Dear gamer, before you read any further, it’s worth noting that a piece of hardware like the MSI MPG 491CQP QD-OLED Monitor (try saying that five times fast) is built for hardcore gaming enthusiasts. It costs a lot of money, has an OLED panel, and its 32:9 144Hz 5120×1440 display requires a real beefy GPU to maintain. At the very least, you’ll need an Nvidia RTX 4080 or an AMD RX 7900XTX in your PC to run this bad boy at full capacity.
If this is you, or you’re a dreamer like me, then let’s explore why this is one of the coolest gaming monitors I’ve reviewed.
What’s On The Box
The spec sheet for the MSI MPG 491CQP QD-OLED is undoubtedly one to gawk at. It packs a next-gen QD-OLED 49-inch display with an 1800R curvature, a 144Hz refresh rate, and a claimed 0.03ms grey-to-grey response time. It supports AMD FreeSync and HDR True Black 400. On the back of the monitor, we have 1x DP 1.4a port, 2x HDMI 2.1 ports, a USB-C port that supports display and 90W Power Delivery, 2x USB 2.0 A ports, 1 USB 2.0 B port and a 3.5mm audio out jack.
There are many good-looking specs here, but what do they all mean? The OLED panel means you can expect bright, vibrant colours that pop right out of the screen. And this is precisely what you get when you turn the monitor on. In fact, you’re likely to turn the default brightness down a touch. Paired with the anti-glare coating, this OLED panel has viewing angles even an owl would be jealous of. However, the OLED panel also comes with some downsides. Generally speaking, text doesn’t do well on OLED screens, and even though the next-gen OLED pixels that MSI have in this panel do help, there is still a noticeable difference compared to my daily VA panel monitor.
OLED also means burn-in, and nobody likes burn-in. Thankfully, MSI has built OLED Care 2.0 into the monitor to prevent this from happening. Every four hours, you will be prompted by the monitor to perform its care routine. You can expect this to last about 10 minutes, and the monitor is unusable during this time. You can skip this routine up to three times, but on the fourth time, at the 16-hour mark, the monitor will run the calibration, no matter what you’re up to on the monitor. It’s not as bad as it sounds, and if you just run the OLED care every time you step away from your PC, you should never face any troubles. MSI also offers a three-year warranty on the monitor, which includes burn-in.
The 1800R curvature ensures an immersive viewing experience, although you’ll still need to keep your head on a swivel for those high-action games. While the 144Hz refresh rate might not be as high as other panels out there, this is where MSI has found a balance between value and performance. 144Hz is certainly enough for most gameplay, and by choosing this range, MSI can knock almost R10,000 off the price point compared to its competitors.
What’s In The Box
While the box is also quite pretty, demonstrating the vivid colours you get on the monitor with its pink palette, we’re more interested in what’s inside the box – unless you’re a cat, that is.
There’s nothing out of the ordinary here. The box opens like a chest, making it easy to access everything you need. Once you’ve removed all the inserts, you can easily screw the stand together with the built-in thumb screw. The stand then clips into the back of the monitor, which you can do while the panel still sits in the box.
This makes it easier and safer to remove if you are one person doing the setup. It is quite a hefty beast, so every little bit helps.
The stand supports a -5 to 20-degree tilt, a -30 to 30-degree swivel, and up to 100mm of height adjustment. The monitor also supports VESA mounts if you want to use your own mounting options.
Out Of The Box
Once it’s all out of the box, toss that thing to the side and let it gather dust like every other hardware box in your arsenal.
The MSI MPG 491CQP QD-OLED is quite a sight to behold, sitting on your desk, so take a minute to marvel at it. Then turn it on.
Upon first use, the monitor was too bright for me, and I’m sure it will be too bright for most gamers. The 5-way Navi Key is located just behind the monitor and is relatively easy to reach and use. The handy macro key to the right of the Navi Key will open up an all-in-one screen that accesses Windows display settings and is much more user-friendly.
The MSI MPG 491CQP QD-OLED really shines in two aspects: gaming and content creation. So, we suggest adjusting the colour settings to Adobe RGB. This provides excellent colour awareness when editing videos and photos, and is just right for games. However, you can adjust these to suit your preferences.
The massive 32:9 aspect ratio means you have more real estate than you could ever ask for. When editing videos, the whole timeline can be in full view, and you can have multiple screens open for all your sources, audio editing or even chat and music apps.
During gameplay, the monitor transports you straight to the world before you. The colours are deep and rich. Blacks are black as pitch, and colours just pop. The ultra-wide angle allows you to enjoy a vast field of view, and it’s a gaming experience that can only be beat by something like VR.
Sure, fast-paced action games like Call of Duty require you to move your head from left to right to gain vision of the lower corners, but RPGs, racing games and even cosy, top-down, pixel art games are an absolute dream on this monitor.
Because of the 144Hz refresh rate and lightning-fast response times, I didn’t experience any screen tears or motion blurs.
Of course, as mentioned before, to power this thing at full capacity, you’ll need a monster PC to get the most from it.
Console Gamers Rejoice
If you don’t game on PC, don’t click away just yet. The monitor does have a “Console Mode” option so PS5 and Xbox players can still enjoy the beauty of the display at full 120Hz. It is worth noting that neither console supports 32:9 by default, so the image may seem stretched. You can force the source aspect ratio to display at 16:9, but this will place two black bars on either end.
Since there are two HDMI ports, you could connect two consoles to the monitor for local co-op gameplay with a buddy, or you could connect your PC and have the console on one side and your PC on the other.
The same can be said for watching a video on the monitor. Since most videos are exported in a 16:9 aspect ratio, you’ll once again have black bars on either side. For watching movies, though, the black bars almost gave a cinema-like experience, so I wasn’t too deterred.
All in all, the MSI MPG 491CQP QD-OLED is a fantastic gaming and content creation monitor. Sure, it falls short for other uses, like work, but when investing in a gaming monitor like this, I may want to spend more of my time gaming than actually working anyway. The colours are bright and vibrant, the blacks are deep, and the ultra-wide display is engrossing. If you’re looking to add a premium, eye-catching gaming monitor to your gaming setup, then the MSI MPG 491cqp QD-OLED monitor should be on your wishlist.
