Like it or not, the beginning of a new console generation brings both challenges and opportunities for PC gamers. Shiny, new generation consoles are equipped with relatively high-end hardware, making multi-system games also raise hardware requirements. You’ll find that suddenly AAA games no longer run at a perfect 60 FPS on your GPU.
This has been going on for the past few generations. Back in 2005, first-generation Xbox 360 games like F.E.A.R. and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, left even the top gaming PCs of the day struggling. In 2014, Assassin’s Creed: Unity, billed as the first “real” game on Ubisoft’s next-generation consoles, had the flagship GeForce GTX 980 dragging its feet at 24 FPS at 1440p on PC. Multi-system games on PS4 and Xbox One released later also caused PCs to need higher configurations to run smoothly.
At the end of 2020, the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X have once again raised the bar in terms of hardware. Modern titles like Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla and Cyberpunk 2077 make even the highest-end systems struggle to run well at 4K. And although setting settings can make the game lighter, it only does a certain amount.
There is another way to increase performance significantly: resolution scaling.
Resolution scaling is a great option if you’re looking to increase your fps by 10-15% after setup. If you’re playing at a higher resolution like 4K and you combine resolution scaling with image sharpening, the result is often very close to native 4K resolution.
Which resolution scaling should you use? This depends on your monitor’s native resolution. Resolution scaling of 83% is usually a good balance between image quality and performance. If you scale to 4K, it means the resolution that the graphics card will have to render only needs to be 3200 x1800. If you scale to 2K, the card will only need to render 2133 x 1200. At 1080p, the pixel density on most displays is already quite low, so we’ll avoid scaling if possible.
If your card struggles at 1080p, a resolution scaling of 83% at 1080p will convert to 1600 x 900. Remember this 83% number is not a fixed number. You can increase this number to make the image sharper and reduce performance – reduce the FPS number or lower it to make the game smoother but the image will also be blurrier.
While many games now offer resolution scaling options in their settings menus, you’ll need to set up further in Windows for full compatibility. We’ll show you how to do that in this article and share 4K benchmarks that clearly show the impact of resolution scaling. Our test rig features a GeForce RTX 3080 and a Ryzen 9 3900X. Even though the configuration is also high-end, some games still make the card struggle at 4K, and resolution scaling helps significantly increase the number of frames per second.
Something you need to know, Nvidia has a feature called DLSS and it is similar to resolution scaling in that it also renders the game at a lower resolution but then upscales and enhances the image using anti-aliasing temporal (TAA) and deep learning (a form of AI algorithm). If possible, you should use DLSS 2.0 which will give better results than regular resolution scaling, but it needs to be supported by the game to enable. We also tried DLSS in this test.
Both Nvidia and AMD provide resolution scaling options in their respective control panels. But for this article, we will use CRU (translation: Custom Resolution Utility) which can run on both platforms. We found that resolution scaling in CRU has fewer compatibility issues and displays reliably in all games, unlike vendor-specific resolution scaling options.
Table of Contents
CRU installation steps
- Download and run CRU
CRU creator ToastyX has a post on the Monitor Tests forum where he updates the latest CRU versions. You can also download it from TechSpot. CRU requires no installation, just unzip the files and it’s ready to use.
- Run CRU with Admin rights
Under “Detailed Resolutions”, click Add
The Detailed Resolutions window will appear, where you can enter optional resolutions in the 2 fields below.
You don’t need to customize anymore. However, there is a section called Frequency near the bottom that allows you to customize the scanning frequency. We will cover that part below. Now click OK to complete the installation.
- Restart the graphics driver
In the CRU folder, you will find a file called restart64.exe. Run that file with Admin rights. This will restart your graphics driver. You will see your screen flicker and some apps will crash (especially overlays, games, or Steam). This is normal and you will just need to run them again.
The new custom resolution applies everywhere: in Windows and in all apps and games that let you change resolution.
Pro tip: if you’re gaming on a cheap TV or monitor, use resolution scaling in the Nvidia/AMD control panel. When scaling the image will display slightly faster (about 1 millisecond), but cheap TVs and monitors are very bad at this, significantly affecting image quality with custom resolution using CRU software.
Test running resolution scaling
Test machine configuration:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X
Graphics card: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080
RAM: 2 x 8GB 3600MHz DDR4
Mainboard: MSI MAG X570 Tomahawk WiFi
Hard drive: 2 x 480 GB NVMe SSDs
Source: XPG Core Reactor 850W
The performance gain after resolution scaling at 83% will typically result in a 15% increase in frames per second, especially true if you’re scaling from 4K resolution.
We tested resolution scaling in several titles including Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Borderlands 3, check out the benchmarks below…
Borderlands 3 is hard on the GPU at its highest settings, so we ran the game with the volumetric fog setting turned down a notch. Even then, we only averaged 66 FPS when at native 4K, occasionally dipping below 60. At 3200 x 1800, we averaged 84 FPS, a 27% increase.
The latest game in the Assassin’s Creed franchise is designed for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X first. This is a cross-generation game, compatible with Xbox One. However, at the highest graphics settings, the game is very heavy. At max settings, the GeForce RTX 3080 delivers a 50 FPS experience. Even with our custom settings, the game only reached 57 FPS at native resolution. However, after resolution scaling down to 83%, the frame rate increased to 68 FPS, an increase of 19%.
Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption 2 is one of the most detailed open-world games we’ve seen to date. The game runs fine at maximum settings, but tweaking the settings can take a lot of time. With our custom settings, the game ran at a very respectable 79 FPS in native 4K. Resolution scaling has pushed things further. At 1800p, we saw an average frame rate of 96 FPS. This opens the door to enabling extremely demanding settings like Tree Tessellation that we always ignore.
Horizon Zero Dawn was a PlayStation 4 exclusive that had amazing graphics when it launched. On PC, the character and environment quality is comparable to this year’s best AAA titles: it looks good and runs better than Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla. However, you’ll need an RTX 3080 or stronger card to play this game at full 4K. On other cards, resolution scaling is a viable option to increase performance.
At native 4K, our system achieved a smooth 78 FPS, so resolution scaling doesn’t seem to matter too much. However, at 1800p, the average FPS level reaches 96, meaning you can play much smoother if you have a 144Hz 4K screen.
Performance increased significantly
As expected, all of the games we tested showed significant frame rate increases when played at lower resolutions. Reducing the pixel count by 17% (to 83%) improved the average frame rate by up to 27%.
Is DLSS 2.0 better?
We also tested DLSS 2.0 in Watch Dogs: Legion (and no, Nvidia didn’t make us do that). Resolution scaling is typically not perfect and has an impact on image quality (because you are rendering fewer pixels). This is especially noticeable when it comes to distant detail. Sharpening can help, but it’s not a miracle.
DLSS 2.0 as our previous tests with Wolfenstein: Youngblood and Control demonstrated. By taking advantage of RTX tensor cores, the DLSS AI algorithm can use lower resolutions and effectively reconstruct missing pixels. If quality is set, the quality is indistinguishable from high-resolution rendering original resolution. At the performance setting, image quality is sacrificed, but as you will see, the frame count is greatly increased.
With the DLSS quality set, we averaged 55 FPS. This mode provides image quality that is slightly better than native resolution with TAA. It also gives much more FPS but is still below 60FPS, not considered completely smooth.
Is DLSS 2.0 better?
We also tested DLSS 2.0 in Watch Dogs: Legion (and no, Nvidia didn’t make us do that). Resolution scaling is typically not perfect and has an impact on image quality (because you are rendering fewer pixels). This is especially noticeable when it comes to distant detail. Sharpening can help, but it’s not a miracle.
DLSS 2.0 as our previous tests with Wolfenstein: Youngblood and Control demonstrated. By taking advantage of RTX tensor cores, the DLSS AI algorithm can use lower resolutions and effectively reconstruct missing pixels. If quality is set, the quality is indistinguishable from high-resolution rendering original resolution. At the performance setting, image quality is sacrificed, but as you will see, the frame count is greatly increased.
With the DLSS quality set, we averaged 55 FPS. This mode provides image quality that is slightly better than native resolution with TAA. It also gives much more FPS but is still below 60FPS, not considered completely smooth.
Ultra Performance gave us an average FPS of 86, with 66 FPS of 1%. It’s a negligible improvement if your monitor is only 60Hz and the image quality isn’t worth it.
More information: Change the scanning frequency
The problem occurs when the FPS does not reach 60 and fluctuates between 50 and 60, you will feel the feeling of stuttering when the number of frames decreases. If you don’t hit 60 FPS at native resolution, but also don’t want to use resolution scaling, there’s a third option: customize the monitor’s refresh rate. Please note that not everyone will like this customization, but it’s worth a try.
The CRU “detailed resolution” menu allows you to change the scanning frequency as well as the screen resolution. If you want to set the refresh rate, follow the three steps above for resolution scaling, but instead of entering “custom resolution,” enter the refresh rate in the Refresh rate field in the bottom left corner of the screen menu.
We found that 55 Hz and 50 Hz are great options. 55 Hz is virtually indistinguishable from 60 Hz. However, it helps reduce the load on the graphics card by 10%. 50 Hz gives a lower response rate, but it also helps the card render 10 FPS less to enable V-Sync and have a consistent experience. In Cyberpunk 2077, I found that leaving the refresh rate at 50 Hz with V-Sync on provided a much smoother, more consistent experience than having the FPS fluctuate from 50-60 with V-Sync off.