The MSI G274QPF-QD punches above its price point as an affordable 1440p gaming monitor. TweakTown praised its Quantum Dot Rapid IPS panel and 170 Hz refresh rate, calling it one of the most compelling and affordable 1440p gaming monitors available. Tom's Hardware noted pro-level performance for not a lot of cash, highlighting its G-Sync compatibility and color accuracy. Reviewers also flagged limits: HDMI caps at 144 Hz, and there is no USB passthrough or software support. Competitive esports players are the fit; anyone who needs full USB functionality is not.
Full review
Quantum-dot Rapid IPS at 170 Hz
The G274QPF-QD is a 27-inch 2560x1440 panel running at 170 Hz, using MSI's Rapid IPS with a quantum-dot layer for gamut. Mezha put the wide gamut at 95% DCI-P3 and rated the monitor 9.5 out of 10; TweakTown scored it 91 out of 100 and called its colour accuracy on par with much more expensive displays. Brightness is specified at 300 cd/m² typical and 400 cd/m² peak with DisplayHDR 400 certification, which is enough for a bright room and not enough for HDR to mean much. Tom's Hardware gave it 4.5 out of 5, crediting excellent overdrive and low input lag.
The 1 ms claim does not survive measurement
TechNuovo ran the panel through OSRTT response-time testing and found the 1 ms figure optimistic. In Normal overdrive the grey-to-grey average came out at 8.34 ms with only 13.33% of transitions landing inside the refresh window. Fast mode improved that to 5.06 ms and 53.33%, at the cost of visible RGB overshoot on high-contrast edges. That is still quick enough that most players will not see smearing in a competitive shooter, but it is nowhere near what the specification advertises, and it is the main reason TechNuovo's 3.5 out of 5 sits so far below the other three verdicts.
sRGB is accurate, Office mode drifts
Colour accuracy depends heavily on which preset is running. TechNuovo recorded an average Delta-E of 0.72 in sRGB mode, good enough that no calibration is needed for most work, but Office mode averaged 8.67 with a maximum of 12.8 and covered only 84% NTSC — a preset that trades colour for brightness and should be avoided by anyone doing anything visual. Mezha, meanwhile, lists the absence of an sRGB mode among the monitor's limitations, which sits oddly beside TechNuovo's sRGB measurements. Both outlets are cited here and the disagreement is worth checking against the firmware on a current unit before buying for colour work.
Uniformity and the backlight strobe
Two panel-level faults recur. TechNuovo found colour uniformity poor at full brightness, with a visible band down the left-hand side and a problem area in the top-right corner, both of which ease off at half brightness. Mezha reported that the backlight strobe function introduces artefacts, so the blur-reduction mode is not free either. Neither is disqualifying on a monitor at this price, but they are the sort of thing that separates it from panels costing twice as much, and anyone buying it to edit photographs rather than to play games should weigh the uniformity finding seriously.
Ports, stand and a missing power button
Connectivity is two HDMI 2.0b, one DisplayPort 1.4 and a USB-C port carrying video plus 15 W of charging. The HDMI ports cap at 144 Hz, so reaching 170 Hz means DisplayPort or USB-C — an easy trap for a console owner reading only the headline refresh rate. There is no USB hub and no desktop software, which TweakTown flagged alongside the absence of a dedicated power button, an omission it called weird. Mezha described the stand as fully functional, with 0-130 mm of height adjustment plus tilt, swivel and pivot, though its footprint eats more desk than the V-shaped legs common on gaming models, and the mount is 75x75 rather than the larger pattern some arms expect.
Four verdicts from 3.5 to 9.5
The spread of scores tells you what kind of monitor this is. Mezha's 9.5 out of 10, TweakTown's 91 out of 100 and Tom's Hardware's 4.5 out of 5 are all reacting to the same thing: a bright, saturated, fast 27-inch 1440p panel for around $197, which is a lot of monitor for the money. TechNuovo's 3.5 out of 5 comes from measuring it rather than playing on it, and the measurements say the response-time claim is marketing and the presets are inconsistent. For a competitive player at this price both readings are true, and the first one matters more.
Strengths
- +Crisp Rapid IPS panel
- +Color accuracy on par with more expensive options
- +Impressive 170 Hz refresh rate
- +G-SYNC Compatible
Watch-outs
- −HDMI limited to 144 Hz
- −No USB passthrough or software support
- −Measured grey-to-grey response falls well short of the 1 ms claim
- −Colour uniformity is poor at full brightness
- −No dedicated power button
Rating sources
“Its got some small bezels, and around the back it is rather plain. Theres no RGB like on my last one which is fine because its at the back.”
Our 4.4 score is the average of these published ratings. Ratings marked * were derived from the reviewer’s written analysis or video transcript — the publisher didn’t print an explicit numeric score, so we inferred one from their own words. Click through to verify. More about methodology.
