MSI MPG 274URF QD review: 27-inch 4K monitor with a 160 Hz refresh rate

The 27″ diagonal remains one of the most popular gaming monitors, but its “standard” 1440p resolution may seem too small to some: users with sharp eyesight can see individual pixels on such a screen, which can spoil the impression of what is happening in the game. In this case, the MSI MPG 274URF QD will be a very interesting alternative: A 27-inch 4K monitor with a 160Hz refresh rate. If your gaming system is ready for 4K gaming, of course.

MSI MPG 274URF QD specifications

Design

The MSI MPG 274URF QD has a traditional design for this manufacturer, which looks quite typical for a modern gaming monitor. The case is made of matte black plastic with a minimum of glossy inserts on the back: from the front, it can be mistaken for a universal home model, and only the pattern on the back with restrained RGB backlighting indicates that this is still a gaming monitor. Apart from the backlight, the only non-black design detail is the bright red joystick on the back.

Around the screen there is a thin “invisible” frame that hides under the protective glass – along with the thin line of the side edge of the body, the image is framed by a frame 8 mm wide on the sides and top and 18 mm wide on the bottom.

The stand is fully functional, allowing you to adjust the screen height (0…110 mm), tilt back and forth (-5°…20°), rotate it right and left (-30°…30°) and switch to portrait mode. By the way, we have already seen a stand of the same shape in another model of this manufacturer – MSI G274QPF E2.

All the video connectors are located in a small niche under the stand mount: two HDMI 2.1, one DisplayPort 1.4a, and one USB-C; in addition, there is a USB hub for two USB 2.0 peripherals and a mini-jack for headphones.

The power supply of the MSI MPG 274URF QD is external.

Menu

The monitor is controlled by a 5-way joystick located in the lower right corner on the rear panel.

The first item in the main menu is G.I. (Gaming Intelligence): here you can configure KVM operation and activate some gaming options. The rest of the gaming options are collected in the next item, Gaming. Here you can choose one of the gaming video modes (which also includes custom and Premium Color), activate “night vision” (highlights shadows, has several degrees of intensity), enable overdrive, display the current refresh rate, activate adaptive frequency, and more.

The Professional section has its own selection of video modes: templates for office use and emulation of common color spaces. There is also a function to reduce the proportion of blue in the backlight, “enhance” the image, and activate dynamic contrast.

The Image section contains traditional image settings: brightness, contrast, clarity, color temperature, screen proportions. InputSource allows you to manually switch to another video input, PIP/PBP activates the frame-by-frame mode, and NaviKey assigns one of the available functions to a shortcut by deflecting the joystick.

And finally, the last section, Settings, is the system settings. Here you can choose the interface language, the behavior of the on-screen menu, the glow of the power button, enable charging of USB-C devices, and reset all settings to factory defaults.

Functionality

The MSI MPG 274URF QD uses a 10-bit (8-bit + FRC) 27-inch panel made with Rapid IPS technology. This is a development of the usual IPS, which is characterized by a significantly shorter response time, and in this parameter is already approaching gaming TN panels.

The panel resolution is 3840×2160 dots, the pixel density is ~163 PPI, and the dot size is only 0.1557 mm. The image is very dense, and you can see individual pixels only if you look at the screen closely: from a typical distance to the monitor, they are impossible to see.

The maximum refresh rate is 160 Hz, both via DisplayPort and HDMI. The monitor supports AMD’s FreeSync Premium adaptive frequency technology, but unfortunately, the MPG 274URF QD is not compatible with NVIDIA G-SYNC.

The monitor uses quantum dot backlighting, which gives it a very wide color gamut (almost full DCI-P3 space coverage). This fact, the presence of 10 bits and the declared typical brightness of 400 cd/m² allowed it to receive VESA DisplayHDR 400 certification. However, it’s worth noting that this is only the basic level, and the HDR effect of the MSI MPG 274URF QD is quite modest.

The brightness of this monitor is adjustable by changing the current, and PWM is not used throughout the entire brightness range, so there is no screen flicker.

Devices can be connected to the monitor not only via HDMI and DisplayPort, but also via USB Type-C, which also supports charging (65W). This, along with the presence of KVM and two USB ports, makes the monitor a convenient option for connecting a second system, such as a laptop – a keyboard and mouse can be connected to the monitor and used to work in both systems.

MSI MPG 274URF QD image quality

The screen coating is semi-matte: when viewed from a typical PC user’s position, there are practically no spurious reflections on a dark background. When you move to the side, the screen gradually becomes more glossy, but it does not interfere with your work. At the same time, the so-called crystal effect is almost absent from the monitor, and you can notice the presence of a reflection-diffusing layer only in a macro photo, and even there it is very insignificant.

The response time of the MPG 274URF QD is very low (the officially declared value is 0.5 ms GtG), and the input lag is also practically absent – this monitor is well suited even for dynamic online shooters.

In the game section of the menu, you can adjust the overdrive – the Response Time item. This setting has three intensity levels – Normal, Fast and Fastest. Even at the first setting, blurring in dynamic scenes is very slight, and the image in first-person games looks quite clear even with fast camera movements.

Switching to Fast improves clarity a bit more, as does Fastest, but at maximum overdrive, there are noticeable overclocking artifacts in the form of dark plumes behind objects that move quickly on the screen. So we would recommend using Fast mode on a regular basis.

Normal/Fast/Fastest overdrive (refresh rate 160 Hz):

Black uniformity is generally very good, but along the bottom edge of the screen in complete darkness on a black background with the brightness at maximum, you can see a few lighter spots. However, this is not noticeable during normal use of the monitor.

The glow effect is quite strong, which is generally typical for an IPS panel: if you look at the screen from the side and from above, a noticeable glow with a purple tint appears near the black background.

Viewing angles are very good, again, as is traditional for IPS technology. When viewed from the side, the brightness decreases noticeably, and the image has a subtle warm tint, but overall, the picture quality remains high even at high angles.

Quantum Dot backlighting allows for a very wide color gamut – with the MPG 274URF QD, it far exceeds the sRGB gamut and almost covers the Adobe RGB and DCI-P3 gamuts. In practice, this means bright and very saturated colors, which makes the image in games look much more impressive than with standard color gamut.

As with other MSI monitors, there are two video mode menus in the settings: Gaming and Professional. The last selected mode becomes active regardless of which menu it is located in. The Premium Color gaming mode offers unlimited color gamut and the brightest and most saturated image possible, and we’ll test it first.

The color gamut in this version is much higher than sRGB and amounts to 98% Adobe RGB (96% DCI-P3). The monitor has no gamma adjustment – it has a value of 2.1, and in all video modes. This is slightly lower than the standard 2.2, which results in a slightly less saturated image, but the difference is insignificant.

The color temperature in Normal mode is slightly higher than the standard (6500K) – up to 7100K, while in Warm mode, on the contrary, it is lowered to 5500K. If you’re not satisfied with these settings, you can use the manual adjustments in the Customization option.

The color temperature uniformity in different areas of the screen is frankly mediocre: the maximum deviation ΔE for it is almost 10 (the most accurate correspondence is in the left part of the screen, the least accurate – in the center and upper right corner). The white field uniformity is better, but not by much: the largest difference in brightness, between the center and the lower left corner, is 22%.

The lowest brightness is only 45 cd/m², which is very good for a desktop monitor that doesn’t use PWM to adjust the brightness. With this brightness, you can play quite comfortably with this monitor even in almost complete darkness.

The maximum brightness is 500 cd/m², which is noticeably higher than the officially declared characteristics (400 cd/m²). The static contrast value, with all image enhancements turned off, is not very high even by IPS standards and is slightly lower than the declared value: 900:1.

Unfortunately, the Premium Color mode has mediocre color accuracy: the average ΔE value is four, and the maximum is almost 7 (remember, it is believed that an ordinary user can notice an error in the color display if this parameter is higher than 2-3).

Therefore, if this parameter is important to the user, it is better to use the User video mode in the “professional” menu: it offers the same color coverage and generally almost the same graphics settings (except for a lower contrast ratio of 850:1), but the color accuracy is much higher: the average ΔE value is 1.7, and the maximum is 2.7. In addition, the situation with color temperature uniformity is slightly better in this mode.

In the color space emulation modes, the coverage is significantly limited: in sRGB it is 93% sRGB (69% Adobe RGB, 70% DCI-P3), in Adobe RGB – 99% sRGB (93% Adobe RGB, 86% DCI-P3), and in Display P3 – more than 100% sRGB (85% Adobe RGB, 93% DCI-P3).

From left to right: maximum coverage, Display P3, Adobe RGB, sRGB:

As for color accuracy, it is also very high, with an average ΔE value of 1.45 in Adobe RGB, 1.56 in Display P3, and 1.84 in sRGB.

You can visually compare all video modes in the following galleries.

Game video modes (Premium Color – User – FPS – Racing – RTS – RPG):

Professional video modes (Eco – User – Anti-Blue – Movie – Office – sRGB – Adobe RGB – Display P3):