In this guide, we’ve taken a look at seven of the best curved gaming monitors currently available at a number of different price points and feature sets to help you find the right option for your budget and needs.
Curved displays are more prevalent in television sets, but there are a handful of curved monitors out there. While there is much debate on whether or not curved monitors (and televisions) offer any significant advantage over flat screens, the idea is that curved displays offer a more “immersive” viewing experience. The downside of curved displays, though, has always been that they cost more.
However, for gaming monitors, there are affordable curved displays out there that, on a spec-for-spec basis, don’t cost much more than their flat-panel equivalents. And, if you are looking for a curved gaming monitor, in this guide we’ve listed seven of the best curved monitors for gaming currently available and rated them based off of the prices they come in at and the features they offer in order to help you pick the right one for your needs.
Table of Contents
1. Quick-Look: Top Curved Gaming Monitors
2. G-Sync Pick: ASUS ROG Swift PG348Q 34″
3. Free-Sync Pick: Samsung CHG90 49″
A Quick Look at the Best Curved Gaming Monitors
The table below will give you a quick run-down of our top selections for the best curved gaming monitors. We’ve picked the best G-Sync curved monitor, the best FreeSync option, the curved monitor that offers the best value, and the cheapest curved monitor as well.
| | NAME | SPECS | RATING | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G-SYNC |  | ASUS PG348Q |
| /10 | |
| FREESYNC |  | Samsung CHG90 |
| /10 | |
| VALUE |  | Acer ED273 |
| /10 | |
| BUDGET |  | Sceptre C278W |
| /10 |
*For more information on each of these curved gaming monitors, click on “Read Review »” to read our overviews on these displays. And, to see our Honorable Mention picks, keep scrolling down this article.
G-Sync Curved Monitor:
ASUS ROG Swift PG348Q 34″
At a little over $900, the ASUS ROG Swift PG348Q isn’t cheap and therefore it won’t be a viable option for most gamers. However, if you have an unlimited budget and you are looking for one of the best curved ultrawide monitors on the market, the PG348Q will be worth considering.
The PG348Q is a 34″ ultrawide display that features a curved IPS panel, a 3440 x 1440 screen resolution, a 100Hz refresh rate, and it comes with NVIDIA’s G-Sync technology. The 3440 x 1440 display and the higher refresh rate will make games more challenging to run on this system and so it is important that you have a high-end NVIDIA graphics card (G-Sync is only compatible with NVIDIA GPUs) to run games at a level that will allow you to take full advantage of what the PG348Q has to offer.
Ultimately, the PG348Q is a top-of-the-line curved gaming monitor that will deliver you a high-end viewing experience while you play your games. It is incredibly expensive, though, and if you don’t need an ultrawide panel or you don’t want to spend nearly a thousand dollars on your monitor you might want to check out the Acer curved display listed below.
FreeSync Curved Monitor:
Samsung CHG90 49″
In a lot of ways, the Samsung CHG90 is an even more intriguing option than the ASUS ROG Swift PG348Q. For starters, the CHG90 is much larger than the PG348Q, as it is a 49″ screen (compared to the 34″ screen of the PG348Q) mostly thanks to its extra-wide display. It also comes in at ~$70 less than the PG348Q and it has a higher refresh rate (144Hz for the CHG90 compared to 100Hz for the PG348Q).
However, it has a lower vertical resolution (1080 for the CHG90 and 1440 for the PG348Q) and it comes with AMD’s FreeSync technology instead of NVIDIA’s G-Sync technology. This means that in order to take full advantage of the CHG90, you’ll need to pair it with a high-end AMD graphics card. The lower vertical resolution, though, means that it won’t be as taxing to run games on the CHG90 than it will be to run games on the PG348Q and so you can get by without having to spend a ton on your graphics card as well.
Ultimately, the CHG90 is a worthy competitor to the PG348Q at the high-end of the market for curved gaming monitors. Its higher refresh rate will make it a better option for competitive gamers and its lower vertical resolution and lower price will make it a little more accessible than. the PG348Q—though, if price is your main concern, there are better value options listed below.
Best Value Curved Monitor:
Acer ED273 27″
If you’re a competitive gamer that doesn’t have the enormous budget necessary to get either of the two monitors above, you might want to check out Acer’s ED273 27″ curved gaming monitor.
It comes with a 1080P display that has a 144Hz refresh rate and comes with AMD’s FreeSync technology. So, you will need to pair this monitor with an AMD graphics card in order to utilize it fully. However, right now you can build a $600 gaming PC that has an RX 580 8GB inside of it, which will give you plenty of power to run games on max settings with high framerates on this monitor.
Overall, if you don’t need the ultrawide form-factor that the options above come with (or you don’t have the insane budget that is required to purchase them), then this curved gaming display from Acer might be a better option for you. And, if you’re looking to save even more money, you can get this monitor in 24″ instead for ~$20 less.
Budget Curve Monitor:
Sceptre C278W 27″
If you want to get a curved display for entry-level 1080P gaming and you’re looking for the cheapest option possible, then you might want to consider the Sceptre C278W 27″ curved monitor.
The C278W isn’t a gaming specific monitor as it doesn’t have a super high refresh rate and it doesn’t come with variable refresh rate technology (G-Sync or FreeSync), but with a 1920 x 1080 display and a 75Hz refresh rate, it will pair well with a budget-friendly gaming computer to deliver you a solid in-game experience.
The bottom line, though, is that, for just under $160, the Sceptre C278W 27″ monitor is one of the cheapest curved 1080P monitors currently available. And, if you’re looking to spend even less, the 24″ version of this monitor comes in at just a little over ~$115.
Honorable Mention #1:
MSI Optix G24C 24″
An alternative option to the Acer ED273 27″ and the Acer ED242 24″ is MSI’s Optix G24C curved gaming monitor. Like the ED273 and ED242, the MSI G24C is a 1080P curved panel display that has a high 144Hz refresh rate.
The G24C is a 24″ screen, though, so it compares better to the ED242 than it does to the ED273. It’s also priced similarly to the ED242 as both come in at right around $200. The main difference between MSI’s Optix G24C and Acer’s ED242 (and ED273) is that the Optix G24C comes with Adaptive Sync technology rather than AMD’s FreeSync. AAdaptive-Syncis similar to AMD’s FreeSync and, just like FreeSync, you can only use an AMD graphics card with it.
If it were up to me, I’d choose the Acer display for FreeSync alone. However, both displays are good options and so if you can find one option on sale, that’s probably the best route to go.
Honorable Mention #2:
Acer XR382CQK 37.5″
Another high-end ultrawide curved monitor is Acer’s XR382CQK 37.5″ display. However, at right at ~$1,000, this is easily the most expensive option on this list. The main reason for its high price tag is its ultra-wide form-factor, its curved panel, and most importantly, its whopping 3840 x 1600 resolution.
The main downside of this monitor, though, (aside from how much it costs) is that it only comes with a 75Hz refresh rate. If you’re a competitive gamer that plays first-person shooters or other fast-moving esports-type games, you’d be much better off opting for a lower resolution monitor with a higher refresh rate.
However, if you play story-driven games that have amazing visuals, then the higher resolution might be the best option for you. Just note, though, that this monitor does come with AMD’s FreeSync technology and so it will work best when paired with a high-end AMD GPU (RX 580 8GB, RX Vega 56, RX Vega 64.)
In the end, if you’re willing to pay this much for a curved gaming monitor, you’d probably be better off going with the ASUS ROG Swift PG348Q or the Samsung CHG90.
Honorable Mention #3:
LG 34UC79G-B 34″
If you don’t quite have ~$800+ to spend on the Samsung CHG90 or the ASUS ROG Swift PG348Q, but you want a little more than the Acer ED273 has to offer, the LG 34UC79G-B might be the pick for you.
Like the Acer ED273, the LG 34UC79G-B has a vertical pixel count of 1,080, comes with a 144Hz refresh rate, and sports AMD’s FreeSync technology. However, the LG 34UC79G-B comes in an ultra-wide form-factor with a horizontal pixel count of 2,560, for a total resolution of 2560 x 1080.
The LG 34UC79G-B does cost twice as much as the Acer ED273, though, and so if the extra horizontal space won’t justify the large price increase for you, you’d probably be better off with the Acer ED273 instead.
Is A Curved Gaming Monitor the Right Option for You?
If you’re dead set on getting a curved gaming monitor one of the seven options listed above will likely work for you. However, if you want to take a look at other options, the guides listed below will give you more gaming-specific monitor options
