Last Updated on October 24, 2024 by
Did you know your monitor settings can affect your game performance? It’s true – while the changes might be small, the correct refresh rate and Adaptive Sync settings can spell the difference between a hit and a miss in your next online game.
Then again, maybe you’re in it more for the sights – games like RDR2 and The Witcher 3 are absolutely breathtaking in terms of graphics and can provide ample opportunities for you to just sit back and enjoy the view. But what if your colors are a bit off? It’s one of the most frustrating but common issues in gaming.
Hi – I’m Clark Omholt, a color professional with over 20 years of experience and the Founder of TruHu, a monitor calibration software that uses your phone for measurement. Today, I’m here to talk to you about the correct way to set up your monitor for gaming so you minimize or even eliminate any issues with color or FPS.
Things to Keep In Mind about Video Game Settings
Every monitor is different. Different monitors require different settings. If you’ve got a high-end display, chances are you can achieve a great picture if you tweak the settings. For lower end displays, you’re somewhat safer going with one of the factory presets, or starting from one and doing minor edits. Furthermore, you can find optimal settings for most of the popular monitors online in places such as TFT Central or r/Monitors.
Every setup is different. Your gaming setup might be placed in a basement, or at the top of a mountain in a room with three windows. Ambient light will affect how your monitor looks, so that should always be taken into account when changing brightness / contrast settings. If you’re in a room with too much light, finding some opaque curtains or blinds that block all light might be preferable to turning up your brightness, as that might damage your eyes and your screen in the long run.
Every person is different. Furthermore, your eyes might be different from other people’s. Some folks are color blind (for which many games have color blind modes). Others may see colors a bit differently due to their tinted glasses, blue light filters, or for other various reasons. Be sure to consider that when setting up your monitor – particularly if you’re using a set of settings found online.
Every video game is different. Lastly, every game is different. Not just in the way it makes use of your GPU / Monitor setup, but in atmosphere and vibes as well. Some games may look better with a specific color temperature while for others you’re aiming more for accuracy, so a more neutral color profile works best. Take this into consideration when setting up your monitor for gaming.
Before you start messing around with your monitor’s buttons…
Set the correct resolution – often set by default but not always, so make sure you select the highest resolution supported by your monitor (check your specifications online*)
Set your preferred refresh rate. You can select the maximum Hz level available for your monitor. However, if your monitor can sync with your graphics card (such as through G-SYNC or AMD FreeSync) and you don’t care that much about achieving an FPS higher than 120 or 144, then we recommend allowing G-SYNC / AMD FreeSync to control your refresh rate (simply turn the option on).
*Find your monitor make and model by right-clicking the Desktop and going into Display Settings (Windows), then clicking on “Advanced Display Settings”. For Macs, go to Settings > Displays. You will need to know this for a correct setup, so best do it now.
1. First Step to Optimize Monitor Settings
OSD Timeout. Essentially meaning how long your OSD (or on-screen display) stays on. Increase / maximize it so you don’t have to reopen the monitor settings menu over and over again while changing the settings.
OSD Opacity. If available, increase OSD opacity to see details hidden behind it.
2. Basic Monitor Settings for Gaming
Brightness. Lower your brightness to a level that feels comfortable to you. Keeping it maxed out is bad for your eyes and will show fewer details in bright areas while in-game. Instead, change it up and see how it feels in-game. While decreasing brightness might feel strange at first, remember your eyes adapt, so wait a bit before switching it again. Remember that when you turn off your light to go to bed, your eyes take some time to adjust.
Gamma. Typically, you want to set your gamma at around 2.2-2.4. Lower gamma will make colors look dull, while higher gamma will remove details from your picture and crush your game colors, particularly blacks.
Black Boost. Speaking of, almost every commercial display right now has black boost, allowing you to increase the level of detail in dark areas. For lower end monitors, this setting might work, but I generally do not recommend it and prefer using Nvidia’s Control Panel or the AMD Software Adrenalin Edition™ to improve the dark areas in games.
Sharpness. It can be difficult to identify the best sharpness setting, however, like with any picture editing option, move the slider up and down so that you can see the difference between maxed-out sharpness and low sharpness, then determine your preferred middle ground (have a document with some text up so you can determine the best sharpness for readability).
Response time. Every monitor manufacturer names this setting something else – BenQ calls it DYAC+, Viewsonic calls it Rampage Response, Asus calls it Trace Free, and others still simply use “Overdrive.” Regardless, it basically changes the response time of pixels for graphics-intensive environments, such as online games. This setting helps you reduce ghosting, so it’s definitely something you should have on if you’re a competitive gamer looking for that edge. Use the UFO Test to see which setting is right – simply take screenshots with Pursuit Camera of the website for each response time option under your monitor settings. The UFOs should have no ghosting whatsoever.
Example of ghosting (aka overdrive artifacts or simply “shadows”). Source: Blur Busters.
Adaptive Sync. Screen tearing has plagued gamers for decades. Fortunately, now you have a few solutions for it by either turning on V-SYNC in the game settings, or by using Adaptive Sync in the monitor settings (aka G-SYNC or FreeSync). The downside here is that it limits your refresh rate to match the GPU, allowing for a smoother experience at the expense of FPS. Do not use this setting for games like CS:GO, Overwatch, or other online shooters that depend on high-FPS.
3. Color Space and Temperature Settings
Color temperature. Choosing your color temperature is mostly a matter of personal preference or matching the temperature to the game you’re playing.
Color space / profiles. Not all monitors let you change your color space, but if you have the option, always go for the one that displays more colors that the human eye can see (such as Adobe RGB or Apple P3). sRGB is a good profile for web browsing, but is not enough for gaming and will limit the colors you can see.
Color presets. Some monitors combine profiles and presets, others show these settings separately, but the basic idea is that most monitors today come with factory presets which might be good for you. However, be careful as a few presets lock out (gray out) some of your monitor settings. So if you prefer more freedom, go for a custom preset.
Color profile comparison vs the color spectrum of the human eye.
4. Monitor Calibration
Calibration. Beyond your native monitor settings, you should also periodically calibrate your screen using either our smartphone-based monitor calibration software or a professional colorimeter. Calibration measures the color values of your display and creates an accurate profile that corrects any imperfections. Other apps such as Windows’ HDR Calibration tool can also help you out, however they rely on guesstimation (aka you have to guess the correct values without any measurement instrument except your eyes).
5. LED Monitor Settings
Local dimming. LED-based displays allow you to tweak something called local dimming, basically lowering the exposure for LEDs in dark areas – this will look stunning for video games and HD videos / movies, but the downside is you might have issues outside of those scenarios, even seeing some flickering and brightness issues between light and dark areas if you set local dimming too high. Your best option here is to test it out and see which option feels right for you.
6. HDR Monitor Settings
HDR on / off. Unfortunately, both Windows and video game developers have a troubled relationship with HDR. Some games might look phenomenal, such as Starfield which supports Windows Auto HDR*, while others might be a pain to set up (such as RDR2 which supports HDR but has significant calibration issues). Furthermore, many monitors are marketed as HDR but are in fact DisplayHDR 400 (aka displays that can only reach 400cd/m2) without local dimming, so the HDR experience is poor.
Read more:
Why your monitor is (probably) not HDR
*Windows Auto HDR often clashes with fully-optimized color setups. If, after you finish setting up your monitor, GPU settings, and after completing a TruHu calibration, your colors still look off and whites are blown out while in-game, Auto-HDR might be the reason. We recommend turning it off and seeing if that fixes the issue. For more details check out FAQ #4 under Color Management.
7. Setting Different Picture Modes
Working with multiple profiles. A pro-gamer move is creating different color profiles and switching between them – ideal if you’re playing games that vary in terms of tone (for example, you might want a neutral profile for online shooters, a warm profile for wholesome games like Stardew Valley or Valheim, and a cool profile for horror / thriller games like Alan Wake 2 or Alien Isolation)
8. Ambient Lighting
One thing that’s important to reduce the strain on your eyes is having some form of ambient lighting – whether that’s a simple lamp or some RGB lighting – try to illuminate the wall behind your monitor to reduce the contrast between the screen and the background and protect your eyes. Never game at full brightness in a completely dark room.
FAQs about Monitor Settings for Gaming
1. What is the best monitor mode for gaming?
The best monitor mode for gaming will always be the one you set up yourself for your particular monitor, environment, and for the specific games you play. For competitive shooters like Apex Legends or COD, try to look for and modify performance modes with a high refresh rate, on a monitor with a high response time. For other games, it’s a question of personal preference. Furthermore, you can save multiple presets and swap them out.
That said, even if you set a single preset for all your games, you’ll still end up with a better picture than by using factory presets, at least for medium-range and high-end displays. I’ve found that for low end monitors, the presets sometimes look better than what you can achieve yourself and spare you the pain of having to set up a finicky display.
2. What is the best color temperature for a gaming monitor?
The color temperature for your gaming display will depend on your personal preference and the tone of the game you play. You can set up multiple color profiles for different games / genres. As I mentioned earlier, some gamers prefer cooler tones for horror / thriller games such as Amnesia, Control, or Alan Wake. Others pick warmer colors for games with a cozy vibe. It’s all up to you.
3. How do I reset my monitor settings?
Each monitor has different reset methods. Please consult your user manual – if unavailable, you can typically download a digital copy from the manufacturer’s website.
4. How do I match dual monitor settings?
There’s no true way to achieve a 100% match short of using a high end spectrophotometer, and even then the results may not be identical as no two monitors are the same. But you can get as close as possible!
One easy way to achieve similar results is by using our monitor calibration software to calibrate both your displays, while modifying the native monitor settings to be as similar as possible. I’ve found that this can give you pretty similar colors, if not an exact match.
5. Can monitor settings affect FPS?
Yes. Turning on Adaptive Sync / FreeSync / G-SYNC will allow your GPU to control the refresh rate of your monitor, allowing for a smoother experience but lowering response time. Turning it off will improve response time, but might result in screen tearing.
6. Why are my monitor settings grayed out / locked?
Typically, it’s because you selected a default preset (such as a Game Modes like FPS and RTS for LG monitors). Note that these presets lock out many of your other native monitor settings, so steer clear of them unless you can’t seem to achieve a good setup on your own – which might happen if your monitor is a low cost model. Furthermore, some of the color presets can be extremely misleading – for example, some LGs only allow you to edit settings while in “Gamer Mode”, which is very counter-intuitive. If you are confused by your monitor’s OSD, the best thing to do is find the instructions manual online and use that to understand how you can best change those settings.
7. Why did Windows 10 / 11 change my color profile on its own?
Windows can be particularly finicky when it comes to color profiles. The more software tools that control your color, the higher the chance that you’ll switch profiles randomly to an unoptimized one, particularly if you’re using G-SYNC / FreeSync together with HDR. This can happen, for example, when logging in, exiting a game, or connecting an external display. The change is usually noticeable and easy to fix via one of three options:
Go to Windows Display Settings (right click on your desktop and click on Display settings) and select the correct color profile out of the dropdown menu.
If method 1 doesn’t work or the correct profile is already selected, open up your Nvidia Control Panel (for GTX and RTX GPUs) / AMD Software (for Radeon GPUs) and move the brightness slider slightly. Don’t click apply. You’ll see your color profile reset to the correct one. Then you can cancel any edits and you’ll retain the correct profile.
Lastly, if neither of the previous methods work, press Ctrl + Windows + Shift + B to reset your display adapter. This should restore the correct color profile.
To prevent this issue, we recommend keeping your display drivers up to date, and using TruHu’s monitor calibration app to create a custom, persistent color profile optimized for accurate color.
8. What are the best monitor settings for Xbox?
The best way to set up an Xbox for optimal color is to:
Use a monitor, not a TV
Set it to the highest resolution available, such as 1080p, 1440p, or higher if available in the latest Xbox models
Set up the monitor according to the instructions above
Enable the highest refresh rate available (120 Hz and 144 Hz are good options)
Enable Free Sync or other Adaptive Sync settings
Select the color space with the widest color gamut available, such as Adobe RGB if available, otherwise leave it as sRGB
9. What are the best monitor settings for PlayStation?
The best way to set up an Playstation for optimal color is to:
Use a monitor, not a TV
Set it to the highest resolution available, such as 1080p, 1440p, or higher if available in the latest Playstation models
Set up the monitor according to the instructions above
Enable the highest refresh rate available (120 Hz and 144 Hz are good options)
In the PS settings, set color options to Full if your display supports it (the colors will look off if it does not)
10. How can I achieve the best possible color settings for gaming on Windows?
Regardless of your monitor’s quality, here’s the best workflow to get the absolute best possible color you can achieve on Windows:
Step 1: Optimize your monitor settings by following the instructions in the article above.
Step 2: Optimize your GPU settings by using the Brightness / Contrast / Gamma / Digital Vibrance sliders in your GPU control panel (such as Nvidia’s Control Panel or AMD’s Software Adrenalin Edition™) to achieve a look that feels right.
Step 3: Complete a calibration using TruHu’s monitor calibration software. For HDR, we’ve found that selecting a color temperature of 8000K during calibration yields the best results. Alternatively, you can use a professional colorimeter or spectrophotometer. The only free alternative is to use your eyes, whether by manually editing RGB color values in your GPU control panel, or by using Microsoft’s builtin Calibration Tool. However, as a color professional, I will always recommend a measurement-based solution.
Step 4. If whites look blown-out and blacks are crushed in game, try the following, in this order:
Resetting your graphics adapter (Ctrl + Windows + Shift + B).
Restarting your computer.
Turning off Auto-HDR (the most common cause for issues post-calibration).
Step 5. At this point your colors should look crisp and beautiful. However, if they don’t look good, try a new monitor calibration (remember to allow your screen to warm up for ~30 minutes before calibrating) . That should solve all your issues, but you can further fine tune your color profile from your GPU control panel, if you want. Remember also that Windows has a night light function that may give your colors a warm tint after a specific time – you can turn it off in Display Settings.
If you get stuck at any step and can’t find your way back, I recommend starting over – it can be easier than trying to fix a misstep.
Conclusion
That just about covers everything around how to set up your monitor for optimal gaming performance. For any more questions, feel free to leave a comment and we’ll get back to you.
Monitor calibration in gaming has long been an issue we hope to solve with TruHu, and with the launch of TruHu for Windows – we’re hoping to bring a more affordable colorimeter alternative to gamers everywhere. So consider trying out TruHu for free and seeing what a difference it makes!