Although 4K is considered the ultimate resolution for an immersive gaming experience, 1440p is still the most cost-effective choice that provides great value for your money.

By paying cheaper than a 4k 60hz screen, you can get a 1440p 144hz and ensure an extra edge in smoothness. The best thing is that assuming the screen size range from between 27 inches to 32 inches, the sharpness you’d lose from 4k to 1440p isn’t that impacting.

In fact, the impact would fall heavily on the graphics card to render that huge amount of pixels for demanding games. You’d need a very powerful graphics card to run those titles at smoother frame rates. Due to that, the term “budget” doesn’t really fit well with the 4k resolution.

The point is, it is way easier to find a “budget deal” in the 1440p 144hz category than on the 4k 60hz one. You can save even more money to have a similar or better experience if you can find those hidden gems.

To help you on that front, today, we’ve rounded up our top picks for budget monitors in this class. But before that, let’s go over a quick rundown of what you should consider when selecting the best monitor for you.

How to choose the Best budget 1440p 144hz Monitor

Image quality

Although not equally as important for gaming as it is for professional use, image quality should be one of your top priorities. With better color accuracy, you can have an enhanced gaming experience. Also, with a higher color gamut range, you can tweak the colors to be more vibrant, or more accurate, thus placing them in line with your preferences.

color gamut standard

sRGB is a standard color space that is commonly used in consumer-grade monitors, digital cameras, and web graphics. It has a narrower gamut than DCI-P3, covering around 72% of the visible colors in the CIE 1931 color space.

DCI-P3, on the other hand, is a wider color gamut standard used in professional-grade displays, including cinema projectors and some high-end monitors. It covers a larger portion of the visible color spectrum, about 45% more than sRGB, and is capable of producing more saturated and vibrant colors.

Those two are the main ones you will find for this type of screen, and they will play a major role in the final color reproduction performance of your monitor. Note that with the DCI-P3 you will often get more vibrant colors out of the box. On the other hand, in comparison, the sRGB colors will often be much more washed out. By calibrating both with a colorimeter, the DCI-P3 is always the one that comes up ahead when it comes to overall accuracy. So always aim for that one if you need that extra room for tweaking.

Panel type

There are 3 main panels for monitors currently: IPS, VA, and TN. 

• IPS Panels: Benefits include wide viewing angles, accurate color reproduction, and good color consistency. However, they tend to have slower response times and lower contrast ratios than other panel types. Also, those panels have the IPS glowing, which often reduces the monitor’s capability of having a good black consistency.

• VA Panels: Benefits include high contrast ratios and deep blacks, and they also tend to have a lower price tag than IPS. However, they can suffer from black smearing, have limited viewing angles, and may exhibit color shifts at extreme angles.

• TN Panels: Benefits include fast response times, high refresh rates, and low input lag. However, they have poor viewing angles, and limited color gamut, and tend to have lower color accuracy and contrast ratios compared to other panel types.

Although TN panels used to be the preferred choice for gaming a couple of years ago, currently, IPS and VAs are leaving it in the dust with the newer technologies. That’s why you won’t see any monitor with a TN panel in this list. 

At this point, there is a whole war between the IPS and VA panel fans. Some favor one or the other, and as both panels have their own benefits and downsides, they never reach a definite conclusion on which one is the best. 

Do you prefer deeper blacks and better black consistency to use the monitor in a dark room, then you are team VA. However, if you favor good accurate colors and viewing angles, IPS is your right choice. 

10 bit vs 8 bit

10-bit color allows for more accurate and detailed color representation than 8-bit color. However, it requires more processing power and is typically only found in higher-end displays. 

With 10-bit you will get smoother gradients than 8-bit due to the over 1 billion supported colors. Still, as this is something you usually find in higher-end screens and it caters more to professionals, we won’t get further into this specific feature. 

Size

By dividing the total number of pixels in the display by its physical size in inches we have the PPI. Standing for Pixel Per Inch, this feature is basically what its name implies, the number of pixels there are in every usable inch of the monitor’s screen.

Logically, the higher the number of pixels in a single inch, the smaller the pixels will be and the sharper the overall image. With that, the higher the PPI, the clearer will be the image the monitor will give you. Here is a list of the PPI of all the main screen resolutions and sizes: 

Size	Resolution	PPI
24-Inch	1080p	91.79
27-Inch	1080p	81.59
32-inch	1080p	68.84
24-inch	1440p	122
27-inch	1440p	109
32-inch	1440p	93
24-inch	4k	184
27-inch	4k	163
32-inch	4k	140

Note that a higher resolution and lower screen size result in a higher PPI. Due to that, it is always good to find a good balance while using the resolution and size of the monitor as a base. For 1440p the recommended is 27 inches, as you’ll have a good amount of screen real estate, without compromising clarity.

32-inch is also usable, but as you can see above, the PPI will be similar to that of a 1080p 24-inch monitor. In the end, as long as you don’t go overboard with the size of the screen, 1440p can handle well a good range of monitor sizes, at least the main ones.

Lastly, note that ultrawide monitors have slightly higher horizontal pixel quantity. With the higher amount of pixels, you won’t be losing much compared to the normal 16:9 monitors.

Performance

The screen’s performance is another thing you shouldn’t overlook, especially if you plan to play some games with the monitor.

Refresh rate

First, some of the monitors we will cite today will have native 144hz, but a good part of them will also be able to push this ratio to around 170hz or so.

As we all know, the higher the refresh rate, the smoother the gameplay will be. However, the difference between 144hz to 170hz is not as big as 60hz to 144hz, but there’s no harm in pushing that limit if the prices aren’t driven up as well.

Brightness

Aside from that, you should also take into account the monitor’s peak brightness. It doesn’t matter if the monitor can deliver a good image quality if you can’t see anything due to glare on the screen during the day.

Even if you play mostly during the night, it is always good to look for higher nits and good reflection handling, since it may come in handy someday. 250 nits are the current bare minimum, and 400 is where you can call things high-end. Even so, it doesn’t mean that all the monitors with the same amount of nits on paper will perform the same in that regard. There are always other factors to consider such as reflection handling and black consistency, but we’ll cover that in our list.

Response time and Black smearing

Next, we have the motion blur and response time. As those are features that will help mainly for professional gaming rather than casual, you shouldn’t be too concerned about that.

Still, some fast-paced games will fare better with a lower response time and reduced motion blur, so it’s not a bad choice to aim for the faster ones.

If your panel choice is a VA, then there is a typical downside that can easily spoil your gaming experience: the black smearing. In VA panels, black smearing can occur when black pixels take longer to change to lighter colors, resulting in a trail or smearing effect behind moving objects. It’s worth noting that while black smearing can be a visual annoyance, it may not be noticeable or bothersome to everyone. Additionally, the severity of black smearing can vary depending on the specific display model and the user’s individual preferences. You can get used to the black smearing over time, but depending on the amount of smearing the monitor has, even that will be hard.

Price

Last but not least, we have the price. It matters nothing if a monitor has all the good features we mentioned above if it’ll make you go bankrupt after the purchase. Still, as we only selected the most affordable ones to this list, it will only be a matter of whether you can or cannot afford it at its current prices.

Remember, although 1440p 144hz screens are cheaper than 4k ones, they aren’t the most affordable monitors out there, and in the worst-case scenario, you could go with a 1080p 144hz one and spare around $100, in exchange for all the benefits of a higher resolution would give you.

Consider your own needs

Having said all that, the most important thing you should do after knowing which one you should go for, is to find out if it’ll align with your needs. And that’s why we made a broader selection of monitors today.

Do you prefer the contrasting colors of the VA panel over the IPS’ viewing angles and accuracy – we have that one on this list. Or you’d rather have a higher screen size – we have just the right choice for that as well.

So with that all in mind, let’s dive into the list of Best Budget 1440p 144hz Monitors you can find currently without further ado.