Factorio Forums

Hello, fellow Factorio enthusiasts!

I hope you're all enjoying your time in the fascinating world of Factorio. As we know, this game demands precision and attention to detail, and having the right gaming monitor can greatly enhance your gaming experience. That's why I'm turning to this community for some recommendations.

I'm currently in the market for a new gaming monitor specifically to enhance my Factorio gameplay. With so many options out there, it's a bit overwhelming, and I'm not sure which specs to prioritize.

So, I'm reaching out to you all for your expertise. What gaming monitor specs do you recommend for a seamless Factorio experience? Here are a few things I'm considering:

Resolution: Is a higher resolution necessary for Factorio, or is 1080p sufficient?
Refresh Rate: Does a higher refresh rate matter for a game like Factorio, which isn't fast-paced like some shooters?
Panel Type: Is there a particular panel type (IPS, TN, VA) that works best for this game?
Size: What screen size do you find comfortable for long Factorio sessions?
Response Time: How important is a low response time for this game?

If you have any specific monitor models that you've had a great experience with while playing Factorio, please feel free to share those as well. Your input will be incredibly valuable in helping me make an informed decision.

I appreciate your time and expertise in advance. Let's work together to ensure that we all have the best Factorio gaming experience possible!

Well, Factorio is locked at a max fps of 60, so a monitor capable of more wouldn't give you any real benefit.

As it's also a top down building game and not a FPS, I don't think response time is really going to give you anything, either.

Graphics are such that 1080p should be sufficient, but higher (and larger screen) wouldn't hurt, though you may need to upscale the UI (setting in game).

The one thing I will say does hurt this game are wide and ultra-wide monitors. Factorio is set to limit your view to no further than... 200?... tiles vertically and horizontally, so when zooming out your vertical view distance will suffer. This becomes a problem when attempting to approach biters/nests from the north or south, and the tool bar on the bottom makes that even worse.

Here is a good 1080p monitor with all the things you might need: https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-Gaming-1080 ... /=8-3&th=1

This is a 27" screen so it will be much nicer to look at than smaller screens.

It's true, 165Hz and 144Hz are faster than Factorio, but this is a nice solid monitor, I have the 1440p variant myself. The higher supported refresh rate would be nice in other games, though.

Response time can always be important depending on how sensitive your eyes are. This monitor has a blue light filter for reduced eye fatigue. It has adaptive sync as a bonus which would be useful in other games depending on your PC specs.

IPS is a good tried and true type. 1080p is the most compatible resolution as far as not having to do much scaling.

I would also avoid ultra-wide for Factorio.

About ultra-wide monitors: I have one, and I use it successfully with Attila's Zoom mod. Without zoom mod, wide or ultrawide monitors are worse for Factorio than regular 16:9 monitors due to the 200 tile limit, but with zoom mod it's an improvement over these.
It could be that multiplayer is a problem with these zoom mods, but I only play solo.

The resolution depends on how powerful your computer is. If you have a somewhat recent PC with a reasonably powerful GPU, you should seek out at least for 1440p monitors (2560x1440) instead of 1080p monitors. Same aspect ratio, so your view is the same, but an improved visual experience. The view in Factorio is really the same, no matter the resolution: Factorio is hardcoded to show 200 tiles at maximum horizontally or vertically, whatever is longer. To get more, you need a zoom mod.

With a 32:9 5120x1440 49" monitor (same resolution as 2x 2560x1440 monitors side by side) and zoom mod: