MSI Confirms Lack of Firmware Updates for Incoming MAG QD-OLED Monitors

[trsttte]

So monitors are also getting shipped unfinished now? I'm out of the loop, when did updates to monitors become commonplace?

Ever since both internet connections and usb ports on monitors become commonplace. It's not great, but better than having unfixable flaws. For now the scope has been minor bugfixes but the reliance on firmware updates is sadly increasing in frequency and scope (i.e. all the mini led gaming monitors except for the Sony Inzone have shipped with broken backlight firmware basically, even the Sony was not flawless but a cut above the rest).

Considering that DSC has no drawbacks unless we are talking EXTREMELY high end color applications potentially... I kinda fail to see the issue.

The issue is we have better interfaces available and a thousand dollar monitor should be using them. I won't say it's a fatal flaw, DSC indeed has almost no drawbacks (there's some weird restrictions when it comes to advanced use cases like daisy chaining and stuff like that) but we shouldn't need it on such an expensive monitor.

 

[Dr. Dro]

The issue is we have better interfaces available and a thousand dollar monitor should be using them. I won't say it's a fatal flaw, DSC indeed has almost no drawbacks (there's some weird restrictions when it comes to advanced use cases like daisy chaining and stuff like that) but we shouldn't need it on such an expensive monitor.

The monitor here isn't the question, it's mostly the NVIDIA GPU which lacks the capability (AMD RX 7000 series have DP 2.0 support although I am unsure they support UHBR20). This is an interesting conundrum, however. To get the best of a 4K/240 Hz monitor you most certainly want the RTX 4090's vast performance, but it can't drive this with an uncompressed input, the alternative being a Radeon that's lacking in the performance front and potentially has bugs specific to high-end displays like this (wouldn't be the first time).

 

[trsttte]

The monitor here isn't the question, it's mostly the NVIDIA GPU which lacks the capability (AMD RX 7000 series have DP 2.0 support although I am unsure they support UHBR20). This is an interesting conundrum, however. To get the best of a 4K/240 Hz monitor you most certainly want the RTX 4090's vast performance, but it can't drive this with an uncompressed input, the alternative being a Radeon that's lacking in the performance front and potentially has bugs specific to high-end displays like this (wouldn't be the first time).

AMD RX 7000 uses UHBR13.5 (UHBR20 is only available on professional cards for some reason) but even UHBR10 would be a massive improvement over DP1.4 and very close in bandwith to HDMI 2.1.

Monitors are supposed to last a long time, it makes no sense an expensive monitor like this has such a flaw, it's not like DP2.1 (small spec revision over 2.0 but hardware is the same) is new, it's not, the standard was released in 2019 for fuck sake. Nvidia as the bigger gpu maker dropped the ball hard with the 4000 series but it's no excuse, it should be common place by now and it's not.

But whatever, I mean nothing we can do really, every monitor (and device) always has to end up with some stupid flaws because someone decided to cut corners at some point. The monitor I'm waiting for is also stupid expensive and has a bunch of those but ticks enough boxes that I'm still going to buy it regardless.

 

[R-T-B]

DSC's supposed to be visually lossless after all. For the very largest majority of monitors including this entire lineup, as well as whatever you can realistically ask of any Ada card 4090 and up included, DP 1.4a HBR3 is simply not a problem IMHO. This chart assumes 8 bpc input:
View attachment 336164

It's good for 4K/120 and 5K/60 uncompressed, all the while HDMI 2.1 (which Ada fully supports) can do 10 bpc 4K/120 and 4K/144 with variable refresh just fine as well, so it's another valid option.

If you are running 8bpc on a HDR-capable monitor like an OLED, you are doing it wrong.

 

[Dr. Dro]

If you are running 8bpc on a HDR-capable monitor like an OLED, you are doing it wrong.

It depends on whether games support a 10-bit swapchain, thankfully tools like Special K exist. What I can say for sure though is that 10 bpc SDR is a no man's land, Nvidia doesn't even support MPOs in this mode.

 

[R-T-B]

It depends on whether games support a 10-bit swapchain, thankfully tools like Special K exist. What I can say for sure though is that 10 bpc SDR is a no man's land, Nvidia doesn't even support MPOs in this mode.

I dunno, like you said with SpecialK and AutoHDR there are literally zero games I run in non-HDR mode.

 

[Zubasa]

It depends on whether games support a 10-bit swapchain, thankfully tools like Special K exist. What I can say for sure though is that 10 bpc SDR is a no man's land, Nvidia doesn't even support MPOs in this mode.

Not sure about MPO, but AMD GPUs defaults to 10-bit color depth even in SDR mode.

 

[Dr. Dro]

Not sure about MPO, but AMD GPUs defaults to 10-bit color depth even in SDR mode.

Default color settings are full-range RGB 8 bpc SDR on NVIDIA. AMD's MPO support is better than NV's, as far as I'm concerned. It's one of the few things that they do completely right.

 

[Chomiq]

4k 240hz (that have a physical button that changes it to 480hz 1080p) or 34" 3440 240hz variants are not WOLED yet or at least not on the market yet where I am

the new models fix text issues, etc. just a waiting game now.

They are WOLED, you're confusing the subpixels layout for technology used in them.
Next gen panels are RGWB and not RWGB but both use white subpixels to boost brightness so they're both WOLED.
True RGB panels are at least two years away for LG.

 

[FoulOnWhite]

My monitor has HDR but i never really use it

 

[R-T-B]

My monitor has HDR but i never really use it

It all depends on how good it is if its worthwhile. A lot of lcd monitors add it but its not worth using. OLED is always worth it.

 

[FoulOnWhite]

It all depends on how good it is if its worthwhile. A lot of lcd monitors add it but its not worth using. OLED is always worth it.

It does make white look whiter, it's a bit grey without it, but is probably pretty bad.

 

[Keivz]

Not an issue if it reviews well out of the box. Do your research before buying these things. They will be reviewed to hell and back.

 

[Chomiq]

It does make white look whiter, it's a bit grey without it, but is probably pretty bad.

Unless you have multiple dimming zones it probably just adjusts brightness depending on the image displayed. If it's a white text it boosts it to max if it's 100% black it lowers it to minimum and then everything in between that.

Proper HDR mode can only be achieved with 500+ zone minileds or OLED monitors which allow for dimming individual pixels.

On topic:
If MSI gets everything right the lack of firmware updates shouldn't be an issue, however as we've seen over the years from various manufacturers this really isn't the situation when it comes to miniled or oled displays. Manufacturers often rush those displays to market and end up fixing some of the issues with firmware updates. Sometimes the issues don't even get resolved (CoolerMaster I'm looking at you). Even this generation already has Dell 32" model that doesn't support Dolby Vision out of the box but Dell says that future firmware update will enable it.

 

[FoulOnWhite]

Unless you have multiple dimming zones it probably just adjusts brightness depending on the image displayed. If it's a white text it boosts it to max if it's 100% black it lowers it to minimum and then everything in between that.

Proper HDR mode can only be achieved with 500+ zone minileds or OLED monitors which allow for dimming individual pixels.

On topic:
If MSI gets everything right the lack of firmware updates shouldn't be an issue, however as we've seen over the years from various manufacturers this really isn't the situation when it comes to miniled or oled displays. Manufacturers often rush those displays to market and end up fixing some of the issues with firmware updates. Sometimes the issues don't even get resolved (CoolerMaster I'm looking at you). Even this generation already has Dell 32" model that doesn't support Dolby Vision out of the box but Dell says that future firmware update will enable it.

I know low end HDR is a useful as a chocolate teaspoon, and is only viable on OLED or if it is multi zone HDR1000+ IPS

 

[FrostWolf]

This is one reason I buy Dell monitors.

Dell’s handling of warranty issues with a monitor is also head and shoulders above most vendors. That’s a second big reason.

 

[trsttte]

Proper HDR mode can only be achieved with 500+ zone minileds or OLED monitors which allow for dimming individual pixels.

It's not only about the number of zones, the Sony Inzone M9 is probably the best mini led HDR monitor with only 96 zones, though Sony is very much an exception there

 

[Keivz]

It's not only about the number of zones, the Sony Inzone M9 is probably the best mini led HDR monitor with only 96 zones, though Sony is very much an exception there

Lol, the Inzone M9 is far from being the best mini led monitor these days. It’s honestly the not even in the top 10 anymore.

 

[Zubasa]

Not an issue if it reviews well out of the box. Do your research before buying these things. They will be reviewed to hell and back.

New products sold in 2024 with half baked software, who would have thought? /s

 

[Chomiq]

It's not only about the number of zones, the Sony Inzone M9 is probably the best mini led HDR monitor with only 96 zones, though Sony is very much an exception there

That's what Sony likes to say whenever they push their TV with lower number of zones. And then they release their flagship that has much greater number of zones and looks better.