MSI Optix MAG274QRF-QD  Monitor Review

The MSI Optix MAG274QRF-QD is stylish with a square-based stand that doesn't take up too much space. The back has a sleek-looking design that won't stick out in an office environment, and it has RGB lighting.

The build quality is great. It's made out of solid plastic, and there aren't any obvious gaps in the construction. The monitor feels stable on the stand, and there's minimal wobble.

The ergonomics are fantastic. The monitor offers all kinds of adjustments, so you can easily place it in an ideal position. The back panel is a mix of matte and glossy plastic, and there's a strip of RGB lighting above the glossy plastic. Lastly, there's a cutout in the stand for cable management.

The stand supports the monitor well, and there isn't much wobble.

A joystick is on the back right side so you can control the on-screen menu. There's a function button on the left side that you can assign a macro to through the OSD.

• DisplayPort cable
• HDMI cable
• USB-B upstream cable
• Power supply and cable
• VESA screw extenders
• User manuals

The MSI Optix MAG274QRF-QD 27 has a mediocre contrast ratio. This means blacks look gray in dark rooms, and there's no local dimming feature to improve it.

This monitor has no local dimming feature. We still film these videos on the monitor so you can compare the backlight performance with a monitor that has local dimming.

This monitor has great SDR brightness. It gets bright enough to combat glare, and it maintains its brightness extremely consistent across different content. These measurements are from after calibration in the 'User' Picture Mode. The minimum brightness is a bit high, so it's not ideal if you plan on using it in a completely dark room and are sensitive to light.

The HDR brightness is alright, but small highlights don't pop against the rest of the image. It doesn't track the EOTF very well either, as most scenes are brighter than intended, but because it has a sharp cut-off at the peak brightness, it lets highlights get the brightest they could. These measurements are with the HDR setting enabled; there's no brightness setting when it's enabled.

This monitor has a good horizontal viewing angle. The colors remain consistent from wide angles, so it's good for sharing your screen with others around you.

The vertical viewing angle is okay. You may notice some color washout if you place the monitor above eye level, but the image remains consistent for the most part.

The gray uniformity is great. The edges of the screen are noticeably darker, but there's minimal dirty screen effect in the center.

The black uniformity is alright. The entire screen looks gray due to the low contrast ratio, and there's backlight bleed along the top and bottom edges.

The MSI Optix MAG274QRF-QD 27 has decent accuracy before calibration in the sRGB mode. However, there are still inaccurate colors, as the white balance is way off, and the color temperature is cold, giving the image a blue tint. Gamma doesn't follow the sRGB target curve at all, as dark scenes are a bit too dark, and bright scenes are too bright. If you want a similar monitor with better accuracy before calibration, check out the Gigabyte M27Q X instead.

Unlike most monitors, using the sRGB mode doesn't lock down most picture settings. However, changing any picture setting while in the sRGB stops the monitor from effectively clamping the color gamut to the sRGB color space, resulting in an oversaturated image, for which you can see the results here.

The accuracy after calibration is fantastic. It fixes most issues with the white balance, color temperature, and color accuracy.

The MSI Optix MAG274QRF-QD has an exceptional SDR color gamut. It has perfect coverage of both the commonly used sRGB color space and the Adobe RGB color space used in photo editing. However, most colors appear oversaturated in Adobe RGB because it covers more than the required color space.

The HDR color gamut is fantastic. It has outstanding coverage of the DCI-P3 color space used in most HDR content. It also has great coverage of the wider Rec. 2020 color space.

The HDR color volume is good. While it displays a wide range of colors, it fails to make most of them look very vivid, and it also struggles with really dark colors.

The text clarity is good. Using ClearType On (top photo) improves the appearance of diagonal lines, as seen on the letters R, N, G, and S.

The MSI Optix MAG274QRF-QD has decent reflection handling. It performs well with a bit of light on it, but the reflections may become too distracting if there are strong light sources directly on it.

The gradient handling is exceptional. There's almost no visible banding in real content.

Due to bandwidth limitations, you can only achieve the monitor's max refresh rate with an 8-bit signal over DisplayPort. However, if you want a 1440p gaming monitor with a higher refresh rate, check out the Acer Predator XB273U GXbmiipruzx instead.

This monitor has good motion handling across its VRR range without too much blur. The 'Fast' Response Time overdrive setting has the lowest CAD at any refresh rate, but it introduces inverse ghosting at lower refresh rates. If that bothers you, the 'Normal' setting is more consistent, but there's more blur, especially at high refresh rates. The 'Fastest' overdrive has such a high CAD that it passes the limits of the charts. You can see an alternative chart here.

The refresh rate compliance is good. While its response time isn't fast enough to make full color transitions before the monitor draws the next frame at the max refresh rate, it's better at lower refresh rates.

The CAD at the max refresh rate of 165Hz is good. There's a bit of blur, but it isn't too distracting. The 'Fast' overdrive setting has the fastest total response time out of the overdrive settings and less overshoot than 'Fastest.'

The CAD at 120Hz is good. The recommended overdrive setting of 'Fast' has more inverse ghosting than at its max refresh rate, but it's hardly noticeable, and using the 'Normal' setting instead results in more blur.

The CAD at 60Hz is decent. There's noticeable blur, and unlike at higher refresh rates, the recommended overdrive setting is 'Normal' because 'Fast' has noticeable inverse ghosting. This means you may have to change the setting if you change games.

The MSI Optix MAG274QRF-QD has a backlight strobing feature, commonly known as black frame insertion, to help reduce persistence blur. It works within a narrow range and has limited compatibility. It also results in some image duplication.

This monitor doesn't have any noticeable VRR flicker with changing frame rates, which is excellent for gaming.

This monitor has a flicker-free backlight, which helps reduce eye strain during long gaming sessions.

This monitor has low input lag for a responsive feel while gaming.

This monitor supports most formats from the PS5, but due to the lack of HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, it can't accept a 4k @ 120Hz signal. Even though the native resolution of this monitor is 1440p, it still accepts a 4k signal and downscales the image. It results in a more detailed image than if you were to send a native 1440p signal.

This monitor supports almost everything from the Xbox Series X|S, but since its HDMI ports don't support HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, it doesn't support 4k @ 120Hz gaming. Even though this monitor's native resolution is 1440p, it still accepts a 4k signal and downscales the image. This is useful as the console only supports HDR signals in 4k.

The MSI Optix MAG274QRF-QD 27 has a USB-B input that you can use as an upstream port when connected to your PC. It also has a USB-C input that supports DisplayPort Alt Mode, allowing you to display an image from a compatible device. Although it is advertised to support a maximum of 15W of power delivery, in practice, it can only deliver 5W.

This monitor works perfectly with macOS. HDR and VRR both work perfectly, and there are no issues with sleep mode.

There are a ton of extra features on this monitor, which you can see below:

• Crosshair: Adds a crosshair on the screen for FPS games.
• Frame Rate Counter: Displays the current frame rate.
• Blue Light Reduction: Removes blue light to help reduce eye strain.
• Gaming OSD 2.0: This downloadable software gives more options than just the regular OSD. You can control your peripherals, manage your windows, and assign a function to the macro button on the bottom left side of the monitor. You can also control the RGB lighting through this software. You have to connect the monitor to your computer via USB-B for these features to work.
• Console Mode: This feature is designed to downscale 4k content to 1440p on consoles.