My subjective opinion/review about MSI MAG251RX. (Top1 240Hz IPS for sure)

[RLCSContender*]

hey forii, are you getting bad image retention with your MSI? because i've owned two and they have really bad image retention. I indirectly found this out when doing a UFO test. By putting up that screen for about 10-15 mins, then exiting that screen on a black background, i was able to see white artifacts(slight burn in or image retention) afterwards.

i'm presuming it's just bad luck and that i didn't win the panel lottery but this happened to me twice. I've done my research on other MSI owners and most claim that they do in fact get image retentio but it goes away.

[Chief Blur Buster]

Processing Lag is very impressive (I didn't meassure this but I trust the Hardwarde Unboxed in this).
The 0.29ms processing lag (!) which is same on the Asus (0,30ms) - one of the lowest input lags
+ you need to add to that the average lag over the frame which is just half of that, so we takes 4.16ms(240hz)/2 = 2.083ms. Take that 2.083 and add it to the processing lag, 2.083 + 0.29 = 2.373. That is how the Hardware Unboxed got his 2,37ms input lag.

Back to you.... You are the original poster and thus you command a lot of thread driection. So I want to touch upon this "lag rabbit hole"

So, on a Blur Busters encouragement topic:
I'm always fascinated (and also dismayed) by how massively different the diferent websites stopwatches start input latency (stopwatch start on VBI? stopwatch start on Present()? Stopwatch start at app level? Driver level? Windows compositor level?) and stopwatch stop (stopwatch stop at GtG2%? GtG10%? GtG50%? GtG90%? GtG100%? Top edge? Center? Bottom? Average?). It neglects to consider other display lag factors like latency volatility of different sync technologies, as well as latency gradients which can change with sync technology (TOP > CENTER > BOTTOM can become TOP = CENTER = BOTTOM can become TOP < CENTER < BOTTOM).

Hardware Unboxed processing latency suggests it's stopwatch as early as possible (GtG% above oscilloscope noise floor), and excludes scanout latency (i.e. lowest numbers found in ultrahigh framerate VSYNC OFF, are a good way to filter out scanout latency, at least for non-strobed modes).

Either way, I'd round it off to the nearest 0.1ms, those extra digits are just usually statistical noise (most of the time). Even many reviewers, I'd round it off to the nearest 1ms. Things like variable oscilloscope noisefloors to photodiode nonlinearity, and The Complexity of GtG interferes with the stopwatch-stop portion of the lag stopwatching algorithms.

TL;DR: No two sites measure latency identically. Their methodology may be legitimate, but lag testing has infinite numbers of legitimate (and not-so-legitimate) stopwatching methodologies.

[RLCSContender*]

chief, these two guys tested it and said that the fastest "TN" and the fastest "IPS had little to NO differences whatsoever.

THE AW2518HF is considered top 1-3 fastest TN in the world. Which means it's on the upper end of the highest eschelon of TN monitors. I I'm not bashing TN, since i'm actually giving legitimate reasons why it's simply not worth to get one if other fast IPS monitors exist.

the topic creator here is making statements that i believe is inaccurate so that is why i made my disagreements known. People come to your website to get more information so that they have more clarity when making a smart purchase.

All i'm doing is, i'm speaking UP on the OTHER side of the argument. There is a way to have a cordial debate without it ever getting heated.

people here just don't like how extremely blunt and honest i am. That is generally their issue with me but that doesn't make my statements any less true.

alienware aw2720hf 240hz IPS vs alienware AW2518HF 240hz TN


claimed he saw zero differences

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MSI optix MAG251rx 240hz IPS vs Alienware AW2518HF 240hz TN

Esports professional who compared the two. Saw zero differences. As a matter of fact, he said the the IPS was seemed better because the better image equality and accurate colors gave him more of an advantage.

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[Blehhh]

I appreciate the second dedicated post to this particular monitor. I ordered one last week after a poor experience with the MAG272QR (returned it), and the 251rx should arrive by Wednesday, so I've been anxious to see how it does. More and more, all i hear is good things which makes me feel more confident in my purchase.

Im sure you will love it worth a price, even tho I paid 454$ for mine.

Thanks for taking your time and writing your review about the MSI MAG251RX. I want to ask since you did test out the Asus VG279QM/VG259QM.
1.Do you find that the Asus 280hz is not as worth it as MSI MAG251RX, do you find that the colours and the lower ghosting even though at 240hz is still better gaming experience than the Asus 280hz for gaming?
2.Similiar scenario for me is i own the Acer XB271HU even though is possible to overclock it to 165hz but isnt worth trade of than using 144hz because of the ghosting / motion blur, so yeah is the same for the Asus 280hz?

Thanks in advance

Colors on ASus = 6bit + FRC
Colors on MSI = 8 bit + FRC

How big of a difference is the colours though? Asus 6 bit + FRC vs MSI 8 bit + FRC? Does it look better only when watching videos or movies? or does it also look better in Games and browsing as well?

[Blehhh]

I have never used an IPS panel before but this one seems interesting. I don't really care about viewing angles but are the colors that much better on the MSI MAG251RX compared to the Acer Nitro XF252QX?

I'm curious about that too, but maybe this video will help? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tf1t-AplcMA
though is not a comparison specificly between the two ips monitors model you posted

[Jasa]

Optimum tech is nowhere near an esports professional lol. Also from the video

"TN panels are still the way to go if you just want the fastest response times and least amount of motion blur possible, but just keep in mind that you are trading off quite a bit in return for that"

Seems to me like at this point he still believes there exist advantages for 240hz TN, minute as they may be.

"For now, I really don't think I'm that good at e-sports titles to notice that 1ms or 2ms difference between this and a TN"

Also seems like he believes that a true "e-sports professional" would be able to tell the difference (whether or not this is actually the reality is a different matter).

people here just don't like how extremely blunt and honest i am. That is generally their issue with me but that doesn't make my statements any less true.

Your first post in this thread accused the OP of not actually buying the monitor (??????), and in another thread you accused some dude of not even turning on his VG259qm when there's clearly a cursor on the screen, it really just seems like you don't read things that might have opinions that oppose yours lol. How do you expect others to actually respect your opinion when you come in with an intentionally antagonistic attitude, very mind boggling. Honesty has nothing to do with it, if the situations were reversed and you promoted TN panels super hard people would still tell you to chill out if you pulled the same stunts.

[forii]

Omen x25f is very similar to acer nitro XF252QX in motion blur. Omen slighty better but it's not game changer lol

On the left Acer on the right Omen:

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x25f has better black color uniformity but has bad contrast. It doesnt have anti motion blur reduction. You can't even save profiles in OSD - which is really bad for me.
If I had to choose I would choose XF252QX, esspecialy its quite cheap and have everything you need, except horible black color uniformity, but might be a little fixed with shadow/black boost. And remember its quite hard to get used to TN due to bad colors, but motion clarity and blur is perfect on the Omen or Acer.
Overall its one of the top budget 240hz TN (gaming only) monitor, personally I would not pay anything more because the difference is not worth.

Can you please make a video like this with MAG?

Im sorry to all I didn't reply. I was testing both monitors in games, and when you can see some blurry thing on the MSI vs other TN then I didn't actually see that in game, so keep that in mind before listening me. And this is no game changer difference.


Here is the MOTION BLUR TEST of the MAG251RX vs Acer XF252QX - before watching read this -> the difference is minimal and when I was saying "not so much clean" I should not say it that loud(in favor of TN), because you eyes addapt to this so much fast and the motion blur of the IPS is enough, esspecially that there is no difference in games, maybe like 5% difference but only in realllllllyyy fast movement like in racing game or maybe quake 3.

If it comes to the lines between ufo @Chief- do you know why is that? and why I do not see that on the TN? Of course I do not notice anything like that in game but that interested me. What is even more weird - when I checked it now, the lines between ufo are gone, maybe it was because I had two monitors turned on? So you guys dont take it too serious, maybe there was something wrong with my PC.

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And the ANTI MOTION BLUR ON TEST ON MSI VS ACER (OFF)

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I have never used an IPS panel before but this one seems interesting. I don't really care about viewing angles but are the colors that much better on the MSI MAG251RX compared to the Acer Nitro XF252QX?

The best answer would be that the colors on the MSI are much more real instead of "empty" one like on Acer.
Its also more about contrast, which is for sure better on MSI. Overall quality of colors are much better, including the black color uniformity which is quite important of overall all color quality.

hey forii, are you getting bad image retention with your MSI? because i've owned two and they have really bad image retention. I indirectly found this out when doing a UFO test. By putting up that screen for about 10-15 mins, then exiting that screen on a black background, i was able to see white artifacts(slight burn in or image retention) afterwards.

i'm presuming it's just bad luck and that i didn't win the panel lottery but this happened to me twice. I've done my research on other MSI owners and most claim that they do in fact get image retentio but it goes away.

I just tested it and have nothing like that.
but I will try to get second one of this MAG and compare them and choose the best one.

Colors on ASus = 6bit + FRC
Colors on MSI = 8 bit + FRC

How big of a difference is the colours though? Asus 6 bit + FRC vs MSI 8 bit + FRC? Does it look better only when watching videos or movies? or does it also look better in Games and browsing as well?
[/quote]

Its better everywhere, you see more details and it might helps in game, movies, and everywhere, u basicaly feel like this is real if you know what I mean, so you feel what are u look at much more vs TN panels (when on these you clearly see that the picture is generated by computer) - but you need to calibrate it on MSI to make it look better

But. The cons of MSI (colors):
1. -The white color on Facebook or here on edit post, is a little bit yellowish, like on my VG279QM.
1.1 -In this case you need to use max 70 Contrast, because over 71 ur white is getting more yellow/green. Actually I found that 70 is more yellowish so best balance is something between 60 and 65, less contrast - less yellowish, but less brightness, so there is a trade off.
1.2 -Unfortunately you cant use "customized" color temp because the screen instantly are less brightness and setting brightess even to 100% doesnt help, so you need to deal with "Natural" Color temp mode
1.3 - The screen works best on lower brightness/contrast - so you need to deal with "less brightness" screen like on other monitors. Im used to use on VG279M the 60/60 (contrast-brighhtness ratio) but here I think I need to lower it, esspecialy the calibration on tft central reccomends on VG279QM brightness at 10 lol (for me its too darky but colors quality is better).
Here to have better colors I use 34 Brightness/63 Contrast.

Unfortunately I don't know why the FPS mode is much less saturated than User Mode (the colors are almost grey lol), which I don't like it, so I don't suggest using it - just use the racing mode instead.

Finally I found why FPS Mode on MSI looks more "grey". !!!!!!!!
https://www.msi.com/blog/the-amazing-di ... ng-monitor
I tested it and its look more great than I thought, idk why I was more excited in colorish colors

Im keeping the MSI Mag DUE THIS MODE, THEY BOUGHT WITH THIS ONE, damn it is so good, why I used oversaturated colors lol
It is literally game changer if you just test it in fps game.
it makes ur enemies see much more due to less green and more visible everything else, like red color (crosshairhit, red nicks above) - perfect for cod mw

[RLCSContender*]

Ya, maybe the image retention and dead pixel was just bad luck. Ill try the lottery again

My AW2720hf/aw2521hf just doesn't cut it. 800:1 contrast vs the MS's 1200:1 despite the aw being just as fast( with 0 ghosting)

Wish me luck. This would be my 3rd MSI.

Btw i never used the MSI gaming app but from what i see, its extremely useful. Moreso than the regular osd. Does that app have zero latency?

Its simply not the same having the AW compared to the msi(i also miss 3ms g2g in console gaming). I will be using the MSI for series x for halo.

[xxxtinct]

Ya, maybe the image retention and dead pixel was just bad luck. Ill try the lottery again

My AW2720hf/aw2521hf just doesn't cut it. 800:1 contrast vs the MS's 1200:1 despite the aw being just as fast( with 0 ghosting)

Wish me luck. This would be my 3rd MSI.

Btw i never used the MSI gaming app but from what i see, its extremely useful. Moreso than the regular osd. Does that app have zero latency?

Its simply not the same having the AW compared to the msi(i also miss 3ms g2g in console gaming). I will be using the MSI for series x for halo.

After a couple hours with this 251rx I'm extremely impressed with this monitor, it is by far the best I've ever owned. What a difference over the MAG272QR, and the previous VG248QE I owned. Beautiful colors, crisp motion clarity and hardly any peripheral blur. MSI's OSD software makes navigation a breeze, even with their awesome joystick. RLCS, I remembered your gripes with the stand of the MAG251RX but for me, it's perfect. With swivel, I prefer to not have it because hate not knowing that it is perfectly centered, and pivot is useless for me. I appreciate you making the multiple threads on this monitor that convinced me it was the best choice, you were absolutely right.

[masneb]

RLCS really needs to chill out with his drum beating this comes across as a extremely heavy handed marketing campaign. Literally allowing no one an opinion that differs from his own and will just crap talk you until you accept his. It's not conducive to a environment where people are trying to post their own subjective takes on monitors, which are also valid.

Except i RARELY post opinions. There may have been comments that i'm guilty of such as occasionall making blanket statements or being fact checked from time to time, but generally speaking i'm fairly accurate in majority of my posts and i usually back it up with videos or photos.

A lot of your posts ARE opinion. You're talking about TN panels being obsolete and unnecessary without even testing or comparing them, even subjectively, to monitors you keep drum beating about. Your testing is largely subjective and interpretation of the way it works and looks. You aren't the eye of god, your personally subjective observations aren't infinitely better then someone elses because they come from you. That's why we use objective and empirical testing, not what you look at when it comes to really comparing things.

Literally reading off the box, we can all read off the box, that's why we test stuff.
You don't source anything.
You don't use a empirical test for almost all of your opinions.
You don't explain your opinions beyond common sense 'everyone does it'.
You didn't even try some of the monitors you 'review' (you should remove all the monitors from your list you haven't had hands on with).

Then you take this self-serving bias and go and post it everywhere, attacking anyone with a different take from you because your eyes apparently are the word and law of the world. You could start a cult with this stuff.

This bias doesn't help anyone. I'm not saying your opinions are invalid or unhelpful, however you definitely aren't a Rtings or TFTcentral and should stop flaunting your opinions as such. Stop, stop walls of hearsay.