A 32-inch IPS gaming monitor for $200? This is big screen 1080p fun on a budget
A big IPS display doesn't have to be expensive, as this bargain demonstrates.
Fortunately we are well past the days where "IPS" automatically meant "expensive" in the realm of monitors, gaming or otherwise. Need proof? Have a look at this LG 32-inch monitor (model 32ML600M-B) that is going for $199.99 on Amazon.
According to Amazon, it is $50 below its list price. And while that might be accurate, it's not actually a true sale, at least not a recent one anyway—it's been selling for $199.99 since February (whenever looking at deals on Amazon, it's always worth checking out the item's price history on CamelCamelCamel).
Still, it's a good price for a big, IPS panel, which is why we're highlighting it here. It's also a good fit for a modest gaming PC—with a native 1080p resolution, you don't need to pair this up with a monster graphics card. The pixel pitch might be a bit chunky for some at this 32-inch scale, but this is a great big screen budget option.
LG 32-Inch 32ML600M-B Monitor | IPS | 1080p| 75Hz | $199.99
This one falls into affordable territory for the size and the fact that it offers an IPS screen instead of a cheaper TN panel. And being a 1080p display, you don't need a super powerful GPU to run this at its native resolution.
The benefit of IPS (in-plane switching) over TN (twisted nematic) is generally superior image quality. According to LG, the 32ML600M-B offers 95 percent coverage of the DCI-P3 color gamut, indicating it does a good job of producing accurate colors.
For gaming, it offers a 75Hz refresh rate, which is not spectacular but is a bit better than 60Hz, and a 5ms response time (gray-to-gray). Beyond that, it doesn't offer bells and whistles like FreeSync or G-Sync support. And while it does support the HDR10 standard, it's not likely to knock your knickers off in HDR content with a 300 nits max brightness rating.
In short, it's not the fanciest gaming monitor on the block, but it is big, has an IPS display, and is relatively affordable at its current selling price.
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Paul has been playing PC games and raking his knuckles on computer hardware since the Commodore 64. He does not have any tattoos, but thinks it would be cool to get one that reads LOAD"*",8,1. In his off time, he rides motorcycles and wrestles alligators (only one of those is true).