resolution or if your computer setup can’t take advantage of high-end monitors anyway.
While you can buy a 1440p monitor with a higher refresh rate to use at 144Hz or get a 4k @ 144Hz monitor and set it to a lower resolution, this article only considers 1440p monitors with a native 144Hz refresh rate. Most of these monitors offer gaming features, like variable refresh rate (VRR) support. It’s important to consider the monitor’s response time if you want something with good motion handling. Having low input lag is also beneficial, but most monitors have low input lag anyway.
LG 34GP950G-B: Best Overall
The best 1440p 144Hz monitor we’ve tested is the LG 34GP950G-B. With a 34-inch ultrawide screen, it’s still considered a 1440p monitor because it has a 3440×1440 resolution. It’s wider horizontally than a 27-inch 1440p monitor with the same screen height. This means you can see more of your game at once, and it’s great for PC gaming as you can overclock its 144Hz native refresh rate to 180Hz over a DisplayPort connection.
It’s a premium gaming monitor in terms of features as it has native G-SYNC variable refresh rate (VRR) support, so it offers a few extra perks if you have an NVIDIA graphics card, like variable overdrive. It has other features you can use with any graphics card to improve your gaming experience, like a virtual crosshair that gives you a competitive advantage in FPS games as your game’s anti-cheat tool won’t detect it, and its black stabilizer feature lets you see opponents better in dark games. It also has incredible motion handling, especially at its max refresh rate and at 120Hz, and it remains fast even at 60Hz.
Dell Alienware AW2724DM: Best Mid-Range
If the LG 34GP950G-B is too much out of your price range, you can save money by getting a mid-range option like the Dell Alienware AW2724DM instead. There aren’t too many high-end 1440p monitors with a refresh rate of 170Hz or less, so there’s a significant price and performance gap between our best pick and this monitor. However, even though it’s not an OLED, it still provides excellent gaming performance. It has a remarkable response time at its maximum refresh rate, and action in fast-moving games looks sharp. It also has extremely low input lag, so games have a responsive feel. Like the AW3423DWF, it supports all VRR formats.
The monitor is also great for brighter rooms, as it gets bright, particularly in HDR mode, and overcomes glare. However, it has middling contrast, so deep blacks appear gray next to bright highlights in darker rooms. While it has a local dimming feature, it performs terribly and decreases contrast.
Dell S3422DWG: Best Lower Mid-Range
You can even find ultrawide displays in the lower mid-range price category that cost less than the LG 34GP83A-B, like the Dell S3422DWG. It’s a step down in performance compared to the LG because it has worse motion handling, particularly at 60Hz, as there’s more smearing with fast-moving objects, and you can’t overclock its refresh rate to anything above 144Hz. That’s the trade-off for getting something cheaper, but it’s still great for gaming and has FreeSync VRR support and G-SYNC compatibility to reduce screen tearing.
On top of its great gaming performance, it offers good picture quality with a wide range of colors and high peak brightness, enough to fight glare. It even performs well in dark rooms as it displays deep blacks with a high contrast ratio, but it lacks a local dimming feature to further improve the contrast ratio. It also has narrow viewing angles, so the image washes out from the sides, but if you prefer something with wider viewing angles, you can also consider the Gigabyte M34WQ. That said, that monitor is harder to find at times.
ASUS ROG Strix XG27AQ: Best Budget
If you still find the Dell S3422DWG too expensive or don’t want an ultrawide monitor, you can easily find the best budget 1440p 144Hz monitor with a 16:9 aspect ratio instead. One of those monitors is the ASUS ROG Strix XG27AQ, whose 27-inch screen is smaller than the Dell, meaning there’s less space to view your games, but it often costs less and offers great gaming performance. It’s available in two variants, with the only difference being the color of the body, so they perform the same.
One advantage over the Dell is that you can overclock its native 144Hz refresh rate to 170Hz for a slightly smoother feel, but this only works over DisplayPort and not HDMI. It has a great response time at any refresh rate and has a backlight strobing feature to further reduce persistence blur. If you can’t find it within your budget, consider the slightly cheaper ASUS TUF Gaming VG27AQL1A, but it has worse motion handling and can be harder to find at times.
Gigabyte G27Q: Best Cheap
If you need a simple and cheap gaming monitor, like a monitor for your first gaming setup, check out the Gigabyte G27Q. It has a 27-inch screen like the ASUS ROG Strix XG27AQ, and it has many of the same features, but one difference is that you can’t overclock its 144Hz refresh rate to anything higher. It also has worse motion handling than the ASUS, but the response time at 144Hz and at 120Hz is still good enough for most gamers, as you’ll notice minimum motion blur. Despite its low cost, it even has a backlight strobing feature to reduce persistence blur, but it causes image duplication and doesn’t work simultaneously with VRR.
Speaking of VRR, it has FreeSync VRR support and is G-SYNC compatible, meaning it works with any graphics card to reduce screen tearing. It also has a few extra gaming features, including a dashboard that shows information from your PC, like the CPU and GPU temperatures. Like most gaming monitors, you can display a virtual crosshair to give you a competitive advantage in FPS games.