MSI has nailed the best budget Prime Day gaming monitor with this $120 144Hz IPS display

MSI gaming monitor
(Image credit: MSI)

High refresh rate monitors at this price don't often come with response times as low as the MSI Optix G272. There are a lot of monitor deals popping up for this year's Prime Day, but few can beat the value of this $119 monitor on Walmart.

The MSI Optix G272 is an 1080p IPS panel with a mediocre contrast ratio of 1000:1, but those aren't dealbreakers given that this monitor can reach up to a 144Hz refresh rate and has a 1ms response time. Rtings tested it on the "Fast" response rate setting and found the pixels to swap colors, not just grey-to-grey, in 8.6 ms, which is significantly faster than most panels at this price.  This means that there's very little blur on fast-moving objects, especially in FPS games.

MSI Optix G272 | 27-inch | 1080p | IPS | 144Hz | $352.60 $119 at Walmart (save $233.60)

MSI Optix G272 | 27-inch | 1080p | IPS | 144Hz | <a href="https://goto.walmart.com/c/1943169/565706/9383?subId1=hawk-custom-tracking&sharedId=hawk&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.walmart.com%2Fip%2FMSI-Optix-G272-27-Full-HD-LED-Gaming-LCD-Monitor-16-9%2F905918032%3Fathbdg%3DL1200" data-link-merchant="walmart.com"" target="_blank">$352.60 $119 at Walmart (save $233.60)
Normally, a $120 IPS monitor would be, at best a 1080p 75Hz panel. But this is a proper gaming monitor, with a 144Hz refresh rate and a 1ms response time on its IPS screen. It's also sporting a nicely restrained design, too, with a narrow bezel making it all but frameless on three sides. It's not the brightest, so don't expect any retina-searing visuals, but this is a fantastic budget gaming option.

The monitor doesn't come with AMD's FreeSync or Nvidia's G-Sync adaptive refresh rate technologies, but it does have Adaptive Sync. Adaptive Sync works on a DisplayPort connection with a lot of AMD cards and recent Nvidia cards. You can check if your Nvidia graphics card supports it here.

For non-PC gaming uses, this monitor can also hit 120Hz for consoles over its HDMI 1.4 port, and it has a headphone jack if you need to keep your setup simple.

The MSI Optix G272 is an impressive monitor at a price that's under what you'd find other 1080p 144Hz panels at. It typically runs for about $155, which puts the current price around $36 below the norm, and right now, that makes it one of the best monitor deals available.

Associate Editor

Tyler has covered games, games culture, and hardware for over a decade before joining PC Gamer as Associate Editor. He's done in-depth reporting on communities and games as well as criticism for sites like Polygon, Wired, and Waypoint. He's interested in the weird and the fascinating when it comes to games, spending time probing for stories and talking to the people involved. Tyler loves sinking into games like Final Fantasy 14, Overwatch, and Dark Souls to see what makes them tick and pluck out the parts worth talking about. His goal is to talk about games the way they are: broken, beautiful, and bizarre.