MSI MPG 321URX QD-OLED Review - Impressive '4K' UHD QD-OLED

[@PCMonitors]

➡ Affiliate link: geni.us/yo1YsZ As an Amazon Associate and Newegg Affiliate I earn from qualifying purchases made using the "Affiliate link" above. Introduction: 0:00 Refresh Rates & Scaling: 01:54 Features & Aesthetics: 08:09 Subpixels & Calibration: 12:40 Contrast & Brightness: 22:07 Colour Reproduction: 28:23 HDR (High Dynamic Range): 36:56 Responsiveness (General): 54:26 Responsiveness (VRR): 01:00:34 Conclusion: 01:06:04

[@PCMonitors]

Here's a more thorough comparison with the Dell Alienware AW3225QF and more thoughts on the MSI MAG 321UPX alternative - forum.pcmonitors.info/topic/msi-mpg-321urx-review/.

[@x1mmx]

Which has the least aggressive abl?

[@PCMonitors]

@@x1mmx I found them both similar, as noted in the review.

[@bledarrm7976]

@@PCMonitorsconsidering this and the 27 model don’t come with a display port. Does it work well with third party display port cables?

[@PCMonitors]

@@bledarrm7976 Yes, if monitors include a DP cable there's nothing special about it. Just get a decent quality cable from Amazon and it will be fine.

[@bledarrm7976]

@@PCMonitors from my experience it’s not the very best even buying a high quality DP cable from amazon. Will give it a try maybe.

[@Lakersdude7]

I ordered this monitor a month ago and it’s still on back order lol

[@sblantipodi]

Great review, thanks.

[@PCMonitors]

My pleasure. 😊

[@Keivz]

That abl seems rather aggressive. Interesting how the trueblack 400 setting doesn’t dim as much as the peak 1000 but that isn’t represented in the hdr luminance graph, which apparently doesn’t account for the brightness of mid tones, and is what tftcentral noted (I think) in their recent deep dive.

[@PCMonitors]

Yeah, the PQ curves are quite different and depend heavily on bright patch ("window") size. So it's not just the very bright shades (like pure white) that can differ but also medium shades. It's common for this to happen on OLEDs, where the ABL kicks in for bright scenes and basically everything but the dark shades are dimmed. I'm not sure if this might be done sometimes to help slightly reduce power consumption for the whole panel where bright shades dominate and help maximise bright shade brightness.

[@WickedRibbon]

Brilliant review! It's great to finally see OLED's being viable on the desktop. On the topic of OLED VRR flicker: Not sure if you seen, but RTINGS recently did an excellent video on the topic. To remedy flicker, their solution was to apply a per-game frame rate cap to prevent wild FPS fluctuations. Would you agree with this conclusion? I've not got an OLED monitor to test this myself.

[@PCMonitors]

You definitely want to try to limit FPS fluctuations, as noted in the review. But you don't necessarily want to lose out on the extra frame rate if your system can provide it. Even if it's not doing so consistently. I'd tend to favour seeing what can be done with the graphics options to maintain more consistent and higher frame rates over employing a hard cap. It really depends on your own sensitivity, the content you're observing and the fluctuations you're experiencing as to whether using an FPS cap would make sense. In the example I gave in Battlefield V where the frame rate was fluctuating between ~175 - 210fps, I didn't find the flickering obnoxious and I wouldn't employ a cap. If it was going between say 150 - 240fps with a lot of instability I may do, but it depends how often it stays above 200fps.

[@KrisDee1981]

Framerate cap is not enough, because games sometimes have weird fluctuations when you pause the game, go to settings, open the map, loading screens etc. I found the way to completely eliminate VRR flickering for games that are locked to 60fps. For example fighting games or graphically demanding single player titles that you play on gamepad. You just have to change refresh rate to 60Hz, and this will limit Low framerate compensation. I will give you example in Tekken 8 on my AW3423DWF 165Hz OLED monitor. When I have desktop set to 165Hz and game is obviously locked to 60fps, but the problem is that during loading screens, or when selecting characters, frametimes are going crazy and LFC kicks in. Frequency is jumping 60-110Hz and flickering is very visible. If i set desktop to 60Hz VRR range is only 48-60Hz without LFC. Absolutely zero flickering in small VRR range like this. The problem is that you don't want to run your desktop at 60Hz. Some games you can set own frequency in settings, but others you can't and they matching desktop freq. I personally use game launcher from application called ColorControl to change Resolution, frequency or HDR per game😁 After you close the game application apply default desktop display settings.

[@WickedRibbon]

@@KrisDee1981 Surely using an external frame rate limiter like Rivatuner or Special K, solves this problem? If the cap is set to 60 in those apps, then it should stay at 60, right?

[@KrisDee1981]

​​@@WickedRibbon No it's not limiter problem. It's basically LFC flickering. During loading screens games pretty much stops sometimes. I updated previous post.

[@hauptmanngilbertoduber9953]

Can't you just disable VRR and use only freesync if you're on PC?

[@megafactor]

I just got this and i really like it ,would i be happy going to the lgc4 42" being a woled and less hz ? i do play some rpg games mainly . rtx 4070 . I love the color on these and I am wondering if the bigger screen at 42" would be worth losing the qd oled features and the 240 hz ? I am very happy with this monitor I just want a bigger picture . My main use for pc is youtube and occasional movies and some gaming mainly throne and liberty and the odd cod but mainly rpg types.

[@PCMonitors]

Pretty different experience, not a trade off I'd personally make but some prefer the larger size for extra immersion. Probably worth buying the LG and deciding for yourself whether to keep it. Not sure what you came from or how close you sit, but the MSI is quite large for a monitor still. Might be worth exploring if you can sit slightly closer so it feels "larger".

[@bearclaw5115]

Why not just have a tv and a monitor with each handling what they are good at?

[@x1mmx]

So out of the new 4k qdoleds which is your favorite so far?

[@PCMonitors]

This or the Dell Alienware, depending on pricing. You might find this thread helpful - forum.pcmonitors.info/topic/msi-mpg-321urx-review/.

[@saifhassan9673]

loveddddd ur review man.. yt needs a love button for thus kind of underrated content.. btw have you found DSC issue with nvidia gpus? like alt tab delay etc....

[@PCMonitors]

I think "DSC issues" are largely overblown to be honest. The general points applying to DSC also apply to using DSC on this monitor. It does lead to an alt+tab delay (going from game to desktop, not other way around), but it feels like a few seconds and I don't personally mind given how infrequently I need to do that. If you run the game in windowed borderless or other 'non true fullscreen' mode it won't have that delay. And you can't create custom resolutions in NVCP or use technologies like DSR or DLDSR. It's really an Nvidia issue, you'd think with all their software and AI prowess they would've sorted that out by now!

[@saifhassan9673]

@@PCMonitors is the raised blacks really that bad in a room with moderate light? Like a led tubelight on the wall.

[@PCMonitors]

That's covered in the review, in the contrast section. It depends where the light is - if the light doesn't strike the screen directly then it will likely be fine.

[@miatafunrun3078]

Thanks for the thorough review. I have not downloaded the MSI Gaming Intelligence app so I just set my resolution to 2560x1440 in Windows/Nvidia to get more FPS in iRacing. So the OSD still shows 3840x2160. Would there be an image quality difference if I used the MSI app to set the monitor explicitly to 2560x1440?

[@PCMonitors]

@miatafunrun3078 That means you're using GPU scaling, which doesn't have anything to do with using the app to set the resolution or not. Try changing to a different refresh rate and see if what the monitor reports changes. GPU scaling is pretty similar to this monitor's scaling either way, so don't worry about it.

[@miatafunrun3078]

@@PCMonitors I toggled the refresh rate from Nvidia Panel and now the monitor shows 2560x1440.

[@PCMonitors]

@@miatafunrun3078 Yeah. For future reference, if you change the resolution in 'Display Settings' in Windows it doesn't change the resolution of the monitor - it just applies basic scaling. Changing via Nvidia Control Panel is the same as going to 'Windows' - 'Advanced Display' - 'Display Adaptor Properties' - 'List All Modes' and changing there. I've always thought the way Windows does this is stupid.

[@nidridzy]

Спасибо за обзор !!

[@shahrukhwolfmann6824]

Keep up the good work!

[@N0rmalWillemR]

I bought this monitor recently. I have a stupid question about standby mode vs. turn it off. Is it safe to set the power button to standby mode? Is it affecting the panel? Hope you can help me solve these thoughts.

[@PCMonitors]

It's safe to leave a monitor in standby for extended periods of time, it doesn't draw enough power or generate enough heat to damage it. Technically when you turn a monitor 'off' with a power button it's still on standby (typically a lower power standby state, but still standby).

[@N0rmalWillemR]

@PCMonitors wow, thank you for the quick response.

[@xbone8950]

I have the MSI MPG 321UpX which is essentially the same as this minus the fact I can't firmware update it, I noticed that HDR True Black400 is alot brighter than HDR1000, is this normal behavior ? which is the more accurate setting?

[@PCMonitors]

Can't speak for the specific calibration of your unit. But in general the HDR True Black 400 setting is more accurate. The 'HDR 1000' setting on QD-OLEDs like this will dim some medium to bright shades in bright-dominant scenes, apparently to conserve power which they can use to try to ramp up the brightest highlights (that may need to be shown in later scenes) as much as possible. Which basically makes some scenes look dimmer in general using that setting. So if you prefer the True Black 400 representation which is more consistent and generally better calibrated definitely feel free to use that.

[@xbone8950]

@@PCMonitors thanks for the reply, so am I suppsed to set HDR brightness in the window calibration and in games to 400 nits when using HDR True Black 400? or 1000nits? thank you.

[@PCMonitors]

Set it up according to the guidance given for the calibration process you're using. Most games and Windows calibration have visual guidance for a reason. It should end up closer to 400 nits (it's actually a bit higher because the monitor can exceed that) than 1000.

[@si64xs58]

Do u think this monitor is worth it for the ps5 to play story mode games and fps especially playing dark games? Also can u put the temperature in cool?

[@PCMonitors]

@@si64xs58 It will give a very enjoyable and immersive experience there. And yes you can make it cool-tinted under SDR.

[@si64xs58]

@@PCMonitors for the temperature cool can I put it in HDR?

[@PCMonitors]

No, HDR is very restrictive as usual for a monitor (and as shown in the 'Best Settings' video).

[@hemulen8581]

VRR does not work properly with consoles on this monitor :( It's a juddery mess atm. It would have been nice if you could test this!

[@PCMonitors]

Well I don't use consoles or have time to test using them, but there are plenty of users and some reviewers who will report issues like that. MSI are aware of an HDMI 2.1 VRR (non Adaptive-Sync) issue on the PS5 and working to fix it.

[@harunkaganccc]

all oled have vrr flickering problem. msi, asus dell etc.The only solution is to turn it off or wait for an update. maybe oled monitörs dont need vrr/gsync?? really fast response time

[@PCMonitors]

@@harunkaganccc 'Juddering' using VRR (on the PS5) is a separate issue. And fast response times do not negate the stuttering or tearing you would get without using VRR, in fact they'd make any stuttering more obvious as you'd have no additional perceived blur (from slower than optimal pixel responses) to mask it. Either way, not everyone need/cares for VRR.

[@TaxxR]

Is this the monitor you're using now?

[@PCMonitors]

No, I use the Alienware version (as noted in the review conclusion).

[@marcel1463]

Alienware looks better and costs over 200€ less! Great review like always PC Monitors.

[@barche75]

I dictated to buy 341qcpx instead of 321urx

[@hellblazer7]

lol I just bought the monitor today.

[@IDK-gh4st]

Hi, I'm considering getting a QD-Oled (this one probably). My room is usually fairly dim (15-25 lux), would this result in noticeable black level raising or magenta?

[@PCMonitors]

It depends on whether you avoid direct light striking the screen and not just the overall ambient light level. Assuming you're avoiding a lot of that light striking the screen directly, you can expect a similar experience to what is described/shown in a dark room in the review.

[@FPChris]

Never in stock

[@PCMonitors]

Yeah, tell me about it. "Not in stock" is the absolute bane of being a monitor reviewer (or potential buyer) at the moment.

[@sleazymedia6967]

Is this monitor capable of changing KVM inputs using a keyboard?

[@PCMonitors]

Yes, you can using the Gaming Intelligence app to assign hotkeys for that.