7 Best Budget 144Hz Monitor Reviews | Increased Quality of Your Visual Gaming Experience

Most PC gamers know that the quality of your gaming experience relies heavily on the quality of your equipment. One of the most important pieces of equipment you’ll need is the best budget 144hz monitor for your setup. If you're on a tight budget, then take a look at these best budget monitors. All the monitors I reviewed are around 25 inches. 

If you are primarily a console gamer then you are probably used to hooking your machine up to whatever is available and playing games without having to worry overly much about what kind of monitor or television you are connecting to. As long as it has an HDMI port and an outlet to plug in the power block you’re ready to go! In that case, you can check our review of the more affordable offerings with a lesser refresh rate.

For PC gamers, like myself, there is a bit more finesse involved in the best gaming experience but that comes with added versatility which I found in the best gaming monitors from each renown brand. One of the main reasons for being a PC gamer is the increased quality of my visual experience. That said, you’ll want to look at some freesync monitors or you might also consider these cheap monitors.

What to Expect From a Budget 144hz Monitor

Fortunately, for the aspiring PC gamer or the veteran looking for an upgrade, 144hz PC monitors are cheaper than they ever have been. You can find a cheap 144hz monitor with all of the necessary extra features relatively easily! It might be a little more difficult to find a cheap 1440p 144hz monitor or a 4k 144hz monitor but it can be done with persistence and determination.

That said, while you can find cheap monitors with the right specs and a lot of sweet other features for relatively cheap costs you will have to accept that finding something top tier is going to be more expensive. When you are purchasing something at a cheaper cost that usually means that the item will lack in quality, but you can still find good ones if you follow our guide for the best budget gaming monitors. Continue reading to find out what the best budget 144hz monitor is.

Best Budget 144hz Monitor Reviews

Honorable Mention #1: Asus MG279Q

This beast is a great choice. It's not exactly a budget pick but it's still relatively affordable at just a few hundred bucks. With a high refresh rate it's great for gaming and watching videos. Additionally, it has IPS panel which has amazingly wide  viewing angles. It's a little older at 4 years old but it still runs wicked smooth.

Honorable Mention #2: ASUS ROG PG279Q 27 inch with G Synch Capabilities

The ASUS ROG PG279Q is NOT cheap and is more high end since it's closer to 4 figures than mid 3-figures, but with 1440p and g synch it's pretty powerful if you're serious about gaming. It has great viewing angles and contrast ratio due to the IPS panel. What is an IPS monitor and what makes it the best gaming monitor, as we explained earlier, is its fast response time, low input lag, and high image quality, as well as great image depth.

What Does a 144Hz Refresh Rate Mean?

Essentially, refresh rates can be compared to frame rates in games. If you have a 60 Hz refresh rate then your monitor can refresh the image on the display 60 times in one second just a 60 fps framerate would show 60 frames per second. The two are intrinsically linked so the idea is to keep them similar in number, though they are different. If you have a great GPU with awesome frame rates but a bad monitor with low refresh rates then the bad monitor won't be able to take advantage of your GPU and will show the max refresh rates that it can,.

A 60 fps framer ate game will look just as good on a 60 Hz refresh rate monitor as a 144 Hz monitor, but a 144 fps game will look bad on a 60 Hz monitor and will often display artifacts in how it projects images such as screen tearing or stuttering because the frame rate and refresh rate aren’t synced. A best 144hz gaming monitor is great for avid gamers looking for visually appealing and consistent gaming performance, in addition to having a 1ms response time.

This is also where you hear mention of things like “FreeSync” or “G-Sync”, they are programs that are developed by AMD and NVIDIA, the two main accepted producers of GPUs, that link your framerate and refresh rate to smooth out your visual experience with minimal motion blur. I tested both and was pleased with the gaming performance. 

What Aspect Ratio Do You Need for Gaming?

There are 2 commonly accepted aspect ratios for most games, 16:9 and 16:10. Most best gaming monitors operate on a 16:9 aspect ratio and so that is what most games expect and are developed for. That said, there are plenty of 16:10 gaming monitors out there and occasionally a game will even be made to support very niche aspect ratios like 4:3.

Mostly, you should be looking for a 16:9 aspect ratio for your monitor if you are getting it specifically for gaming. You can branch out to a 16:10 if you find the best monitor and you can’t find anything in 16:9 that makes you happy, but I would stay away from other, more niche aspect ratios like 4:3.

Which Resolution Is Best for You?

Resolutions keep climbing higher and higher. Fortunately, most game developers know that not everyone can afford to jump up to the newest and most expensive technological advancements so most games are developed for 1080p resolution and anything higher than that is just icing on the cake. I've been using a 1080p monitor for 10 years and have never felt a need to move up to something extravagant like a 4k gaming monitor or even 1440p 144hz monitor. 

With that mentioned, it is also true that the higher your resolution the clearer image quality on your display will be, so if you can afford to jump up to a higher resolution then more power to you. The only important thing to keep in mind is that a higher resolution will not make up for a lower refresh rate or response time. Those are the most important things to keep in mind and resolution is secondary to that unless you’re below a 1080p resolution.

What Screen Size Do You Need?

Screen size doesn’t matter too much from a technical aspect and is mostly subjective (see 32 inch gaming monitors). As long as your screen is large enough to support a 1080p resolution then you should be fine. Bigger gaming monitors give you more screen real estate to work with, but a monitor that is too big can be inconvenient. That is why the size of your monitor is mostly based on your workstation and your personal preferences. 

Something important to consider, based on a mistake I've made in the past, is that a bigger monitor is also going to be heavier, so if all you have to use is an extremely cheaply made desk that is also very old then you might want to reconsider making the jump to a bigger and more solid desk or face the consequences of your new monitor falling through your old and crappy desk. Very funny in retrospect, but it was an embarrassing, and expensive, lesson to learn.

Do You Need a Monitor With a Higher Refresh Rate?

Do you need it? No, you don't need a monitor with a higher refresh rate. As long as you have a 60 Hz refresh rate monitor and you can limit the framerate of your games to 60 fps then you are fine. That said, if you are routinely running your games at a higher framerate than your monitor's refresh rate then you will probably be noticing things like stuttering and screen tearing and your monitor won't be able to take advantage of your GPU.

If you’ve been wracking your brain to figure out why this is happening in your games, consider upgrading your monitor. I spent several weeks inspecting every part of my setup trying to figure out why World of Warcraft was the only game in my library that would frequently experience stuttering and freezing, never thinking to check if it was my monitor. This was before I had an understanding of how framerate and refresh rate interacted with each other. 

So, if you take nothing else from this article, know that refresh rate and framerate are linked, and having them synchronized is always better than having one higher than the other.