At CES 2024, AI is everywhere, including inside monitors. At its demo suite, MSI showed off the upcoming MEG 321URX QD-OLED display. The monitor has an onboard AI accelerator that, among other things, will detect enemies in League of Legends and put an icon on the screen to show you where they are coming from.
I don't know enough about League of Legends to say whether this officially breaks the rules. But the feature, which MSI calls SkySight, does give the user an advantage that not everyone has, and it's completely undetectable because the AI processing and image generation is happening on the monitor's own hardware, independent of the computer's OS and software.
According to MSI, SkySight works by analyzing the on-screen mini-map to see where enemies are coming from, which is something you can do with your own eyes. But having an AI assistant that watches the map for you and then puts an icon on the screen to show where the threats are coming from is probably a huge help.
The MEG 321URX's AI also tracks your health status in League of Legends, lighting up an RGB LED light bar (called the Spectrum Bar) at the bottom of the bezel to match your in-game health bar. In a demo we saw, the bar was part green and part yellow, which looks exactly like the graphical line on the screen.
If you don't happen to play League of Legends, you can still take advantage of the MEG 321URX's AI processing. MSI says that, when the monitor comes out later this spring, it will be releasing a PC application that allows you to train it to recognize health bars, enemies and other on-screen features in any game you want. You'll need your computer's processing power for the initial training, but according to MSI, the monitor itself will do all the processing thereafter. The possibilities seem endless.
MSI reps would not disclose details about what kind of AI processor the MEG 32URX uses or how it might store new training data (is there onboard Flash memory?). So there's still a lot we don't know about how this screen will work.
Even if you never use its AI features, you'll find a lot to like about this non-curved 32-inch, 4K screen. Its QD-OLED panel made greens, blues, and reds really pop as we watched the League of Legends demo. MSI's spec sheet rates it for a whopping 1500000:1 contrast ratio, and it offers Display HDR 400 support.
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More importantly for competitive gamers, the MEG 321URX operates at up to 240 Hz, which means that it will give you tear-free gaming at up to 240 fps and 4K (3840 x 2160) resolution. That's really high for any monitor, particularly one operating at 4K resolution. The display also promises 0.03 ms response time and MSI says that it has achieved the VESA ClearMR 13000 anti-blur certification.
The MEG 321URX has a bevy of connectivity options, including HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 2.1, and USB-C. The USB-C port supports DisplayPort input and offers up to 90W of USB power delivery so you can use the monitor as a docking station for your laptop.
The panel also has a feature calledOLED Care 2.0, which is designed to prevent screen burn-in by subtly varying the brightness of items that stay on-screen for a long time, such as watermarks or the Windows taskbar. A graphene-based thermal solution helps keep the monitor from overheating.
MSI hasn't yet announced pricing for the MEG 321URX QD-OLED, but a representative said that it would be shipping sometime this spring, perhaps in time for Computex 2024. We hope to learn more about how the AI features work around that time.
Avram Piltch
Avram Piltch is Tom's Hardware's editor-in-chief. When he's not playing with the latest gadgets at work or putting on VR helmets at trade shows, you'll find him rooting his phone, taking apart his PC or coding plugins. With his technical knowledge and passion for testing, Avram developed many real-world benchmarks, including our laptop battery test.
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11 CommentsComment from the forums
hotaru251 ahh yes ai..come to the rescue of cooperative gaming fairness.
just more reason to avoid competitive games in future.
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thestryker I'm having flashbacks to when I played wow a long time ago and the boss mods were just getting to the point of telling you how to play. This seems like the same sort of thing except likely undetectable and applicable to anything you're willing to train.
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Maebius thestryker said:
I'm having flashbacks to when I played wow a long time ago and the boss mods were just getting to the point of telling you how to play. This seems like the same sort of thing except likely undetectable and applicable to anything you're willing to train.Oh right, flashback here as well!
Before naxxramas (vanilla), the mods where getting so bad that some also pushed buttons for you!
Not just the (super tedious) rebuff of 5minute paladin blessings, but even the entire rotation.
I took a long break back then :DReply
husker I don't play League of Legends or any similar games, but it seems to me that this isn't cheating anymore than having your little brother standing there watching the mini-map and saying things like, "Boogies at 10 o'clock!" Better hardware is always a factor, so the field is not level to begin with anyway.
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AndrewJacksonZA husker said:
I don't play League of Legends or any similar games, but it seems to me that this isn't cheating anymore than having your little brother standing there watching the mini-map and saying things like, "Boogies at 10 o'clock!" Better hardware is always a factor, so the field is not level to begin with anyway.True. And a little brother would definitely say "boogies" and not "bogeys." ;-) *nose picking emoji *
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Notton Hardware cheats are still cheats.
I doubt this monitor would be allowed or used in tournaments.Reply
purpleduggy Notton said:
Hardware cheats are still cheats.
I doubt this monitor would be allowed or used in tournaments.lol do you really think tournaments are organically competed in? the winners are decided before it even begins. League of Legends has back end controls to make attacks not hit or to suddenly lag or make your attacks do less damage with a modifier. how this works is not publicly available and has been the case for all gaming tournaments. all games are fixed.
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TCA_ChinChin purpleduggy said:
lol do you really think tournaments are organically competed in? the winners are decided before it even begins. League of Legends has back end controls to make attacks not hit or to suddenly lag or make your attacks do less damage with a modifier. how this works is not publicly available and has been the case for all gaming tournaments. all games are fixed.This is some next level bait lmao
husker said:
I don't play League of Legends or any similar games, but it seems to me that this isn't cheating anymore than having your little brother standing there watching the mini-map and saying things like, "Boogies at 10 o'clock!" Better hardware is always a factor, so the field is not level to begin with anyway.I've played and I feel like its a could be exploited for the highest levels of play. The average guy playing it probably wouldn't help at all, but for tournaments and the higher skilled players, it could actually be kind of an advantage. It allows them to focus their attention on micro-intensive movements/actions rather than devote those attention resources to macro reliant map-awareness. Having a little brother shout "Boogies at 10 o'clock!" could be helpful thoughl lol, especially cause it looks like a very useful visual cue. But I don't think it'll be a big deal overall and those professional tournaments will be using their own monitors anyways.
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Alvar "Miles" Udell Considering the moniker, connectivity, and the fact it's a 240hz OLED, I would be surprised to see this thing less than $1499.99.
It's a shame that it's a game-oriented feature though, imagine if it could be trained to, say, highlight slight differences in images (color shades, artifacts, and so forth) and other such professional uses.
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wingfinger The game could query for the display's manufacturer, and model number. You/they might be able to try to hide this.
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