You can pick up a 24-inch 100Hz monitor for $80 at Best Buy
A nice budget gaming screen - or a great second monitor.
It's rare to see gaming monitors available for under $100, but that's exactly what Best Buy are offering at the moment. You can pick up an LG 24-inch IPS monitor with a 1080p resolution and 100Hz refresh rate for just $80 after a $90 reduction.
This screen certainly isn't well-known, but it's totally suitable for a budget gaming setup or as a second monitor for someone already happy with their main display. The 100Hz refresh rate provides a good boost to responsiveness, while the 1080p resolution is a good match for the 24-inch diagonal span. There's also FreeSync for smoothing out uneven frame delivery and eliminating screen tearing without the traditional input lag penalty of v-sync. As it's an IPS screen, we also expect excellent colour reproduction and wide viewing angles, with middling contrast, pixel response times and brightness, making it a good all-round choice for gaming in a range of genres and working.
As I've mentioned in earlier articles, going from 60Hz to 100Hz is actually a decent savings in terms of responsiveness - you're looking at 16.6ms per refresh at 60Hz compared to 10ms per frame at 100Hz, which is a fairly significant 6.6ms reduction. Going up to the standard 'gamer' refresh rate of 144Hz nets you just a further 3.1ms, meaning that going from 60Hz to 100Hz gives you around two-thirds the benefit of going from 60Hz to 144Hz - neat.
Overall then, this is a very nice gaming monitor for its $80 asking price and well worth considering.