Question My new 1440 monitor thinks it's a 4k display and windows legitimize it... (MSI PS321QR)

[Le Québécois]

I bought a new monitor, a MSI PS321QR, one week ago and for some odd reasons, windows act as if it was a 4k display. Videos, like on youtube, streams in 4k, that's a lot of data for nothing. Games select 4k, so either I'm "lucky" and it scales back to 1440 after rendering in 4k. If "unlucky", it tries to display 4k and I get to see only a zoomed version of what it's supposed to show, usually the center so I don't even see the options or menus.

The odd thing is that windows itself goes for 1440 for the desktop display. In games, if set to bordeless, it chooses 4k with and if in fullscreen, sets it to 1440 but with the 4k option still clearly in the menu... most of the time, not everything behaves exactly like that.

At first I thought it was my new video card, a RX 6800(that I was lucky enough at MSRP 1 month ago if anyone is wondering). I haven't used an AMD card in 5 years so maybe it was in the options, but I couldn't find anything. I've double check and there's no Virtual Super Resolution or Dynamic Super Resolution going on or any other kind of scaling I can find. I also plugged my old monitor back and it works as it should, no more options to select something above.

Any idea on why I'm seeing this or on how to fix it?

 

[Iron Woode]

are you sure you didn't receive the Creator PS321URV instead?

Other than that the only other explanation is that some sort of upscaling is going on. Check your scaling settings.

 

[mnewsham]

are you sure you didn't receive the Creator PS321URV instead?

Yeah, they look identical physically. Would be difficult to tell without actually checking the stickers.
Pretty much the only difference is the actual panel itself.

https://imgur.com/8GcGJFi

 

[Le Québécois]

are you sure you didn't receive the Creator PS321URV instead?

Other than that the only other explanation is that some sort of upscaling is going on. Check your scaling settings.

Yes, I'm sure. I have lost the count on how many times I checked. I did look again before replying. Everything from the box, manual, calibration test report, back of the monitor sticker, games that detects it, windows or radeon control panel gives the same model number.

Same things goes for all the scaling settings I could find on the monitor OSD, windows or radeon control panel.

Any idea if there's some other place I could look for the scaling?

 

[Iron Woode]

Yes, I'm sure. I have lost the count on how many times I checked. I did look again before replying. Everything from the box, manual, calibration test report, back of the monitor sticker, games that detects it, windows or radeon control panel gives the same model number.

Same things goes for all the scaling settings I could find on the monitor OSD, windows or radeon control panel.

Any idea if there's some other place I could look for the scaling?

perhaps the monitor requires an .inf file to be detected correctly?

 

[Le Québécois]

perhaps the monitor requires an .inf file to be detected correctly?

I did not think of that. I don't think I've used one on a monitor since XP. I installed the proper one instead of the generic windows one but sadly, it didn't change anything. It was a good idea.

I've tested 3 different settings with a game(Warzone);

1- Native QHD
2- 4K border less window
3- "Native" 4k

QHD behave as it should. The monitor tells me that it's at 2560x1440@165 on the OSD. Screenshots look normal. The 4k window is what you would expected from scaling down from 4k to QHD. The game shows both the displayed and rendered resolution at 4k but the monitor still says 2560x1440@165. The screenshots show 2560x1440 as the resolution so there is clearly some scaling down.The "native 4k" is the odd one. It's crisp, seems a lot more detailed than the other two. The OSD now says 4k@60. The screenshots are now saved at 4k, no matter the tools used (printscreen, windows snip or radeon screenshot).The "native 4k" is behaving exactly as you would expect a real 4k monitor would do with the exception of not being a 4k monitor.

 

[Iron Woode]

I did not think of that. I don't think I've used one on a monitor since XP. I installed the proper one instead of the generic windows one but sadly, it didn't change anything. It was a good idea.

I've tested 3 different settings with a game(Warzone);

1- Native QHD
2- 4K border less window
3- "Native" 4k

QHD behave as it should. The monitor tells me that it's at 2560x1440@165 on the OSD. Screenshots look normal. The 4k window is what you would expected from scaling down from 4k to QHD. The game shows both the displayed and rendered resolution at 4k but the monitor still says 2560x1440@165. The screenshots show 2560x1440 as the resolution so there is clearly some scaling down.The "native 4k" is the odd one. It's crisp, seems a lot more detailed than the other two. The OSD now says 4k@60. The screenshots are now saved at 4k, no matter the tools used (printscreen, windows snip or radeon screenshot).The "native 4k" is behaving exactly as you would expect a real 4k monitor would do with the exception of not being a 4k monitor.

I used the .inf file for my new monitor Asus TUF Gaming VG27AQ and it added a color profile as well as letting windows detect my monitor correctly.

The only suggestion I have would be to contact MSI about it. Maybe you received a mislabeled product or perhaps there is a firmware issue going on.