MSI Optix MAG274QRF-QD: one of the gaming monitors with the best color gamut on the market

MSI Optix MAG274QRF-QD

What features should an ideal monitor have for professional players, the so-called pro-players of the eSports world? Undoubtedly the important parameters are the refresh rate (or refresh rate) and the reaction time (or response time). But that's not all: the quality of the image itself is essential. Let's find out why the Optix MAG274QRF-QD is one of the best choices.

MSI Optix MAG274QRF-QD is a gaming monitor from MSI that is part of the eSports segment, or that range of products designed for gamers who need the best. This new gaming monitor uses Quantum-Dot technology (QD in the name indicates this specification), improving image rendering quality thanks to a wide color gamut and high contrast. The base of the monitor is a Rapid IPS panel, capable of ensuring a distortion-free image, even when viewed from different angles.

The combination of a refresh rate of 165Hz with a response time of 1ms ensures a perfectly sharp image, whether playing action, driving or strategy games. Support for NVIDIA G-Sync technology further enhances game fluency by eliminating any graphics artifacts. To make everything easier, you can connect the monitor to your computer via the USB-C port in the dedicated hub.

Why Rapid IPS technology has become one of the most popular on the market

The Optix MAG274QRF-QD monitor panel is a sub-category of IPS panels, called Rapid IPS. The development of this technology is complicated, but thanks to the exceptional results obtained, it has quickly become one of the most loved by enthusiasts. Generally a VA panel allows for higher contrast, but if you want a wider color gamut then the IPS panel is the right choice. And when it comes to color gamut, the MAG274QRF-QD achieves excellent results.

Optimizing the daily use of your monitor

In addition to the hardware aspects of the product, MSI has thought a lot about how to improve the daily use of the monitor. Blue light reduction and anti-flicker technologies help reduce eye fatigue during long work and play sessions. The MSI-designed Gaming Mode allows you to set different viewfinder formats in FPS games and optimizes the color of the viewfinder based on the background of the game scene, while the Night Vision technology introduced on the latest monitors allows you to improve the contrast in the areas particularly dark in the image, without overexposing the amount of white so as not to have an unbalanced image.

Accuracy of the color range

We had the opportunity to try the MSI first hand Optix MAG274QRF-QD and to evaluate the color range we decided to perform instrumental tests, using an X-Rite i1Display Pro colorimeter and Calman software. To carry out the tests we performed the "Computer monitor Check" workflow twice, first with the factory settings, then after calibrating the monitor with the i1Profiler software.

The Calman software measures contrast, gamma, coverage of the chromatic gamut and deltaE, i.e. color accuracy. The test with the factory settings returns excellent results, confirming the high quality of the OptiX MAG274QRF-QD: the coverage of the DCI-P3 range reaches 97.6%, the contrast is 963: 1 and the deltaE is 3 , 2.

After carrying out the calibration, the results improve further both in terms of color accuracy, where we register a deltaE equal to 2.6, and for the range that passes from 2,067 to 2,111. The color accuracy drops slightly in the dedicated test and drops to 96.8% for the DCI-P3 space, but this is very close to the previous one and in any case in line with the 97% declared by MSI.

Conclusions

Thanks to its high-level features and a color range among the best on the market, the MSI Optix MAG274QRF-QD is an ideal solution for those who want to combine the world of gaming with that of creation of content. 97% coverage of the DCI-P3 gamut and a low deltaE result in high color fidelity without the need to calibrate the monitor, which requires expensive tools that not everyone has.

Gamers will appreciate the refresh rate of 165Hz, compatibility with FreeSync and G-Sync, the response time of only 1ms and the color rendering offered by the Quantum Dot panel. If you're playing on a console and want to connect the monitor to a PS5, Console Mode will improve picture quality even more by taking in a 4K signal and converting it to 1440p, a resolution not yet natively supported by the Sony console.

If your passion is playing video games on PC or PS5 (or maybe both) and you enjoy photo and amateur video editing, you don't need a 4K resolution monitor and you can do without HDR, but look for however wide color gamut coverage and good color rendering, the MSI Optix MAG274QRF-QD is undoubtedly one of the best monitors you can buy.