The 6 Best Gaming TVs for PS5, Xbox Series X, Switch, and PC

A great TV can elevate your gaming experience, delivering crisp, high-resolution graphics and smooth animation. The best gaming TVs deliver great picture quality, rich colors, deep contrast, and wide dynamic range, making any game look more vibrant, detailed, and engaging.

In recent years, manufacturers have added a slew of gaming-focused upgrades, such as HDMI 2.1 ports that fully support the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, and variable refresh rate (VRR) technology that keeps gameplay smooth.

Every modern TV can connect to today’s game consoles and gaming PCs, but not all deliver the same experience. To get the most out of today’s best-looking games, you need a TV built to show off what your console or PC can do. That means sorting through specs, ratings, and features to separate the best 4K TVs for everyday viewing from the ones that excel at gaming.

• Best Overall: Samsung S95H OLED TV​
• Best Value: Hisense U7 Mini-LED TV​
• Best Upgrade: LG G6 OLED TV​
• Best OLED: Sony Bravia 8 II​
• Best Mini-LED: TCL QM8L Mini-LED TV​

The Experts: As a kid, Chris Coke grew up thinking that a big screen TV was a key to “making it” as an adult. As a technology critic, he’s tested dozens of monitors and TVs for publications like IGN and MMORPG.com, to help consumers find the display that brings a nightly smile to their face. He knows the difference between a good TV and a great TV, and exactly what you should be looking for to have a tremendous gaming experience. Matt Ng, who updated this story, specializes in writing about gaming, tech, and movies.

To find the best gaming TVs, we looked for technical, gaming-centric features the average shopper might overlook. We set our criteria to include 4K resolution or higher with HDR, a 120-Hz refresh rate, HDMI 2.1 ports, high brightness, a wide color gamut, low input lag, and a low response time. We also went beyond traditional LED panels and offered OLED, Mini-LED, and QLED screens, which typically render a wide range of gaming environments well. Whether you’re adventuring in lush, colorful fields or dark dungeons, you get an immersive, atmospheric, vibrant picture.

The Samsung S95H has a polished metal bezel around its screen, which is a bold choice when most TV makers shrink bezels as much as they can. With the TV off, the metal frame makes it look like a nice piece of furniture. With a game on, the bezel is slim enough that your eyes stay on the picture.

Brightness is the S95H’s biggest upgrade over last year’s S95F. OLED TVs are known for sharp detail and deep contrast, but they usually can’t get as bright as LED TVs. The S95H peaks close to 3,000 nits. Combined with Samsung’s anti-glare screen, that keeps the picture easy to see in almost any lighting without sacrificing the deep blacks that make OLED worth buying.

In our testing, Forza Horizon 6 on an Xbox Series X looked fantastic, with rich colors, sharp detail, and no stutter. The S95H runs up to 165Hz with VRR support, which matches the screen’s refresh rate to the game’s frame rate so the image doesn’t tear when performance dips. PC players get both AMD FreeSync and Nvidia’s G-Sync compatibility. And all four HDMI ports are HDMI 2.1, so you can connect multiple consoles and a PC without swapping cables.

The S95H’s one real gap is that it lacks Dolby Vision. It supports HDR10+ Advanced instead, while many of Samsung’s rivals support both formats. Our full review of the Samsung S95H covers other features, like upscaling and smart features, in more detail.

The Hisense U7 delivers flagship gaming specs at a much more affordable price. It runs at a native 165Hz, and its VRR scales from 48Hz up to match whatever frame rate your game outputs, keeping the picture from tearing when the action gets intense. PC players get AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, and Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM) drops the TV into its fastest setting as soon as it detects a console.

Hisense’s Mini-LED backlight hits up to 3,000 nits of peak brightness across thousands of dimming zones, so bright highlights pop while dark areas stay black with little haloing. An anti-reflection coating helps cut down on glare, so you can still game in a sunny room. And unlike our top pick, the U7 supports Dolby Vision, the HDR format most Xbox games and streaming shows are mastered in.

The LG G6 is built for a setup with more than one machine plugged in. All four HDMI ports are 2.1, so a PS5, an Xbox Series X, and a gaming PC can each run at 4K at 120Hz without swapping cables. We often see models put the fast ports on only two of their four inputs, limiting your options.

The panel is WOLED with over 8 million self-lit pixels that switch off individually to produce true black and the sharp contrast OLED is known for. LG’s Brightness Booster Ultra pushes highlights harder than past OLEDs managed, and a matte Reflection Free coating keeps a sunlit room from washing out the picture. The refresh rate runs at 120Hz natively and climbs to 165Hz with VRR for high-frame-rate PC games, and the G6 supports both Nvidia G-Sync and AMD FreeSync, so it syncs with either brand of graphics card.

The G6’s one real omission is HDR10+, so some HDR movies and shows miss the scene-by-scene brightness tuning that format adds. It’s a minor loss for gaming, though, since the G6 still supports Dolby Vision and almost no games use HDR10+. If its flagship price is steeper than you need, LG’s step-down C6 keeps the 165Hz ceiling, G-Sync, and FreeSync, but it handles glare in a bright room far worse. Read more about the LG C6 in our review.

The Sony Bravia 8 II is the OLED to buy if you game mostly on a PS5. When you plug in the console, two Sony-exclusive features switch on: Auto HDR Tone Mapping sets the TV’s HDR range to match the PS5 during setup, and Auto Genre Picture Mode drops the TV into low-latency game mode when you launch a game, then shifts back for movies.

The panel is QD-OLED, which adds a quantum-dot layer to the OLED to produce brighter, more saturated color than a standard OLED, without sacrificing the perfect blacks. Its XR Processor reads each scene and adjusts contrast and color as you watch. For gaming, it runs 4K at 120Hz with VRR and ALLM over HDMI 2.1. It tops out at 120Hz, though, short of the 144 and 165Hz the latest LG and Samsung OLEDs offer. It comes in only two sizes: 55 and 65 inches.

The TCL QM8L is a Mini-LED TV that offers the highest peak brightness on this list. Its Super Quantum Dot (SQD) Mini-LED panel reaches up to 6,000 nits across as many as 4,000 local dimming zones, depending on size, so HDR highlights look incredibly bright while those dimming zones keep dark areas deep, with little halo glow around bright scenes. In our review, its picture came close to an elite OLED’s for sharpness, with vivid, accurate color.

For gaming, the QM8L runs at 144Hz with a dedicated game mode, and HDR movies, live sports, and fast action all looked clean and bright. It supports all the major HDR formats, including Dolby Vision and HDR10+, so nothing you stream or play drops to a lesser picture. Its Bang & Olufsen-tuned speakers put out strong, detailed sound for a built-in system.

The QM8L has no anti-reflective coating, though, so a window or lamp facing the screen can wash out dark scenes, which makes it a weaker pick for sunny spaces. It also drops the up-firing speakers from last year’s model, so it loses built-in Dolby Atmos height effects.

At 42 inches, the LG C6 fits on a desk or in a small room where a 55-inch set would take up too much space. Even at its smaller size, it still offers 120Hz refresh rate on a console and up to 165Hz on a PC, VRR, G-Sync, FreeSync, and a response time LG rates at 0.1 milliseconds, so controller inputs have no visible lag.

Because it’s an OLED, each of its 8.3 million pixels generates its own light and can shut off completely for true black, which is why a 42-inch OLED looks far sharper up close than a small LED set. It supports Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos and runs LG’s webOS software, so you still get a full-featured experience despite the smaller size.

LG’s previous-generation C5 comes in the same 42-inch size for less and games nearly identically. The C6 is worth the extra only if you want its newer processor and the latest version of LG’s webOS software, which will keep getting updates a bit longer.

Size

Choosing the right size TV for your space can make or break your gaming setup. It’s easy to assume bigger is always better, but you should choose a TV size that fits the room where you plan to put it.

According to the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, 30 to 40 percent of your field of view. Sit too far away, and you’ll struggle to see the small details on the screen. Sit too close, and you may risk straining your eyes over time.

Thankfully, nearly every TV buyer faces this question at some point. Generally, measure the distance between the screen and where you most often sit to watch. Divide the distance by two, then choose a screen that’s at least that size.

Display

Modern TVs use a range of display technologies to generate the brightest, sharpest image possible. Each option has clear advantages and disadvantages. For example, an Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) TV can deliver a rich, high-contrast picture, but it often isn’t as bright as a QLED or LED display.

LED/LCD: Most standard, sub-$1,000 TVs use a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) or Light-Emitting Diode (LED) display. The most common option, LCD and LED TVs use edge-lit designs where all the light comes from the sides of the screen, or individual dimming zones for improved contrast.

They can be designed to be very bright and offer a tremendous viewing experience, or budget-oriented with reduced picture quality and features. Check the specs for total brightness levels and how the TV handles dimming to gauge its high-dynamic-range (HDR) performance.

OLED: Many experts consider Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) TVs to be the best option you can buy right now. (Us included.) Instead of using LED backlighting, each pixel of an OLED is a “self-emitting” backlight that can be individually lit and controlled. This lets the TV turn off pixels to enhance contrast and create a perfectly black image. Simply put, OLED displays offer the best contrast, deepest blacks, and the highest dynamic range on any display.

However, OLED technology is currently found mostly in high-end models. They also have drawbacks: Some may not get as bright as QLED and Mini-LED-equipped panels, though LG and other manufacturers have made great strides in addressing this in recent revisions. Lastly, OLED panels are generally more susceptible to burn-in, where static elements may leave shadows on the screen if left on for long periods, though this is much less of an issue with later generations thanks to built-in protection measures like screen savers.

QLED: Quantum-Dot Light-Emitting Diode (QLED) panels add a layer of nanoparticles called “quantum dots” to traditional LED displays, which enhance certain wavelengths of color when illuminated, increasing brightness and color saturation. Though they feature the same display panels as LED TVs, they are generally considered a class of their own.

In recent years, multiple manufacturers have added quantum dots to OLED screens, creating QD-OLED or “hybrid OLED” TVs. Quantum dots in QD-OLEDs generally boost brightness, which is often considered one of OLED’s drawbacks, with minimal impact on its superior contrast.

Some brands offer proprietary versions of QLED technology; for example, Hisense makes “Ultra LED” or “ULED” TVs that function similarly to Samsung and other brands' QLED TVs.

Mini-LED: Mini-LED is another evolution of traditional LED displays: instead of using standard LEDs, Mini-LED TVs use smaller LED chips that are clustered tightly together. TVs with these panels are usually brighter and have more local dimming zones for increased contrast. Some Mini-LED displays also feature quantum dots: Combining the two technologies generally creates a very bright, color-rich picture.

Because of their brightness, Mini-LEDs suit rooms with lots of bright daylight. They tend to cost more than LED TVs but less than OLEDs. They’re also prone to blooming, where light from bright areas of the image bleeds into darker parts of the display, creating a shimmer or halo effect (think movie credits with bright white text on a black background).

Resolution

A great gaming TV with excellent picture quality depends on many factors, and resolution is just one piece of the puzzle. While some lower-resolution TVs are still on the market, mostly for small screen sizes, 4K (3840 × 2160) resolution has become the standard TV resolution, and the current console generation (and most streaming services) have cemented 4K as the gold standard. Many upmarket TVs even use AI processors to upscale 1080p content to 4K.

I know what you’re going to say next. Is it worth getting an 8K TV? The short answer is no. There is little to no 8K content available right now, so you're paying through the nose for technology that you can’t use regularly for the foreseeable future.

Besides resolution, color gamut, peak brightness, contrast ratio, and HDR performance all work together to create that all-important display image.

Variable Refresh Rate (VRR)

Beyond boosting frame rate, look for TVs that support variable refresh rate (VRR) technology. When a TV’s refresh rate doesn't match a game’s frame rate, ugly artifacts and screen tearing can occur. VRR lets the TV dynamically adjust its refresh rate to match what’s coming from your console or PC, creating a smoother, more consistent image.

It’s a standard feature in gaming monitors and is increasingly supported by the best gaming TVs. The Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S have supported VRR since launch, while the PlayStation 5 added it in 2022 for select games.

To play games in 4K at 120 Hz, you will need to plug your console or PC into an HDMI 2.1 port, which has enough bandwidth to support that resolution and frame rate. (Eventually, you will also need it to play games in 8K at 60 Hz.) Any TV that supports 120 Hz will have at least one HDMI 2.1 port, but some TVs put it in only one or two of their four HDMI ports, while others put HDMI 2.1 in every slot.

Input Lag and Response Time

Every screen introduces at least a small amount of input lag. It takes time, often just milliseconds, for a signal to go from your controller to your console or PC when you press a button, then for your TV to refresh and show what you did.

For a smoother gaming experience, we recommend a TV with no more than 30 milliseconds of input lag. Generally speaking, this is short enough that you will no longer notice the delay between pressing an input on your controller and seeing the reaction on screen.

As TVs get more advanced, with richer features and picture enhancements, achieving low latency can be difficult. That said, more and more TVs offer a “game mode” setting that disables some video-processing features to reduce lag without substantially affecting image quality.