MSI Non-Glare Ultrawide 21: 9 Screen 8ms 3440 X 1440 100Hz Freesync 3K Resolution 34" Curved Gaming Monitor (Optix MAG341CQ)

I’ll start off saying that I do not use this as a gaming monitor so I can’t speak to the performance specs related to them. A lot of reviews complain about color, I’m certainly no expert, but my guess is for the majority of people it has great picture quality. I primarily got this to replace two 22” side-by-side monitors for work. All I can say is this was a significant upgrade for office tasks. There is so much real estate on this monitor and the pictures from other reviews do not do it justice. It’s big! You can have one window for an extreme view, split screen, or multiple windows. Great resolution - the picture is sharp and none of the text is blurry. No flickering issues as I saw in other reviews. I can’t help but think that some of the complaints are computer hardware or alternate cable issues of the end user IMO. There aren’t a whole lot options for calibration, but I used the recommended settings from a Tom’sHardware review and it’s just fine. Comes with Display Port and HDMI cable. I tested it at home and the higher refresh rates and FreeSync worked fine. My work computer, where I use this, doesn’t support the FreeSync but ran at 100hz. (By pressing the menu button it will readily show you this information). There is no height adjustment so it may sit kind of low if directly on a desk, but you can tilt it back up to 15°. I have it slightly elevated on a Veradesk and it’s perfect. If you’re looking for a work monitor for better work productivity and very easy viewing due to the curved screen then this is a good buy. No issues out of the box, no damage, no dead pixels, etc. I’m happy with the purchase and I would recommend this for the purposes stated above.

For gaming this is great. If you have never had a widescreen monitor, then once you use this for gaming, you'll NEVER be able to go back to a 24" or 27" screen again. Widescreen gaming, greatly increases what you see on your screen, giving it a new level of immersion.In regards to work productivity, the screen is so wide that you can easily have 3 to 4 tabs open, side by side. Greatly increasing work efficiency.Coming from a Dell 24" IPS glass glossy screen, the colors were rich, in-depth and very vibrant. The blacks were pitch black. The tradeoff was that, being that it was a glossy screen, any sunlight in the room, would GREATLY diminish those colors. So having the curtains closed or using it when the sun wasn't really out, was truly the only way to enjoy it.However with the MSI screen, even with adjusting the color settings, the colors are still excellent. Just not on the level of that Dell screen. This is because this is a anti glare screen. That's makes it great for viewing in a sunlit room. But it does take away some of the vibrancy from the colors. Still a very good tradeoff though.Price to performance, THIS IS the monitor to buy. You are getting alot of bang for your buck.

Look, I'm not tech YouTuber. I'm no writer for the Verge. I can't tell you how the color accuracy is or how smooth the pixels respond to motion. I just know a few things that I think are important for the typical user.The first, this is a good stepping stone to getting into higher refresh rate monitors. It's not 144hz, but unless your pairing this with a highend GPU, 100hz will more attainable, and still feel smoother than 60. The Freesync is a great bonus (just make sure you enable it in the monitor software) since that will work with either AMD or NVIDIA GPUs that really helps smooth out tearing in games. Moving around the desktop also just feels nice and responsive. Once you get a taste of something above 60hz, you'll start wanting higher everywhere.The second is that this is a big monitor. It'll fill up your vision and really help you get immersed while gaming. 1440p is nice in gaming and text crisp on the monitor and reading isn't bother for me. Multi-tasking is great since this ratio is like having two 4:3 monitors. Shopping on one half, Video on the other, or article on one half document on the other half still feels spacious for both tasks. In fact, having almost any web page in full screen is almost a waste since it's so wide. If you're someone that is still and will continue to be working from home, I would suggest this over getting two monitor since you'll have less cables to manage and no bezels.If you can get this for less than $500, it's a no brainer for me. It's big, it's got higher than average refresh rate, 1440p, and Freesync. To my knowledge, there's not much else that checks off these boxes, certainly not for the price.

Overall I love this monitor. Works perfect in my 3 monitor setup with 2 27" monitors above it. Beautiful picture, the curve is great, fairly quick and easy setup. I did buy a VESA mount (NOT INCLUDED) to mount on my tri-monitor stand, but ended up using the included stand instead. And the Picture-in-Picture (PIP) feature is AMAZING and something I've been looking for forever.With the PIP, I can utilize 75% of my monitor for my PC, and plug my Nintendo Switch in the HDMI, and have both going at the same time. Great for when I am doing stuff like breeding in Pokemon. I use Microsoft PowerTools and "Fancy Zones" to divide the monitor into different snap-to areas for windows. This works better than the included MSI Monitor Kit as you can create your own layouts. I think that is a key application with this monitorMy only gripe is with the On-Screen Menu (OSM). I've never seen one I like, but the features of this monitor make it so I am actually using it a lot. Enabling/Disabling PIP requires a dropping a few levels into the OSM. It takes me multiple tries to do what I meant to. Also, if one of my systems turns off, then I have to reset it up, since the monitor will display the last connected input to both the main screen and the PIP. Luckily that usually just requires hitting the Input-specific button, not the main OSM.I also ended up painting the area above the buttons with white out, then wiping down with rubbing alcohol. That filled in the icons for what the buttons did with white, making them actually viable.

Beuatiful display, resolution is wonderful and the colors/contrast are great. I adore the ultrawide aspect ratio, and I would absolutely reccomend it over a regular 16:9 monitor for just about everything. 100hz looks unbelievable, especially coming from a lifetime of =<60hz monitors. I'm a week into use and I've yet to find an issue, setup was basically plug and play, and the price was surprisingly reasonable when compared to similar monitors I was considering. Would recommend.

This monitor isn't perfect, it does not have the response time or refresh rate of more expensive options, but for the price it is a great deal. The colors are great, the size is ideal and the slight curve makes it even more immersive.The lack of a VESA mount and the stand are the two worse things about this monitor. Both can be fixed with a VESA adaptor and a proper stand, but that will cost you..All in all, I am very happy with the purchase, 34" at 1440p yields clear image and text without scaling in Windows. It's a productivity cheat code.

Nice immersive experience. No dead pixels and no crackling sounds in mine though I can see a dark dent which slightly darkens a small area like a faded black smudge (Update: The smudge faded away over time, I guess it re-pressurized). Probably damaged in manufacturing. Otherwise, easy to setup. Decent for general use.Pros: Good pixel density. Can be driven up to 115Hz. Fine for MMO or light gaming if you have a graphics card that can handle the resolution. Ok price, though many competitors have come down making it hard to suggest. The curve helps avoid shift in color due to the largeness of the screen. Freesync (except in PiP or PbP).Cons: Picture-by-picture forces everything, regardless of source, to only fit within half the resolution height, so two sources will always each be scaled to fit into 720 height. Big negative in my opinion. Desperately needs a firmware update or software tool to work around it and be more flexible. Only turns up and down, and no VESA mount without buying it. There is ghosting if you notice that kind of thing. Most won't. Blue LED light pulses when source shuts off. No speakers, but Windows detects it as one and if you power off the monitor it liked to autoswitch your output. Color range or bit depth could be better as I see banding in gradients. VA panel.

I bought this monitor for office work. It was cheaper than the other ones but I took a chance and it turned out great. The colours seem washed up when I compared it to my Dell IPS monitor but that was expected. It works great, no issues with it. Download the app called rectangle for MacOS and it’s easy to split windows to your liking. I feel my productivity has increased and My desk looks cleaner with this monitor and has less clutter.

[UPDATED] I didn't keep this monitor; I ended up sending it back due to the multiple problems.[UPDATED: Dec 19 2019] I am updating the original review again because of a problem with the monitor flickering badly when attempting to use Gsync / Freesync. I've detailed the problem below under Cons and included additional pictures.This review is for the MSI Optix MAG341CQ 3440 x 1440 ultrawide.Pros:- My monitor had none of the crackling or popping sounds on warm up / cool down that other people experienced. My understanding is that MSI have now corrected this problem in newer manufactured builds.- No dead pixels; tested with dead pixel locator- 100 Hz on HDMI or DP.Some people are getting in the 115 Hz range using CRU. My main previous setup was with two 27” 2K 60 Hz panels, so switching to 100 Hz on this panel is already enough of a noticeable jump in smoothness. Also with a GTX 1080 I know I won't consistently get much higher, so for me there's no point OC'ing higher.- At 109.7 ppi this monitor is right in that 109 ppi sweetspot range.- No HDR.Why am I listing this as a pro? Because I’m glad that MSI didn’t try to implement a version of HDR on a monitor spec’d at only 250 nits of brightness. I’d rather have no HDR (and save a few bucks) than a sub par messy version that doesn’t even meet the low bar minimum standard HDR400. I’ve seen the HDR on those monitors and it’s crap. The decision to forgo HDR altogether in this monitor is a factor keeping the price down. HDR is great when implemented correctly (especially at the HDR1000 level), but to do it properly & with FALD zones adds significantly to cost.-No speakers.I also list this as a pro for similar rationale to the no HDR as pro argument; because I’d rather have no speakers and cut a few dollars in cost, than have some low quality speakers that sound like crap and that I’ll never ever use anyway.- No power brick.Thankfully. Just a grounded power card.- Price.I picked this up on Black Friday 2019 when it was listed at $515 CAD (~ $390 USD) on Amazon.ca, and it came to $578 shipped after tax. Add $40 to that if you want a VESA mount. But even at full retail price of low or mid $600 CAD It's still a decent value.---------------------------------------------------------Cons:- [Updated: Dec 18 2019]:Gsync over Freesync is not working properly for me on this monitor. There is significant flickering and occasional black screens when it is enabled.I have an MSI GTX 1080 8G. Initially I read an article from MSI stating that they had tested this monitor's Gsync compatibility with an RTX 2070 Ventus 8G, RTX 2080 Ventus 8G, and GTX 1080 Gaming 8G on Windows 10. (If I link that article Amazon won't publish my review)If you have an Nvidia GPU (Only GTX Pascal series or later), to enable Gsync on this Freesync monitor you need to :- First turn Freesync On in the monitor's menu under Game > Freesync > On.- After turning Freesync on in the monitor, Nvidia Control Panel adds a 'Set up G-SYNC' option under the Display menu.- Under that new Nvidia Control Panel > Display > Set up G-SYNC menu you should now see sub menu's numbered 1, 2, and 3 (see my attached picture)Under # 1. Apply following Changes > you need to check 'Enable G-SYNC, G-SYNC Compatible > and select either 'Enable for full screen mode' or 'Enable for windowed or full screen mode'Under # 2. Select the display you would like to change; obvious - just select your displayUnder # 3. Display specific settings > you need to select 'Enable settings for the selected display model'Only when you enable both # 1 and # 3 in that menu is G-Sync then enabled. You can prove this by using Nvidia's Pendulum G-Sync test. If you don't select Enable under both the # 1 and # 3 menu options then the Nvidia Pendulum test won't allow you to select G-Sync (top right box).However, as soon as I Enable # 3 in that Nvidia Control Panel > Set up G-SYNC menu, the screen undergoes periodic rapid flickering, even just on the Windows desktop. When I say flickering I don't mean PWM flickering. I mean the desktop wallpaper and any images or programs on the desktop will start to rapidly light pulse or flicker. There are also occasional black screens. I tested different known working DP cables; I tried only plugging in this one monitor; I tried selecting different GPU ports on my 1080 - and the flickering always correlates 100 % to fully Enabling G-Sync. As soon as I select to Disable G-Sync the problems immediately go away.TLDR: You will experience the benefit of high refresh rate with this monitor, but the G-Sync capability doesn't seem to be working without problems.- Backlight Bleed in the lower right and left of the panel.Lower left BLB is pretty insignificant, but the lower right bleed is enough that it's visible & distracting when watching dark scenes in movies or when viewing 16:9 content with the inevitable black pillar bars. This was honestly pretty disappointing. I've already returned two ultrawide monitors due to BLB and I was hoping for zero BLB on this VA panel.- Washed out colour.This is an 8 bit VA and out of the box the colour appears quite washed out. After playing with the settings a lot I can bring this monitor up to decent colour / saturation levels, not excellent, but decently acceptable. Don’t expect IPS level colour accuracy if you're used to that. After adjustment this VA panel's colour is just OK, but nowhere near really good or outstanding.- Poor off axis viewing.There is a lot of brightness & gamma shift when viewed off axis. I have to be sitting pretty much in one exact position to get correct & even color distribution and correct gamma / brightness. Move off axis even a little and the whole experience changes. It's pretty poor if you pair this in any multi monitor config and are constantly shifting position.- Only 250 nits brightness.Because MSI isn't attempting HDR, and the VA panel has a 3,000:1 contrast ratio, they can marginally get away with lower nit brightness. It's at the very low end of workable, but to be fair I found it workable for my scenario. I like a dark work room.. On my higher nit monitors I still often only use ~ 65 - 70 % brightness. Brightness level on this monitor also has corollary effects on gamma / colour shift, so really this will be users choice.- No included VESA mount adapter.MSI uses a proprietary attachment system that:1) uses only two M4 screws (metric 4) to attach, which in and of itself is a not the best idea for securing a large monitor; I’d just feel better if there were four screws holding it.2) requires an additional adapter to then mount to a 75 x 75 or 100 x 100 mm standard VESA mount.MSI if you choose to use your proprietary connection system, then you should be including a VESA adapter in the box at point of sale. In Canada that additional VESA mounting plate from MSI adds $40 to the cost.- Multi display button menu - no joystick.It's an old school frustrating tree menu with 5 buttons on the bottom edge of the monitor. Expect that it'll take time every time you access the menu. Thankfully, when you get it set up right, you won't need to access the menu often.- No height adjustable stand.The stand is bare bones basic with tilt only. It's also why not including the VESA mount adapter becomes more of an issue.- Mounting points are not centered vertically.This is relevant for the reference of after market VESA mounting when pairing with other monitors on a dual arm monitor mount. The monitor's mounting points are 1 & 3/8" off vertical center on the monitor housing, which will make it a challenge if you're trying to match this with another monitor of the exact same height that has it's VESA mounting points centered (as they should be). You still need something like an additional offset mount plate between the mounts. See my attached picture to understand.Or even better ... there is a mount for this monitor available on Etsy that can be custom manufactured with an offset included.---------------------------------------------------------Other notes:I downloaded the drivers from MSI (MSI_Optix_MAG341CQ.inf) and installed them via Win 10 > Device manager > monitors > right click - Update driverThe VA panel.I do like VA's higher contrast & deeper blacks. If you’re a high framerate fps player and you already know that a 100Hz VA panel isn't gonna cut it for you, I’m not here to convince you otherwise. There’s smearing on VA panels & I have nothing groundbreaking to add to that discussion. I use this monitor for a mix of content creation, multimedia and some casual gaming. For video editing I use this MSI ultrawide as a timeline monitor, and then send the real time preview to a second 2K 16:9 IPS monitor for any colour correction. I also have a third portrait / vertical 1080p VA.For bench reference I'm using an i9 9900k / MSI GTX 1080 (no OC's).Benching with Unigine Valley:Ultra preset - AA x4 - avge 62 fps, low 30 fps, high 129 fpsHigh preset - AA x4 - avge 70 fps, low 36 fps, high 146 fpsFor reference here are my settings:Game > Mode > User (anything other than this either increased smearing or caused the dreaded pinkish gamma / brightness tinge that some VA's are susceptible to)Game > DCR > OffGame > Freesync > This will depend on whether you have an AMD or Nvidia GPU. If you have an Nvidia GPU you'd still need to additionally enable Gsync in the Nvidia Ctrl Panel, and that's when the flickering problem starts occurring. So I've since turned this off on the monitor as it's pointless. What I have done is set a 'Framerate Limit' at 97 in RTSS and I'm currently experimenting with setting custom resolutions for the monitor (using CR) aimed at keeping the monitor within a 30 - 97 refresh range, rather than the default 48 - 100. At default 48 -100 Hz there is occasional tearing when it goes above or below that range.Game > Aspect Ratio > 21:9Game > Crosshair > OffGame > Response Time > Off (On introduces smearing)Image > Brightness > 80 % personal choice for me in my dark work room. I think for most people 90% + will be closer to ideal.Image > Contrast > 48Image > Color Temp > Customization:Red 72Green 66Blue 67I set these high to try and overcome the washed out colour. The most typical recommendation I've seen for these three are R52 G48 B44, and while that is pretty accurate for balance, it was still too low for my saturation tastes. And yes, no two panels are ever exactly the same, so ymmv here.In addition to this in Nvidia Control Panel I still set Nvidia > Display > Adjust desktop color settings > Use Nvidia settings > Digital vibrance > 65 %. Only then do I feel this panel comes even close to good colour - though it's still not truly vibrant.This monitor's menu is crying out for a single 'saturation' or 'vibrancy' slider, to be used after you adjust the balance of R, G & B colourImage > Gamma > 2.2Input > DPPiP/PbP > I don't use itSetup > all user choiceConclusion:If you know what you want in terms of specs, and you understand all of this monitors cons and limitations, then price-wise it’s hard to beat in Canada. What I do like is that MSI haven't wasted money attempting poorly implemented HDR or crap speakers. I applaud them for those design choices to keep this affordable.On the other hand, I found no ability to implement Gsync over Fsync without problems, there is occasional tearing when it goes outside the default 48 - 100 Hz range, the colour is less than vibrant, my sample has BLB (albeit minor levels), there's poor off axis viewing, & you have to pay $40 xtra in Canada (after tax) for a VESA mounting plate that only gets you to the point where if you dual arm mount it you'll still have to then introduce another option to match it with other exact size monitors that have correctly vertically centered their VESA mounts. The cons taken together make it quite hard to recommend this monitor.I'll continue updating if there are more changes.