A Great Monitor! ...with a Few Recommended Adjustments.
Hey y’all, I don’t normally do reviews but felt obligated to make sure people who buy this monitor get the best out of their purchase as many are likely like me who just wanted a plug and play experience. Unfortunately, it was not the case for me to make it to my taste. I am by no means an expert on monitors as a casual enjoyer, but as an engineer, I spent a few hours looking into why my monitor was not popping in HDR.

Even so, I do believe this is one of the best monitors to get for the price point compared to others, and my eyes have changed forever (haha). I currently have owned this for a few days so I will try to update this over the next few weeks. I aim this to be a casual chat but go to a section if you are curious, each about a few minutes of reading.

TL:DR at the bottom. Thanks for reading! Have a blessed day.

OLED, 240Hz, 1440p, it’s all great! Black’s are black, pictures are crisp and pop, and games look immaculate. I never knew colors were so washed compared to my old monitor… but I am easy to please. The first day I received this monitor was unfortunately a significant pain in my rear as I try to figure out why certain behaviors exist and why I can’t do what others seemingly can. I will go over different aspects depending on my experience in the following order.

1. Unboxing
2. Setup & Update
3. HDR / How to make it look alright
4. Maintenance
5. Benefits of OLED

1. Unboxing
There is a huge factor to worry about with an OLED, and that is you want to absolutely make sure you take care of your monitor out of the box. The glossy coating on the panel is necessary in order to make sure the colors you see come correctly. On the box itself, it says to take the monitor out by the bottom base, not the sides. This is because the sides are extremely thing and will shatter with more force, so take care to follow that instruction.

There is a removable film on the front panel as well as the grills on the back. The back ripped but the front should come off fairly alright, just take your time with it. Once that is off, it is basically trash though, in-case you wanted to keep it to re-use, as it has now encountered dust.

There is a cable routing feature in the stand if you are inclined. The monitor can tilt 360 degrees on the y-axis and pretty well on the x-axis, though I did not test that extensively. All in all, keep the packaging if you want to potentially return it. I found myself to still be quite happy with my old monitor, but the beauty lies in the fact that an OLED just makes everything look pretty… but that is after some minor setup considering HDR.

2. Setup & Update
Setup is straightforward. Use an HDMI or DisplayPort Cable. I would recommend a nice cable from UGREEN or something but the cable in the box (DisplayPort) should work fine. You will need DisplayPort to do one thing: update the monitor firmware. Did you know monitors need to be updated? I certainly didn’t… but after some research, I found that my firmware is on 0.11, while the latest is 0.14. That arguably isn’t a huge change but 0.11 was from last year when it was released, while 0.14 is from this past February. You can ask MSI to do that for you but it’s not hard to update. Ultimately, this is not a completely necessary step unless MSI said to do so somewhere, but I saw some comments on other models that the firmware update would be beneficial. Have not seen too much discussion on this monitor specifically.

First, connect your monitor via DisplayPort to your GPU or computer. Check the Monitor’s On-Screen Display (OSD) and check the firmware listed at the bottom for your reference. Look up the Model Name (MAG 274QP X24) Firmware on MSI’s website and download the instruction manual, as well as the Driver Firmware. The manual explains the step-by-step process smoothly, but here it is.

1. Open the Software from the Install
2. Find the .Bin file that you just downloaded (0.14 at time of writing)
3. Hit ISP
4. Wait around ~5 minutes to install. Absolutely make sure no random updates or installs or shutdowns occur, just like a BIOS update.
5. Unplug Monitor for a minute
6. Plug power back into the monitor and turn it on.
7. Reset all settings. You are good to go! The benefit is likely in the background as I did not test extensively before updating, but the changelog has some small fixes that could help elongate the lifespan of your OLED.

You’re done! Enjoy your OLED! Or return it within your 30-day window and get your expensive purchase back! Remember, MSI does have a 3-year Screen Warranty (not overall monitor warranty). If you register your serial no. to the MSI website, you could get more benefits for that as well.

3. HDR / How to somewhat make it look good
HDR is a whole other topic at hand that many have a debate over whether its worth your time. I personally like the look and feel of HDR as it makes the colors pop and shine and in my dim room even during the day, I greatly enjoy the experience. I have a wallpaper that is OLED specific (and has an HDR setting) that looks gorgeous compared to my IPS Panel, but I will note that I still enjoy that one too. Games look so good with HDR in my opinion, but I do not explicitly calibrate monitors.

Of course, the monitor looks great without it on too. You can ignore this if you do not care, and the colors will be arguably some of the best due to OLED being so good compared to other panels. This will be a longer explanation since this is where my true struggle was as I did notice another review stating they could not make HDR look good. I really wanted to try and see if I could make it look great.

In Windows, you enable HDR through the HDR setting. Oddly enough, there is no certification even though the Amazon specifications list VESA DisplayHDR True Black 400. This is actually a pretty good standard, especially as 1000 can be too bright for people.

There is a Windows HDR Calibration tool that you can install. This tool will NOT work properly if you have the Nvidia Overlay enabled, so disable that. Look up how if you do not know what I am talking about. Install that software via Microsoft Store or look it up in Google. Go through the calibration process and try to actually follow the instructions. It will save a profile for that specific monitor. This is good if you are not getting the exact blacks or brights that you wanted.

Now, for color. My monitor had a salmon-like red compared to a true deep red. That annoyed me extremely, and I wanted that fixed. It is only an HDR caveat. I fixed this by increasing the Digital Vibrance in Nvidia Control Panel to around 60%. That was good enough for me.

There are also two enhancements for HDR in windows which is Auto HDR (Windows) and RTX HDR (Nvidia if you have an Nvidia card). RTX HDR tends to be superior in video games, especially if you have a higher tier card, but this is something you should do your research in. This should also help with some of the potential off colors as Windows isn’t completely great at its HDR. RTX HDR also has the benefit of making SDR Video Games more HDR like for the monitor.

To explain, SDR content or normal experience such as browsing the internet or emails is primarily affected by this. Games should arguably look the best since there is a dedicated color-space to infer upon and is arguably what you want to buy this monitor for. HDR is unfortunately not too optimized according to my research for casual enjoyment. The fix here is to disable HDR during normal use and enable it during gaming if you ultimately do not want to deal with it.

I used an allblackscreen website to check how deep Black was compared to my other monitor, and that was when I realized the colors were off during HDR. If you test without HDR, it should look beautiful.

I would also recommend a dim room with some bias lighting behind the monitor (e.g a lamp or soft light) to help brighten the contrast between your eyes to the monitor, and also not give you a headache.

Anyways, consider this my advice, but Google other ways if you really want HDR to work on this display.

4. Maintenance
OLED requires a ton more care compared to a standard IPS or VA Panel. This is because the coating is important and you likely have heard of the term “burn-in”. MSI has a great technology called “MSI OLED Care 2.0” for this, but you ideally want to assist with that as well.

I would recommend wiping your screen with a Clean MicroFiber Cloth (important) with distilled water (important) as you may potentially scratch and leave mineral build-up if you choose to do otherwise. If you talk with people online, your spit may unknowingly fly to the screen as well, which was the case for me. This is the case if you see some small white specks when the monitor is turned off. It is easy to wipe, and you do get a micro fiber cloth included. For proper cleaning, 70% ethanol is also recommended by MSI themselves with a microfiber cloth. I would recommend this second option monthly and distilled water weekly if you want to be absolutely safe.

You should get a pack from somewhere as they are arguably cheap, but look to make sure it is good for a screen specifically compared to a cloth for cleaning a car or something. If you use it once, throw it in the wash and reuse it later, just to be absolutely safe you don’t have anything to scrape against the monitor when you clean it again.

Burn-in! This is an easy thing to do as long as you are moving and not leaving your monitor running 24/7 on a still image that is NOT black. Wallpaper Engine is great and is pretty cheap, and they make wallpapers look so gorgeous just letting your screen exist while you are in your room or office, especially with the contrast of the deep blacks. Look up OLED versions or just leave your screen completely black. Your monitor should have OLED Care, Pixel Shift, and other technologies enabled, but you can check your OSD menu to make sure.

Regardless, I would not be so worried these days. This technology has advanced and ultimately, this is just another tool that you want to use for fun. Use it and do not be afraid to use it, especially with that 3-year Screen Warranty in mind. Make sure to register it.

5. Benefits
Why buy an OLED? Like me, you likely watched a ton of videos and found out that OLED is superior in nearly every way, other than the maintenance. Color is brighter, blacks are blacker, and gaming is a night and day difference.

Gaming on an OLED is instantaneous in response-times, which is why the advertisements are like 0.03ms or so. IPS/VA have liquid crystals, which require a physical rotation to let light through. This leads to 1ms response times, even with a higher refresh rate. Simply speaking, 240Hz on an OLED is like 480Hz on an IPS/VA panel, for the most general of an idea. This is because there is zero motion blur.

Viewing angles are perfect on an OLED compared to the other panels. IPS has backlight bleed, and VA has ghosting. In comparison, OLED has the worry of Burn-In which objectively is not a big issue if you take care of your monitor alongside the OLED Care 2.0 features.

TL:DR from AI:
The MSI MAG 274QPX is a “Value King” in the 1440p 240Hz space, offering a generational leap in visual quality that makes traditional IPS and VA panels feel obsolete. As an engineer, I found that while the hardware is top-tier, the “plug-and-play” experience requires some manual intervention to truly shine. Out of the box, the most critical step is physical safety—the panel is incredibly thin and must be handled strictly by the base to avoid shattering the glass. Beyond the physical setup, performing a firmware update to v0.14 is highly recommended to optimize the OLED Care 2.0 logic and ensure the long-term health of the pixels.
The true magic of this monitor lies in its “infinite” contrast and 0.03ms response time, which provides motion clarity that effectively doubles the perceived smoothness of a standard 240Hz LCD. However, Windows HDR can be finicky; I personally had to fix a “salmon-red” color tint by disabling the Nvidia Overlay, running the Windows HDR Calibration tool, and bumping Digital Vibrance to 60%. Leveraging RTX HDR for games and maintaining a dim room with bias lighting further elevates the experience, turning “washed out” SDR content into a vibrant, high-contrast showcase.
Maintenance is the only area where OLED asks for more than a standard monitor, but it is manageable with the right habits. Protecting the screen involves using distilled water or 70% ethanol with a clean microfiber cloth to avoid mineral buildup or scratches. To combat the “boogeyman” of burn-in, utilizing Wallpaper Engine for moving backgrounds, hiding the taskbar, and trusting the built-in Pixel Shift technologies are key. Combined with MSI’s 3-year burn-in warranty, this monitor is a high-performance tool that, with just a bit of initial “babysitting,” delivers an immaculate gaming and viewing experience.