OLED monitors and DP2.1 UHBR20
Posted: 16 Jun 2026, 07:22
I had the hardest time searching online for a 1440P High Refresh Rate OLED Monitor (480HZ+)
What i was looking for was a DP 2.1 UHBR20 monitor.
Last week, i said fuck it and ordered a MSI MPG271 QR X50 QD-OLED 500Hz monitor and i was pleasantly surprised to see that MSI implementation was top notch.
What do i mean by that? Something that no review EVER MENTION. Let me explain :
So essentially you have a RTX 5000 series? native DP 2.1 UHBR20 everything works as expected, so cool, woohoo! But what about everyone else now? Those that doesn't own a RTX 5000 series?
Let's take for example a 9070XT that does have DP2.1 but limited to UHBR13.5
Well on every OLED monitor i tested so far the monitor will detect that it is not UHBR20 but UHBR13.5 and will immediately revert you to a DP1.4 which is limited to 240Hz NO DSC and forces you to use DSC with anything above 240Hz (still on DP1.4).
Well here comes the GENIUS of MSI that worked around this. Basically the monitor stays on DP2.1 on the 9070 XT (UHBR13.5) and will lower the bits as you go higher in the refresh rate (So 10 bit for anything up to 360Hz, 6 bit for 480Hz, 6 bit for 500Hz, etc) all of this with no DSC!! You still want to have 10 bits on those high refresh rates? no problem you enable DSC and you get 10 bit 500Hz, easy peasy.
While on the ASUS ROG Swift PG27AQWP-W that i returned, you can only enjoy DP2.1 on RTX 5000 series, because it is the only consumer GPU series with native UHBR20. It works like all or nothing. You have DP 2.1 but UHBR13.5 like Radeon 7000 and 9000 series ?
Too bad you will be limited to DP1.4, what a dumbass decision from ASUS man. Then you have Gigabyte with their AORUS FO27Q5P where you can't even disable DSC, lmao wtf...
In summary :
If you disable DSC
on the PG27AQWP-W you can only chose 60Hz, 120Hz, 270Hz
On the MSI MPG271 QR X50 you can chose 60 Hz, 120Hz, 240Hz, 360Hz, 480Hz, 500Hz
Every other OLED monitors on the market acts like the ASUS, what MSI is doing is unique, and no reviewer fucking bother to mention it!
Monitor vendors, please take notes from what MSI is doing.
Peace out.
What i was looking for was a DP 2.1 UHBR20 monitor.
Last week, i said fuck it and ordered a MSI MPG271 QR X50 QD-OLED 500Hz monitor and i was pleasantly surprised to see that MSI implementation was top notch.
What do i mean by that? Something that no review EVER MENTION. Let me explain :
So essentially you have a RTX 5000 series? native DP 2.1 UHBR20 everything works as expected, so cool, woohoo! But what about everyone else now? Those that doesn't own a RTX 5000 series?
Let's take for example a 9070XT that does have DP2.1 but limited to UHBR13.5
Well on every OLED monitor i tested so far the monitor will detect that it is not UHBR20 but UHBR13.5 and will immediately revert you to a DP1.4 which is limited to 240Hz NO DSC and forces you to use DSC with anything above 240Hz (still on DP1.4).
Well here comes the GENIUS of MSI that worked around this. Basically the monitor stays on DP2.1 on the 9070 XT (UHBR13.5) and will lower the bits as you go higher in the refresh rate (So 10 bit for anything up to 360Hz, 6 bit for 480Hz, 6 bit for 500Hz, etc) all of this with no DSC!! You still want to have 10 bits on those high refresh rates? no problem you enable DSC and you get 10 bit 500Hz, easy peasy.
While on the ASUS ROG Swift PG27AQWP-W that i returned, you can only enjoy DP2.1 on RTX 5000 series, because it is the only consumer GPU series with native UHBR20. It works like all or nothing. You have DP 2.1 but UHBR13.5 like Radeon 7000 and 9000 series ?
Too bad you will be limited to DP1.4, what a dumbass decision from ASUS man. Then you have Gigabyte with their AORUS FO27Q5P where you can't even disable DSC, lmao wtf...
In summary :
If you disable DSC
on the PG27AQWP-W you can only chose 60Hz, 120Hz, 270Hz
On the MSI MPG271 QR X50 you can chose 60 Hz, 120Hz, 240Hz, 360Hz, 480Hz, 500Hz
Every other OLED monitors on the market acts like the ASUS, what MSI is doing is unique, and no reviewer fucking bother to mention it!
Monitor vendors, please take notes from what MSI is doing.
Peace out.