Call me old (actually, please don’t), but I never truly understood the effect that one’s monitor could have on one’s ability to game, that is, until I got my hands on the MSI MPG 321URX QD-OLED gaming monitor. Certainly, a wider field of view would allow you a better glimpse at the playing field, and a higher frame rate would certainly be advantageous over a lower frame rate, but there has to be some maximum to that, right? I mean, our eyes can only perceive a certain amount of movement, so some refresh rates would be beyond our capability, right?
I thought so, but I was wrong.
I have been testing the MSI MPG 321URX QD-OLED gaming monitor for a couple of weeks now, and beyond the resolution and refresh rate, this monitor has some tricks up its sleeve to boost your gaming in a meaningful way.
The 32” MSI MPG 321URX QD-OLED gaming monitor supports 4K resolutions with a refresh rate of 240Hz and a rapid response time of 0.03ms. It has plenty of I/O, with two HDMI 2.1 ports, both capable of taking advantage of the 240Hz refresh rate, a DisplayPort 1.4a port and a USB-C DisplayPort Alt port, letting you transfer 4K video over a USB-C Cable. There is also a USB-B and two USB-A ports.
These ports can be used to connect to your PC via the USB-B cable to turn the extra USB ports into a hub to plug anything into your PC via the monitor. It can also be used to plug in your mouse and keyboard so they can be used for the built-in KVM, letting you swap between sources but use the same hardware to control each device.
“The MSI MPG 321URX QD-OLED monitor is also VESA-certified ClearMR 13000, meaning that it has 125-135 times the amount of clear pixels compared to blurry pixels.”
The monitor mount was easy to set up and fit seamlessly with the MSI MPG 321URX QD-OLED monitor, but it can still be set up on a monitor arm, as I did for the bulk of my testing period. I loved the screws provided by MSI to mount to the arm, allowing you to screw them in by hand rather than needing a screwdriver. The bulk of the monitor is thinner than my cell phone and stands majestic over an already impressive setup.
The Quantum Dot layer of the display (hence, QD-OLED) is designed to improve on existing OLED technology, allowing for all of the great contrast and colour that the OLED offers while adding overall brightness and improving on the already impressive colour gamut on offer. The MSI MPG 321URX QD-OLED gaming monitor supports VESA-certified HDR True Black 400, giving you a fantastic dynamic range with, as the name suggests, true blacks, thanks to the ability to dim the pixels and provide exactly the colour that was intended without any light bleed.
The MSI MPG 321URX QD-OLED monitor is also VESA-certified ClearMR 13000, meaning that it has 125-135 times the amount of clear pixels compared to blurry pixels. This is the highest certification that VESA awards any monitor, and it shows in the clarity. The monitor also has adaptive sync, which will sync the monitor to the refresh rate being output by your GPU to create a super smooth experience.
There are a lot of ways to protect your eyes and the monitor with the MSI MPG 321URX QD-OLED Monitor. First, there is an anti-reflective coating on the screen, so you are only looking at the light coming from the monitor, not anything else. There is also a blue light reduction that is built into the monitor with no need to activate or deactivate it. An additional level of blue light reduction can be activated on the menu. Then your monitor gets protected from the greatest scourge a monitor can face: burn-in.
MSI’s OLED Care 2.0 has a number of protections against burn-in, including pixel shift to prevent image retention, Panel Protect, which refreshes the monitor’s pixels after four hours of continuous use, and static screen detection, which will lower the brightness of the monitor when there is no motion on the screen (the brightness returns when movement is detected).
In addition, they use boundary detection, taskbar detection and multi-logo detection to find any static areas on your monitor and lower the brightness to prevent burn-in in the most vulnerable areas. If that is not enough, MSI offers a 3-year warranty for burn-in. So even if all of the MSI MPG 321URX QD-OLED monitor’s protections don’t save your monitor, MSI has you covered.
All of these features are going to give you a great gaming experience for a long time, but what tools can the MSI MPG 321URX QD-OLED gaming monitor give you to improve your overall gaming? First, they offer smart cross hairs that come in a number of shapes and configurations, but what’s coolest about them is that they will change colour so that they never blend in with the background, making them easy for you to see at all times.
Next up, you have your Optix Scope, which will magnify the centre of your screen up to three times in a square that can be one of three sizes to give you a scope for any of your shooters, even when the gun doesn’t have a scope equipped. When there is a scope on your gun, you increase that magnification that much more. Finally, you have MSI’s AI Vision, which increases the overall brightness in areas, showing off more detail in the spots where something important may be lost in the shadows.
“The brilliance of the colour on the MSI MPG 321URX QD-OLED gaming monitor cannot be understated.”
The brilliance of the colour on the MSI MPG 321URX QD-OLED gaming monitor cannot be understated. It brought my games to life in a way that I have truly never seen before, particularly the ones that are generally more colourful, Fortnite being a fantastic example of this. You will need to keep an eye on the colour profiles depending on what you are doing, though. If you transition from a game to editing, the vibrant colours and saturation can make the colours of your project inaccurate. It’s super easy to switch to a profile that is better suited for that type of work.
I will say, though, that editing on a 4K monitor as beautiful as this has been an absolute joy, giving me more room to work and a beautifully accurate picture that makes colour correction so easy.
I do have a couple of annoyances with the MSI MPG 321URX QD-OLED monitor, albeit small ones. First, the Panel Protect, while being a great tool to lengthen the life of your monitor, always seems to come up when I am in the middle of something. I learned to get around this by turning it on manually when I am stepping away from the computer, but as someone who spends a lot of time at his desk, I could do without the interruptions.
The other thing is the Optix Scope. I completely get the idea behind its design and use, but I find that it makes things harder to find right in front of you where the scope is in the way. I was unable to see dropped items that were right under my nose. Selecting the smallest size of scope with one of the smaller ratios (either 1.5 or 2x) may be easier to manage. A circular scope shape would also have been helpful. Personally, I’ll stick with the scopes in the game, but the crosshairs that the monitor provides you, combined with their automatic colour changing, is a fantastic tool.
The MSI MPG 321URX QD-OLED monitor sells for $949 USD on their website. It is a worthy price for a worthy monitor. For its size and specs, the price seems more than fair but it may be overpowered for some people’s PCs. If you can’t put out 240fps, you likely don’t need something like this, but if you have something beefy, take advantage of it with this monitor.
- 31.5″ UHD (3840 x 2160) QD-OLED panel
- High 240Hz refresh rate, ultra-low 0.03ms GtG response time
*The MSI MPG 321URX QD-OLED monitor sells for $1349.99 CAD ($949 USD) at major retailers such as at Canada Computers, Memory Express or Newegg.
