Today, the very best TVs for gaming aren’t a lot totally different from the very best TVs you should buy as an entire. However when you’re hoping to make your PlayStation 5 or Xbox Sequence X video games look their finest, there are a couple of key options to remember. That can assist you get probably the most out of your lounge setup, we’ve damaged down a couple of suggestions for getting an excellent gaming TV and picked out a couple of well-reviewed choices from throughout the worth spectrum.

What to search for in a gaming TV

Whether or not you utilize it for gaming or not, all good TVs are constructed on the identical foundations. You desire a 4K decision, sufficient brightness to beat glare, a comparatively excessive distinction ratio with deep and uniform black tones, broad viewing angles and colours that discover the best steadiness between accuracy and saturation. For video video games particularly, the perfect TV has a 120Hz refresh charge (or larger), VRR assist, minimal enter lag and quick movement response, with no blur or different undesirable artifacts behind quick-moving objects. After all, discovering a set that does all of this properly and suits into your price range might be difficult.

OLED and LCD

For now, high OLED TVs usually supply the very best image high quality for gaming or in any other case. However good OLED units normally price greater than their LCD counterparts, and a few fashions could not get shiny sufficient for many who have their TV set in a very shiny room.

Extra particularly, trendy OLED TVs could make the most of several types of OLED show tech: WOLED (i.e., “White OLED”) or the newer QD-OLED. We received’t dig too deep into how the two diverge in panel composition and subpixel construction, however the simplified model is that QD-OLED shows use a layer of quantum dots (therefore the “QD”) to ship a wider gamut of extra vibrant colours than conventional WOLED units.

This doesn’t imply all QD-OLED TVs are inherently higher: How properly a person set performs is extra vital than the panel it makes use of, and a few premium WOLED TVs just like the LG G5 use a brand new “four-stack” structure to enhance shade purity and brightness. (Different fashions have used a show tech referred to as Micro Lens Array (MLA) to tremendously increase brightness as properly.) Sure WOLED TVs may additionally deal with reflections higher or retain deeper black tones in a shiny room. And both method, just about all OLED TVs share the identical core strengths.

For those who go for an LCD TV — whether or not to save lots of money or stick in room with poor mild management — a complicated backlight with smaller and extra exact mini LEDs and efficient full-array local dimming will normally enhance distinction and lighting element. Many of those TVs, together with some budget-level fashions, additionally use quantum dots to boost colours (and are labeled as “QLED” TVs). They normally aren’t as vivid or quick in movement as the highest OLED units, however they’re usually brighter and extra reasonably priced, and the very best can nonetheless produce a wonderful picture in their very own proper.

HDMI 2.1

To get probably the most out of a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Sequence X/S, your TV ought to have full HDMI 2.1 assist. This replace to the HDMI spec permits a better most bandwidth — 48 gigabits per second, up from HDMI 2.0’s 18 Gbps — and a handful of options which can be helpful for gaming efficiency particularly. These embrace variable refresh charge (VRR) and automated low latency mode (ALLM), which we element additional beneath.

Past that, maybe the chief perk of HDMI 2.1 is its capacity to transmit sharp 4K video as much as a 120Hz refresh charge with trendy consoles just like the PS5 and Xbox Sequence X, or as much as 144Hz with a strong gaming PC. Not each PS5 or Xbox Series X/S sport helps body charges that top — and a few solely do at decrease resolutions — however people who do will feel and appear particularly fluid in movement. HDMI 2.1 additionally contains assist for Enhanced Audio Return Channel (eARC), which lets you move higher-quality lossless audio from a supply machine linked to the TV to a appropriate soundbar or receiver.

The extra full HDMI 2.1 ports your TV has, the higher. “Full” is the important thing phrase there. As reported by TFT Central, as a result of HDMI 2.1 is backwards appropriate with HDMI 2.0, TV and monitor producers have been allowed to model HDMI ports as “HDMI 2.1” even when they lack full (or any) assist for the spec’s upgraded options. We suggest a couple of TVs beneath which have true HDMI 2.1 ports, however when you’re shopping for a brand new TV for gaming, make sure that your chosen set isn’t attempting to cover any capabilities chances are you’ll think about important.

Whereas HDMI 2.1 is the most recent and biggest in the present day, it’s price noting that the HDMI Discussion board officially revealed a brand new HDMI 2.2 spec at CES 2025. This replace guarantees a higher most bandwidth of 96 Gbps, which ought to technically allow even larger refresh charges and resolutions. It might additionally assist scale back hiccups in audio and video syncing (i.e., annoying lip-sync errors). If historical past is any indication, although, we’re nonetheless a bit away from HDMI 2.2 ports showing on TVs you’ll be able to truly purchase. Even then, the one individuals who might make the most of the theoretical resolutions and refresh charges allowed by the spec are those that join a super-powerful gaming PC to their TV. However this might at all times change with regardless of the subsequent PlayStation and Xbox consoles carry.

HDR — Excessive Dynamic Vary

HDR refers to a TV’s capacity to show a wider vary between the darkest and brightest elements of an image. This will carry out particulars that will in any other case be lacking on a regular dynamic vary (SDR) TV, in each the very darkish and (particularly) very shiny areas of a picture. HDR usually comes with an enchancment to paint replica as properly, displaying a bigger palette of extra vibrant colours that brings content material nearer to its creator’s authentic imaginative and prescient.

To get an HDR image, you want each content material that’s mastered to make the most of the tech and a TV able to displaying that content material. HDR additionally is available in a wide range of codecs, that are usually break up between people who make the most of static metadata (e.g., HDR10) and people who make the most of dynamic metadata (e.g., HDR10+, Dolby Imaginative and prescient). In brief, the latter permits a TV to optimize its brightness and colours on a per-scene and even per-frame foundation, whereas the previous makes use of one set of optimized settings for everything of the given content material. Help for these codecs can differ relying on the TV, content material and sport console you utilize. The Xbox Sequence X and S, for instance, assist Dolby Vision for gaming, whereas the PS5 doesn’t.

The excellent news is that the majority TVs you’d purchase in the present day are HDR-ready in some trend, even on the price range finish of the market. The catch is that some TVs are a lot better at getting probably the most out of HDR than others. The identical goes for precise content material mastered in HDR. With video video games specifically, there aren’t fairly as many titles designed to make the most of HDR as there are motion pictures (although the quantity is rising on a regular basis), and the variance in HDR high quality tends to be wider.

HGiG — HDR Gaming Curiosity Group

HGiG is actually a set of requirements for gaming in HDR. It stands for the HDR Gaming Interest Group. Sony and Microsoft are each members, as are many TV makers and sport builders. What this implies is that, ideally, all of the teams talk data so to begin up a brand new sport on a console or PC and have it mechanically acknowledge your show. As soon as that occurs, the sport can modify its settings to that show’s capabilities and provide the finest image high quality potential, with out dropping particulars within the brightest or darkest areas of the display. For instance, daylight on the finish of a darkish tunnel could painting a brightly lit atmosphere as a substitute of trying like an overexposed white blob.

It is a good factor, however the actuality is a little more difficult. Not all TVs spotlight HGiG compatibility of their settings menu, whereas just some PlayStation and Xbox video games acknowledge and comply with the rules. If an HGiG choice is listed in your TV’s tone mapping settings, it is best to flip it on previous to operating the console’s HDR settings. Then, when you’re taking part in a sport that helps HDR and HGiG, try to be in fine condition with out having to regulate the varied luminance ranges once more. Nonetheless, how all of this seems to you may differ relying in your TV and the sport you’re taking part in. Use no matter settings you suppose look finest.

ALLM — Auto Low Latency Mode

ALLM lets a appropriate supply (like your PS5 or Xbox) inform your show to modify into an image mode that reduces lag between receiving every body of a picture and displaying it on the TV. This cuts out further processing that could possibly be the milliseconds of distinction between touchdown a exact enter or not. Put one other method, it lets your TV mechanically allow its “Sport” mode when it detects that you’ve got launched a sport. A very good trendy TV can do that with out forcing you to enter any menus, then swap again if you’d slightly watch a film or TV present.

VRR — Variable Refresh Charge

VRR ought to sound acquainted to most players at this level. Many gamers have skilled slowdown, display tearing or stuttering as a system struggles to render every body on the goal velocity, which is mostly 60 or 30 fps on a TV. With VRR, every little thing stays in sync: Your show will not present the following body till it is prepared, which might make issues really feel smoother and extra responsive, even when the system fails to ship on its goal body charge.

There are a couple of totally different implementations of VRR obtainable, together with Nvidia’s G-Sync, AMD’s FreeSync and the HDMI Discussion board’s VRR spec, which is a part of the complete HDMI 2.1 normal. Each a TV and an enter machine must assist the identical VRR tech for it to work, and totally different units could solely assist VRR inside a selected refresh charge window. On a 120Hz show, for example, the PS5’s VRR solely works between 48Hz and 120Hz.

As a reminder, the PS5 officially supports HDMI Discussion board VRR, the Xbox Sequence X and S assist HDMI Discussion board VRR and FreeSync, whereas gaming PCs could assist G-Sync or FreeSync relying on whether or not they use a Nvidia or AMD graphics card. An ideal gaming TV helps all the massive VRR codecs, however lacking, say, G-Sync, isn’t a killer when you solely sport on a PS5 or Xbox.

8K (You do not want it)

One factor you don’t want to fret about is 8K assist. Though the PS5 and Xbox Sequence X are theoretically able to outputting 8K video, virtually no video games are made for that decision, and 8K’s sensible advantages are extremely minimal until you propose on sitting unreasonably shut to an enormous TV. The few 8K TVs in the marketplace are normally very expensive as properly.

Good gaming TVs you may get proper now

Whereas we at Engadget don’t formally evaluate TVs, we’ve researched the market and rounded up a couple of units which were extensively well-received by different skilled evaluate websites we belief, together with Rtings, Wirecutter, Reviewed, PCMag and others.

Remember the fact that there’s by no means an excellent time to purchase a brand new TV. Costs for in the present day’s fashions are at all times dropping, and subsequent 12 months’s upgrades are at all times simply across the nook. So when you see an 2024 model of one of many suggestions beneath at a deep low cost, that could be a greater worth.

Richard Lawler contributed to a earlier model of this report.