MSI Optix MPG27CQ

A VA panel in an IPS world…

- Jeremy Laird

Picture a Pc monitor. One with high refresh rates, low response times, snazzy styling, and RGB mood lighting. Looks a lot like a new ROG gaming monitor from Asus, right? Indeed it does, but it also describes MSI’s new Optix MPG27CQ. Already a rival for Asus in other parts of the PC gaming arena, MSI is now sizing up a smackdown in the premium gaming monitor market.

The MPG27CQ arrives slap bang into the sweet spot in PC gaming monitors. It’s a 27-inch panel with 1440p pixel grid. That makes for a very nice compromise between visual detail and smooth gaming. 4K gaming, after all, is a nice idea, but even the very latest and greatest graphics cards can’t drive all those pixels at the triple-digit frame rates required for seriously slick and smooth gameplay. Meanwhile, if you stretch 1440p beyond 27 inches, the result is increasingly big, fat, and fugly pixels.