For any gaming PC, the monitor is an integral part of the setup. It might technically be just a peripheral, but it defines how immersive your gaming experience will be. Although I own a great monitor now, the one I used for over three years before this was hardly what you’d call a “gaming monitor.” It was a small 22-inch 1080p display with a 75Hz maximum refresh rate. It was an IPS panel, but that was about it. I wish I had spent slightly more and gotten a more immersive display for arguably the best gaming years I had.
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3 I built a new PC, but stayed at 22″ 1080p 60Hz
Didn’t feel like an upgrade
Before I built a new PC in 2017, I used a 22″ 1080p 60Hz TN display from Dell for many years. It was a huge upgrade from our ancient 15″ CRT monitor, and it felt way better than it actually was. With the new PC, however, I didn’t upgrade my gaming monitor — I just bought a 22″ 1080p 75Hz monitor from LG. The only difference was that it was an IPS panel, so the colors were way better, but I should have picked at least a 24″ screen, if not a high-refresh one.
The thing is, I was living away from home for the first time, had started earning just a year ago, and didn’t want to spend too much on a PC I was building with my own money. So, I made some pretty questionable decisions (in hindsight), one of which was settling for a monitor that wasn’t ideal for a gaming setup. It didn’t feel that way at the time, but the monitor was one of the components I should have spent a bigger chunk of my budget on. A 24″ 1080p high-refresh display wouldn’t have cost significantly more.
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2 I didn’t upgrade even after getting a new GPU
Living in ignorance
The graphics card that I had when I built my PC back in 2017 was the humble GTX 1050 Ti — yeah, I know that was another big blunder, pairing it with the Ryzen 5 1600. Anyway, my 75Hz monitor might have been enough for my budget GPU, but you’d think that when I upgraded to the GTX 1660 Ti two years later, I would have thought of moving to a better gaming monitor. Spoiler alert: I didn’t.
For a year and a half, I continued using the same 22″ 1080p 75Hz monitor. I didn’t even feel I was holding my GPU back, which was clearly the case. The older GTX 1050 Ti might have struggled to push past 60 FPS at 1080p, but the GTX 1660 Ti was a much more powerful card. I only realized this when I finally bought my current display, a 27″ 1440p 144Hz panel from LG.
I was able to enjoy 60+ FPS on my new 1440p display with the GTX 1660 Ti in most titles. Imagine the performance it would have given me in older games had I upgraded my monitor sooner.
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1 I wasted three years of my prime gaming era
I’m never getting that time back
I might have a significantly better gaming setup now, but I never find the time or motivation to play games as much as before. The best years that I had — living alone for three years with little pressure from my job — were wasted on a subpar screen. By the time I upgraded to my 1440p 144Hz monitor, I was already living with my partner, had more responsibilities to juggle, and found it hard to devote countless hours to gaming.
Those years aren’t coming back, and the regret that I feel is real. I might have had a weaker graphics card and CPU back then, but I would have made many more gaming memories had I bought a proper gaming monitor for my older PC. The size, resolution, and refresh rate of a display come together to enhance the gaming immersion, and I compromised on each of those parameters to save some money. 8 years later, am I glad I saved that money, or do I regret not buying a better monitor? I think you know the answer.
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Sometimes, it’s worth buying more than you “need”
PC building can easily make you overspend on hardware you don’t need, but in some areas, it’s worth spending a little bit extra. The display is one such component, considering its importance in delivering your gaming experience to your eyes. All those expensive components you painstakingly put together can’t do much without a great display. I should have stretched my budget to accommodate a much better gaming monitor in my setup. If nothing else, I wouldn’t be regretting wasting my best gaming years right now.
