MSI MPG 322URX QD-OLED review: built for the future

With colours befitting of a Monet, MPG 321URX QD-OLED set the standard for what would become a flurry of 4K/240Hz gaming monitors throughout 2024, each carrying an array of self-emitting pixels. Aiming to up the ante, MPG 322URX QD-OLED makes just one major change to the formula in MSI’s latest revision, introducing the coveted DisplayPort 2.1a UHBR20 connector.

MSI MPG 322URX QD-OLED

$1,299

Pros

• 4K/240Hz combo
• Astounding colour accuracy
• Robust OLED Care
• UHBR20 port
• Three-year warranty
• Glossy finish

Cons

• Cheap plastic stand
• Pricey
• Fingerprint magnet

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Following in the footsteps of its predecessor, which rolled out the red carpet for same third-gen QD-OLED (Quantum Dot Organic Light Emitting Diode) panel you see here, MPG 322URX is a harbinger of the new port. Announced at CES 2025, the display is currently just one of a handful to support UHBR20 alongside Gigabyte Aorus FO32U2P, which makes sense given the standard’s slimmer compatibility and a whole lot of confusion surrounding it.

Understanding UHBR20

Whereas most monitors rely on Display Stream Compression (DSC) to saturate such a lofty resolution and refresh rate, UHBR20 (Ultra-High Bit Rate) brings with it the bandwidth to get the job done without a helping hand. It supports up to a whopping 80Gb/s with a compatible cable, dwarfing the 32.4Gb/s within DisplayPort 1.4a and 48Gb/s inside the latest HDMI 2.1b. Ultimately, this places MSI at the cutting edge, so long as your hardware supports it.

Unfortunately, DisplayPort 2.1a suffers from the same dumbfounding nomenclature as USB. According to VESA’s specification, UHBR10 and UHBR13.5 also qualify for the designation despite their respectively slower 40Gb/s and 54Gb/s bandwidths, which are incapable of the same uncompressed feats at such high resolutions.

It’s all too easy to make the mistake in thinking AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT is primed and ready for MPG 322URX with its DisplayPort 2.1a certification, but you wouldn’t know its rating caps out at UHBR13.5 when looking at the official specs page. This isn’t too much of a problem given it’s all backwards compatible and the speed is befitting of the graphics card’s performance. It doesn’t have the horsepower to max the entire UHD resolution at 240Hz in any game I know of. Still, it’s unnecessary confusion that’s out of MSI’s hands.

So far, only Nvidia’s Blackwell models, especially GeForce RTX 5080 or RTX 5090, have what it takes to get the most out of MSI MPG 322URX, and that’s with the aid of Multi Frame Generation. The irony isn’t lost on me, that the only way you’re getting truly uncompressed detail in all its glory at these specs is by adding artificial elements into the mix, but for what it’s worth, MSI isn’t setting you up with a display you’ll simply replace every two years.

MPG 322URX is meant to sit on your desk for the foreseeable, pairing with the next-gen graphics cards that aren’t yet conceived. Plus, it’s a dab hand at gaming even without UHBR20 in tow.

Specifications

Design

Accompanying the single DisplayPort 2.1a are two HDMI 2.1 ports and a USB Type-C with DisplayPort Alt mode. They’re not quite as robust as the star feature yet perfect for console gaming since Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5 top out at 4K/120. MSI provides a couple of cables in the box, including a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-B upstream to link the built-in KVM switch.

There are monitors out there with a great assortment of USB ports on the rear, such as iiyama G-Master GB2795HSU with its four slots. Alternatively, there are plenty with none at all. MSI MPG 322URX strikes a good middle-ground with dual USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A featuring enough bandwidth to handle high-speed devices like webcams. Sitting beside a 3.5mm audio jack and a newly improved USB Type-C with 98W power delivery up from 90W, it’s a comfortable offering.

Sharing the same shell and stand as 321URX, I’m still left griping about cable management. Downward-firing ports leave wires extending beyond the chin of the screen to reach the keyhole, which is a touch unsightly if it catches your gaze. Granted, it’s better than free-flowing cords looking like a bowl of noodles, but more elegant solutions exist. Similarly, I’m sad to see there’s no trench in the base for peripherals, leaving you to drape leads over rather than under, but this isn’t exactly common practice.

Conversely, there’s a lot to love about the stand. Beyond its plastic approach feeling a little cheap, it’s sturdy and supremely easy to slot together without tools. Simply connect the base via thumbscrew and click the stem into place. You can adjust height up to 110mm to reach eye-level, tilt the display between -5° and 15°, swivel it through -30° and 30°, and pivot it 10° in either direction.

I’m still more inclined to pop it on a monitor arm using the 100×100 VESA mount because it grants you far more freedom to pull it closer or push it away. I’m the type to have my nose pressed against the screen in intense Rainbow Six Siege gunfights, but sit leaned back in my chair when working. Be aware that because the mounting holes sit within an indent, quick-release attachments like Secretlab’s slide-on mount aren’t compatible here, but these are niche cases. There’s nothing stopping you from screwing it in directly.

Sitting both 322URX and 321URX side-by-side, you’d find it impossible to tell the two apart. They both feature a slimline silver chin brandishing the MSI logo, met by ultra-thin black bezels surrounding the panel. The screen itself is just 4mm thick with junk in a separate trunk, including a fan-less custom heatsink and graphene film to keep the OLED from getting toasty and stave off burn-in.

It takes a village to stave off OLED’s biggest weakness, which is where MSI’s three-year warranty and OLED Care 2.0 suite come in. Keeping you safe from unwanted lingering images, it uses Pixel Shift, Panel Protect, and several detection modes to compensate for static logos and UI elements. Every four hours, you’ll get a nudge to conduct a refresh, which is a minor pain during the workday but all in service of keeping your display healthy.

You can navigate OLED Care 2.0 and the rest of MPG 322URX’s profiles via the on-screen display (OSD), which is painless to navigate thanks to one of the most responsive five-way joysticks I’ve had the pleasure of using. Since I never use crosshairs and tend to stick to one colour profile, I immediately swapped out the shortcuts for brightness and blue light shortcuts, but you can customise it to your heart’s content.

There’s even an AI Vision option that enables Night Vision. Boosting dark patches in a pinch, it affords you the ability to spot enemies a bit easier. I’d avoid it for story-driven games where the deep blacks aid immersion, instead keeping it in pocket for a competitive advantage.

Performance

Floating the idea that this spec is as close to my endgame as you can get in a world of ever-evolving technology, my opinion hasn’t budged since last year. You’ll find it incredibly difficult to maximise everything MSI MPG 322URX has to offer, future-proofing it for generations to come, and the inclusion of UHBR20 only cements this further.

New graphics cards arriving on the scene certainly raise the performance bar if you manage to get your hands on one, but you’ll still only reach the magic 3840×2160 at 240Hz in select games. For example, GeForce RTX 5090 hits the ceiling in CS2 and Doom Eternal without the help of upscalers but gets just half the frames in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. Drop down from max settings and you’ll eke out more performance, but you’ll find yourself choosing between resolution or refresh rate in many scenarios.

Rounding out its gaming chops, MPG 322URX features an industry-leading 0.03ms response time for smooth grey-to-grey (GtG) and variable refresh rate (VRR) to keep your image from tearing. Unlike the original, MSI has ensured this one is officially G-Sync Compatible, but as I said last time, branding is practically meaningless in an age of Adaptive Sync.

Some swear by 27in form factors, but 32in is far more comfortable at such a high resolution. After all, it grants a tightly-packed 137.68 PPI (pixels per inch). Any larger and you risk text and icons becoming illegible.

Speaking of clarity, QD-OLED tends to suffer from text fringing as its triangular subpixel structure introduces colours blooming around the edges of letters. Thankfully, Samsung’s third-gen panel does a lot to mitigate the problem, with text looking particularly clean. This will depend on your viewing distance and Windows scaling, but enabling Windows ClearType covers up most imperfects regardless of your particular setup.

The most noticeable difference between MSI’s flagship and other QD-OLEDs is that it features a glossy screen. Its special anti-reflective coating works wonders to stave off mirroring, although you’ll certainly see your face more often than with a matte treatment. The trade-off is worth it for colours that are visibly bolder and untainted blacks that improve immersion. Just make sure to adjust your ambience accordingly, as too much light flooding into the room can cause blacks to shine purple.

In fact, this shiny layer is a match made in heaven alongside DisplayHDR True Black 400, which utilises QD-OLED’s infinite contrast and perfect black levels to produce a vivid picture. Since there’s no backlight or need for local dimming with each pixel switching off independently, it banishes blooming to the abyss in which is belongs.

Colour accuracy and gamut

Gamut is a step above the original, with 94% AdobeRGB and 97% DCI-P3 coverage climbing closer to MSI’s touted 97% and 99% respectively. Despite falling short of claims, it’s still among the best QD-OLED panels we’ve tested at Club386.

Not content with the silver medal, MPG 322URX steals the gold with the most impressive colour accuracy I’ve witnessed to date. Anything under a 2.0 Delta-E is good and below 1.0 is fantastic, which already makes MSI’s 0.49 Delta-E outstanding. However, the fact its maximum outliers sit below 0.99 Delta-E is nothing short of jaw-dropping.

Brightness and contrast

Brightness remains QD-OLED’s biggest weakness. Without the support of a dedicated backlight, they’re dimmer than all other panels, with MPG 322URX being one of the darkest at just 223nits. Adjust your room’s ambience and you shouldn’t find it so much of an issue, but it is better suited to nighttime viewing than daytime.

What it lacks in radiance, it more than makes up for with perfect blacks and infinite contrast ratios. Thanks to independent pixels switching off, it’s the ideal choice for HDR content and horror games, if you want to scare the pants off yourself.

Screen uniformity

As expected, MPG 322URX passes uniformity tests with flying colours, sitting well below our 10% limit. Luminance is a touch better than its predecessor, while colour is on par with a slight flare in the top-left corner. However, it’s all much of muchness at this stage and you wouldn’t be able to spot the difference with both displays side-by-side.

Power consumption

One bonus of lower brightness is that it doesn’t require quite as much juice to power up, drawing no more than 107W from the wall at full brightness. The headline here, however, is its comparatively slim 23W minimum. Through self-emitting pixels switching on and off, your average usage will sit somewhere in the middle, and better it requires roughly 65W than 82W.

Conclusion

MSI MPG 322URX removes all limits with the introduction of its DisplayPort 2.1a UHBR20 connector, affording a truly uncompromised experience if your hardware’s up to the task. Combined with astounding colour accuracy and all the perks of a QD-OLED, it’s the ideal choice for those who want the best of the best, regardless of cost.

Adding value into the mix is another question entirely. Gigabyte Aorus FO32U2P includes the same connector for a lower $1,000 price tag, making that extra $200 difficult to justify. Similarly, if you’re not fussed on UHBR20 – and the visually lossless DSC algorithm is practically indistinguishable from uncompressed – the regular MPG 321URX is nearly identical at an even lower $899.

If I had deep-enough pockets, I’d not hesitate to get MSI’s latest and greatest because no other gaming monitor stands quite as tall. That said, with the time it’ll take to get hardware that’ll saturate the full UHD at 240Hz, it’s all too tempting to wait for prices to come down.