Run games at 21:9 aspect ratio on a 16:9 Monitor (TV)

[TuanTuan]

Hi guys, first post here. I was just wondering if anyone knows how to run games at 21:9 aspect ratio on a 16:9 display? Long story short, I recently replaced my 34 inch 21:9 monitor with a 49 inch 4K TV. I thought that if I play games at 21:9, it will still be 3840 * 1620 resolution, which is close to 3K, better than my old ultra wide's 2560 * 1080. And if I want to watch videos or doing things on desktop, I will still get a 4k display. But I am still can't find a way for games to run at 21:9 aspect ratio. Anyone has any suggestions? I don't mind if its full screen with two black bars, or windowed mode.

My Rig: Nvidia GTX 1060, Windows 10
TV Aspect Ratio: 16:9 4:3 Just Scan and Point to Point.

Games I play: Witcher 3, Fallout 4, Diablo 3, Doom, etc... Thank you for your help!

 

[Leemon]

Hi TuanTuan,

You can set a custom resolution in the NVIDIA Control Panel. Right-click on your desktop and select "NVIDIA Control Panel" then click on "Change resolution" on the left. Click the "Customise" button and then "Create Custom Resolution". Enter 3840 in the "Horizontal pixels" box and 1620 in the "Vertical pixels" box and click "Test". If the screen goes black and stays black then the test was unsuccessful and you will have to wait 30 seconds for the screen to revert. If the resolution changes and everything looks good then the test is successful and you click "Yes" to keeping the setting. Tick "Enable resolutions not exposed by the display" if it wasn't ticket automatically after the test and then click "OK". Your custom resolution will now appear in the "Resolution" box. Select it and click "Apply".

It won't look great, I'll warn you now. Your 1060 will also get poor fps at that resolution but if you don't mind playing games at low/medium settings then you'll be fine.

I hope this helps,

Leemon

 

[TuanTuan]

Hi TuanTuan,

You can set a custom resolution in the NVIDIA Control Panel. Right-click on your desktop and select "NVIDIA Control Panel" then click on "Change resolution" on the left. Click the "Customise" button and then "Create Custom Resolution". Enter 3840 in the "Horizontal pixels" box and 1620 in the "Vertical pixels" box and click "Test". If the screen goes black and stays black then the test was unsuccessful and you will have to wait 30 seconds for the screen to revert. If the resolution changes and everything looks good then the test is successful and you click "Yes" to keeping the setting. Tick "Enable resolutions not exposed by the display" if it wasn't ticket automatically after the test and then click "OK". Your custom resolution will now appear in the "Resolution" box. Select it and click "Apply".

It won't look great, I'll warn you now. Your 1060 will also get poor fps at that resolution but if you don't mind playing games at low/medium settings then you'll be fine.

I hope this helps,

Leemon

Thank you for sharing your ieda Leemon! I tried the method you mentioned on your post, and when I hit 'test', it just stay black. I will try it again later, see if I can change anything to make it work.

I know my GTX 1060 is not power enough. But Witcher 3 at 4K Ultra Settings (without Nividia Hair Work) plays at 30 fps, and older titles like Diablo 3 at 4K plays nicely. So its good enough for me.

Again, thank you for your answer.

 

[Leemon]

No problem. If the screen went black there's a good chance you won't be able to set that resolution. Monitors are a lot easier to set custom resolutions for than TVs.

Don't forget to pick a solution!

Thanks,

Leemon

 

[TuanTuan]

No problem. If the screen went black there's a good chance you won't be able to set that resolution. Monitors are a lot easier to set custom resolutions for than TVs.

Don't forget to pick a solution!

Thanks,

Leemon

Well, I tried again, it didn't work. However, I was able to getting the result I wanted by just changing the game's resolution at the game's setting file. [Users\Documents\The Witcher 3\user.settings]

I tried this with the Witcher 3 and FIFA 17 so far, both worked. Not sure about other games.

 

[Leemon]

That will work for games that have an INI to edit. Some games you won't have that option, sadly

Good luck nonetheless!

Leemon