I’ve used several monitors over the past decade, and one thing I’ve learned is that they don’t always look particularly great out of the box. More often than not, I need to spend a good amount of time tweaking the settings before the image looks the way I like. Some of them may be obvious and straightforward, such as adjusting overly warm or cool whites, fine-tuning black levels, and adjusting brightness, but others require experimenting with features I previously ignored.

Those adjustments felt unnecessary at first, but over time, I’ve learned that even subtle changes can make a monitor feel noticeably different in day-to-day use. From improving motion clarity to lowering gamma levels to spot enemies more easily, the tweaks I’m about to share can end up having a much bigger impact than you’d expect. Nowadays, I can’t imagine gaming on a monitor before dialing in these settings first.

Finding the right response time

The fastest response time your monitor offers usually isn’t the best

If you’ve ever bought an IPS, TN, or VA gaming monitor, you’ve probably noticed how the manufacturer advertises the response time right on the box. Yes, 1ms and 0.5ms response times are definitely impressive for LCD panels, but they don’t always tell the whole story when it comes to motion clarity. More importantly, you usually don’t get that response time out of the box. You have to set the response time to the fastest setting in your monitor’s OSD to get close to those advertised numbers. The problem with this setting, however, is that it only looks good on paper.

When you push the response time to the maximum setting that your monitor offers, it introduces something called “pixel overshoot.” This happens when the monitor drives pixels too aggressively to change colors faster, causing them to briefly go past their target shade before settling. As a result, you’ll see bright or dark trails appear behind moving objects, which can sometimes look worse than regular motion blur. That’s the last thing you want while playing competitive games, and for that reason, I usually settle for the second-highest setting. It’s better than the default setting for motion clarity, but I also don’t have to deal with the overshoot artifacts that come with the fastest one.

Gamma level and black equalizer

Both these settings affect visibility, but in different ways

If you want to improve visibility while playing competitive online games like Valorant, Counter-Strike 2, or Call of Duty: Warzone, both the gamma and black equalizer settings can make a big difference. I’ve fiddled with both of them over the years, but it took me a while to realize that they actually work in very different ways. The gamma setting adjusts the entire tone curve, changing how midtones and shadows are displayed across the whole image. Lowering it definitely makes darker areas brighter, but that comes at the cost of reduced contrast and an overall flatter-looking image.

On the other hand, the black equalizer setting specifically targets the darkest parts of the image without touching the midtones or highlights. This is perfect if you want to improve enemy visibility in darker areas without making the entire scene look washed out. That said, it mostly comes down to the type of monitor you have. If you have an IPS panel, such as the LG 27GN950, I’d simply raise the black equalizer setting a few notches. If you have an OLED, though, slightly lowering the gamma level is usually enough to improve visibility without flattening the image. Raising the black stabilizer just a little can help in darker games, but going too far will make blacks look gray.

Disabling G-Sync and FreeSync

They help with tearing, but competitive games feel snappier without them

This might seem absurd, but I’ve disabled G-Sync on all three of my monitors, mostly because I usually play competitive shooters like Valorant and Marvel Rivals. I have no issues admitting that variable refresh rate technologies are helpful when frame rates are unstable. In fact, I do enable them whenever I play graphically demanding AAA games. However, competitive games mostly run at consistently high frame rates, often well above my monitor’s refresh rate.

In such cases, enabling G-Sync or FreeSync doesn’t give me any real benefit since it only works within the variable refresh rate range. Once your in-game frame rates exceed that ceiling, the monitor stops syncing frames, and you’re basically left with an extra few milliseconds of input lag and tearing. When you play games competitively, every millisecond matters, and that tiny bit of added latency can make inputs feel less immediate. Honestly, I don’t mind a bit of tearing if my games feel snappier overall.

You’ll never know what actually helps until you start experimenting

Before you jump to any conclusions, I want to say that there isn’t a set of perfect monitor settings that works for everyone. What worked for me may not work for you because it all comes down to the panel you have and the kind of games you play on it. In fact, I have each of my monitors configured slightly differently because one of them is an IPS panel while the other two are OLEDs. Each panel has its own strengths and quirks, and the only way to really understand them is through trial and error. Finding what works for you takes time, but it’s definitely worth the effort. Even if you mess up some settings, you can always reset your monitor to the factory default values and start all over again. So, don’t be afraid to dig through the OSD and experiment with all the options your monitor offers.