Gaming monitors have almost universally supported variable refresh rate for a few years now, and it’s even become a standard feature in most TVs. But the MSI MPG 272QRF X36, along with G-Sync Pulsar, might just be the new benchmark for VRR technology. That’d be cool by itself, but the 272QRF X36 is also reasonably affordable, making this early adopter tech that doesn’t have an early adopter price tag.
Even without Pulsar, this is a 1440p monitor with a 360Hz refresh rate, and it supports HDR. That would be worth the $649 by itself, Pulsar is just the rapidly blinking icing on the top.
Design and Features
In order to keep the price at $649, there are obviously going to be some compromises, but the most immediate seems to be the packaging. The box that this monitor comes in is a pretty standard rectangular box, but once I opened it to take the display out, I was greeted by some of the flimsiest corrugated cardboard I’ve ever seen. I had to gingerly take the monitor out of the box, worried that the packaging was going to tear. But, hey, once I got the display out, it was free of any kind of aesthetic damage, so that thin cardboard did its job.
Once I got the actual display out, I was impressed by the quality of the stand. Not only does it easily attach to the screen without any tools, but the base can rotate in any direction, and the mount itself will let the display also rotate in any direction. The point here, according to MSI, is to let people have a bit more power over their space, manipulating the stand to fit their setup.
That did make the process of actually attaching the stand a bit more laborious, as it was moving around as I was trying to set it up. But now that it’s on my desk, I’m a huge fan of how easy it is to move around, even if I just move it to get easier access to the ports on the back, which is huge, because they’re all facing down.
As for which ports you get, there’s one DisplayPort 1.4a and two HDMI 2.1 for video in. Then, there is a USB Type-B to allow USB passthrough for the 3 USB Type-A ports on the back. There’s also something I haven’t seen in a long time – a USB Micro port, which is just used to update the firmware.
While the tech powering the display is new, the monitor doesn’t actually look all that new, and that mostly comes down to how thick it is. The display itself is nearly three inches thick, which is much thicker than most high-end monitors. A lot of this thickness is populated with vents, though, which is likely necessary to cool the added processor required for G-Sync Pulsar.
The bezels are reasonable, measuring in at about 0.7 inches by my own measurements, though there is a larger bezel on the bottom where you’ll find the logo. Turn the monitor around, however, and it’s very clear that this is a capital-G gaming monitor. Just like many other MSI devices, this monitor is emblazoned by a dragon on the back, and has a surprisingly modest RGB light strip on the opposite end.
On the bottom-left corner on the back, you’ll also find a little joystick that’ll let you interact with the OSD. By default, pushing it to the left will let you adjust the display mode, and pushing it to the right will swap inputs. Then, it’s up for brightness and down for volume – even though there is no built-in speaker.
Up on the top of the display is what looks like a webcam protruding from the monitor – but it’s no webcam. Instead, it’s a light sensor, which can track ambient light and color temperature to adjust the display accordingly.
When I used these features, it frequently made the display dim, but luckily it’s an opt-in feature. You just have to go into the OSD and go to “Ambient Adaptive Luminance” or “Ambient Adaptive Color” and enable them to have the MPG X27QRF X36 automatically adjust brightness or color, respectively.
Performance and Gaming
Without Pulsar, the MSI MPG 272QRFX36 would be a pretty standard high-refresh 1440p monitor. This is a decent IPS panel with a 360Hz refresh rate and 0.5ms GTG latency. However, my first impressions weren’t exactly glowing.
Right out of the box, the monitor was set to its “Eco” preset, which is great for conserving power, but also delivered an incredibly dim picture. Luckily, I was able to go into the OSD and set it to “Standard” which looks much better, and actually allowed me to do my tests.
Even though the 272QRF X36 is only rated for 500 nits of peak brightness, I tested the display with a colorimeter and found that it actually peaked at 530 nits, which is not bad for a gaming monitor this fast. The display does struggle with color, though, only hitting 100% of the sRGB color gamut and 88% of the P3 gamut. That means it’s probably not going to be used for design work any time soon, but that’s really not what it’s meant for.
What actually matters is that the display looks pretty good in games, while also being incredibly fast. Pairing it with an RTX 5080, I was able to crank the settings in Black Ops 7, while also getting north of 360 fps, thanks to frame generation. Frame generation does limit some of the benefits of a high refresh display, namely latency, but it does look incredibly smooth when that many frames are being sent to the display.
The MPG 272QRF does compromise a little bit on image quality and color to get there, but even when I was playing Cyberpunk 2077, it was colorful enough to keep me engrossed in the game. However, when I swapped back to my usual OLED display, I immediately noticed the difference again.
G-Sync Pulsar: Is It Worth It?
But while the MSI MPG 272QRF X36 doesn’t have the best image quality in the world, the appeal is in the new G-Sync Pulsar tech that’s being debuted here.
Essentially, this technology uses a strobing backlight that’s tied to your current refresh rate to mitigate motion blur, making for a much smoother image when playing games at a high refresh rate. What makes this tech different from other backlight strobing or BFI (black frame insertion) methods in the past, is that it’s tied to a variable refresh rate, rather than the maximum refresh rate.
That means you get the benefits of VRR while also getting much less blur. Nvidia claims that playing on a Pulsar monitor is similar to playing at 1,000Hz, and while I wouldn’t go that far, I did feel a substantial difference, especially when playing competitive games.
For background, I mostly stick to turn-based RPGs or MMOs like World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy XIV. But over the weekend I spent some time playing Black Ops 7 and the Halo Master Chief Collection, and performed much better than I usually would. In the former, I went three matches in a row with a 3:1 ratio, where usually I’d be feeding the enemy team.
This isn’t exactly a scientific method of measuring the effect Pulsar had on my performance, as I could have just been lucky. But still, the games felt much smoother than they did before, and it did feel like it was making a difference, particularly to my ability to aim while moving.
Even with the lackluster image quality, if I didn’t need to have a 4K display for work, I’d buy this monitor to use as my daily driver. As long as you have a graphics card that’s powerful enough to run a 1440p display at 360Hz, this Pulsar display is worth your attention, especially if you play a lot of competitive games.
It’s also important to keep in mind that this isn’t the only G-Sync Pulsar Monitor out there right now. The Asus ROG Strix XG27AQNGV and the AOC Agon Pro AG276QSG2 also support the new technology. And while I haven’t tested those monitors quite yet, if the Pulsar implementation is anything like it is on the MPG 272QRF X36, they’re worth a look. I’ll definitely be trying to get them in the lab to see what they can do.
Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra
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