If you’re willing to buy a new monitor, variable refresh rate is one of the best upgrades features you can get. Known as G-Sync on the Nvidia side and FreeSync on the AMD side, they reduce screen tearing and sync your monitor’s refresh rate with your video card’s output for a smoother experience. While FreeSync are easy to come by and affordable, monitors with NVIDIA’s G-Sync are always more expensive, leaving budget-minded GTX users out in the cold, until just recently.
At CES 2019, Nvidia announced that it was bringing G-Sync compatibility to some FreeSync monitors with a new driver update. Since then, they’ve officially validated numerous monitors as “G-Sync compatible,” but anyone can enable variable refresh rate (VRR) if they have the latest Nvidia drivers and a FreeSync-enabled display—and many have found certain uncertified monitors to work just fine.
We've researched many G-Sync compatible monitors—both certified and uncertified—to round up the best ones you can buy. There may be others that work beyond the ones on this list that folks haven’t discovered yet, and it seems likely that NVIDIA’s supported list will continue to grow. But for now, there's still a pretty decent selection – and click here to see them in the UK. You can also find some great deals with the certified refurbished computer monitors on eBay.
TL;DR – These are the Best G-Sync Compatible Gaming Monitors:
- Asus TUF Gaming VG27AQL1A
- Monoprice 27" Zero-G Curved
- LG UltraGear 27GN950-B
- Gigabyte Aorus FV43U
- Asus ROG Strix XG279Q
- Asus TUF Gaming VG259QR
- LG UltraGear 34GP950G
- Samsung Odyssey Neo G9
1. Asus TUF Gaming VG27AQL1A
Best G-Sync Compatible Gaming Monitor
The amount you can save by going with a G-Sync compatible monitor instead of an official model means you can get a lot more in terms of other specs. The Asus TUF Gaming VG27AQL1A is a testament to that, as this reasonably priced monitor comes with some impressive capabilities. It all starts with a 27-inch display offering the oh-so-satisfying 1440p resolution. Asus puts it on a stand that can adjust its height, swivel, tilt, and pivot. With three inputs, the monitor is also ready for a computer and a pair of game consoles. It even offers USB passthrough for tidy cable management at your desk.
The monitor uses a colorful IPS panel that can display a 10-bit color depth. Asus tops that color off with HDR support backed by a 470-nit peak brightness. Naturally, a quality gaming monitor needs some speed behind it, and this display can cruise with a refresh rate of up to 170Hz, and you get all the smoothing capabilities of either FreeSync or G-Sync compatibility.
2. Monoprice 27" Zero-G Curved Gaming Monitor
Best Budget G-Sync Compatible Gaming Monitor
So, you're on a budget and want to see what kind of hardware you can get without breaking the bank? Well, if you look in the right places, you can get quite a bit. For a bit over $200, you can get a gaming monitor that won't leave you feeling like you've scraped the bottom of the barrel. The Monoprice 27-inch Zero-G Curved Gaming Monitor comes at such a low price, it's shocking how it has managed to deliver an upgrade over the standard budget displays in a bunch of key areas.
This monitor doesn't settle for 24-inches or 1080p but instead ups it to 27-inches and 1440p, a particular sweet spot. It also ensures you're up to speed with a 144Hz refresh rate and Adaptive Sync, giving you the option to turn on G-Sync. The monitor uses a VA panel that actually hits peak brightness levels as high as 400 nits while offering better contrast ratios than a budget IPS or TN panel might, though it does come with a tradeoff to pixel response time.
3. LG UltraGear 27GN950-B
Best HDR FreeSync Gaming Monitor for Nvidia GPUs
One great thing about grabbing a G-Sync Compatible monitor is that you can take the money you're saving by skipping a proper G-Sync module and throw it into other technology, like HDR. The LG UltraGear 27GN950-B (read our review) is a great option for that, delivering a 4K HDR gaming experience for just $800. This monitor uses an IPS panel with support for 10-bit color and a 600-nit peak brightness, giving you you plenty of color and luminance to enjoy HDR content, whether it be movies, TV, or games.
This monitor even borrows some tricks from TVs by using 16 local dimming zones to achieve more contrast across the display than a traditional IPS panel would muster. And all the while, the LG UltraGear 27GN950-B will let you enjoy those visuals alongside a 144Hz refresh rate and 1ms response time, giving you an excellent blend of visual and motion clarity. LG even tops off the package with a nifty backlighting feature that glows to match what's on screen, giving your room a bit of ambiance.
4. Gigabyte Aorus FV43U
Best 4K G-Sync Compatible Gaming Monitor
The Gigabyte Aorus FV43U goes big in more ways than one. The most obvious is in its size, as this gaming monitor stretches a staggering 43 inches. That big screen will make the 8+ million pixels really worthwhile, as they’ll help ensure you still get a high pixel density for sharp visuals. Gigabyte makes those pixels really shine, too, as this gaming monitor can hit brightness levels up to 1,000-nits, blowing a lot of gaming monitors out of the water.
The high brightness potential of this display can be put to use for quality HDR visuals backed by a 10-bit color depth alongside a 4,000:1 contrast ratio. So, your games clearly will look great, but they can also play fluidly thanks to a 144Hz refresh rate, a 1ms response time, and G-Sync support to avoid tearing. With HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 1.4, you’ll get to use this monitor for PC gaming and console gaming alike.
5. Asus ROG Strix XG279Q
Best 1440p G-Sync Compatible Gaming Monitor
Give yourself a break from trying to figure out if those little pixels on your screen are an enemy player. With a bigger, 27" 1440p monitor, you'll hit a sweet spot where enemies are bigger, sharper, and easier to see. The Asus ROG Strix XG279Q is ready to help you out on that front, and it can do so with excellent performance to boot.
The Asus ROG Strix XG279Q can display up to 170fps when it's overclocked, giving you even smoother gaming. And, when you don't hit those high frame rates, it can smooth your games out with G-Sync. It's not just sharp and smooth, though. With 400 nits of brightness, it's also going to be clear in brighter settings.
6. Asus TUF Gaming VG259QR
Best 1080p G-Sync Compatible Gaming Monitor
4K and 1440p get plenty of hype, and there's a good reason for that, but if your system isn't ready to handle the extra resolution, 1080p still has its perks. The Asus TUF Gaming VG259QR puts forward a strong case for 1080p, as this monitor delivers on affordability at just $240 while dialing your gaming experience up with a 165Hz refresh rate. Since 1080p is much easier for a gaming system to handle, you can more easily get high frame rates, and this monitor will let you take advantage of that to see more of the action in fast-paced games.
The Asus TUF Gaming VG259QR helps keep the visuals clean with G-Sync support, and a 1ms response time should cut down on distracting visual artifacts. With two HDMI ports and a DisplayPort, you can also set this monitor up at the heart of a multi-system battle station to go conveniently from PC to Xbox to PlayStation and back.
7. LG UltraGear 34GP950G
Best Ultrawide G-Sync Compatible Gaming Monitor
The LG UltraGear 34GP950G is an impressive monitor on many counts. It’s not only boasting a massive display with an ever-so-subtle curvature, but also the speeds you need for gaming and the picture quality you’ll want for everything else. The LG UltraGear 34GP950G’s 34-inch Nano IPS panel can cruise at 144Hz if you’re content to settle for the basics, but it also supports an overclocked mode that’ll boost that to 180Hz. Whatever you choose, you can sync the refresh rate to your framerate with G-Sync Ultimate on deck.
The panel gets plenty bright at up to 600 nits, and it pairs that brightness with dazzling color using a 10-bit color depth that helps it cover 98% of the cinematic DCI-P3 color space. This will let you enjoy vibrant content from games to movies and TV. LG sits this all on an adjustable stand and even offers built-in bias lighting with an RGB light ring on the back that can sync to the on-screen action.
8. Samsung Odyssey Neo G9
Best Superwide G-Sync Compatible Gaming Monitor
You’re not just going to want G-Sync compatibility on this monitor. You’re probably going to need it. The Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 (read our review) is a monster of an ultra-wide monitor, going beyond the typical 21:9 to stretch out wide at a 32:9 aspect ratio with a nearly 49-inch display. That adds up to a whopping 5,120 x 1,440 resolution.
You’ll need a fairly beefy machine to make the most of this display, especially because it’ll let you run those 7+ million pixels at up to 240Hz. The image you get out of the display will also be particularly stunning with its 2,000-nit peak brightness, 3,000:1 contrast ratio, and 10-bit color depth, giving you HDR like you’ve never seen before on a gaming monitor. So, get ready to put that G-Sync capability to use, as you’ll want it to avoid stutter and tearing, at least until a graphics card comes along that can keep up with this monitor.
Where to Get the Best G-Sync Compatible Gaming Monitors in the UK
What to Look For in a G-Sync Compatible Gaming Monitor
Luckily for you it's pretty easy to start your search for a G-Sync compatible gaming monitor because Nvidia keeps a constantly updating list of them on its website. You can pretty much refer to this list as a starting point. While there are 50 of them currently on the list, you can whittle down your options pretty quickly just by thinking about what screen size, refresh rate, and panel type you want.
One important thing to note about Nvidia's list of G-Sync compatible displays is they only include models that have been officially certified. There are plenty of gaming monitors out there that haven't gone through the process—or really paid to be certified.
Gigabyte has told us that pretty much every one of its Freesync gaming monitors has been designed to work with Nvidia GPUs and G-Sync. From the ones we've tested, we can confirm this is true.
There are plenty of other gaming monitors out there that will also G-Sync even if they haven't been certified—heck you can technically turn it on with any monitor that supports adaptive sync. Be aware, though, that your results may vary, and in some cases turning on G-Sync on an untested monitor could introduce stutters and other graphical glitches.
If you want to skip all that experimentation, you can just look at our list as we've included only officially certified G-Sync Compatible gaming monitors or those we've tested ourselves.
Looking for more monitor info? Be sure to check out our list of the best 240Hz monitors, or check out the best 4K gaming monitors, if you're looking to spend your tax refund. Don't forget to check out our guide to the best computer desks, so you have somewhere to rest your new display.
Kevin Lee is IGN's Hardware and Roundups Editor. Follow him on Twitter @baggingspam
Mark Knapp is a regular contributor to IGN and an irregular Tweeter on Twitter @Techn0Mark
