TechPowerUp Monitor of the Year

CORSAIR Xeneon FLEX 45WQHD240

The CORSAIR Xeneon FLEX 45WQHD240 is without a doubt the most innovative PC display we've seen a long while. It solves the problem of not having the right curvature in the right moment. Curved displays are great for content consumption, but are hard to get used to during productivity and content creations. There are so many situations where you'd wish your display would turn planar. This even applies to the amount of curvature itself. With curved OLED display panels now a technological reality, it took someone as brave as CORSAIR to make a monitor with user-configurable curvature. This 21:9 ultrawide lets you go from full planar, all the up to 800R curvature. You get a decent 3440 x 1440 resolution, along with a sensational 240 Hz refresh rate, along with NVIDIA G-SYNC and AMD FreeSync Premium compatibility. CORSAIR knows gamers better than anyone, and gave this monitor several usability enhancements that we're sure you'll love, including a KVM switch that can come handy if you have a whole separate rig handling your game streaming. All this comes at a price though, which is roughly $2,000.

TechPowerUp Hardware of 2023 Runner Up

ASRock Phantom Gaming PG34WQ15R3A

This year, ASRock made its presence felt in the hotly competitive gaming monitor space, and one of its stand-out performers has been the Phantom Gaming PG34WQ15R3A. This 34-inch ultrawide with a 1500R curvature has all the basics covered, including a 3440 x 1440 resolution, a curved VA panel, a decent 165 Hz refresh rate, including VRR, support for AMD FreeSync Premium, NVIDIA G-SYNC compatibility; and DisplayHDR 400. While most gaming monitors include features such as a USB hub, audio jacks backed by basic DACs that carry over audio from the HDMI or DP digital source, or even KVM, the ASRock display comes with a Wi-Fi booster. The vertical arm of the monitor's stand contains a 7 dBi Wi-Fi antenna, which you connect to your PC's WLAN, using standardized cables. We've actually observed a near doubling in Wi-FI bandwidth compared to having a Wi-Fi antenna under the table, or even one of those cabled antenna modules motherboard vendors hand out these days.

Notable Mentions

There are a handful monitors we tested that stand out this year. The KTC OLED G27P6 marks the advent of cost-effective OLED gaming displays from Korea. This 27-inch panel with a 1440p resolution may seem basic, but gives you practically all the advantages OLED technology has to offer over backlit LCD panels, including a 1,500,000:1 static contrast ratio, 450 cd/m² maximum brightness, and an impressive 240 Hz refresh rate, along with the basic tiers of popular variable refresh rate technologies. Its USB hub also has an innovative 65 W USB-PD capability, and an integrated KVM switch. It misses our runner up spot by a whisker due to its somewhat steep $800 price.