[SOLVED] Why games are scaling widescreen even if laptop screen resolution is 4:3?

[vikaskumar2299]

I have a potato laptop with Intel UHD 620 graphics and a 940MX GPU.

So if you know, you don't have NVIDIA scaling options in the NVIDIA control panel when you are not using any external monitor. It shows only a limited options.

So I can control scaling using Intel GPU settings only.

I tried to play a game like NFSMW (2005) in 1024x768 resolution but it stretches it widescreen instead playing into 4:3 aspect ratio.

Same happens in earlier COD and many other games.

But if a game have a dedicated option to play in 4:3, there's no problem. Example is Condition Zero and probably CSGO too. I can play it both widescreen and 4:3.

And it happens irrespective of what resolution I set on my laptop. It feels like games don't care my screen resolution and scaling.

I tried to set my laptop resolution in 1024x768 with maintain aspect ratio - which works fine on laptop screen (I can see black bars on my screen) but as soon as I launch any game in 1024x768, it will stretch it into 16:9. Which I don't want.

One possible reason could be:
Intel's GPU drivers for Windows 11 don't allow "Maintain Aspect Ratio" feature for 1920x1080 resolution of your laptop. It only accepts "Maintain Display Scaling".

So maybe that is the reason. But it would only make sense if I were trying to play game in 1920x1080. So I'm skeptic about this.

One way to "fix" this issue is play games in windowed mode as it respects the aspect ratio. But I don't like windowed mode.

I play only 3-4 games but I want to play all of them at 1024x768 and 4:3 ratio. So all of them have this problem.

Important: Microsoft community also commented that if your NVIDIA driver don't have scaling options in laptop, the game won't care what you do with your Intel scaling options. So it will run independently of your laptop resolution. That's what is happening actually.

Given all that, what could be the reason for this? And is there any workaround for this?

 

[Aeacus]

And it happens irrespective of what resolution I set on my laptop. It feels like games don't care my screen resolution and scaling.

And you are correct. Launching any game, has default resolution when they launch, which is usually 1920x1080. And while many games offer different resos, in-game, to choose from, most of them are 16:9 aspect ratio. 4:3 aspect ratio is old and almost obsolete. Just like e.g VGA monitors or CD drives or VHS tapes. Heck, even PS/2 port (the big, round one) mice and KB are being phased out and many newer MoBos doesn't come even with PS/2 port anymore.

Yes, there are people who are still using old tech, but since PC tech and software is moving forwards, support for old standards are dropped, giving you a choice: either go along with tech advancements and upgrade your PC, or don't use those games that doesn't support obsolete tech anymore.

In this sense, next to my main rig, i have old AMD Athlon II PC build, that i strictly keep for pre-2005 games, just in case i want to play those good old games. I have WinXP Pro SP2 installed on there and i never connect it to the internet, keeping it as offline gaming rig.

As of "fixing" it, one option would be playing in windowed mode, rather than full screen.

 

[kerberos_20]

lcd has single native resolution, some displays can offer more native reoslutions, but its rare
so no mater which resolution you choose in game, it will still display it as native 1920x1080

gpus does have scalers in drivers so you can alter aspect ratio there...i dont have any intel gpu...only amd or nvidia..so cant really say if it works as intended, but it should be there on intel aswell
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000027109/graphics.html

 

[vikaskumar2299]

lcd has single native resolution, some displays can offer more native reoslutions, but its rare
so no mater which resolution you choose in game, it will still display it as native 1920x1080

gpus does have scalers in drivers so you can alter aspect ratio there...i dont have any intel gpu...only amd or nvidia..so cant really say if it works as intended, but it should be there on intel aswell
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000027109/graphics.html

Like I said, Intel's scaling options don't make any difference at all on the game. It just affects the laptop screen that you can see when game is not launched. As soon as game is launched, it doesn't care what resolution and scaling is set on laptop. It will try to follow NVIDIA I guess. And NVIDIA don't have scaling options especially in laptops which also have Intel graphics.