MSI MAG 274UPF Monitor Review

The MSI MAG274UPF has a black plastic body with a simple aesthetic from the front, though it has a much more gamer-oriented look when viewed from behind the monitor. The stand only takes up a little room below the front of the monitor, and you can place a keyboard or mouse very close to it.

The monitor has great build quality. Although the body is plastic, it feels solid. The stand is also solid, and the monitor is well-constructed overall.

The monitor has fantastic ergonomics, and it's easy to adjust to your preferred position for a long gaming session or share your screen with another person. The stand features a loop for cable management.

The square-based stand takes up almost no space in front of the monitor. It supports the monitor well, and there isn't much wobble. These results are with the display at its minimum height. When the display is at its maximum height, it's 6.3" (16 cm) thick because the stand is slightly angled back.

A joystick on the back right side of the monitor controls the power and lets you adjust the on-screen menu.

• HDMI cable
• USB-C cable
• USB-A to USB-B cable
• Power cable
• Power supply
• Manuals
• VESA standoffs

The monitor's contrast is mediocre. As a result, deep blacks appear gray in a dark room, and there's no local dimming feature to improve the contrast further.

Though this monitor doesn't have local dimming, we still film these videos so you can compare the backlight performance with a monitor that has local dimming.

Settings

• Pro Mode: User (After Calibration)
• Brightness: Max

The SDR brightness is great. It gets bright enough to overcome glare and maintains its brightness consistently across different content. The monitor has a very high minimum brightness, which isn't ideal if you're playing in a dark room and prefer a lower brightness level or are sensitive to bright light.

Settings

• Pro Mode: User
• Brightness: Locked

The HDR brightness is satisfactory. It gets brighter than in SDR, but not enough for highlights to pop. It tracks the EOTF extremely well with a sharp cut-off at peak brightness, so highlights get as bright as possible.

The following settings are locked out in HDR:

Locked-Out Settings

• MPRT
• Low Blue Light
• HDCR
• Brightness
• Contrast
• Color Temperature
• Optix Scope
• PIP/PBP

The monitor's horizontal viewing angle is fair but not as good as many IPS displays. While you can share your screen with someone next to you, the image appears darker and washes out at wider angles.

The vertical viewing angle is decent. If you stand up and look down at the monitor, the image appears slightly washed out.

The gray uniformity is decent. While the edges of the screen are darker than the rest in some places, there's minimal dirty screen effect in the center, which is great.

The black uniformity is mediocre. Backlight bleed is visible along the monitor's edges, and the screen is a bit cloudy. There's no local dimming feature to improve this performance further.

The MSI MAG274UPF has great accuracy before calibration in the 'sRGB' Pro Mode. The color accuracy is good, and colors are almost perfectly saturated. The white balance is adequate, and the color temperature is fairly close to the 6500K target. Gamma follows the target curve fairly well, though dark parts of scenes are a bit too dark, and most other parts are a bit too bright.

The following settings are locked out in the 'sRGB' mode:

Locked-out Settings

• Low Blue Light
• Contrast
• Color Temperature

If you want to access these settings then you need to use another mode with worse color accuracy, like User.

The accuracy after calibration is remarkable, and you won't notice any problems. Additionally, you can use any of the settings that are locked out in the sRGB mode.

The monitor has an incredible SDR color gamut. It has fantastic coverage of the sRGB color space and superb coverage of the Adobe RGB color space used in professional publishing. However, red and green are inaccurate in Adobe RGB.

The HDR color gamut is fantastic. It has outstanding coverage in the common DCI-P3 color space and a wide range in the Rec. 2020 color space, though colors are less accurate in Rec. 2020.

The HDR color volume is good. Its wide color gamut helps it display a large range of colors, but it struggles to display bright and dark colors well.

The text clarity is incredible. Enabling Windows ClearType (top photo) helps improve the clarity of letters. These photos are in Windows 10, and you can see them in Windows 11 with ClearType off here, and with ClearType on here. This monitor has a strong matte coating, so text is slightly less sharp than on some other matte screens.

The MSI MAG274UPF has good reflection handling. While some strong light sources cause distracting glare, it's bright enough to fight glare in most environments.

The gradient handling is outstanding, and you won't notice any issues with banding in scenes with shades of similar colors.

Your graphics card needs to use Display Stream Compression (DSC) to reach the maximum refresh rate over DisplayPort.

This monitor has good motion handling across its refresh rate range with VRR enabled. Its motion handling is extremely consistent with the 'Normal' and 'Fast' Response Time overdrive settings, which is ideal if your game's frame rate varies a lot, but there's still some motion blur. The 'Fastest' overdrive setting has such a high CAD that it exceeds the limits of the default chart, though it's visible in an alternative chart.

The refresh rate compliance is good. The 'Normal' and 'Fast' overdrive settings have the most consistent compliance across the refresh rate range. The response time isn't fast enough to make full-color transitions before the monitor draws the next frame.

The CAD at the max refresh rate of 144Hz is decent. There's a moderate amount of blur, even with the 'Fast' overdrive setting. The other settings are slightly blurrier, and 'Fastest' has inverse ghosting.

The CAD at 120Hz is good, and fast-moving objects are slightly blurry. The recommended overdrive setting is still 'Fast,' as the other settings are slightly blurrier, and 'Fastest' has inverse ghosting.

The CAD at 60Hz is good, and fast-moving objects look slightly blurry. Unlike at 120Hz, the recommended overdrive is 'Fastest' as it has the fastest response time and almost no overshoot if you start the game at 60Hz.

This monitor has an optional backlight strobing feature to reduce image persistence. It only functions when the monitor's refresh rate is 120Hz or 144Hz, and it doesn't work if VRR is enabled. You can't adjust the monitor's brightness when it's on. Enabling backlight strobing results in image duplication. You can also see this at 120Hz.

This monitor has no noticeable VRR flicker with changing frame rates, which is fantastic for gaming.

The backlight remains flicker-free at all brightness levels, which helps reduce eye strain if you're sensitive to flicker.

This monitor has low input lag for a responsive feel while gaming.

The Xbox doesn't support HDR with 1440p or 1080p signals, so this isn't a limitation of the monitor.

The MSI 274UPF has a USB-C port that supports DisplayPort Alt Mode to display an image from a compatible device. The USB-C port supplies 65W of power, which is enough to charge many laptops while they're operating. You can connect the monitor's USB-B port to another computer and use the monitor's KVM switch to use your keyboard, mouse, and monitor with two different computers.

This monitor works well with macOS. When using a MacBook, windows return to their original position when reopening the lid or waking the laptop up from sleep. Additionally, the KVM switch works well on macOS. VRR also works well, though the max refresh rate with HDMI 2.1 is 120Hz with VRR on. Additionally, colors in HDR look quite washed out.

The MSI MAG274UPF comes with a few extra features, including:

• Gaming Intelligence: Lets you use your mouse and keyboard to configure the monitor.
• Low Blue Light: Decreases blue light output to help reduce eye strain.
• HDCR: Enhances image quality by increasing the contrast of images.
• Image Enhancement: Enhances image edges to improve their acutance.
• Smart Crosshair: Overlays crosshairs to assist with aiming.