Nvidia has dropped their latest lineup of beastly GPUs in the market like a bomb and no wonder people are going crazy over them because they are so highly capable of delivering the performance that’s demanded from them. We can talk about the processing bottlenecks in the form of RAM or the CPU but if you are done with all of that, one of the most overlooked bottlenecks could be the display.
Yes, the display bottleneck doesn’t get talked about that much. So I’m going to share my top picks for the best monitors for RTX 3070 and RTX 3080. I know I am not going to include any monitor recommendations for RTX 3090 but there is a good reason for that, multiple reasons.
One of the reasons is that it’s expensive, and over-powering and that’s why most people won’t be buying RTX 3090 since only a small percentage of professionals are going to use that. Another reason is that RTX 3090 is in a class of its own and has an entirely different kind of requirement for a display, maybe I’ll address that in another post.
So RTX 3070 is mostly recommended for high frame rate gaming at 1440p resolution and RTX 3080 is recommended for 4k gaming and workloads, respectively. And so we are going to keep those numbers in mind before recommending what we think are the display monitors best suited for these graphics cards.
| Name | Panel Type | Response rate | Resolution | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LG 38WN95C-W | Nano-IPS Panel | 144Hz | UW-QHD+ | |
| Samsung Odyssey G7 | VA Panel | 240Hz | QHD | |
| LG27GN950 4K | IPS Panel | 144Hz | 4K | |
| LG 27GL850-B | Nano-IPS Panel | 144Hz | QHD | |
| Acer XF270HU | TN Panel | 144Hz | Wide QHD |
LG 38WN95C-W – Best QHD 144Hz monitor for RTX 3080
LG 38WN95C-W 38-inch Curved QHD Monitor isn’t a cheap monitor by any means but it is a powerhouse for productivity and ticks all the boxes for content creation and gaming as well. The previous models were great for productivity and content creation but an upgrade to this model is that it goes up to 144hz of refresh rate and supports G-Sync which cheers up the casual gamer in me because especially with a graphics card such as RTX 3070 and even with an RTX 3080, this monitor pairs perfectly.
This is an ultrawide Quad HD monitor with a nono-IPS which means it has plenty of room for content creation, video editing, and other multi-window tasks but that also means it is a pretty great monitor for FPS shooters AND it’s curved, can it get any better?
This massive 38-inch monitor offers an impressive 100% sRGB, 100% Adobe RGB, and 98% DCI-P3 color gamut support which is perfect for color-accurate work such as photography and video editing, and even web work. Granted some professionals might not care or think they don’t care about a higher refresh rate in a monitor but what they don’t realize is that when scrolling through timelines in Adobe Premiere Pro or similar programs, a higher refresh rate gives a smoother and better experience than plain old 60Hz refresh rate.
Not to worry, with the QHD resolution paired with that sweet 144hz, it’s not gonna be a bottleneck and can handle the raw power of a powerful card such as RTX 3070 or even RTX 3080, no sweating required. But then again, not everyone is willing or looking to spend 1500+ dollars on a monitor alone, so it all depends on what you need from a display.
Personally, this monitor checks all the boxes for me so I will highly recommend it.
SAMSUNG 27-inch Odyssey G7 – QHD 1000R Curved Gaming Monitor
When it comes to the specs of the Odyssey G7, it is a pretty well-equipped monitor. It has a very stylish and modern design with thin bezels and a pretty steep curve of 1000R. This curve is matched exactly to a human eye, and actual studies have proved that this type of curved monitor is easy on the eyes for long periods of use.
The stand on this gaming monitor features a stylish and modern design with an angular base. It also has standard height, tilt, and pivot adjustments. Port selection on this gaming monitor is also very decent with 1 HDMI 2.0 port, 2 DisplayPort 1.4 ports, and a 2-port USB 3.0 Hub for connecting your dongles for a wireless mouse or keyboard to your computer.
This gaming monitor also has stylish jet engine-style RGB lighting at the back, which Samsung calls infinity core lighting. The two RGB lighting zones on the front are not too distracting and look stylish without being in-your-face distractive. Overall, the RGB looks stylish and aggressive and matches the gaming aesthetics of this monitor very well.
This gaming monitor uses a high refresh rate 240 Hz VA panel with a contrast ratio of 2500:1. It means that you are going to get inky blacks and excellent color reproduction on this gaming monitor. I have used this monitor alongside an IPS monitor, and after tweaking a few settings, the color reproduction was indistinct. It makes it an excellent monitor for both gaming and content creation. From the factory, this monitor comes calibrated to 125% sRGB, and 95% of DCI-P3, with wide color gamut coverage. You can recalibrate the colors on this monitor at any time by using a device like SpyderX.
The typical brightness of this monitor is 350 nits, with a peak brightness of 600 nits. It makes it a true HDR-600-certified monitor. As with everything else, HDR is excellent on this monitor and enjoyable with immersive depth when playing games or watching movies.
With its 240 Hz refresh rate, superb color reproduction, HDR 600, and a 1000R curved screen, every gaming session is guaranteed to look immersive and crisp. This monitor is also compatible with G-Sync and FreeSync, which means that you will get zero tearing in high-refresh-rate games.
It also has a black stabilizer, which enables you to see more detail in darker areas and an unfair edge over other players in games.
1-ms response time on this gaming monitor also is achieved by pixel overdrive. This aggressive driving of pixels can cause pixel overshoot which results in chroma distortion. Thankfully, this is something that you can tweak in the settings of this monitor. So you get excellent response times without any ghosting or artifacts.
Overall, this gaming monitor from Samsung checks all the boxes on my list for an excellent 27-inch 2-in-1 (gaming and content creator) monitor. It has everything, including A stylish and modern design, a 240 Hz refresh rate, a 27-inch high-quality curved VA panel, superb color reproduction, HDR, and RGB. And, if you can scrape some $100 extra, you can get a 32-inch version of this already excellent gaming monitor.
LG27GN950 4K – Color-accurate Gaming Monitor for RTX 3070
This gaming monitor from LG features a crisp 4K panel with 1 ms input latency, an ultra-thin bezel, and a height, tilt, and pivot adjustable stand. I thought this monitor was just a 4K version of LG27GL850. But upon a closer look, this monitor is vastly different from its predecessor and a major improvement overall.
This gaming monitor from LG has a 1 ms response time and a peak brightness of 600 nits. This means that this monitor is now VESA Certified for Display HDR 600.
This gaming monitor also has Display Stream Compression, which is a feature from DisplayPort 1.4. That allows this monitor to display at 3840 x 2160 (true 4K) at 144 Hz with 10-bit color and no chroma subsampling. It is something that was not possible on even the best (and priciest) monitors just a year ago.
You might be thinking that there must be some “gotchas”. And you are right. You will either need an Nvidia 20 series or higher graphic cards, or something from AMD released after 2019. And if you use an older graphic card, you will be limited to 95 Hz.
Considering that you are using it to its full potential, gaming on this beast from LG is an excellent experience with sharp and crisp graphics and buttery-smooth frame rates. The high resolution on this monitor gives you the freedom of cranking the display settings in your game, to see every single detail in a scene or scaling down to 1440p or even 1080p to get as much FPS as possible. Either way, games look incredibly detailed and color-accurate (thanks to their excellent color rendering capabilities and IPS technology).
It has a wide selection of ports including, a DC power jack, two HDMI 2.0 ports, one DisplayPort 1.4 port, and a USB hub with a female type b connector to connect it to your PC. It also has RGB lighting on the back of the monitor, and it looks good shining on the back wall.
Now let’s talk about that 1 ms response time. Sure, you can achieve a 1-ms response time, but it is only possible in the fastest settings mode of the monitor. It works, but at the same time, this aggressive pixel overdrive introduces a grey trail behind the moving objects. Aside from marketing, I do not think it helps any when gaming in the real world. But that is just me, other people don’t think it bothers them too much.
This gaming monitor is also geared towards those who are creators and gamers, at the same time. And it delivers on that promise as well. It has DCI-P3 98% coverage, which means that it is highly color accurate and reproduces color without any modification or changes in hue. It makes this monitor a perfect choice for color-sensitive work like photo or video editing. It also offers hardware calibration as long as you have LG’s calibration studio software installed.
If you are a gamer and a creator, at the same time, this gaming monitor from Asus is a perfect fit. It is all possible because of its high refresh rate, G Sync and FreeSync compatibility, and highly color accurate and wide color gamut DCI-P3 4K panel.
I have seen some people on Amazon and other forums complaining about the backlight bleed and dead pixels on this gaming monitor. I did not have any of those issues with my unit. I confirmed with ASUS, and they told me that they have fixed these hardware-related issues and replaced all the faulty units with fully working, new gaming monitors.
LG 27GL850-B 27-Inch Ultragear QHD Nano-IPS 1ms Gaming Monitor
This gaming monitor from LG has slim three-sided bezels and features a 27-inch Nano IPS panel, a high refresh rate of 144 Hz, and a pixel response time of 1 ms. It has adaptive sync technology, so it works flawlessly with both AMD and Nvidia graphics cards. The stand on this monitor is built sturdy and features height, tilt, and pivot adjustments.
This gaming monitor also supports 100mm x 100mm VESA mounting, but the mounting points are recessed to about 7 mm. It means that mounting it to VESA mounts with slightly bigger plates is going to be a pain, but you can accomplish this by adding some spacers to make it work.
This monitor comes with a wide selection of ports including, 2 HDMI 2.1 ports, 1 DisplayPort 1.4 port, 2 USB 3.0 type ports, 1 USB uplink port, and a headphone jack for HDMI audio passthrough. There is also a red ring around the back, but unlike some other LG monitors, it has no backlighting or RGB in it.
On the bottom of the monitor, there is a joystick that is not only used to turn on or off the monitor but also controls the on-screen menu to change the settings of the monitor. The on-screen menu is pretty easy to navigate and change the settings.
This monitor from LG was the world’s first IPS monitor to advertise a 144 Hz refresh rate with a response time of 1 ms. It has a brightness of 350 nits and a contrast of 1000:1. In real-world testing, the brightness of this monitor is sufficient for fairly lit rooms and does not cause significant glaring in the panel.
LG has targeted this monitor for a high refresh rate gaming experience, and it delivers on its promise. The gaming experience on this highly color-accurate IPS panel is crisp and immersive with its higher refresh rate of 144 Hz. Switching to a 1-ms response time (faster) setting on the monitor introduces ghosting caused by pixel overdrive, and this does more harm than good in your gaming experience. I have found that the Fast setting on the monitor is “fast” enough for anyone.
The HDR on this gaming monitor is average at best but not enough to make highlights pop in games. This is especially true since the monitor only supports up to 350 nits of peak brightness. So you can say the HDR is a marketing label LG had to get on the monitor’s box to make it sell more.
The IPS panel on this monitor comes factory-calibrated with a calibration sheet in the box. Out of the box, it is calibrated to 100% sRGB and 97% Adobe RGB color spaces and offers a wide color gamut 10-bit display. The colors on this monitor are not as accurate as some other wide-color gamut monitors I have seen.
You can also calibrate this monitor (at the hardware level) at any time with a calibration device like SpyderX. These features make this gaming monitor also an excellent choice for content creators.
If you want a gaming monitor with a higher refresh rate, high resolution, and excellent color reproduction, this monitor from LG offers the best value. It offers low input lag, a high refresh rate, and outstanding picture quality, which both gamers and content creators are going to appreciate. all in all, a perfect gaming monitor to pair with an RTX 3080-based PC and not have any bottlenecks.
Acer XF270HU Cbmiiprzx 27 Inch WQHD Monitor
This monitor from Acer features a standard design language with normal-sized bezels that are not too thick or too thin. It uses a QHD TN panel that is known for high refresh rates and average color quality. The stand is built out of high-quality plastic with metal reinforcements and does not wobble or shake around. This monitor has all the basic set of features, high adjust, tilt, swivel, and rotation, and you can use it in portrait mode if you wish. This monitor also uses a standard VESA mount, so you can easily mount it on a monitor arm if you want to.
This gaming monitor has a decent selection of ports including, 2 HDMI ports (one of which is 1.4 and the other is 2.0) and 1 DisplayPort 1.2. It also has built-in 2W stereo speakers, but they are there just for system sounds and nothing more. You should use headphones or external speakers if you want to enjoy the games.
This gaming monitor uses a TN panel from AU Optronics with a screen resolution of 2560 x 1440 and a refresh rate of 144 Hz. It has a contrast of 1000:1 and a brightness of 350 nits.
This monitor is G-Sync and FreeSync compatible, and the gaming experience is crisp and sharp. Every action is silky smooth and responsive with its 144 Hz panel. It is a hard thing to say about a gaming monitor that costs just over $300. The colors are not something that you get with a VA or IPS panel. But those monitors that use IPS or VA panels cost at least double the price of this gaming monitor.
1 ms response time on this gaming monitor is achieved by pixel overdrive, which sends more voltage to drive pixels in an LCD screen. There is still a little bit of ghosting (or chroma effects) present, but this can be fixed by changing the pixel drive settings on the monitor itself.
In short, this is a no-frills gaming monitor with excellent build quality, a bright display, a high refresh rate, and a decent selection of ports. Sure it only has 100% sRGB coverage, but when looking for a high refresh rate gaming monitor on a budget, this $330 monitor blows the competition away.
Final Words
Choosing a Monitor isn’t an easy task at all and trying to buy a monitor paired with your Graphics card, either for gaming or for color-accurate work. I’ve tried to explain the tech and shared my reviews of the monitors that I think are excellent choices for RTX 3070 or 3080, now the rest is up to your personal preferences, good luck.
Also, share your feedback regarding your experience with these monitors down below in the comments especially if you’ve paired it with these RTX graphics cards.