Gadgetory

welcome back to hardware on box it's time to get back into some monitored testing messing a bit of a backlog here at the office so I thought I would kick things off by testing the msi MPG 3:41 cqr this is a display that I saw at Computex and it really caught my eye for a number of reasons it's a 34 inch ultra wide at 34 40 by 1440 which I love but it hits 144 Hertz with a VA panel and does so for an MSRP of 899 US dollars when launches globally next month this isn't the first monitor that does 34 40 by 1440 at 144 Hertz we've already seen that from LG's 34 GK 950 F but every sized offering is a little different it's a VA panel instead of IPs and crucially it costs 300 dollars less than LG's $1200 asking price the 34 GK 950 F does occasionally go on sale at below $1,000 but I haven't seen one for a while and in general LG's monitors have been hard to find so I think it's safe to say that generally this msi option will be cheaper and offers a higher refresh rate than popular 120 hertz monitors like the Alienware a w3 4 1 8 DW or the Acer predator x 34 p4 around the same price so it could be a great value for what it's offering let's kick things off by you guessed it looking at the design msi optics range tends to be more geared towards the gamer end of the spectrum it doesn't go as crazy say in a soos rog monitor but it's similar to the aces of the world on the rear you'll find a mishmash of different plastic finishes there's glossy and matte sections a large RGB strip all those cool effects you won't see in regular operation I mean it's a fine design I personally prefer a more minimalist look but at least it's well-constructed and doesn't feel cheap The Stand has taken some inspiration from a soos with a copper colored section that joins the stand legs to the pillar the legs are a sturdy metal and take up less space than some other ultra Y designs they've seen with height tilt and swivel adjustability built in it's a good stand overall and is extremely sturdy with very little wobble from the front you'll notice MSI signature RGB LED bars which can be used for simple effects like this rainbow or some in-game information like health and ammo through syncing with mystic light and SteelSeries game sense for normal operation I find the RGB lights a bit distracting but for some gamers they might find the functionality useful and at least it's somewhat innovative and isn't just hiding the RGB lights on the rear where no one will ever see it for inputs we have two hdmi 2.0 ports DisplayPort 1.4 and a USB C input that operates via DP alta mode there's also a three port USB hub and some audio jacks so a decent range of connectivity for the on-screen display there are two ways to control them one of those features you can use the directional toggle on the back of the monitor always nice to see that or you can hook up the monitor via USB and use MSI's gaming OSD application basically all of the features can be controlled through here like this screen assistance crosshair cheats there are fresh straight info color settings backlight strobing anti motion blur modes and more it's a good range of features and functionality but as far as this stuff is concerned it's pretty similar to many competitors I do like the inclusion of a macro key on the bottom left corner of the monitor though which can be mapped to a functional setting haven't really seen that before you might have also spotted the camera in the middle of the bottom bezel this is another innovative inclusion by MSI I guess you have to applaud them at least for thinking outside the box a little with some of these features the camera can operate as a basic low quality webcam but MSI has added in some additional functionality as well you can use the camera for automatic brightness adjustment which is neat and works well if you don't want to mess around with changing the brightness level I found it said a good level of brightness for the ambient light in my office the other feature is it can use facial detection to set a bunch of settings depending on who sits in front of the monitor so for example with multiple people use the same PC and monitor but like a different monitor setups the camera can detect who is sitting there and make the adjustments automatically now this does sound cool and in my testing it worked fine but I just don't think it's all that useful most monitor settings are set and forget or really aren't that important to change others like cheat crosshairs you're probably going to enable based on what you're doing not who specifically is in front of the monitor having this functionality seems pretty nation isn't really a big selling point in my opinion also included in the box is a mouse bungee and a webcam or camera mount both neat in the box freebies and the camera mount in particular could be useful for streamer types I don't think the monitor would be all that much cheaper without these additions so no problem with MSI trying to add value in this way it's again a bit of out-of-the-box thinking I think it's pretty neat enough about this stuff let's get into some performance numbers and we'll start with the refresh rate here the MPG 3:41 cqr clocks in with a maximum refresh rate of 144 hertz and it supports free sync that works with both AMD and NVIDIA cards we're also getting low framerate compensation here so the effective minimum refresh is 1 Hertz and that's all good if standard signs across the ultrawide monitor market 144 Hertz seems to be coming in and replacing the spot that 120 Hertz held among high-end 34:40 by 1440 monitors so you're getting a 44% increase to refresh rate over entry-level 100 Hertz panels and that's quite a significant difference if you play up in the high end of that refresh rate I can definitely tell the difference in smoothness and to me it's a more worthwhile upgrade over 100 Hertz than 120 Hertz was however those with 120 Hertz panels aren't going to rush out by a display that's only 17% faster and that's not a huge enough difference to be noticeable the question with most VA panels is can the display actually transition fast enough to support this refresh rate for 144 Hertz there a fresh window is six point nine four milliseconds so we need most transitions to be faster than that to get a true 144 Hertz experience and I'm happy to say that on average the greater great transition time was four point five seven milliseconds with around 90% of all transitions falling within the refresh window so in general this panel is comfortably suitable for 144 Hertz gamming while I did test with the fastest response time setting there is still some dark level smearing which is common for VA panels but is unwanted it's not the worst smearing I've measured but transition times around 20 to 25 milliseconds for the worst of the bunch isn't amazing however to get the overall average down to below 5 milliseconds there are plenty of transitions around 3 more seconds so this VA panel in general is fast but it's also quite inconsistent this is in contrast to the LG 34 JK 950 F which also does 144 Hertz it's a slower monitor overall with a greater great average of six point zero nine milliseconds however there are no dark levels smearing issues and the range between transitions is much narrower as an IPS panel the 34 GK 950 can suffer from its own issues like glow and backlight bleed so it just depends what you're after as for MSI's claims that the MPG 3:41 cqr has a one millisecond response time that's not really true from a greater great average perspective but the monitor does have a back light strobing mode so it probably refers to that input lag was also good at around 3 and 1/2 milliseconds so within the standard range for gaming monitors so no issues here brightness is an interesting situation MSI claims 400 nits of brightness but I only achieved a touch under 300 nits anything around this level is still fine most people will use the monitor in the 100 to 200 nits range but I was a little surprised at MSI spec sheet same story for the contrast ratio MSI claims 3000 to 1 but in my testing it was my twenty one hundred to one three thousand to one tends to be the standard Va contrast ratio so maybe MSI just filled that in here but it's quite common as you can see from the chart for ultra wide vs 2 o'clock in more around two thousand to one natively when compared to the LG 34 GK 950 F brightness is similar but contrast is one area where the VI panel is superior in fact despite only posting a 2100 to 1 contrast ratio this is twice as good as LG's IPS panel and with lower black levels it will deliver better shadow performance in dark rooms color performance is also an interesting battle between the MSI and LG monitors LG's nano IPS panel is produced to a wide gamut with 95% DCI p3 coverage in my testing EMA site is using a VA panel here which is claimed to be 105 percent srgb or 84 percent DCI p3 so a bit above srgb but not really a true wide gamut panel I achieved a 3% DCI p3 in my testing so pretty close to Emma size specs but really this isn't good enough for white Gama it's more just providing a slight over saturation to srgb most of the time however for gaming monitors delivering srgb and not worrying about wide gamut often delivers a better experience given most games are srgb in an SDR mode this is true here MSI's factory calibration for the MGP 3:41 cqr is pretty decent they targeted a sub 2.0 Delta II average and largely got it in grayscale the monitor does have somewhat over red tint to whites but gamma performance is decent and overall we're still sitting a delta average of just one point seven seven such and performance is interesting in that while the monitor does exceed srgb at the top-end midtones especially for reds and blues are actually slightly under saturated so we get a delta average of 2.35 here color checker is wealth is right on that Delta a average of 2.0 which is very good for a gaming monitor out of the box and certainly much better than others in this class in fact out of the box performance for ms is monitor is better than LG's the 34 gk9 50 have had a few issues with its srgb mode and tinting out of the box which led to higher Delta averages when comparing against srgb LG's monitor does have an advantage when calibrated and is better for wide gamut professional work for example but for your average gamer that won't calibrate the display MSI delivers a better default experience now I did mention that my mpg 3:41 cqr came with a slight red tint that can be corrected through a few OSD tweaks and then the results to improve Delta averages tighten up to below 2.0 across the board and the mid-tone saturation issue improves somewhat a full calibration does take things up another knotch to be even better so that's always an option for those with calibration hardware and as always the results are very accurate there the ICC profile we created for this model is available for our patrons to download as for uniformity the mpg 3:41 cqr is average in this regard the central zone isn't particularly uniform but it isn't terrible either this is the standard sort of result you get from a curved VA ultra line in contrast LG's IPS panel in the 34 GK 950 F is more uniform and has been a viewing angle so if those things mounted to you the LG option is better I'll touch briefly on HDR heat to round out the testing the MPG 3:41 CQI is advertised as being displayed HDR 400 certified but as you can see from the checklist it's plainly not an HDR capable monitor brightness is too low there's no local dimming so there is no high dynamic range aspect to the displays contrast and the color space isn't large enough for proper wide gamut support so it fails all three pillars of HDR you might be wondering well this monitor only does around 300 minutes of brightness so how did it pass display HDR 400 certification doesn't that require 400 nits well MSI told me the settings they used for testing and it involves setting the monitor to 100 contrast among other which is not color accurate and in some situations is pretty unusable under these things I got within 5% of 400 nits so it technically passed a certification but in real-world usage with practical settings it's a fair way off not that I think this is a big deal in general given that most display HD are 400 monitors really aren't HD are capable to begin with so as always you've seen a bunch of data and I think overall the MSI mpg 3:41 cqr is a pretty decent display it doesn't revolutionize the ultra wide gaming monitor market it's mostly just incremental steps forward here but there are some aspects that are better than average and for some buyers I think that will be enough to satisfy the two things MSI really delivers on here are the refresh rate and the out-of-the-box colors yes there's a bit of dark level smearing here but for the majority of transitions the MGP 3:41 cqr is fast and comfortably able to transition to keep up with the 144 Hertz refresh rate color performance out of the box is pretty close to a delta T average of 2.0 which is well above average for a gaming monitor and means it just looks great without needing many tweaks on top of that we can add in a bunch of bonuses msi has a good array of OSD features there's a few extra bits and bobs thrown in the box the monitor has a great build quality the RGB lighting might be useful to some people the contrast ratio is decent if a little low and input lag is very good when you add all those things together MSI is delivering a great gaming experience with this monitor the main issues to me of things that are largely inherent to using this sort of VI panel dark level smearing is one another is weak uniformity and a lack of proper wide gamut support MSI were also a bit overzealous with their spec sheet the monitor under performs a little compared to what they list an HDR performance is non-existent but I do think the game is those two things really don't matter all that much the big question is whether you should buy the mpg 3:41 cqr or go for LG's 34 GK 950 F both 144 Hertz options a lot of this will come down to price MSI choppering going on the MSRP is 25% cheaper and considering many of the differences are not crucial for gamers it will be a much better option and the one I'd choose in most circumstances but there are some things the LG does better lack start level smearing issues although it's slower overall it has better uniformity viewing angles and wide gamut support but isn't as well factory calibrated it has slightly better brightness both options despite being advertised as HDR 400 monitors really don't deliver an HJ experience so neither is better for HDR gaming don't get me wrong both the great monitors but given the pros and cons I'd swing towards the msi monitor for those that will be primarily gaming and just want a high quality fast ultra wide if you do a bit of content creation as well as gaming I think that's where I'd opt for the lg monitor if you have the extra money to spend although honestly the MGP 3:41 cqr is still a good option given its calibration and lower price as is the case with high and ultra whines I should point out that if you don't specifically want or need 144 Hertz there are some great budget options these days 100 Hertz displays like the msi ma g3 41 c q and just 430 US dollars which is under half the price of the MGP 340 1cq are the high refresh models have better panels overall and are more future-proof options but I still feel $900 is a bit too expensive here yes MSI's monitor is the best value out there and I would definitely buy it over slightly cheaper 120 Hertz monitors if you want a high refresh ultra wide but it's definitely expensive compared to entry-level options I think the sweet spot here will be around the six to seven hundred dollar mark hopefully the price of these panels will filter down to a point where that sort of pricing is viable that's it for this review of the msi optics MPG 3:41 cqr this monitor should hit the market in the next few weeks I think it's slated for August in the United States and it's definitely one to look out for if you're interested in a high-end ultra wide with a high refresh rate I think it's quite good I subscribe for more monitor reviews consider supporting us on patreon I'll catch you in the next one