MSI's latest 4K OLED gaming panel is by far the cheapest yet at $799

Do you really need more than 165 Hz on a 4K gaming monitor? Probably not, which is why the MSI MAG 321UP for $799 from Newegg is such a good deal. It's a pukka 4K OLED gaming monitor, just much cheaper than ever before.

Seriously, this thing is far, far less expensive than many 4K OLEDs. We've seen models up at $1,300, including the Asus ROG Swift OLED PG32UCDM . That's got ultimately the same 32-inch Samsung QD-OLED panel, just running at 240 Hz, not 165 Hz.

The thing is, how often are you going to hit 240 Hz at 4K? In our original review of the Nvidia RTX 4090, still the quickest graphics card out there, we only had one game out of seven that averaged over 165 fps. Most were well below that. And that was nearly two years ago. Games haven't gotten less demanding, since.

And of course, with anything less powerful in GPU terms, you're only going to see lower frame rates still. The mitigating factor, of course, is DLSS and Frame Gen. But even with those technologies, you're not going to be well in excess of 200 fps in the latest games. Anyway, this isn't a monitor you buy if what you mainly want to do is play Counter-Strike. 165 Hz? It's plenty.

In all other regards, this monitor is basically a dead ringer for every other 32-inch 4K QD-OLED panel. So, that's 250 nits full-screen brightness, 1,000 nits peak HDR and silly-fast 0.03 ms response times.

Really, my main objection is that the USB-C interface is limited to 15W power delivery. So single cable connectivity to a laptop isn't really a goer. But who cares when you're soaking up that killer combo of crispy 4K pixel density with OLED-powered HDR sizzle.

Did I mention the perfect contrast and per-pixel lighting? Honestly, it's hard to go back to even a good IPS monitor once you've tried OLED. As for downsides, like all monitors using Samsung QD-OLED panel tech, the quantum dot tech and lack of polarising filter means that the panel absorbs and then kicks some ambient light back out in really bright conditions. So, the black tones can look a little grey in really, really bright conditions.

And like any OLED monitor, burn-in is always a worry. But you do have a three-year warranty for peace of mind. Moreover, this 32-inch 4K OLED makes all those 27-inch 1440p models for similar money seem chronically overpriced. So, if you've been holding off for a better value 4K option, maybe your time has finally come.

Jeremy has been writing about technology and PCs since the 90nm Netburst era (Google it!) and enjoys nothing more than a serious dissertation on the finer points of monitor input lag and overshoot followed by a forensic examination of advanced lithography. Or maybe he just likes machines that go “ping!” He also has a thing for tennis and cars.