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OSD Setup & Calibration
The MPG27CQ has a dashboard-style menu that shows input resolution, refresh rate, image mode, zero latency status and active input in all screens. It’s divided into seven sub-sections.
First up is Gaming, where you can choose from one of five image modes. User is the default and the most color-accurate as well. Other options include Black Tuner, which increases shadow detail, Response Time (overdrive), Anti Motion Blur (backlight strobe), Refresh Rate (fps counter), Alarm Clock (lets you know when to stop playing), Screen Assistance (12 different aiming points) and a FreeSync Toggle. The Anti Motion Blur option is enabled when FreeSync is turned off and will work up to 144Hz. It’s like the ULMB feature found on G-Sync monitors. It also reduces brightness by around 8% and disables both the Zero Latency option and brightness slider. Output is then locked at around 180 nits of brightness.
The Professional sub-menu will appeal to non-gamers, with four additional picture modes along with Eye Saver (low blue light), HDCR (dynamic contrast) and Image Enhancement. The latter should be avoided as it creates significant rings around dark objects. The MPG27CQ is sharp enough without additional edge enhancement.
The Image menu has the usual brightness, contrast and sharpness controls, along with three color temp presets and a User mode. We’ll detail our calibration experience below, but the short story is choose Normal and set brightness to taste. There is no benefit to using the provided RGB sliders.
After the Input Source selector is a PBP/PIP menu. It allows the viewing of two sources simultaneously. Navi Key lets you program the four directions of the joystick from a nice list of different functions, giving quick access to commonly used options.
Setting offers multiple OSD languages, menu transparency and timeout, audio source selection, a toggle for the LED lighting effect and a full reset of all menus.
Calibration
The MPG27CQ is reasonably color-accurate out of the box, but its grayscale and gamma tracking have room for improvement. Unfortunately, any attempts at calibration were thwarted by some odd behavior in the Customization color temp mode. Switching to this mode reduced brightness by more than 50% and took gamma to a place we’d rather not go. The bottom line is that our calibrated results were worse than the default numbers and we could find no workaround. We recommend leaving the monitor in its default state and simply setting brightness to a level appropriate for your environment.
Here’s where to place the brightness slider to achieve commonly used brightness levels.
| MSI Optix MPG27CQ Calibration Settings | |
| Picture Mode | Custom Color |
| Brightness 200 nits | 40 |
| Brightness 120 nits | 19 |
| Brightness 100 nits | 14 |
| Brightness 80 nits | 10 |
| Brightness 50 nits | 4 |
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