MSI Announces the MEG 342C QD-OLED with 175 Hz Refresh Rate

[TheLostSwede]

MSI, the world's leading manufacturer of true gaming hardware, is proudly expanding the hardware possibilities for all gamers. Since the MEG 342C QD-OLED's first leak in 2022, MSI continuously fine-tuned every aspect of it for a better gaming experience. Now, we're proudly announcing our MEG 342C QD-OLED is finally ready.

The 34-inch QD-OLED panel is an incredible combination of Quantum Dot technology and OLED panel that exhibits the best picture quality with a perfect pixel lighting control that presents a true black scene. The HDR peak brightness is leveled up to 1000 nits, passing the VESA DisplayHDR True Black 400 certificate and providing the ultimate immersive gaming experience with a super-fast 0.1 ms response time and 175 Hz refresh rate.





The color performance is further enhanced by quantum dot technology unlike other OLED monitors. The color volume reaches 97.8% Adobe RGB, 99.3% DCI-P3, and 139.1% sRGB with the most vivid colors in default Premium Color Mode. In professional mode with a DELTA E value of less than 2, the display color is stunning and accurate for greater experience in gaming, watching videos, and more.

MSI, as an industry leading brand, is always improving, and will keep challenging itself in the design of gaming monitors. The unique SpectrumBar is not only a light bar that supports RGB lighting effects through Mystic light function but also features a new Glow Sync function that let the light bar automatically sync to the displayed content.

MSI Gaming Intelligence and OLED Care function are the best examples of showing strong integration between hardware and software. Thanks to AI you will always be one step ahead of your opponents and reduce OLED burn in risks.

The MEG 342C QD-OLED also offered plenty of I/O ports to gamers who like to use KVM to control multiple devices through built-in USB hubs and charge smart devices with USB Type-C ports (Power Delivery up to 65 W) and 4 USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports. It is equipped with 2 HDMI Port support 3440 x 1440 @ 175 Hz as specified in HDMI 2.1 and is compatible with the latest gen of console devices.

The available date will vary by region, so please kindly contact your local channel for further information. The expected first shipment date will be the beginning of March 2023.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Space Lynx]

if this could come in at $699 I would get one... I really want some OLED gaming in my life, but I am not willing to pay 1k+.

 

[sephiroth117]

if this could come in at $699 I would get one... I really want some OLED gaming in my life, but I am not willing to pay 1k+.

Best bet is to wait for 27-32 flat QD-OLED panels (maybe next CES ?) but they would stil lbe expensive, more than 700..700 now is ""just"" a good 32" fast IPS 4K display

Given how the Aliewnare and samsung oled G8 are selling, I don't see them decreasing price tbh.

Every price is increasing sadly..

 

[Space Lynx]

Best bet is to wait for 27-32 flat QD-OLED panels (maybe next CES ?) but they would stil lbe expensive, more than 700..700 now is ""just"" a good 32" fast IPS 4K display

Given how the Aliewnare and samsung oled G8 are selling, I don't see them decreasing price tbh.

Every price is increasing sadly..

prices will crash if stuff sits on shelf long enough, nvme drives are proving that right now. 2tb top tier nvme has rapidly declined in price.

i'm confident monitors are going to see the same exodus in next two years. cpu's as well.

gpu's def not.

 

[KrazyT]

MSI, the world's leading manufacturer of true gaming hardware

It warms my heart and I feel better now as I have an MSI GC !

Like the design at least

 

[bonehead123]

2tb top tier nvme has rapidly declined in price

I can confirm this 4 sure, as I just scored 8x 2TB WD850x's @$139 each last week, but when I started looking at getting them a few months ago, they were almost $200, and since all but 2 of them were for client builds, I can offer them a price reduction & still make a bit moar profit overall

 

[Minus Infinity]

Damn I'd prefer a 3840 x 1600 @ 144Hz version, otherwise it's a nice monitor even for colour aware work with that nice high gamut.

 

[Warrior24_7]

I really want to like this monitor, but… it’s 21:9 Aspect Ratio, DP 1.4 instead of 2.1, 1440P instead of 4K.

 

[Nater]

I really want to like this monitor, but… it’s 21:9 Aspect Ratio, DP 1.4 instead of 2.1, 1440P instead of 4K.

21:9 is superior to 16:9 in every way. DP 1.4 is a non issue because it's 1440p@175Hz, and 4K is a borderline waste of pixels on a 34" UW. (that you'd need a hefty GPU to push at 175Hz)

 

[konga]

This is the third or fourth time they've announced this now...

 

[Ravenmaster]

"1000 nits" then "HDR 400 certified." So which is it? HDR 1000 or HDR 400? Make your mind up MSI XD

 

[Bwaze]

"1000 nits" then "HDR 400 certified." So which is it? HDR 1000 or HDR 400? Make your mind up MSI XD

Just the 1000 nits peak brightness isn't enough for true Display HDR1000 VESA certificate. Many of the "HDR 1000" or even "HDR 400" monitors in fact don't even have the certificate, they just claim it due to the fact they achieve the peak brightness.

Display HDR1000 – for Professional and Enthusiast Monitors

• 10-bit image processing
• Local dimming offers 2x more contrast than DisplayHDR 600
• Peak luminance of 1000 cd/m2 in 10% center patch test and flash test
• Peak luminance of 600 cd/m2 sustained for 30 minutes over the entire screen
• Very high color gamut at >99% sRGB and 90% of the wide color gamut DCI-P3

 

[Prima.Vera]

Currently this is the best monitor on the market. Hopefully they won't sell it with callous price.

 

[Chomiq]

No info on pricing?

 

[Vayra86]

"1000 nits" then "HDR 400 certified." So which is it? HDR 1000 or HDR 400? Make your mind up MSI XD

It has HDR400 True black it says in specs. OLED panels don't go quite so bright and don't need it either.

EDIT: noticed speclist

 

[Xajel]

I really hoped with OLED and QD-OLED coming strong and priced at 1-1.5k then regular IPS with same spec to come below 1k and mini-LED based IPS come to the same price as QD-OLED. But no...

And prices are still high, very limited (And expensive) options for 5k*2k IPS panels with 144Hz, HDR 600 and a few other features (PiP, PbP, USB-C and maybe a KVM) with a reasonable price.

 

[Rotorama]

So now we have 2 Alienwares, the Samsung G8 OLED, a Philips Evnia and this MSI monitor with seemingly the same 34-inch QD-OLED panel with 1800R curve.

Nice offerings but looking around on reddit, at least the first three modes mentoined had annoying panel/firmware quirks and bugs...

Found out first-hand myself on the G8 unfortunately. Returned it and will wait on the next gen (QD)OLED monitors, hopefully the implementation will be smoother...

 

[sephiroth117]

So now we have 2 Alienwares, the Samsung G8 OLED, a Philips Evnia and this MSI monitor with seemingly the same 34-inch QD-OLED panel with 1800R curve.

Nice offerings but looking around on reddit, at least the first three modes mentoined had annoying panel/firmware quirks and bugs...

Found out first-hand myself on the G8 unfortunately. Returned it and will wait on the next gen (QD)OLED monitors, hopefully the implementation will be smoother...

what was your issue on the G8 ?

Just bought mine, I have a weird issue where the display increases speaker sound volume, by itself, but it's really infrequent.
Otherwise really enjoying it, HDR 10-bit, high refresh rate, looks amazing. No cooling fans and really neat design too.

 

[Rotorama]

what was your issue on the G8 ?

Just bought mine, I have a weird issue where the display increases speaker sound volume, by itself, but it's really infrequent.
Otherwise really enjoying it, HDR 10-bit, high refresh rate, looks amazing. No cooling fans and really neat design too.

The monitor itself is awesome, I really wished I could've kept it. However, I saw
- the increasing volume (a benign little bug, reported many times on Reddit),
- monitor not waking up the pc display signal after monitor sleep (see also Reddit),
- a funky pixel line that flashes random pixels at random colors in certain HDR scenarios (see also Reddit),
- monitor not remembering pc/laptop in the Home screen,

On top of that, I was getting intermittent black screens too, very frequent, too many to just ignore. They came in clusters with 2-5 seconds apart, the clusters between 5 and 50 minutes apart.

I know, 'try another cable', but I tried literally 8 different DP1.4 and DP2.0 cables in varying lengths, price brackets. HDMI connection also showed the problem.

Different display signal settings, Driver updates, Firmware updates, different DP port; all did nothing.
Different monitors on my PC (RTX 3070) with different cables: NO black screen issue at all.

Watching a Netflix movie on the monitor as a smart TV did NOT give black screens so panel was OK, but seeing as my PC was OK with other monitors, I'd say it was the G8's signal processing for some reason?