MSI Optix MAG342CQR 34" UWQHD 3440 x 1440 (2K) 1ms (MPRT) 144 Hz 2 x HDMI, DisplayPort AMD FreeSync Curved Gaming Monitor

Very happy with this monitor.For me colour accuracy is more important than extreme response and frame rates, so it hits just the right balance between my work and gaming needs.Gamut coverage is excellent for this price range and, except for blacks being crushed at very low values, it gave me good results on any colour tests I put it through. I don't have the eyes of a FPS gamer perhaps, but I can't see any noticeable ghosting under normal use. I can detect some with the UFO test, but RPG and action games look smooth.My only complaint is the adjustment buttons are just plain unpleasant. They poorly positioned, hard to press and their shape is tough on my fingers.Overall great choice for a solid monitor that doesn't charge extra for unnecessary bells and whistles.

Decent low cost monitor with a few flaws

This is a decent enough curved monitor with multiple positives for purchasing it For the price point it's a good budget monitor It's a really nice looking monitor with a nice curve to it & it's a good size. Lots of settings to play with, which took a while to get right, but it's worth spending the time to adjust the monitor After getting it out of the box & setting it up, I quickly noticed that the stand is quite flimsy & allows a lot of movement of the monitor when it is touched. It took quite a lot of changes to the settings to get what I wanted from the picture quality The RGB backlight is a nice touch, but to me it seems a little pointless, it's not bright enough (there is no setting to change that) and if you install a VESA mount, it partially obscures it ... MoreThis is a decent enough curved monitor with multiple positives for purchasing it For the price point it's a good budget monitor It's a really nice looking monitor with a nice curve to it & it's a good size. Lots of settings to play with, which took a while to get right, but it's worth spending the time to adjust the monitor After getting it out of the box & setting it up, I quickly noticed that the stand is quite flimsy & allows a lot of movement of the monitor when it is touched. It took quite a lot of changes to the settings to get what I wanted from the picture quality The RGB backlight is a nice touch, but to me it seems a little pointless, it's not bright enough (there is no setting to change that) and if you install a VESA mount, it partially obscures it anyway. So I just turned it off. As some reviewers have said, the Ghosting is quite bad with white writing on a black background. You can make it a little better with the settings, but It's still noticeable to me. My only real gripe with the monitor was the poor HDR. My old Asus monitor has awesome HDR performance, I found that I had to turn it off on this one, it really degraded the picture quality quite badly. But if you're in the market for a large budget curved monitor, then you can't go wrong with this monitor

Fantastic for the price point

Got this for the office because I've had an excellent experience with a very similar MSI while working from home. (For reference, that one's an MPG341CQRV and has been working great for 2 years now.)This met all my criteria:* Discreet, to look professional. I don't want people walking by and thinking that I blew a bunch of money on a spaceship gaming monitor.* Decent response time to minimize ghosting when scrolling through text, etc.* Little to no backlight bleed/clouding. I mostly use dark mode, so clouding would drive me nuts, hence I deliberately avoided IPS.* Good static contrast and sharp text because I stare at source code and documents for extended periods.* Decent brightness. VA won't be as bright as IPS, and I don't need it to be, but I still ... MoreGot this for the office because I've had an excellent experience with a very similar MSI while working from home. (For reference, that one's an MPG341CQRV and has been working great for 2 years now.)This met all my criteria:* Discreet, to look professional. I don't want people walking by and thinking that I blew a bunch of money on a spaceship gaming monitor.* Decent response time to minimize ghosting when scrolling through text, etc.* Little to no backlight bleed/clouding. I mostly use dark mode, so clouding would drive me nuts, hence I deliberately avoided IPS.* Good static contrast and sharp text because I stare at source code and documents for extended periods.* Decent brightness. VA won't be as bright as IPS, and I don't need it to be, but I still wanted something that didn't look dull and muddy.* VESA-compatible, as I use a desk-mounted stand.* Reasonably-priced to avoid sticker-shocking the boss. I can easily justify this as being about the price of two smaller monitors.* Matte screen, to avoid distracting reflections.* 1500R. Curved enough to minimize glare at the edges but flat enough for somebody to comfortably view over my shoulder.* HDMI & DP.* Solid stand with height and +/- tilt (should I ever need to use the original stand).As has been pointed out, the menu buttons on the bottom aren't very user-friendly, but I haven't used them at all in the weeks since initial setup.The VESA mounting points are recessed, but the necessary spacers and screws are included, which was really helpful. Although the 100x100 pattern seems small for such a big monitor, it feels perfectly solid. I just made sure to get the screws nice and snug.Coworkers have commented on how nice it looks--both the design and the screen quality--so I don't think my praise for it is misplaced.There haven't been any dead pixels on either this or my MPG341CQRV.I can't comment on the stand being solid, but reviewers seem to agree it is. The stand on my other MSI ultrawide is very, very solid, and both that one and this one are both cast metal, so I have no reason to doubt the reviewers.I'm running a DP connection to my motherboard (12th-gen Intel onboard graphics). I leave the monitor on but let it go into low-power/standby overnight, and it always wakes up fine the next day.Anyway, I'm a fan of MSI monitors these days.

Fantastic monitor, only a few things

This is a Fantastic monitor and I bought it because I was looking for something that was high refresh rate was well as higher then 1080P. as this was my first High refresh rate monitor experience I was super exited about it. it has amazing color accuracy and very vivid and lively. however because it is a VA panel there is a bit of ghosting on images, however this can be mitigated a bit with the setting Dialed in correctly for your application. i had to set my refresh rate speed to normal as apposed to fast or fastest. tho it could have something do to with my current set up, as i am using the AMD FreeSync function on a GTX 1070, which does work for me. but after that the ghosting wasn't nearly as bad. the HDR isn't the best, its NOT HORRIBLE, with certain images or ... MoreThis is a Fantastic monitor and I bought it because I was looking for something that was high refresh rate was well as higher then 1080P. as this was my first High refresh rate monitor experience I was super exited about it. it has amazing color accuracy and very vivid and lively. however because it is a VA panel there is a bit of ghosting on images, however this can be mitigated a bit with the setting Dialed in correctly for your application. i had to set my refresh rate speed to normal as apposed to fast or fastest. tho it could have something do to with my current set up, as i am using the AMD FreeSync function on a GTX 1070, which does work for me. but after that the ghosting wasn't nearly as bad. the HDR isn't the best, its NOT HORRIBLE, with certain images or games the screen can look a bit "washed out" or too bright. the price is a little bit high for what you are getting, so this monitor is a bit of a commitment. however if you can look past these few slight exceptions then this is a great monitor to add the your arsenal!. :) :)

Good but flawed

This is a fine monitor if you want it for Freesync and HFR. 60 Hz just seems juddery and terrible after you witness 165 Hz. The increased responsiveness in fast games is also a big plus. The SDR color and black levels are really amazing for a backlit display. Might be a touch oversaturated but not in a bothersome way. Viewing angles are not bad for a curved monitor, but don't buy this if it's not going to sit right in front of you. Pixel response is amazingly slow though. Dark colors are especially prone to big lag, so anything cartoony with heavy black lines suffers quite a bit. Overdrive can help some; definitely play around with it and see what you like. Only downside is that it doesn't seem to overdrive evenly - afterimages are often green or red tinted. It's ... MoreThis is a fine monitor if you want it for Freesync and HFR. 60 Hz just seems juddery and terrible after you witness 165 Hz. The increased responsiveness in fast games is also a big plus. The SDR color and black levels are really amazing for a backlit display. Might be a touch oversaturated but not in a bothersome way. Viewing angles are not bad for a curved monitor, but don't buy this if it's not going to sit right in front of you. Pixel response is amazingly slow though. Dark colors are especially prone to big lag, so anything cartoony with heavy black lines suffers quite a bit. Overdrive can help some; definitely play around with it and see what you like. Only downside is that it doesn't seem to overdrive evenly - afterimages are often green or red tinted. It's not a dealbreaker for me, I bought this monitor mostly for high refresh but it's definitely an annoyance and something you'll want to factor into how you plan to use it. HDR seems to be badly implemented though, the image gets much brighter but contrast and color saturation becomes far worse. Some things look good in HDR (Doom 2016 for one) but a lot of HDR games and videos just look blown out. If MSI could at least make it so gamma and brightness could be adjusted in HDR mode that would probably help.

Great Monitor with very meh software

The monitor is overall solid for an entry to mid-tier in this category.Out of the box, setup is easy and the included display port cable was a nice bonus to get the 144hz option with no extra hassle as HDMI caps at 100hz. This display in my setup is mounted directly below a 1080p LG 34in which caps at 75hz, and the difference is very noticeable. Like other VA panels, however, there is some smearing when viewing thin text on dark backgrounds but it's not bad, at least to me.Default color scheme and contrast was only marginally better than my other panels, so if color is a focal point for you then you might want to adjust some settings. One profile I found that works very nicely is to boost Brightness to 90, Contrast to 70, 0 Sharpness, with color temp set to R45, ... MoreThe monitor is overall solid for an entry to mid-tier in this category.Out of the box, setup is easy and the included display port cable was a nice bonus to get the 144hz option with no extra hassle as HDMI caps at 100hz. This display in my setup is mounted directly below a 1080p LG 34in which caps at 75hz, and the difference is very noticeable. Like other VA panels, however, there is some smearing when viewing thin text on dark backgrounds but it's not bad, at least to me.Default color scheme and contrast was only marginally better than my other panels, so if color is a focal point for you then you might want to adjust some settings. One profile I found that works very nicely is to boost Brightness to 90, Contrast to 70, 0 Sharpness, with color temp set to R45, G43, B44. Sadly, the HDR on this panel is bad, severely washing out all colors and blowing out the highlights. I didn't have much luck getting that to work well, but you might have better results.Another aspect that was lacking is the software. This monitor has a number of programs that are supposed to control various aspects of the display and make these adjustments easier to perform, but not only is just figuring out which program you need a major hassle (between Dragon Center, Mystic Light, Display Kit, and GamingOSD), even when you get them installed, half of their options do nothing at all. Display Kit is supposed to actually handle the adjustments, but none of the options work, while the box says Mystic Light compatible only for the program to never recognize the monitor and allow any control (the RGB light on the back is adjusted with the settings buttons on the monitor itself). Overall, MSI's software is lackluster at best and frustrating at worst, though it works fine for their GPUs. Highly recommend just using Nvidia's Control Panel if this is plugged into a PC.Finally, the stand is one of the best I've used. There are tons of tilt options in all directions, great range of angles, and even height adjustable. The freedom of placement and angle the stand provides will ensure it fits nicely in any setup without issue. It's fantastic.As a package, the monitor itself is great, with good colors and a solid value for a 1440p 144hz display. If you can deal with tweaking the colors a bit, the bit of smearing in certain instances, and avoid their software, it's a really solid value.

Great for the price!

For the price that this is set at this monitor is a steal. Ive had no problems with it since my purchase, and am loving the upgrade from a 27 1920x1080 monitor to this 34 curved beast. Ive heard that some people had dead pixels, backlight issues, or other QA issues, but I have not experienced any of these issues. My only complaints with the device itself are that the menu would be easier to navigate with a joystick-like device found on other monitors, and that there are no built-in speakers. The former was only an issue during the initial configuration (which took less than 20 minutes), and the latter merely meant that I had to use my old surround sound system or use headphones. Another minor annoyance was the DisplayPort cable that came with the monitor. It could ... MoreFor the price that this is set at this monitor is a steal. Ive had no problems with it since my purchase, and am loving the upgrade from a 27 1920x1080 monitor to this 34 curved beast. Ive heard that some people had dead pixels, backlight issues, or other QA issues, but I have not experienced any of these issues. My only complaints with the device itself are that the menu would be easier to navigate with a joystick-like device found on other monitors, and that there are no built-in speakers. The former was only an issue during the initial configuration (which took less than 20 minutes), and the latter merely meant that I had to use my old surround sound system or use headphones. Another minor annoyance was the DisplayPort cable that came with the monitor. It could not send enough data to fully support this monitors refresh rate at 3440x1440. It would cap out at around 80Hz. Swapping the cord to a separate DisplayPort 1.4 cable solved the issue and the monitor now runs at 144Hz when my GPU can handle it. Now if only I could get my hand on a 3070

Great ultrawide monitor at a great price

Monitor has been excellent to use for multitasking. Whether for work related tasks, or watching streaming video while playing casual games, it has been a great display. Does excellent for gaming too. No tearing, lag, or stuttering while playing at high to ultra settings. Slight ghosting at times, but this is normal for VA panels. All in all, a great buy that has enhanced my enjoyment of my PC. If you're looking to take advantage of the full high refresh rate for gaming, then make sure to connect via DisplayPort as the HDMI ports are only 2.0 and so will only support up to 60Hz refresh effectively.

Not a great deal after all

I really wanted to like this monitor. Maybe I got a faulty panel but the so called "VA glow" made dark colors look really washed out at the bottom of the monitor. I had to move about 2.5 feet away from the screen to make the glow go away, but who sits that far. Ghosting was really bad on the unit I got. Even scrolling down on a webpage would make everything look dreadful until you stop moving. In fact this level of ghosting would completely cancel the beauty of the smooth picture that make us spend money on 144hz monitors. My old Benq VA panel had none of these issues. The "MSI Gaming OSD" is not available for this monitor as of this moment which means you can't manage split screen options, color presets, etc. Instead you get an old "Display Kit" software to manage ... MoreI really wanted to like this monitor. Maybe I got a faulty panel but the so called "VA glow" made dark colors look really washed out at the bottom of the monitor. I had to move about 2.5 feet away from the screen to make the glow go away, but who sits that far. Ghosting was really bad on the unit I got. Even scrolling down on a webpage would make everything look dreadful until you stop moving. In fact this level of ghosting would completely cancel the beauty of the smooth picture that make us spend money on 144hz monitors. My old Benq VA panel had none of these issues. The "MSI Gaming OSD" is not available for this monitor as of this moment which means you can't manage split screen options, color presets, etc. Instead you get an old "Display Kit" software to manage the screen. It's pretty outdated and gives you very few split screen layouts comparing to the MSI Gaming OSD. The stand is really wobbly. Any manipulation with the menu buttons and you have to adjust the horizontal tilt. Bottom line, in my opinion it's one of the deals that are "to good to be true" at this price. I still have a feeling that I got a faulty unit but I won't be taking another chance with this model and will be returning it.

Review #69, nice

This monitor is by far the best one I have owned to date. It did take some tuning (in monitor settings and in Nvidia control panel) in order to get the colors just right, but it was pretty good out of the box. High refresh rates are something I never new I needed and now I will never be able to live without. I can't say how this is for HDR; Windows HDR is abysmal and I haven't really got a good way to test it, or a good way to compare it to anything else. Even without HDR though, the picture is crisp and superb. There is some ghosting and backlight bleed, but nothing more than can be expected from a VA panel. I don't really notice it when I'm playing a game, but it's definitely there when I'm scrolling through an article or watching a simple 2d animation of some sort.