The CPU and GPU can limit the performance of the computer, but we cannot forget that the display also plays a role. What's more, the problem of mismatched monitors is more common than you might think, because most people don't upgrade their monitors as often as other PC components. Howtogeek.com portal speakHow a monitor can limit the power of a gaming computer
The first and most obvious reason a monitor can cause bottlenecks is the difference between the PC's rendering capabilities and the monitor's capabilities. For example, a 60Hz display can produce up to 60 full frames per second. If the computer displays 200 frames, 140 of them will be lost and have no effect on the graphics. Sure, the game's internals may benefit from low latency, but you won't see more than 60 fps in any case. This example can be applied to any hertzovka.
Therefore, without a monitor capable of displaying the appropriate number of frames, the only way to benefit from a powerful PC is to limit the frame rate, which will redirect system resources to other tasks. And then, depending on the characteristics of the computer, this increases performance only to a certain extent.
The second reason is permission. You might think that the higher the screen resolution, the better, but due to the design of flat screens and their pixel grids, games need to be displayed at their “native” resolution for best results. And if the PC cannot handle this resolution, problems will arise.
If the GPU produces an image at a lower resolution than the original image then the system needs some method of image scaling. This is why the industry has spent so much money and time on DLSS, FSR and XeSS. Dynamic scaling allows you to remove artifacts and improve image quality, although not perfectly.
But the thing to remember is that on the contrary, a screen with too high a resolution, not intended for the GPU installed on the PC, will only waste system resources.
In addition to everything else, there is another important factor – pixel response time. Every time the screen refreshes the image, the pixels in the panel have only a fraction of a second to change their state. For example, a 5ms response time on a 144Hz display is good because between each screen refresh there will be about 7ms for the pixels to transition to a new state. But on a screen with a 240 Hz refresh rate, the same process takes a little more than 4 milliseconds.
If the screen pixels react too slowly, blurring, etc. will appear on the screen. “Ghost” is a trace effect. This is actually a difficult topic to discuss because response time is not a universal measure and some transitions work worse on certain types of screens. For example, VA panels are famous for their slow transition from dark to dark, which sometimes results in a characteristic blur. For this reason, OLED displays are popular among enthusiasts and avid console gamers.
Finding the right monitor and system combination has a lot of nuance, but in general there are simple rules to help you make a decision. Cheap graphics cards like the RTX 3060, 4070, and 5060 (and their AMD counterparts) don't need anything more than 1080p. For mid-range GPUs like the 4070 and 4070 Ti, 1440p displays are more suitable – they offer the perfect balance between image quality and performance. And the most powerful video cards, like the 4080 and 5090, need a 4K display, although 1440p would also be a good choice.
