Gaming at lower resolution without stretching image

[empirebeige]

Hi.

I've been thinking of getting a large monitor (maybe 43 inches) for my desktop. In addition to gaming, my computer is used for watching TV and movies, so size matters. My current monitor is a 32 inch 1440p display. But I'm pretty sure that especially for FPS gaming, anything larger than 32 inches is too much. Also, huge monitors are invariably 4K, and my current setup (i5 + GTX 1070) probably wouldn't be able to push the pixels fast enough. But for sure, the main issue would be having too much screen in my face when gaming at the computer.

So my question is, might there be a way to play games so that they cover a smaller area of the screen, ideally leaving the surrounding area black? For example, running the game in an area that covers 1440p even though the screen is 4K. I know that a lot of games support windowed mode, but it is messy and I've heard that it is a drain on performance. I googled around for a while but couldn't find what I'm suggesting here.

Thanks in advance.

 

[androbourne]

I use to have to use a software to do this for me in older games like Diablo 2. It worked pretty well. However, that was long time ago and I can't recall the software off the top of my head.

Another option would be just to get a bigger monitor but make sure it supports the resolutions you want. Most monitors can downscale resolutions to your needs and if it doesn't do that. Nvidia has resolution scaling options in the control panel.

But yes, you are correct about the monitor size. Normally larger monitor means more GPU required to process the pixels. However, resolution also greatly effects this. So if you downscale the resolution. It will greatly reduce the impact on the GPU.

So basically you could get a larger monitor and just down scale the resolution. There are multiple ways to do it.

 

[jmckinney28]

Hi.

I've been thinking of getting a large monitor (maybe 43 inches) for my desktop. In addition to gaming, my computer is used for watching TV and movies, so size matters. My current monitor is a 32 inch 1440p display. But I'm pretty sure that especially for FPS gaming, anything larger than 32 inches is too much. Also, huge monitors are invariably 4K, and my current setup (i5 + GTX 1070) probably wouldn't be able to push the pixels fast enough. But for sure, the main issue would be having too much screen in my face when gaming at the computer.

So my question is, might there be a way to play games so that they cover a smaller area of the screen, ideally leaving the surrounding area black? For example, running the game in an area that covers 1440p even though the screen is 4K. I know that a lot of games support windowed mode, but it is messy and I've heard that it is a drain on performance. I googled around for a while but couldn't find what I'm suggesting here.

Thanks in advance.

You can run your games in windowed mode at 1440p resolution.

 

[Glenwing]

NVIDIA Control Panel -> Adjust Desktop Size and Position -> "No Scaling", Perform on GPU.

See here:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-3596209/1080p-1440p-monitor-black-bars.html

 

[empirebeige]

NVIDIA Control Panel -> Adjust Desktop Size and Position -> "No Scaling", Perform on GPU.

See here:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-3596209/1080p-1440p-monitor-black-bars.html

Thanks! This option looks very promising.