How important is it to have a gaming monitor?

[Joeyd123]

So I started playing Smash 4 "competitively" the past couple months. By that I mean play on Smash ladder. However, I recently started playing Melee on a CRT. Ever since I started playing Smash 4 on my HD TV and I get so frustrated by the input lag. Do I need a monitor?

 

[TheSuperiorOne]

It made a big difference for me in FPS games, haven't tried with Smash. Would like to know this also.

 

[Pippin (Peregrin Took)]

Have you checked to see if your TV has a "Game mode"? That's how the main TV in my house is and the lag is not noticeable/nonexistent. Otherwise a small gaming monitor's not too expensive (twas looking in Target today so I won't have to borrow my mom's Hello Kitty one) so it would depend on what you're using it for.

EDIT: Unless the monitors I was looking at weren't specifically "gaming monitors". I think a couple of them were samsung though and I believe they're pretty good.