ViewSonic VX2457-mhd
Perfect for budget-conscious gamers.
Squeezing the latest tech into a monitor is tricky enough as is, but the ViewSonic VX2457-mhd manages it at a very affordable price. Sure, it has a 1,920 x 1,080 resolution and a TN panel, but that also means a super-fast 1ms response time. The real standout feature is the 75Hz refresh rate, along with FreeSync support from 47Hz to 75Hz. In other words, the VX2457-mhd is perfectly suited to lower-end gamers, who want to push frame rates beyond 60fps with their AMD GPUs, but aren’t looking to hit 120Hz and beyond.
It’s actually an excellent combo, and in our testing, tearing and stuttering was completely eliminated. Frustratingly, though, to keep costs down, there is no DisplayPort cable included in the box, which is needed to use FreeSync.
In general, though, the matte display offers strong colours and good image quality for the price and is even better after some (fiddly) OSD tweaking. The screen is also quite bright, with only tiny amounts of backlight bleed around the edges.
The VX2457-mhd has the usual HDMI, DisplayPort and VGA inputs, a pair of tinny 2W speakers and a stand with only basic tilt adjustments.
Happily, for those who like a different size, the monitor is also available as a 27-inch version for $80 more, but funnily enough, the smaller 21.5-inch model costs the same as the 24-inch. All three are covered by an excellent 30-day pixel perfect guarantee and three-year warranty.