Best Monitors For CS:GO Players – 2023 Round-up

Best Overall:
Acer G226HQL 21.5-Inch Screen

The Acer GN246HL is one of many products offered by the computer giant known as Acer. In this budget offering from the company, we get many features that CS:GO players will love.

Chief among these features is the super-quick, 1 ms response time of the monitor. This response time will allow for quick and latency-free gameplay, which will make it easier to spot objectives and enemies in heated matches. That’s impressive, but what really sets this monitor apart is the fact that it also features a 144hz response rate, which is almost unheard of at this price range!

For those looking for many connection options, the GN246HL has ports for multiple HD options, such as VGA, HDMI, and DVI, as well as the ability to connect smart devices to your monitor if you so choose. In addition to this, the monitor is very energy efficient, meaning you won’t drive up the electric bill too much while using it.

As far as drawbacks, users of the monitor tend to have issues concerning the brightness of the screen, with some reporting that it either comes out too bright or too dim, with adjustment of the settings doing little to remedy the issue. But, just like the bears and their porridge, more often than not, you will find a monitor whose brightness is just right. The bezels are also a tad bit too big for my tastes!

Despite this issue and the small problem of no built-in speakers, there isn’t much negative to talk about with the Acer GN246HL, making it a great choice for CS:GO players on a budget looking for lightning-quick gameplay.

Best High-End Monitor for CS:GO
Acer Predator Z35P 35″ Gaming Monitor

When playing CS:GO, you may oftentimes find yourself feeling like a “predator” as you stalk your enemies and take them down, so why not have a monitor that helps you feel this way? This is exactly what the aptly named Acer Predator Z35P does!

The curved display and NVIDIA auto-syncing capability of this monitor help you to immerse yourself in your game by surrounding you with sharp colors at a smooth frame rate. If you need even more immersion than you already get with this, the Predator comes built with two high-end speakers that give you unparalleled sound to go with your visuals.

Should something not seem right with the colors displayed on-screen, the Predator has an option that caters to gamers that allows them to customize color intensity, darkness, and in-game displays. These custom pallets can then be saved to one of four profiles, allowing you to switch to your custom setup at the press of a button.

One caveat of the visual provided by the Predator is the potential for some motion blurring on-screen. While by no means is this blurring too severe, it can cause a bit of a distraction while you are in the middle of a match, and can easily take you off of your CS:GO game.

This one problem aside, there is a lot of value to be found with this monitor. While the price may be a bit high for this product, the Acer Predator is a gaming monitor that can help take your CS:GO game to the next level.

3. Dell Gaming S2716DG 27.0″ Gaming Monitor

With as many computer products as Dell produces, it is surprising that their offering of good CS:GO monitors is fairly limited. Even so, they do have at least one good offering for CS:GO players in the form of their high-end Gaming S2716DG.

This Dell monitor uses a “Quad-HD” (or QHD) display. While this isn’t quite the quality of 4K, it still gives a picture that is clear enough to put other HD monitors to shame. Making the visual quality even better is the fact that this monitor has one of the best G-sync capabilities around, with nearly zero lag, even if the monitor is used in multi-monitor setups.

While we are talking about good CS:GO monitors today, sometimes the need might arise to play some console gaming. The Dell Gaming monitor is compatible with all of today’s modern home consoles, which makes this monitor a great choice for the CS:GO gamer that likes to dabble a bit in some console exclusives.

For the price of the monitor, the Dell has a fairly poor contrast ratio at 1000:1, which is much lower than other monitors in the price range. Probably as a result of this, the monitor’s colors are not as bright and vibrant as they could be, appearing a bit dull.

While there are a few options out there likely a bit better than the Dell Gaming monitor, this monitor does have a lot to offer gamers with its super-fast frame rate and clear image that make every CS:GO match a joy to witness.

4. ASUS 24-Inch Full HD FreeSync Gaming Monitor

ASUS is another name that is very familiar to the PC gaming crowd, providing many quality monitors and other computer products to the consumer. One such product is this budget monitor, the Full HD FreeSync Gaming Monitor.

The FreeSync gets its name from the monitor’s ability to automatically sync up with whatever graphics card your gaming build might be using. This allows you to jump right into a CS:GO match without too much need for adjusting the monitor’s settings.

Should you choose to adjust the settings for your monitor, you will find a plethora of visual options available to you designed with games in mind to give your experience the most vibrant, clear, color options available. Added options to help your viewing experience include the use of “Eye Care” technology to help reduce eye-strain while gaming and a full-swivel base that allows you to get the best angle to snipe the opponent.

Of these visual options, the only bad ones are those for low-light settings, as these settings tend to wash out the colors on-screen, creating muddy and unclear visuals. In addition to this, while HDMI support is very welcome, there is no support for users looking to connect through DVI, as there exists no port for this connection.

When you play CS:GO, you will want monitors that can provide you with clear, fast, lag-free visuals. You get all that and more at a great price with the ASUS Full-HD FreeSync Gaming Monitor.

5. Samsung CF390 Curved 32-Inch Monitor

These days, Samsung is a company that is more well known for its phones and smart devices, but they also offer a lot of quality electronics in other departments, as well, including computer monitors. These monitors include selections such as this gaming monitor, the Samsung CF390.

Featuring a curved screen and a 3000:1 contrast ratio, the CF390 immerses you in your game like few others. These two features allow you to be surrounded by your games, which will be detailed in vibrant, deep colors, giving you the feeling of being right there on the front lines.

With vibrant colors such as these come a few downsides, namely that the monitor can be susceptible to dead pixels, which can create bleeding and an ugly aesthetic on-screen. Luckily, this occurrence doesn’t happen to everyone, and can sometimes be avoided altogether using the monitor’s low-light mode, which dims the screen a bit and also prevents eyestrain.

Setup of the monitor is very easy as well, thanks to the auto-sync ability. This allows the monitor to automatically sync up with your graphics card, letting you spend less time adjusting settings and more time racking up frags.

What seems to be a ghost that haunts Samsung, and effects this monitor as well, is that sometimes the product can arrive defective, but this issue is easily remedied with a quick return of the item to the manufacturer. Problems such as this should not turn you off from trying this monitor because otherwise, you would miss out on one of the best and brightest gaming monitors you can buy in the Samsung CF390.

6. LG Electronics UM57 25-Inch Monitor

Our next budget monitor comes courtesy of LG Electronics with their 25UM57 monitor, and it is a monitor that, despite the price, will give you even more than you could want if you are a CS:GO player.

This monitor has 21:9 “Ultrawide” HD support, which gives a wide-screen experience unlike any you can find elsewhere. This also allows the monitor to display split-screen up to four ways, allowing you to easily have chat dialog windows open while in a match on another part of the screen.

Should you use multi-monitor displays or want to view the screen from various angles, the screen is able to keep colors bright and accurate, allowing for clear viewing from every direction. For those who are more eco-conscious, this monitor is Energy Star approved, meaning it will not consume much electricity while in use.

With the good of the LG 25UM57, unfortunately comes the bad, which includes the fact that there are only ports for HDMI connections on the monitor. An even bigger issue than this, however, is that this monitor has some longevity issues, with some users reporting dead pixels and monitor failure within months of making a purchase.

This can make the LG 25UM57 a bit of a gamble to take, but it is one that can pay off with some of the best visuals available from a budget monitor.

7. ASUS VX238H 23-Inch Full HD Wide-Screen Gaming Monitor

ASUS has more than one trick up its sleeve when it comes to gaming monitors, and they bring us another great budget option for CS:GO players with their wide-screen offering.

This lightweight monitor has a great contrast ratio for a budget monitor at 80,000,000:1, providing sharp colors and deep blacks. Despite the vibrancy this contrast provides your games, the monitor still maintains a fast, 1 ms response time, giving you a latency-free gaming experience.

If you happen to be lacking speakers of your own, you will be happy to know there are two HDMI-compatible speakers built into the monitor. These speakers are not of the best quality and are sometimes very quiet, but they provide a viable option for those looking to save some cash on buying speakers for their build.

If there is anything to knock against the ASUS Wide-Screen, it is that it is impossible to mount on a wall out of the box. This means that some jimmy-rigging is required, but is overall, is not a major negative.

For what it is capable of directly out of the box, the ASUS Full HD Wide-Screen Gaming Monitor is more than worth the purchase, giving players of CS:GO and other games more quality than a lot of other monitors in the price range.

8. AOC AG241QX Agon 24″ Gaming Monitor

When it comes to mid-range monitors for CS:GO, you want something that will give you more gaming potential than your average monitor. Luckily, that is just what you get with the nearly-flawless AOC AG241QX Agon.

The Agon has an unbelievable 2560×1440 resolution, which, in combination with a 50 mil:1 contrast ratio, brings your CS:GO matches to life in high-quality HD and bright colors. To help give your game immersive sound along with the visuals, the monitor includes many options for audio, including headphone-out, PC audio-in, and both built-in and external speaker support.

A wide range of options are further given to the player thanks to the many ports for HDMI, DVI, and VGA connections, as well as a plethora of USB ports. If you are looking to adjust the pivot and height of your monitor, or want to wall-mount the product, the Agon is fully adjustable to the player’s needs, with a full-swivel stand and wall mounting capability out of the box.

AOC certainly outdid themselves with this offering, with the AG241QX Agon being one of the best and most immersive mid-range monitors for CS:GO players.

9. BenQ ZOWIE XL2411 Professional Gaming Monitor

If anything, the BenQ Zowie gets your attention immediately with its outlandish name alone. Spend a little time with this mid-range monitor, however, and you will see that there is a lot more here that deserves your attention.

For starters, the preset resolution options for many different genres of games, including first-person shooters. This gives the user a visual presentation suited to the game they are playing at the time, giving games like CS:GO the attention to detail and depth of field you need in competitive play.

To help you to see in dark areas in game, the Zowie has a built-in feature that automatically adjusts darkness, allowing for improved visibility. If you want to further customize your own viewing experience, the Zowie has image-scaling options, which allows you to adjust the size of the on-screen display, which makes this monitor a great option for displaying multiple screens at once.

The only major knock against the Zowie is that the monitor is advertised as having a refresh rate of 144hz, when in reality this number is much lower at 60hz. This would not have been much of an issue had the company put the right numbers up in its advertisement, but it is worth mentioning so potential buyers are not led astray.

With the amount of versatility this monitor has for gamers, including those who may choose to play on home consoles, it’s no wonder this is one of the best monitors available. For the choice of multiple options to give you the edge in CS:GO, the BenQ Zowie will not disappoint!

10. ASUS PB287Q 28″ 4K Gaming Monitor

ASUS once again shows up in our article on CS:GO monitors, this time with their mid-range option known as the PB287Q.

While this is technically a mid-range monitor, the price is $399 dollars, meaning that after tax and shipping, this item can come up above our mid-range $400 dollar mark. This price is worth every penny when considering the full 4K HD support and multitude of visual options.

This wide range of options includes many custom color set-ups for gamers, including presets that cater to FPS games such as CS:GO. The image quality is maintained, even when using the included picture-in-picture option, which allows viewing of multiple screens at once, and the included Eye-Care visual options which help to reduce eye strain.

What does affect the picture quality of the monitor is an unfortunate back-light bleeding issue that has plagued a number of users. The backlight bleeding makes the image on screen lose its quality over time and has caused many gamers a few headaches.

Thankfully, ASUS has included a three-year warranty and free return shipping that can help put worries at ease if this problem arises. For this reason, it is worth taking a chance on the ASUS PB287Q, because it gives you many 4K resolution benefits that far outweigh the negatives.

11. AOC G2460PF 24-Inch Professional Gaming Monitor

Frames-per-second is an important aspect of many games, especially CS:GO, where smooth frame rates can help give you the edge. This is why having a monitor that can boast smooth frame rate is essential and is something that helps make the AOC G2460PF a strong choice of a mid-range monitor.

This monitor sports an impressive 144hz response rate, which helps to display the maximum possible frame rate on screen without tearing or distortion. This is aided by the AMD-Compatible FreeSync technology that the monitor has, which will adapt to your graphics card to give you the best possible high-speed gaming experience.

This impressive speed does come at the cost of the colors on screen, however, with some of the colors being a bit washed out and duller than some other monitors in the price range. This downside can be a big deal for making out certain objects on screen, but with the smooth FPS provided by the FreeSync and the response time, this problem equals itself out a bit.

With the many ports on this monitor, including a fast-charge USB port, you have many display and add-on options available to you, including the capability of substituting the sub-par, built-in speakers of the monitor. For those who have a need to adjust their monitor to their specifications, the monitor’s base is fully adjustable for tilt and height, and the option to wall mount is there if you so choose.

Even though this may not be the best monitor for those looking for bright and vibrant color options, the high-speed potential of this monitor can not be overstated. This is why we highly recommend the AOC G2460PF.

12. ASUS VG278HV 27-inch Gaming Monitor

While many of the monitors we've covered today have plenty of visual options available to CS:GO players, there aren’t as many that have the kind of unique features you can get with the ASUS VG248QE, which bills itself as the “de facto tournament monitor for eSports”.

The unique features we are talking about come from the “GamePlus” options the monitor is included with. “GamePlus” allows gamers to hotkey various different types of on-screen cross-hairs for their game, as well as allows you to view in-game information such as spawn time, which is information that any CS:GO player would like to have on hand.

While playing the game, you will be allowed to get fast and high frame rates thanks to the 144Hz refresh and 1ms response rate of the monitor. This option is only available to those using non-AMD brand GPU, however, as the monitor is not compatible with any AMD products.

One issue with the monitor that has affected a few users is the problem of dead pixels, which create a distraction while gaming and can make your display ugly. While this issue has cropped up a few times, it does not appear to be widespread enough to cause much concern.

With the unique options available to the consumer, the ASUS VG248QE is a monitor that most CS:GO gamers will want to take a look at, and is a mid-range monitor that lives up to its claim of being the “de facto tournament monitor for eSports”.

13. Asus ROG PG348Q 34″ Ultra-Wide Curved Gaming Monitor

When you are looking to buy a high-end monitor for CS:GO, you want something that gives you a field of view and speed that you can’t get with cheaper monitors. For these features, look no further than the Asus ROG PG348Q.

The PG348Q has a wide, curved screen that allows you to become immersed in your games. With the addition of G-Sync capability, which allows you to sync your GPU with your monitor, and the ability to adjust your frame rate with the press of a button, you will get a clear and consistent image that will let you spot obstacles anywhere around you without issue.

Much like other monitors, this ASUS monitor gives you a full range of motion from its base, allowing you to adjust it to your liking. No matter what height or angle you choose, the image on screen will not lose its intensity, as it maintains its color from every direction.

While the range of motion the base provides is good, the base itself is quite large and can take up a good amount of space on your desk. Another issue you may also come across with this monitor is that, should you put the monitor into sleep mode, you may find that you will need to power cycle your monitor to get your signal back.

Even though the loss of signal is not desirable, it isn’t a big enough issue to detract from an otherwise great monitor. The ASUS PG348Q is, without question, one of the best monitors for CS:GO, giving players the performance they need for intense competition.

14. AOC AG241QG Agon 24″ Gaming Monitor

When it comes to gaming monitors, there are those that can easily display higher frame rates and those that can overclock said frame rates even further. Then there are monitors like the AOC AG421QG, which can take your games to speeds never seen before.

While most monitors have anywhere from 60Hz to 140Hz refresh rate, this AOC monitor has a whopping refresh rate of 165Hz! This combines with auto syncing and a 1 ms response time to give you high fps and low latency with beautiful and clear colors.

To make your gaming experience even more visible, there are easy-to-use, built-in shadow adjustment features on this monitor, which allow you to adjust your contrast to see better in dark areas. Other built-in features of this AOC monitor are multiple display options for different HD connections and many USB ports for potential add-ons.

You get all this for a price that is barely over the $400 mark, making this one of the more affordable high-end options available. If you ever wanted to see what high-end gaming looks and feels like, the AOC AG421QG may be the most accessible option available.

15. Acer Predator XB281HK NVIDIA G-Sync Monitor

Admittedly, at first glance, there is not much about the Acer Predator XB281HK that sets it apart from the competition. It has very much the same full range of positioning options, bright colors, and multiple connection and USB ports that many others have. So what exactly does this monitor have to offer that makes it worth the price?

The answer is the high-quality of the video display. The XB281HK is a full 4K HD monitor, which will give you a picture on the screen that is just as crisp as the colors. This combines with the 3840×2160 wide-screen to give you a clear view of the entire playing field.

While this is certainly a great feature to have, there isn’t much else too unique about this monitor. That said, you will still get a lot of what you are looking for in a monitor, including the aforementioned ports for USB devices and different HD connections, and fast refresh and response rates for latency-free gameplay.

Setup could be a bit easier with this monitor. The menus and calibration options available on the monitor can be a bit confusing to use and hard to navigate, making it a bit hard to get your settings just right.

Once everything is set up, you will find that this monitor is a joy to use. Clarity and range of view can help decide many games of CS:GO, and these are features you get in spades with the Acer Predator XB281HK.

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