> The monitor was an MSI Optix MAG321CQR (32", 1440p, 144hz). The text on it was blurry and pixellated as hell.
I've used a ton of third party 27" 2560x1440 monitors with Macs and they've all been fine. In fact I'm using one to write this post.
It sounds like either the monitor was running at a resolution below 2560x1440 or you don't like how macOS does text antialiasing – macOS favors on-screen letterforms more closely matching their printed versions while Windows will distort characters to forcibly snap them into the pixel grid.
The other possibility is that you're just feeling the lowered DPI that results from stretching 2560x1440 to 32". macOS definitely has a preference for moderate-to-high DPI, and stretching 2560x1440 to that large of a physical size probably pulls the DPI below the threshold.
The text looked crisp on Windows, but on Mac the PPI was too low, so it was barely readable. The frustrating thing is that Mac used to have settings that would fix this problem, but they removed them a while ago. I ran the monitor at 1440p, not at a lower resolution.
I've used a ton of third party 27" 2560x1440 monitors with Macs and they've all been fine. In fact I'm using one to write this post.
It sounds like either the monitor was running at a resolution below 2560x1440 or you don't like how macOS does text antialiasing – macOS favors on-screen letterforms more closely matching their printed versions while Windows will distort characters to forcibly snap them into the pixel grid.
The other possibility is that you're just feeling the lowered DPI that results from stretching 2560x1440 to 32". macOS definitely has a preference for moderate-to-high DPI, and stretching 2560x1440 to that large of a physical size probably pulls the DPI below the threshold.