by Finally, MSI’s take on the brave new generation of 32-inch 4K OLED gaming monitors has landed. Why were we so eager to get our paws dirty on the MSI MPG321URX? Simple. It is the cheapest available by far.
At least it is when there is actual availability. We’ve seen it available for around $849 to $899, with the latter being more typical. That’s at least $200 cheaper than any other 32-inch 4K gaming OLED. So, perhaps it’s no surprise that it seems to sell out immediately as soon as a new batch is released to retailers.
However, we can’t blame MSI for that. What we can say is that, on paper, Rush has every reason to buy the MPG321URX whenever it comes up. After all, it offers the same QD-OLED panel from Samsung as many other much more expensive monitors, including the $1,300 Asus ROG Swift OLED PG32UCDM , the $1,200 Alienware 32 AW3225QF and the $1,100 Gigabyte Aorus CO49DQ .
So yeah, this is the fourth 32-inch 4K QD-OLED monitor we’ve reviewed in recent months. They all share the same basic specifications, including a 240Hz refresh, a claimed 0.03ms response and 250 full-screen brightness, plus 99% DCI-P3 coverage.
MSI MPG321URX specifications
Screen size: 32-inch
Resolution: 3,840 x 2,160
Brightness: 250 nits full screen, 1,000 nits max HDR
Color cover: 99% DCI-P3
Response time: 0.03ms
Refresh rate: 240 Hz
HDR: DisplayHDR 400 True Black
Aspects: Samsung QD-OLED 3rd Gen Panel, Adaptive Sync, 1x DisplayPort 1.4, 2x HDMI 2.1, 1x USB-C with 90W PD, KVM switch
Price: $899 | £1,289
And, of course, they all offer the same key advantages, which are the combination of OLED’s perfect illumination per pixel and a huge speed advantage over any LCD panel, as well as the 4K-enabled pixel density that was missing from earlier OLED monitors. In theory, it’s the ultimate recipe for not only high-end gaming, but precision productivity as well.
Until these monitors, in other words, you could not have the advantages of OLED at the same time with nice crispy fonts. Now you can and the new MSI MPG321URX no exception. Yes, it retains the slightly odd triangular sub-pixel arrangement of all QD-OLEDs. But because of that pixel density, it’s an irrelevant issue in terms of text blurring or marginalization.
It’s worth noting before we get into the finer details of how the MSI MPG321URX performs that its wider feature set doesn’t suffer from the steep pricing. In addition to a pair of HDMI ports and a DisplayPort interface, there is USB-C with 90W of power delivery. That’s something the more expensive Alienware lacks, though the Gigabyte’s USB-C interface is limited to a fairly pointless 18W.
You could argue that USB-C is pretty irrelevant for gaming, since 90W isn’t enough power for a high-end gaming laptop. But the appeal of this class of monitor is that it’s great for gaming and all the other boring stuff. Anyway, it’s just another reason to favor this MSI if it manages to perform as well as the rest of the 32-inch QD-OLED massif. Heck, you’ll even get a KVM switch thrown in.
At the risk of giving too much away, too soon, it basically does. As always, there are always nuances, detailed differences. But in broad brush terms the answer is yes, you get as good an experience as the more expensive options, just for less money.
The most obvious highlights are contrast, clarity and speed. Like all other 32 inch QD-OLEDs, the MSI MPG321URX runs a beautiful glossy coating. It’s a somewhat controversial question, but we’re firmly in the pro-glossy camp. It’s essential to allow an OLED panel to push its high-contrast HDR stuff. The positive thing pops.
Heck, you’ll even get a KVM switch thrown in.
It’s also ridiculously fast in terms of response and latency, the latter thanks to a 240Hz refresh which is as good as it gets for 4K right now. The MSI MPG321URX also has pretty perfect viewing angles. In fact, the only thing it’s really missing is the 480Hz 1080p pixel doubling mode of LG’s upcoming 32-inch 4K OLED monitor, based on its own WOLED technology rather than Samsung QD-OLED.
We expect that one to land with us in two weeks. Meanwhile, playing games in so-called “native” 1080p secondary mode courtesy of pixel doubling on a very high-end 4K monitor is a niche concern. But for what it’s worth, no current QD-OLED monitor offers that.
Anyway, the question is how this MSI model compares to those other QD-OLEDs. The panels tend to be a bit warm in terms of color temperature, the Gigabyte Aorus CO49DQ being the most noticeable. Sitting next to most LCD monitors with LED backlights, the MSI still looks quite warm with slightly yellow-tinted white tones. It’s probably a function of how QD-OLED works. The quantum dots not only react to light from the OLED sub-pixels, they also convert and reflect back some of the ambient light.
That’s why black tones on QD-OLED panels can look a bit gray in environments with a lot of ambient light. I suspect that the quantum dots being activated by ambient light are at least partially to blame for the perceived heat of these monitors. Anyway, with the MSI we wouldn’t have as much of a problem as that Gigabyte monitor, it’s just something to be aware of.
Another neggle, one it shares with all other QD-OLED monitors, is that there is no single ideal HDR mode.
Overall screen brightness performance is another critical area for any OLED monitor. Subjectively, the MSI MPG321URX looks very much on par with other QD-OLEDs and good for the claimed 250 nits. The caveat is that there doesn’t seem to be a toggle for the screen’s ABL in the OSD menu.
ABL or automatic brightness limiter is designed to ensure that the brightness of OLED panels does not change according to what is being displayed. Without it, you’ll see the OLED panel’s overall brightness decrease as you expand a mostly white app window, like a web browser.
In general, it is desirable to have ABL running in SDR mode on the desktop. However, we found with these QD-OLED panels that panel allows a bit more pop in SDR mode with the ABL off. The downside is that there is a brightness variation. But it’s so small that QD-OLED panels are out of the question. With some QD-OLED alternatives, you can at least make the choice and decide if you want that extra zing and the slight brightness variability that comes with it.
Another neggle, but this time one it shares with all other QD-OLED monitors, is that there is no single ideal HDR mode. Mercifully, the MSI MPG321URX only has two HDR modes, DisplayHDR 400 and 1000 nit mode. The former maps a maximum of 400 nits, while the latter theoretically allows the panel to reach its full 1,000 nits potential over small patches of the screen.
To summarize the problem briefly, the DisplayHDR 400 mode works very well for bright outdoor game scenes, where it looks more impressive than the 1,000 nit mode. However, the 1,000 nit mode works best for darker scenes with bright highlights, where the latter can achieve larger highlights. The problem is that bright details in DisplayHDR 400 mode suffer from blooming and compression, which can remove detail and definition.
It’s not the end of the world and we generally want to choose the DisplayHDR 400 mode, which still looks great for dark scenes. But it’s hardly practical to switch between modes all the time, especially since the monitor resyncs with your computer and sends you back to the desktop.
Regardless, HDR in general is still a bit of a mess on the PC and I’m not sure anyone, be it Microsoft, the GPU vendors or the display vendors, is doing enough to fix it.
Buy if…
✅ You want 4K OLED gaming glory at a lower price: This MSI is cheaper than the competition but doesn’t give anything away in terms of features and performance.
Do not buy if…
❌ You don’t like fiddling with settings: As with all the QD-OLED monitors we’ve reviewed, finding the perfect HDR setting is difficult.
That aside, and bearing in mind that no QD-OLED monitor solves that problem yet, there’s not much else to put you off the MSI MPG321URX compared to more expensive alternatives. The build and design is fine, if a bit generic, the OSD is full of reassurance if there are overly complicated burn mitigation features and it doesn’t disappoint you as often as other options (especially the Alienware that comes to recall there) about ruining your screen with a burn in .
MSI provides the same three-year burn-in warranty coverage as other brands. So, it all adds up to good news. Long story short, right now and assuming we could get our hands on one, this is the 32-inch 4K QD-OLED panel we’d be going for. It is much cheaper than the alternatives without any significant reductions in features or performance. Since no suggestions go forward, then, this is about as simple as it gets.
