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Best 4K Gaming Monitors for PC 2023: 144Hz, Curved and More

Best 4K Gaming Monitors for PC 2023: 144Hz, Curved and More

These are the best 4K gaming monitors to consider if you’re ready to upgrade your gaming experience.

With great pixels comes great image quality. So it’s not surprising that PC gamers drool over monitors with a 4K resolution. A panel packing 8.3 million pixels (3840 x 2160) makes your favorite games look sharp and realistic. It also lets you see the most out of the best webcams, which is helpful if you’re a streamer.

In addition to being the highest resolution that you can find in a good gaming monitor these days, going 4K also offers the ability to expand to bigger displays while still retaining a sharp image. With a packed pixel army, you can stretch your screen size well past 30 inches without having pixels so large that you can see them. And the best graphics cards, whether from Nvidia’s RTX 40-series or AMD’s Radeon RX 7000-series, make a move to 4K even more tempting.

But that image quality comes at a steep price. Anyone who’s shopped for a 4K monitor before knows that they’re not cheap. Yes, 4K is about high-res gaming (and other media), but you’ll still need solid gaming specs, like a 60Hz-plus refresh rate, low response time, and your choice of Adaptive-Sync (Nvidia G-Sync(opens in new tab) or AMD FreeSync(opens in new tab), depending on your system’s graphics card). And you can’t forget the cost of the powerful graphics card you’ll need to game properly in 4K. See our Best Gaming Monitors page for lower-resolution recommendations if you’re not ready for 4K yet.

For those ready for high-res gaming (lucky you), below are the best 4K gaming monitors of 2023, based on our benchmarks.

  • 4K gaming requires a high-end graphics card. If you’re not using a GeForce RTX 4090 or Radeon RX 7900 XTX, you’ll want at least a GeForce RTX 3080 or Radeon RX 6900 XT to game at high-quality settings. Visit our Graphics Card Buying Guide(opens in new tab) for help.
  • G-Sync or FreeSync? A monitor’s G-Sync feature will only work with PCs using an Nvidia graphics card, and FreeSync will only run with PCs carrying an AMD card. You can technically run G-Sync on a monitor that’s only FreeSync-certified, but performance may vary. We’ve seen negligible differences in mainstream gaming capabilities for fighting screen tearing between the two. Our Nvidia G-Sync vs. AMD FreeSync article offers an in-depth performance comparison.
  • 4K and HDR go hand-in-hand. 4K displays often support HDR content for extra bright and colorful images. But for Adaptive-Sync optimized for HDR media, you’ll want a G-Sync Ultimate or FreeSync Premium Pro (formerly FreeSync 2 HDR) monitor. For a noticeable upgrade from an SDR monitor, opt for at least 600 nits brightness. You can learn more from our glossary page on HDR and our buying guide for picking the best HDR monitor.

For more guidance picking a monitor of any resolution–gaming or otherwise–check out our PC Monitor Buying Guide(opens in new tab) and list of the Best Computer Monitors.

The Best 4K Gaming Monitors You Can Buy Today