any real benefit to using a "gaming" monitor?

depends on what makes it a gaming monitor.

some are better at input lag which helps give a more connected feel to games making it easier to pull off quick snap shots in shooting games or tricky timed combos in fighting games and similar styled fast paced action.

other gaming monitors offer higher refresh rates than regular which smooth out motion quite a bit. it can be difficult to visualize what that would be like without actually seeing one of these high refresh rate monitors in person but this site gives a pretty good idea.

http://www.testufo.com/#test=framerates

as the framerate goes up, you get more information from the monitor soothing out the motion.

that very test on a 144 Hz monitor looks great. you can easily count the white spots on the aliens ship and even easily see his 3 eyes.

the last thing gaming motors can have is variable refresh rates called GSync for nvidia and Freesync for AMD. what these monitors aim to do it eliminate tearing.

tearing happens when the graphics card FPS drops below the monitor refresh rate. this disphase can cause horizontal lines that cut the video output and cause distractions and poor quality. you can see what tearing looks like here

http://www.testufo.com/#test=stutter&demo=tearing&...

with a variable refresh rate monitor, the monitor is in constant communication with the graphics card as to how many frames per second the card is putting out and the monitor will match its refresh rate to the graphics card output.this eliminates tearing. typically variable refresh rate monitors are also high refresh rate monitors.

variable refresh rate monitors also help with input lag as small disphases in video output do not cause issues with frame coordination. you just get output when the graphics card is ready.

for reference, when I went from a standard 60 Hz 1080p monitor to a 144 Hz GSync monitor, my aiming in FPS games like counter strike and unreal tournament got instantly better. i found it much easier to aim as I felt a better connection to the game. this is partly due to the decreased input lag, the high refresh rate making motion look much smoother and the lack of tearing and stuttering which can cause tiny distractions. all these things worked together to make me better at aiming. i didnt become and instant god or anything, I just found it easier to take some shots I wasnt able to before.

I have a 144hz Asus VG248QE It's good for gaming due it's very fast response time and 144hz refresh rate, but it's pretty ordinary for anything else. It's has a TN panel, which means it's color gamut isn't great, and image quality isn't that impressive either if you're used to higher end IPS or VA panels. My previous monitor was a nicer Dell Ultrasharp (IPS panel) and although it topped out at 60hz and just a barely noticeable amount of input lag vs. the Asus. It's image quality was miles ahead. But it develop a column of dead pixels and had to go.

I have tried multiple color profiles for the VG248QE and found a combination of color profile and monitor settings that resulted in better, though still not great color reproduction. If you've used nothing but cheaper TN panel displays so far, then the color reproduction and image quality of the VG248QE would seem fine to you, but you're used to high end displays, it's going to be disapointing.

With that said I plan on upgrading to 4k monitor once they can do a 28-30 inch IPS panel than can support 4k res, a 120hz or better refresh rate and G-Sync, and have it come in at less that $700.

lower response time, sometimes higher refresh rate

$$$