7 Fastest Gaming Monitors in 2023 – Extreme Performance for Competitive Gamers

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When it comes to gaming, speed is essentially everything. Whether it’s FPS or how quickly your PC loads new maps, higher speeds are always better.

No matter how strong your build is, there’s always one area that can be a bottleneck: your monitor. If your monitor has a low refresh rate and laggy response time your games can still look terrible, and your competitive performance can suffer.

To avoid that and help you gain an edge over your opponents, we’ve put together our list of the 7 fastest gaming monitors in 2023. Every monitor on this list is blazing fast, with performance that will make you feel like you’re getting every penny’s worth out of your gaming build.

Fastest Gaming Monitors in 2023 Round-Up

The table below will give you a quick look at the fastest gaming monitors currently available on the market. To read a full review, simply click on ‘review>>’ in the respective row.

Product	Image	Rating
1. ASUS ROG Swift PG259QN 360hz, 1ms GtG		9.8	Check Price review>>
2. Dell Alienware AW2521H 360hz, 1ms GtG		9.7	Check Price review>>
3. MSI Oculux NXG253R 360hz, 1ms GtG		9.6	Check Price review>>
4. Acer Predator X25 bmiiprzx 360hz, 1ms GtG		9.5	Check Price review>>
5. Acer Nitro XV252Q Fbmiiprx 360hz, 1ms GtG		9.3	Check Price review>>
6. ASUS TUF Gaming VG279QM 280hz, 1ms GtG		9.1	Check Price review>>
7. Acer Predator XB253Q GWbmiiprzx 280hz (OC), 1ms GtG		9.0	Check Price review>>

1. ASUS ROG Swift PG259QN

REASONS TO BUY

One of the fastest gaming monitors on the market
Extreme performance for competitive gaming
Sharp, quality display
High-quality construction
Beautiful aesthetics
Plenty of connectivity
Thin bezel

REASONS TO AVOID

Average color fidelity
Premium price

Our Rating: 9.8/10

Gaming monitors are typically going to put the highest value on speed, so it stands to reason that the fastest monitors in 2023 would be premium gaming monitors. Case in point: the ASUS ROG Swift PG259QN.

ASUS’s ROG (Republic of Gamers) series are consistently some of the highest performing gaming products, delivering speeds that are exactly what you’d expect from a premium gaming product, albeit in a slightly smaller 24.5-inch package.

The ASUS ROG Swift PG259QN is an incredibly fast piece of equipment. There are two basic measures for speed, and this monitor is at the top of both of them.

First is the refresh rate, which is measured in hertz and is simply how many times per second the display can update. The higher the refresh rate, the smoother and more responsive your video will be. The ROG Swift PG259QN has a refresh rate of 360Hz, which is going to completely eliminate any lag or stuttering that you might be able to perceive and offer an amazingly smooth picture.

A high refresh rate monitor can still have other motion issues, most commonly motion blur, ghosting, or smearing. These are all products of a low monitor response time. Response time is the amount of time, typically measured in milliseconds (ms) that it takes any individual pixel to adjust to the color or brightness that it’s displaying.

The truest measure of this is milliseconds of grey to grey (ms GtG)–You may see metrics like MPRT or VRB used for cheaper monitors, but the fastest monitors will proudly advertise in GtG. The ASUS ROG offers 1ms GtG, which is the fastest time consistently available on monitors in 2023.

With monitors at this speed, it’s possible that some desynchronization between your monitor and your GPU can occur, so having adaptive sync available is going to be a necessity. The ASUS ROG Swift PG259QN uses G-Sync, which is the Nvidia Adaptive sync technology, and will adjust your refresh rate to stay in sync with your GPU to eliminate tearing and similar issues.

Often with high-performance gaming monitors, resolution and color get put on the back burner for speed. The ASUS ROG Swift PG259QN is an FHD (1920×1080) display, which looks sharp on a monitor this size.

On the contrary, the color is a bit washed out and doesn’t have very good color fidelity, so you may want a second monitor for things like movies or video editing if you do any streaming. Besides that, the brightness is also very high, even on the lowest brightness setting, so this is probably going to be better suited for well-lit rooms.

For high-performing monitors, overheating can become an issue, so the custom heat sink offered by the PG259QN is extremely helpful. There’s also a blue-light filter, but that tends to wash out the colors and reduce color fidelity even further, so it’s only going to be worth it if that’s something you have a high sensitivity to.

The option for either a traditional stand or desk mount is nice, and the monitor comes with a good degree of adjustability, including rotation, which feels pretty limited in terms of usefulness.

In terms of connectivity, this monitor has a single display port and single HDMI port but does have two USB ports and an upstream USB port, giving you more connection options for peripherals. In addition, there’s a headphone jack, but no speakers, which we feel is a positive in the grand scheme of things. Built-in speakers are rarely any good and can distract from the core product both in terms of price and performance.

On the final note, the ASUS ROG warranty isn’t as comprehensive as we’d like for something that operates at this high of a level. It does cover both dead and bright pixels but has a strict requirement on how many and where they are that changes depending on how long you’ve had the monitor.

When it’s all said and done, the ASUS ROG Swift PG259QN is one of the fastest and most attractive gaming monitors currently available on the market. It does come with a higher price tag, but the combination of extreme performance, high quality, and beautiful design is well worth the money.

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2. Dell Alienware AW2521H

REASONS TO BUY

Blazing fast monitor
Extremely smooth display
High-quality build
Unique, futuristic design
Very bright
Wide viewing angles
Plenty of connectivity

REASONS TO AVOID

Poor warranty
Limited contrast

Our Rating: 9.7/10

Dell’s Alienware brand is one of the best-known gaming brands in the world, a reputation they’re continuing to fight hard to keep to this day. That effort pays off in the AW2521H, one of the fastest gaming monitors available in 2023.

At the moment, the fastest supported speed for monitors is 360Hz, so the top few spots on our list are a multi-way tie, at least when it comes to speed.

The 360hz speed offered by the Dell Alienware AW2521H is liquid-smooth and is going to be completely free from flickering. Its response time is also beautifully low, at 1ms GtG. Like with the refresh rate, anything lower than that is still in the experimental stage and is likely to come with a huge increase in price for a barely perceptible change in performance.

Like most of the other entries on our list, this is also a 24.5-inch FHD (1920×1080) monitor. Keep in mind that most monitors aren’t going to be able to meet the high-speed benchmarks at a larger size or higher resolution, meaning if you want extreme speeds, you’ll have to sacrifice some picture quality and screen real estate.

Speaking of picture quality, the Dell Alienware AW2521H is a bit better on color fidelity since it’s an IPS panel which is known for its richer colors, among other things. The contrast isn’t as good as it might be, so if you’re relying on sharp contrasts to notice opponents and stay competitive, this might not be as strong of an option.

Any gaming monitor is going to need some sort of adaptive sync, let alone one that can respond this quickly. The AW2521H is equipped with Nvidia G-sync to provide a smoother gaming experience for users with Nvidia GPUs.

For extra immersion, the AW2521H has RGB lights pre-installed, which can be easily synced with your overall lighting theme or can even be connected to what you’re experiencing on screen for an unforgettable in-depth experience.

The lights and high performance do make this a bit bulkier of a monitor. The stand is more than sturdy enough to handle it, but it’s not going to have the slim effect you may expect from modern monitors. Some of that is open space to better ventilate the heat sinks, so it’s not as heavy as it looks, but it’s still going to take up a bit more space.

Connectivity-wise, the Alienware AW2521H has one of the largest connection capacities of any monitor currently on the market. It has two HDMI ports, two DisplayPort connectors, and 4 USB ports. It has no speakers, something we’re mostly relieved about. There are advantages to having them, but they’re so minor that the increased quality you’d get from a dedicated speaker or headset massively outweighs them.

Unfortunately, the warranty is the first place this monitor really falls flat. It only covers bright pixels, so if a pixel goes dead, even fresh out of the box, it’s not covered by Dell’s warranty. The QC on Dell products, especially Alienware, tends to be pretty good, but we’d still appreciate the full warranty coverage.

Overall, the Dell Alienware AW2521H is an excellent monitor in every aspect and, again, one of the fastest ones currently available. It offers extreme speeds, lots of connectivity, and a unique design that will definitely stand out. The only thing that brings this monitor down a notch is its limited warranty. If that doesn’t bother you, you’ll love what this monitor can do for you.

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3. MSI Oculux NXG253R

REASONS TO BUY

Extremely fast gaming monitor
Good overall build quality
Sharp and bright display
Great color reproduction
Wide viewing angles
Lots of connectivity
Very thin bezel

REASONS TO AVOID

Complicated and limited warranty
Poor contrasts
Bit bulky

Our Rating: 9.6/10

The MSI Oculux NXG253R wastes very little time on frills and instead focuses entirely on delivering the highest level of gaming performance at a competitive price. It’s a successful bid, too, as it can go toe to toe with both of the top options on our list.

The core performance of the MSI Oculux NXG253R leaves nothing to be desired. It has a full 360hz refresh rate for incredibly smooth, up-to-the-moment gameplay and has a 1ms GtG response time.

Some outlets list the NXG253R as having a 0.5ms response time, which might be true in some contextual benchmarks but isn’t something that MSI guarantees in all contexts. 1ms GtG is still incredibly quick and is going to virtually eliminate all artifacts, ghosting, and all types of motion blur.

Similar to the Alienware above, the Oculux NXG253R is a rapid IPS panel display, which means that you’ll get high speeds, but will still get plenty of rich colors and wide viewing angles, making this a better choice for everyday use as well as competitive gaming. Plus, the FHD (1920×1080) resolution looks sharp on the 25-inch display.

Now, the colors can appear a little washed out in some parts of the color spectrum, and the contrast isn’t as sharp, but on the whole, it’s better than you’d get with a TN panel, the previous standard for high-performance monitors. It also uses Nvidia G-sync to remove the risk of tearing.

Design-wise, the Oculux NXG253R adds an LED bar on the back of the screen in an attempt at the immersive gaming backlight you see in some other monitors. It’s bright but a little off-center, so if that’s a big deal for you instead of a fun bonus feature, you might want to steer away from this one.

It’s also a bulky monitor and not as well-ventilated as it could be. If you’re trying to be conservative on space, the combination of the wide, square stand and bulky convex back is going to be a turn off. We didn’t notice any major issues with cooling resulting from the lesser ventilation, but marathon high-intensity gamers might start to notice a slight dip in performance as time goes on.

When it comes to connectivity, the two HDMI ports and one Display port will give you plenty of options for how you hook up your display, and the total of four USB ports is going to give you plenty of options on your peripherals. Plus, like most of the options on our list, there is an audio jack but no speakers.

MSI’s warranty is what we might call arcane. It covers your monitor for up to two years (though this can vary depending on where you purchased it), and while it covers both bright and dead pixels, it will need a different number of each.

All things considered, the MSI Oculux NXG253R is a great monitor with the same performance as both of our top picks above. It checks almost all the boxes, but we feel it lacks a little in the excitement category–there’s no reason why you should pick it before the Alienware AW2521H or the ROG PG259QN at the same price. However, if you’re an MSI fan and looking for the fastest gaming monitor there is, you just found it.

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4. Acer Predator X25 bmiiprzx

REASONS TO BUY

Extremely fast and smooth gaming monitor
Great color reproduction
Well constructed exterior
Attractive aesthetics
Thin display and bezel
Highly functional stand

REASONS TO AVOID

Limited warranty
Dim display
Mediocre-quality speakers

Our Rating: 9.5/10

Acer and ASUS share a lot of common ground. They’re both well-established in the gaming market and have a solid range of both premium and budget gaming gear.

The Acer Predator line is Acer’s premium gaming brand, and so the appearance of an ultra-fast gaming monitor from them was practically a matter of course. The Acer Predator X25 bmiiprzx is a 25-inch monitor that checks all the boxes we’ve been looking for in high-performance gaming monitors.

To start with, it has a 360hz refresh rate, which keeps your response time high with the fastest possible display speed. It also makes video and games incredibly smooth, to a degree that’s even noticeable over the already buttery-smooth display of 240hz monitors.

The response time is also the fastest available at 1ms GtG. Like a couple of other monitors on this list, we noticed that some outlets were advertising that as being even lower, which is possible in some contexts but isn’t going to be consistent enough in demanding applications like competitive gaming to reproduce that claim here. Plus, the use of Nvidia G-sync will eliminate tearing as a concern.

Now, the Predator X25 uses an IPS panel, which gives you decent colors, but we found it a bit lacking in the contrast department. The display is FHD (1920×1080), so you’ll get plenty of detail, and it will look sharp on the screen, but if you have any sort of creative or multimedia needs, it can feel a bit cramped.

Another downside, the X25 also isn’t a very bright monitor. It handles glare okay, but between the dimness and the poor contrast, you might feel like you’re not getting a lot out of the HD display, especially in well-lit rooms.

In terms of appearance, it does look like a premium monitor, though. The monitor itself is thinner than a lot of the other options we’ve looked at, and the stand is sturdy (if a bit over-engineered) and has a lot of functionality.

Similar to most monitors on this list, there’s plenty of options when it comes to connectivity here. There are a whopping 4 USB ports, plus a USB upstream port, one DisplayPort, and two HDMI ports. Sadly, Acer’s opted for two 2-watt speakers which are incredibly mediocre in terms of sound quality.

While we’re talking about frustrations, let’s take a look at Acer’s warranty. It’s a three-year warranty but centers around the phrase “noticeably affects device function” which, in practical terms, means that if pixels start to go out, there’s going to need to be several of them, with at least one centrally located.

All things considered, we have some minor misgivings about the Predator X25 bmiiprzx, especially considering the high price tag. It’s a perfectly functional monitor, and you won’t have to think too hard about it under regular use conditions, so we’d still recommend it, but it’s the first monitor on our list that we really had to ask if it was worth it. Ultimately we said yes, but you might feel better about it if you manage to get it on sale.

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5. Acer Nitro XV252Q Fbmiiprx

REASONS TO BUY

Sharp, bright display
Extreme performance for gaming
Budget-friendly price (compared to others)
Thin bezel
Compatibility with all GPUs

REASONS TO AVOID

The warranty isn’t great
Poor color and contrast
Limited connectivity
Boring looks

Our Rating: 9.3/10

The Nitro lineup contains Acer’s more budget-friendly gaming entries. In many cases, like the Nitro XV252Q Fbmiiprx, it’s not entirely obvious what you’re giving up to get the several hundred dollar reduction in price.

It’s certainly not any of the core metrics. The Nitro XV252Q Fbmiiprx has the same lighting fast refresh rate and response time we’ve been seeing from every other entry on this list so far.

At 360hz and a 1ms GtG refresh rate, you’re certainly not going to notice any difference when you’re in the middle of an intense game. It’s even got a minor overclocking capacity, so you could push that even higher if you’ve got the patience to fiddle with it.

Where you start to see some drawbacks is with color and contrast. This has been a common complaint about most of the monitors on this list, but the Nitro is noticeably worse. It even runs into issues with blacks being varied, which can really mess with your contrast and details. It also has pretty shoddy viewing angles for an IPS panel.

Construction, on the whole, is simple but has all the basic features we’re looking for in the centerpiece of a multi-monitor gaming setup. It’s a great gaming monitor, but the only thing that really stands out about it is how uninspiring it is when it comes to anything that’s not competitive gaming.

If you felt like some other monitors made some disappointing choices on connectivity, the Nitro doubles down on them. There are exactly two ports on the monitor: an audio jack and a display port. That’s probably all you were going to use anyway, but redundancy is always nice. The absence of speakers does give the impression that they weren’t looking to spend money on anything but the core performance.

We’re always a little warier of complicated warranties on budget options, so we have to give Acer’s complicated and restrictive warranty a bit more weight here. There’s a decent chance you could be living with a monitor with a few dead pixels before the right number and configuration go out.

Technically this is a good monitor; it’s just one we’re having trouble getting excited about. If you’re looking for the fastest gaming monitor and are also trying to make every dollar count, this is going to be a satisfactory choice. If you were already planning on a multi-monitor setup, then this could be a good way to keep the whole thing under $1000.

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READ ALSO: Best Monitors and TVs for Sim Racing

6. ASUS TUF Gaming VG279QM

REASONS TO BUY

Very budget-friendly
Still a very fast gaming monitor
High-quality construction
Enough connectivity
Good colors and viewing angles
Excellent response time

REASONS TO AVOID

The contrast is not as good
A slight decrease in refresh rate (280hz)
27 inches is the upper end of what 1080p will look good on

Our Rating: 9.1/10

Like Acer Nitro, ASUS’s TUF (The Ultimate Force) series focuses on providing a level of professional gaming quality while being within the budget of a wider percentage of the gaming population. The VG279QM dials the performance back a bit, but to a level that feels hardly noticeable considering the jump in price.

The TUF Gaming VG279QM is a 27-inch monitor with an FHD resolution and a 280hz refresh rate. If you were to start at a 360hz refresh rate and drop down to a 280hz, you’d probably notice the difference, but if you’re upgrading from a 120hz or 144hz, the jump to 280hz is going to feel incredible, and the only difference you’d probably see between that and a 360hz monitor is the hundreds of dollars in price.

The biggest thing we were worried about with the lower price tag on the VG279QM was response time. Often monitors at this price point will use a different metric to conceal their higher response time, but the VG279QM boasts a 1ms GtG just like every other monitor on this list.

Add in that this is a larger monitor, and you’re getting a highly responsive gaming experience and one that’s going to be more immersive and detailed than many of the other monitors on this list.

Further, this is an IPS panel monitor, which means that colors and viewing angles are typically going to be good, but contrasts and blacks won’t be as sharp as you might find on other panel technologies (or even some of the more detailed and expensive IPS panels).

Like most budget gaming monitors, the construction is pretty simple. They have managed to put a fun angular design on it, so it doesn’t look as blocky or bloated as some of its close competitors. The stand can make the appropriate height adjustments to make this part of a versatile multi-monitor setup.

ASUS did opt to include speakers on the TUF Gaming VG279QM 27, and they probably don’t make that much of a difference in price, but like most monitor speakers, you’re better off with a headset. We’d rather have the $10-20 speakers cost in our pocket.

Connectivity-wise, there are no USB ports, but you do get two HDMI ports and one DisplayPort, which puts us back in the realm of redundancy and versatility for your connection options.

Finally, the warranty on ASUS TUF isn’t any better than ROG, so if a pixel goes out, you better hope it’s an important one or that more are on the way. Otherwise, you’re stuck with it. If you’re worried about the panel lottery, you’ll probably want to buy from somewhere with a decent return policy.

The biggest thing to recommend the ASUS TUF Gaming VG279QM for is the price point. It’s well under half as much, down to a third in some cases, as some of the other monitors on this list, and it’s a larger screen. The drop in performance and image quality isn’t nearly as high as some of the other budget options out there. If you’re trying to save some money but still have a competitive gaming setup, this is a very solid choice.

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RELATED READING: Best Budget 1440p 144hz Gaming Monitors

7. Acer Predator XB253Q GWbmiiprzx

REASONS TO BUY

Overclockable to 280hz
Outstanding performance for gaming
Plenty of connectivity and customization
Sharp display
Rich colors
Stylish appearance

REASONS TO AVOID

Yellowish tint that needs some work to address
Limited warranty
Low-quality speakers
Poor contrast

Our Rating: 9.0/10

If you recall, Predator is Acer’s premium gaming brand, so you might be surprised to see one of them this low in the list. The Predator XB253Q GWbmiiprzx is going to be a hair below 360hz, so not quite as quick as the top monitors on this list, but still a very fast gaming monitor.

The XB253Q GWbmiiprzx has a refresh rate of 280hz, a difference from 360hz that’s only going to be noticeable if you’re already familiar with a monitor of that speed or looking at them next to each other simultaneously.

If you’re not already working with a 360hz, your eyes are going to register the 280hz refresh rate as incredibly smooth, and it’s extremely rare that you’d notice any sort of difference in gaming performance.

Again, the response time is exactly what we’re looking for in this list: 1ms GtG, which is going to eliminate any motion blurring or other effects that will make the monitor feel slow and cheap.

In addition, the monitor uses an IPS panel, which is usually pretty good on colors, but this particular model has a yellowish tint. This is fixable but is going to require playing with your color and light balances to get it to a level of color accuracy that most monitors have coming out of the box. The contrasts are also not as sharp as you might hope for.

In terms of aesthetics, the frame has a built-in lighting bar, which can be used to augment in-game effects or just to further customize your gaming experience. Further, it advertises a zero-frame construction, and while the bezel is minimal, it’s not that much less than most monitors. The inclusion of two very average speakers is driving the price up a bit here, but only by a small amount.

You’ll be happy to see plenty of connection options in a monitor at this price point. There are four USB ports, an HDMI port, a DisplayPort, and a USB Upstream port. That’s a good level of support for extra devices or display options regardless of what price point you’re at.

The warranty here is once again going to hinge on you having multiple centrally located pixels die or go hot, which could put you in a frustrating situation.

Overall, the Predator XB253Q is another solid option if you’re looking for a fast gaming monitor that’s going to be within reach of a lower budget. The color issue is irritating but can be fixed with some patience, and the contrast isn’t noticeably worse than most other monitors. With that being said, this isn’t the fastest monitor on the market, and if that’s what you’re specifically looking for, you should consider a monitor from the top of this list.

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Final Words

There you have it. These are the 7 fastest gaming monitors available on the market in 2023.

The two metrics that are going to affect your gaming performance the most are refresh rate and response time. Other factors can affect your enjoyment, but those will have a direct effect on how well your monitor performs.

We’d recommend anything 240hz or higher for the refresh rate, though, of course, 360hz is ideal, considering it’s the highest available on the market currently.

Response time can be a bit trickier. You’ll want to make sure you’re getting at least 1ms GtG. Make sure it’s GtG and not MPRT, which is closer to 6ms GtG, or VRB, which can be 10ms or higher.

If this is your first monitor that’s approaching these speeds, you’ll be shocked at the difference!

7 Fastest Gaming Monitors in 2023 – Extreme Performance for Competitive Gamers

Fastest Gaming Monitors in 2023 Round-Up

1. ASUS ROG Swift PG259QN

2. Dell Alienware AW2521H

3. MSI Oculux NXG253R

4. Acer Predator X25 bmiiprzx

5. Acer Nitro XV252Q Fbmiiprx

6. ASUS TUF Gaming VG279QM

7. Acer Predator XB253Q GWbmiiprzx

Final Words

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