The 5 Best Gaming Monitors Under $200 Reviewed

Monster Monitors at Miniature Prices

Technology is moving incredibly fast. Yes, twenty years ago we did generally assume we’d be floating around in hover cars and picking daisies on Mars by now, which unfortunately for us, hasn’t happened yet.

But if you compare gaming tech from five years ago with gear being released today, you’ll see exponential growth.

It’s both good and bad news for gamers. The positive side of it is our seamless gaming dreams are facilitated. On the flip side…you need some serious dollar, dollar bills to keep up with lightning-fast progress…until now.

We’re going to help you discover the perfect gaming monitor under $200, so you can enjoy flawless gameplay that makes reality seem like it’s run in laggy 2K.

We’ll be reviewing and ranking five of the very best gaming monitors under $200 that we can find, searching for those cranked refresh rates, teeny tiny response times, and out of this world colors. So, we think that’s enough hype talk, Let’s get into this!

New Game Released Today?

Not a problem, button bashers. Here’s our top pick way up here so you don’t lose any valuable playtime.

The last thing you want is your friends getting a headstart and outranking you, leading to an insane 50-hour catchup session fueled by energy drinks and chips. It’s just not good for your health.

Best Gaming Monitors Under $200

1. Acer XFA240 G-Sync Compatible Monitor

Looking into the high-def visual portal that is our number one pick, you’d be forgiven for thinking you’d somehow plugged into the Matrix. It’s that good.

We’ll begin with a little disclaimer. This monitor is literally a few shiny pennies under our budget, so if you’re looking for the absolute cheapest deal available, this isn’t the one for you, but my lord is this an awesome monitor for gaming.

Now that uncomfortable business is out of the way, let’s jump into the most important feature of your gaming monitor, the refresh rate. The XFA240 clocks in with a very respectable 144Hz refresh rate, meaning your picture is reborn 144 times a second resulting in super slick, true to life motion.

144Hz isn’t exactly the highest refresh rate we as a species have mustered with our monitors, having already reached the lofty heights of 360Hz and beyond, but it’s astounding for the price tag.

Moving swiftly onto response time, you get an immaculate 1ms with the XFA. That’s awesomely efficient, so you can expect the colors to really pop with this thing. They’ll practically be jumping out at you like some kind of Lovecraftian beast.

Acer is committed to bringing you the most vivid display they can, but they’re also big on promoting eye health and do all they can to reduce strain caused by time spent in front of their screens.

Basically, what they do is incorporate true low-blue light panels that reduce color distortion, while dressing the display with BlueLightShield Pro technology to bring any harmful blue light down to a safe level.

Designed specifically for gaming, the XFA comes with G-Sync technology, meaning they’re instantly compatible with GeForce graphics cards to provide insanely fast frame rates, smooth transitions, and crisp definition.

That’s most of the performance qualities covered, but what of the physicalities at play here? The XFA is 24” wide, which is a pretty standard size for gaming. It’s not exactly a frameless display though, which is probably the one thing we’d change about this monitor.

It’s not a huge frame, but it’s actually one of the largest on our list. Still, that’s not going to really affect the quality of your experience too much.

As far as physical flexibility is concerned, Acer has got you covered. You can alter the height by adjusting the neck, you get a swivel function, you can tilt the display, and it can of course pivot.

Connectivity real estate consists of one V1.2 display port, one HDMI/MHL port, and one DVI port. On top of all that, it comes with two built-in 2-watt speakers.

2. Dell S2421HGF FHD TN 24-in Anti-Glare Gaming Monitor

Bringing some fluid movement and crisp lines to our second spot is a powerful Dell monitor with such pristine lighting and colors, you’ll want to crawl on inside it like a reverse ‘The Ring’ situation.

For the sake of transparency, we must again begin by saying this is at the very tip-top of the budget, but boy is it an absolute beast for the price tag.

You can expect the same super impressive 144Hz refresh rates with the Dell as you can with our champion Acer, meaning you’re going to be able to play even the most demanding games in quality that could make your grandpa cry and spark a back-in-my-day-we-would-spit-in-a-bucket-for-fun style rant.

There aren’t actually any games available at the minute that truly need a faster refresh rate than 144Hz. Many of them work fine with refresh rates as low as 60Hz, so this monitor is actually slightly future proofed, which may be worth forking out for.

Going toe to toe with our numero uno all the way, this monitor has the much desired 1ms response time. It creates a rich color profile that seems to move like a living, breathing thing, completely eliminating motion blur. Those pixels be fast!

This monitor has an LED edge-lit system, which makes for a really sleek and compact build and impeccable framing that seems to lock you into gameplay and shut that pesky real world out.

On the other hand, edge-lit displays tend to run slightly darker center screen and can’t portray blacks as true as full lit systems.

Dell’s S2421 offers a Highly customizable experience, allowing you to change loads of important parameters to fit your gaming and eye needs. You can easily control frame rates, brightness, and even shadow control, not to mention the physical height and tilt of the display.

We all love a bit of glitch in our music, but not so much when it comes to our gaming which is why Dell has made this monitor with AMD freesync technology, eliminating screen-tear and stutter.

3. Sceptre Curved C275W-1920RN 27-in Monitor

Wrapping around your face like those terrifying face-huggers from the Alien movies, this monster monitor beckons you into the gaming world and all but locks the door behind you.

That’s right, gamer gods, this monitor is arced for your pleasure, but before you get excited about that display real estate, the curving does mean that it won’t exactly feel like 27”. It will come across around the 24” or 25” region.

While curved displays aren’t everyone’s favorite monitor design, they do actually present a more immersive and realistic gaming experience by creating a more fluent 3-dimensional space with realistic peripherals.

The problem is that the curve is more susceptible to catching light and reflecting it as glare. If you have something of a gaming dungeon where all light is controlled and strictly synthetic, this won’t be a problem.

With the significant drop in price, you can also expect some slightly diminished visual capacities. The Sceptre has a refresh rate of 75Hz which will be a noticeable de-escalation from our two 144Hz warriors, but to be perfectly candid, it’s not going to slake your performance.

The functionality will remain fully intact. The main problem we can see with a lower refresh rate is the monitor isn’t futureproofed for advanced releases years from now.

Response time clocks in at roughly 8ms, which is still super fast grey to grey performance, but you can expect a very small amount of ghosting and motion blur when playing particularly demanding games.

Let’s move on to the cosmetics on offer here. Besides the obvious curvature, our favorite physical aspect of this monitor is by far is the almost non-existent frame, offering you a truly immersive experience.

This thing practically looks like a floating rip in time and space. Beyond that, it’s a durable, full metal build with a charming rounded foot and rudimentary built-in audio.

4. Asus VG245H 24-in Full HD 1080p Gaming Monitor

Flattening things back out again in our penultimate spot is an awesome monitor with crazy good specs for the price and some neat visual presets for different applications.

This monitor is certainly designed with gaming specifically in mind, but we consider it to be one of the best all-rounders on our list.

Not only do the numerous presets allow you to optimize your display for things other than gaming, but the eye-kind low blue light filter makes this perfect for professional use. No longer will your eyes feel like burning coals at the end of your workday.

Another really thoughtful eye-friendly feature of this monitor is the flicker-free technology supporting the pixels. Simply put, it caps sudden significant reductions in brightness. When full brightness returns, it’s not as shocking to your pupils that by now are normally twitching like dead frogs touched by electrodes.

Asus storms in here with a respectable 75Hz refresh rate, exactly the same as the curved bad boy in third place. If you liked the sound of that sinuous screen except for the curves, this may be the monitor you’ve been dreaming of.

If that all sounds pretty good to you so far, you’ll be over the moon to know this monitor brings things back down to a 1ms response time, offering you the fastest color shifting currently available on the market. In addition, it has similar AMD syncing capabilities as our number two spot.

Physically speaking, it’s a pretty standard build. You get the thin frame, a small foot so you can get closer to the gameplay than ever, full height, tilt, swivel, and pivot adjustability, and some pretty impressive connectivity too. This is the only monitor on our list to feature dual HDMI ports.

All things considered, we’d say this is the best value for money monitor on the list, and if you have sensitive eyes, or work in front of a computer screen all day, this Asus is going to be really sympathetic. You’ll be able to work hard and jump straight into playing hard come 5 O’clock.

5. Acer R240HY bidx 23.8-in 1080p Monitor

Delivering the eye candy to our final spot is the perfect gaming monitor for those of you on a budget. It provides you with all the essentials to become a black belt in gaming.

The R240 is the most affordable option on our list, so again, you can expect a slight drop in performance, but nothing to despair over.

It comes with a 60Hz refresh rate, the slowest on our list, but honestly, you’re not going to be able to really see a difference between this and the 75Hz of our third and fourth pick. It’s such a fine difference, it may only be perceptible as a very subtle feeling.

We’re pleasantly surprised by the efficiency of the Acer’s response time. At 4ms, you’ll barely be able to tell the difference between the color fluidity of this and our expensive top picks. Pretty impressive, ay?

We know it’s just cosmetics, but we loved the foot on this thing. The halo style shaping is minimal, unique, and elegant. It will actually beautify a room rather than detract from it as gaming tech can sometimes do.

This monitor won’t just save you money over the counter, as the first and only eco-designed product on our list, it will save you pennies on your power bill every single month. Acers with this eco-initiative use more recycled materials than other monitors and maintain a measured and safe power usage.

Amazingly considering the diminutive price tag, the R240 has the second thinnest edge of any monitor on our list, so even though it’s technically the smallest, it doesn’t feel like it.

Gaming Monitor Under $200 Buyer’s Guide

For a detailed description of what to look for when purchasing a gaming monitor, watch this video:

Conclusion

There you have it, monitor lizards, five of the very best gaming monitors available for under $200.

With a variety of price points and specs, there’s something here for even the most particular gamers, and it just goes to show that you don’t have to break the bank for high performance.

The Asus VG245 seems to be the best bang for buck monitor, but objectively speaking, our top three options are the most advanced, and the price difference between them isn’t huge.

If you don’t mind spending your whole budget, we’d definitely recommend picking something like our top two. Their futureproofing will keep them relevant moving forward, saving you money in the long run.

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