MSI MPG 321URX QD OLED monitor review: the best 4K gaming monitor money can buy?
Table of Contents
The MSI MPG 321URX or MSI MPG 321URXW in this particular case (essentially just the white version of the monitor, with the same specs otherwise) is a 4K monitor designed for gaming purposes, thanks to its high 240Hz maximum refresh rate. It also has all the benefits of being an OLED panel (QD-OLED specifically) including an unbeatable response time, deep rich blacks, and top-notch contrast ratio.
At 32-inches in size, it promises to be a great immersive experience whether you're gaming or watching TV/film media, but how does it hold up in our testing and benchmarking? Read below to see if this premium panel has what it takes to make it into our best gaming monitor list (spoiler – it does).
Prime Day may have closed its doors, but that hasn't stopped great deals from landing on the web's biggest online retailer. Here are all the best last chance savings from this year's Prime event.
- Sapphire Pulse AMD Radeon™ RX 9070 XT Was $779 Now $719
- AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D Processor Was $449 Now $341
- Skytech King 95 Ryzen 7 9800X3D gaming PC Was $2,899 Now $2,599
- LG 77-Inch Class OLED C5 TV Was $3,696 Now $2,996
- AOC Laptop Computer 16GB RAM 512GB SSD Was $360.99 Now $306.84
- Lexar 2TB NM1090 w/HeatSink SSD Was $281.97 Now $214.98
- Apple Watch Series 10 GPS+ Smartwatch Was $499.99 Now $379.99
- AMD Ryzen 9 5950X processor Was $3199.99 Now $279.99
- Garmin vívoactive 5 Smartwatch Was $299.99 Now $190
*Prices and savings subject to change. Click through to get the current prices.
- Panel type: QD-OLED
- Resolution: 3840 x 2160
- Refresh rate: 240Hz
- Response time: 0.03ms
- Panel size: 32″
- I/O ports: 2x HDMI 2.1, 1x DisplayPort 1.4, 1x USB-C (DP & 90W Power Delivery), 2x USB-A 2.0, 1x USB-B 2.0 upstream, 1x 3.5mm headphone jack
The MSI MPG 321URX is very nearly the perfect monitor for 4K gaming, as long as you don't mind the low peak SDR brightness that affects basically all OLED displays, or the lack of native VRR support.
The 240Hz refresh rate is great at this resolution, and the superb response times of the OLED panels make it great for competitive shooters. HDMI 2.1 support makes it great for console gaming and it also comes with a variety of useful productivity features, like 90W USB-C power delivery and a KVM switch. It's high pixel density also means it doesn't suffer from the text legibility issues that affect a lot of OLED panels. It doesn't have sufficient gamut coverage to work in the DCI-P3 or Adobe RGB spaces, but in the sRGB gamut it has great color accuracy, so it can even be used for color grading in this space.
- 240Hz refresh rate at 4K resolution
- OLED panel has fantastic contrast ratio
- Excellent response time & motion clarity
- 100% sRGB coverage & high color accuracy
- HDMI 2.1
- 90W USB-C Power Delivery & KVM switch
- A good array of ports
- Peak SDR brightness low as with other OLEDs
- Peak 1000 nits' HDR only achieved in 2% size window
- Only comes with basic G-Sync support (no native integration)
Pricing & availability
Both the MSI MPG 321URX and MSI MPG 321URXW are available for around $1,079 at the time of writing, on Amazon US and other retailers like Newegg, which places them firmly in the premium end of the monitor spectrum, although it's a pretty standard price for a monitor with these specs. The competing ASUS ROG Swift PG32UCDM for example, commonly retails for around a hundred dollars more at the time of writing.
Design & specifications
The 240Hz QD-OLED panel on this monitor comes with a glossy finish. The top and sides of the 32-inch screen is surrounded by a moderately sized bezel – not the thinnest we've seen, but not the thickest either – with the bottom section being a bit thicker. Behind the middle of the bottom section lies a joystick that controls the OSD, which we had no problems using – it's your fairly standard fare.
The aesthetics of this display are quite decent, even if they lack a wow factor – the stand is a fairly standard square-bottomed affair, and the only real bits of visual flourish are left to the rear of the screen, with the MSI dragon logo. There's also a limited bit of RGB lighting on the back of the screen which comes from the MSI logo opposite the top of the stand. The overall construction felt solid and we didn't notice any weak points.
Adjustability is okay, fairly standard for a 32-inch monitor, with a tilt of -5° to +15, a swivel of ±30°, height adjustment of 0-110mm, and a pivot either way of 10°. Unfortunately, given the relatively limited pivot action, you can't rearrange the monitor into portrait mode when using the default stand. If you want to swap out this stand, the monitor is also compatible with a 100x100mm VESA mount.
Connectivity is good, particularly with the inclusion of a USB-C port with both 90W power delivery and Display Port functionality. Besides this there's also the two dedicated DisplayPort 1.4 sockets, plus an HDMI 2.1 port – which is a boon for console users that want to game at 4K and use the extra features the bandwidth allows. A couple of USB-A ports, a USB-B upstream port, and a 3.5mm audio jack round things off nicely.
The monitor doesn't include built-in speakers, but we wouldn’t really call this a drawback – monitor audio is typically subpar and not something most users rely on anyway.
OSD, features, settings & warranty
The MSI OSD interface is the same as you'll find on most recent monitors the brand makes, and it's one of the better ones we've used – nice to navigate and with a minimum of unnecessary clutter.
Like the MAG 274QRF QD E2 we reviewed previously, there are a number of different presets under both ‘Game Mode' and ‘Pro Mode', several of which we tested (see under the Screen Testing section below). Most of these presets were pretty solid for general use (with the exception of ‘FPS' which doesn't look that great in our opinion). ‘sRGB' is the one you'd want to pick if you're after something for color-accurate work.
There is no native G-Sync or FreeSync support, meaning there is no physical module in the monitor itself to guarantee it operates to the best standard, which is a bit of a disappointment however the monitor has basic G-Sync support listed on its specifications.
MSI provide a three-year warranty which covers OLED burn-in with this display, which is up there with the best you'll find offered by other brands.
Screen testing & performance
Color gamut
Looking at the results above, we can see that MPG 321URXW achieved 99.9% in the sRGB space (so basically 100% for all intents and purposes), plus 94.1% in the Adobe RGB and 97.4% in the DCI-P3 gamuts. Based on this, you can definitely do professional color-accurate work in the sRGB space, plus can probably get away with amateur work in the DCI-P3 space.
Color accuracy, contrast, gamma & brightness
If you cast your eyes upon the table below you can see the results we recorded for each of the monitor presets we tested. We recorded the white point, black point, contrast ratio, average deltaE*00 (a measure of color accuracy), gamma, and brightness each time. You can compare each of these against the top row of the table, which shows the ideal values in each instance. Of course this ideal is largely technical – which one works best for you at least partially depends on your subjective preferences when viewing a particular type of media on the monitor.
| White | Black | Contrast | Average deltaE*00 | Max deltaE*00 | Gamma | Brightness | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IDEAL | 6500K | 0.0 cd/m² | infinity:1 | 0 | 2.2 | ||
| Premium Color (Game Mode) | 6667K | 0.0 cd/m² | infinity:1 | 4.5 | 11.28 | 2.15 | 166.85cd/m2 |
| FPS (Game Mode) | 6707K | 0.0 cd/m² | infinity:1 | 5.53 | 31.55 | 2.17 | 185.2cd/m2 |
| Movie (Pro Mode) | 6634K | 0.0 cd/m² | infinity:1 | 3.86 | 8.69 | 2.17 | 153.15-191.1cd/m2 |
| sRGB (Pro Mode) | 6767K | 0.0 cd/m² | infinity:1 | 1.03 | 2.39 | 2.23 | 170.3cd/m2 |
| DCI-P3 (Pro Mode) | 6787K | 0.0 cd/m² | infinity:1 | 2.24 | 5.77 | 2.21 | 164.8cd/m2 |
| Adobe (Pro Mode) | 6746K | 0.0 cd/m² | infinity:1 | 3.01 | 8.33 | 2.21 | 166.7cd/m2 |
The best result overall was with the ‘sRGB' preset, which scored very well in almost every metric, albeit slightly too high in terms of white point. With an average deltaE*00 score of 1.03, this sRGB preset is sufficiently accurate for professional color grade work, being significantly lower than the 2.00 threshold necessary. DCI-P3 was the next best preset overall. As an OLED monitor, the contrast ratio and black point are as exceptional as you'd expect across every preset.
The maximum SDR brightness that we recorded was 225.43cd/m2 when we set the brightness to 100% under the Premium Color preset – not a great result but fairly standard for an OLED panel; if you're looking for something that will perform well in brightly lit environments, this monitor likely isn't it. The lowest brightness measurement we recorded was 22.88cd/m2 at 0% under the same sRGB preset, and at 39% brightness we recorded 120cd/m² (the approximate value for natural light).
The MPG 321URXW has two HDR modes: ‘True Black 400' (which is better for brighter scenes) and ‘Peak 1000 nits' (which is better for darker scenes with very bright highlights). In HDR mode, we typically record the peak brightness in a 10% size window, which is more representative of the ability of the screen to produce bright highlights. In both HDR presets we recorded around the 465-470cd/m² mark when looking at a 10% size window, which is obviously some way below 1,000 nits. Shrinking the window to a 2% size however, we recorded 1,030cd/m² in ‘Peak 1000 nits'. All told this is a reasonable result, but a bit disappointing that the vaunted 1000 nits mode can only achieve this on such a small screen area.
Panel uniformity
The final test we conduct using the DisplayCAL software is a panel uniformity test, where we measure the consistency of luminance and color replication across the whole screen. The screen is split up into a 5×5 grid, with the centremost point acting as the reference from which every other sector is measured against.
A variance below 1.00 shows up as green, which is the ideal result, meaning a difference between the segment and the central reference square that is imperceptible to the naked eye. Yellow represents a greater degree of variation between 1.00 – 3.00, although the lower end of this range this is still unlikely to be discernible to the untrained eye, and doesn't necessarily mean the display can't be used for color accurate work. Greater variance is more of a problem, and shows up as red.
As we can see in the image above, the majority of the outer segments scored within the yellow range, which indicates that professionals wishing to use this monitor for color-accurate work should probably look elsewhere, though for amateur use it still holds up, and it's certainly good enough for gaming. It should be noted though that if you buy this monitor, your experience may differ from the above – the ‘panel lottery' means there is always some variance between individual units (which could be for better or for worse).
Viewing angles
As with virtually all OLED panels, the MPG 321URXW has top-notch viewing angles, with basically no detectable color shift to the naked eye when you view the screen from the sides, even as you approach 180°.
Gaming performance
As we do for every gaming monitor we review, we give it a spin on various games to see how it performs on a subjective, qualitative level. We tried it on our usual list of titles – Cyberpunk 2077, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Doom Eternal, and CS2 – and had a very good time indeed.
Color vibrancy popped on the glossy panel, with excellent deep, rich blacks in darker scenes. The sharpness of the high resolution on this size of a monitor made the image look nice and crisp.
The monitor's native 240Hz refresh rate was excellent during fast-paced action, making it especially suitable for competitive online gaming. Equally impressive was the ultra-fast 0.03ms response time, which is about as fast as it gets. Motion clarity remained sharp at full refresh rate, with minimal ghosting noticeable – both in real gaming situations and in the Alien UFO motion test.
Although we didn't have any issues with using G-Sync or FreeSync, the lack of a certified native support module for either of these is a bit disappointing, as there's no guarantee that they will work at all refresh rates, in all games, for extended periods of time. Still, we experienced no screen tearing in our testing.
General performance & productivity
Whilst chiefly a gaming monitor, the MPG 321URX has several features like the aforementioned USB-C 90W charging, which can support phones, tablets, and laptops, as well as a built-in KVM switch to assist in productivity workflows. The size of the screen itself also lets you work from multiple windows with ease. For an OLED monitor, text clarity is also good – text fringing is fairly minimal and is counter-balanced by the high resolution of the display, meaning sharper, more legible text.
On the downside, the low peak brightness, plus glossy screen, mean that working in well-lit environments can be a bit frustrating, with the risk of irritating screen glare.
MSI MPG 32″ QD-OLED 4K Gaming Monitor (321URX)
About the Author