MSI Optix MAG341CQ 34" UW-QHD 100Hz DVI HDMI DP FreeSync Curved Gaming LED Monitor

[Archaea]

Microcenter has this new MSI 34" curved ultrawide for $380 on sale right now. That's pretty darn cheap for a 34" 3440x1440 100Hz gaming monitor.

I picked one up for a friend who I'm building a gaming PC for. ​

I've got an Alienware AW3418DW right now. I'll do a minor subjective comparison between the two this week. It's roughly half price of the Alienware. Now that Nvidia is supposed to work with Freesync (if you are lucky?) it could really be a nice option considering the price.

If you have any questions or things you'd like me to test - please let me know.

 

[Archaea]

I've used the MSI a few days in the last week, and my synopsis is you get 80-85% of the Alienware at 45% the price.

Here’s the minor nit picks I have against it in comparison to the Alienware AW3418DW I've had as my primary display for just over the last year.

Colors on the MSI are one small step down, a very small step down in practical use after you customize things just a bit on the MSI.

The stand is a big step down, it’s too short and there is no VESA mounting holes. It’s sturdy, but it only lifts the monitor a few inches off the table. My Alienware stand has my monitor lifted 8.5” off the table, and I’d prefer it was just a bit more. I’m tall though so that might matter less to some folk.

Subjectively, only the User preset video setting looks good to me. The precanned/built in settings like Game, Cinema, Video have sharpness cranked way too high. It’s disturbing. User mode looks good though, and after a few little subjective color, and brightness tweaks, I don’t think I have a huge preference towards the Alienware screen when both are setup. The VA panel in the MSI lacks the Alienware's IPS glow (a good thing!), and somehow the MSI doesn’t have a problem with black to white, white to black ghosting, which is a typical pitfall of VA panels. I played some Path of Exile with it which is a game that usually looks bad with VA panels because item drops have fine white text on moving darker backgrounds. (When your character is walking) No problems to note!!! It was surprisingly good, and there's even an overdrive setting that further reduces the very minimal blurring you can detect when looking for it on a specific use case like that Path of Exile test. The ghosting was so minimal I just turned the overdrive setting back off.

100hz works great on the MSI, and when the NVidia 1080 I was testing with wasn’t able to maintain 100FPS and dropped to the occasional 60FPS level on PubG -- without Freesync or Gsync my friend and I didn’t notice any obvious screen tearing in PubG. We both commented that observation was somewhat surprising in our limited testing because we would have expected pretty bad tearing at 60FPS with a 100hz panel. (we did verify everything was set to 100hz in the NVidia driver panel).

Gsync to Freesync works, but there are some bugs in the current driver revision I think. I saw the frame rates drop to 48 FPS with gsync and Freesync on several times and stay there artificially util you swang the mouse around, Without that variable refresh rate hybrid mismatch of tech (Gysync and Freesync disabled) it never dropped below low 60s in PubG with the Nvidia 1080 card. Who knows if that sticking FPS bug will be fixed by Nvidia future driver updates - or if it’s game specific or if some other variable played into our observation there. I suspect that problem wouldn't exist with an AMD graphics card and a true FreeSync source to Freesync display. My personal experience with Freesync front to end with my previous pair of AMD Fury X cards and my three HP Omen 32 was nothing short of excellent.

The pendulum Gsync nvidia demo works well on the MSI fed by 1080 when Freesync and Gsync is turned on, and it looks noticeably smoother with Gsync on, vs vsync on or vsync off as expected. More evaluation is needed on this subject of the hybrid Gsync to Freesync handshake, but I no longer have the monitor to test. It's gone to it's new owner. Basically consider variable refresh handshake between NVidia and this Freesync panel as a big YMMV right now, and it's probably app/driver specific. Probably smarter to just plan to use this MSI monitor with an AMD card with Freesync front to end until further testing confirms the handshake bugs are fixed.

In my opinion the MSI is a steal at <$400 in the current market (Microcenter price) - 100hz with no frame skipping is solid even absent Gsync or Freesync if your hardware can keep your frame rates high.
Motion is really good even without variable refresh rate tech on, viewing angles are good with the curve (no offputting problems noted with off angle viewing), colors and picture are good on the preset/customizable "user mode", and the monitor I tested had no backlight bleed or pixel issues. Therefore, I recommend the MSI heartily, if budget or financial sense disallow the kingpin Alienware monitor --- which clearly costs over double at it's current $850 saleprice range. It's a good monitor choice, made even more special by the current pricing tier and potential for Nvidia cards to drive freesync opening up more use options.

 

[EJR357]

Thanks for the review, Archaea. I'm casually in the market for 32" 1440p monitor and appreciate the info.

I was interested in the 32" Omen but never pulled the trigger. I know that you had three of those running at one point, and while you no longer have those monitors; could you equate their performance to this MSI monitor? I realize this would be subjective as you cannot do a side-by-side comparison like you are able to with the AW.

 

[Archaea]

The pixel content/PPI on the MSI was smaller. Good or bad that’s subjective. For desktop work I liked the larger pixel size of the omen so I could sit back further. For media and gaming consumption the MSI looks better on the custom user settings than the Omen did.

The default color loadout on the Omen was warmer and the MSI cooler (bluer).

The motion was significantly better on the MSI because of the lack of VA ghosting in games like PoE that was present on the Omens. That game exhibited the worst example I encounteredof that particular common VA panel negative - and it was still okay to me on the Omen. It didn’t really bother me at all with anything else on the Omen. It’s not a problem with the MSI.

Both are very good bargains.

I liked the Omen monitors and they were easily worth $300. This MSI is easily worth the extra $100 cost uptick. Can't go wrong either way.