What is GPU Scaling?

What is GPU Scaling
What is GPU Scaling

So what is GPU scaling? No, that’s not a typo. GPU scaling means the computing power of your graphics card (or graphics processing unit) can be used to do other things like edit photos or play video games. 

It’s also one of the most important aspects when it comes to upgrading your PC. This blog post will help you better understand how GPU scaling works and why it matters so much for gaming!

What is GPU scaling?

GPU scaling is the process of rendering a game at different resolutions, such as 1600×900 or 1920×1080. Essentially, when you play the game on your laptop without discrete graphics, you want to switch resolutions for use outdoors or with an external monitor.

Types of GPU Scaling

There are two types of GPU scaling. Most people mean when they say “GPU Scaling” is Super-Sampling, which is done through the NVIDIA Control Panel. 

It’s only a half remap and downscaled image, though, not an actual up to 1080p from a 720p or 1366×768 screen that you get with true-up rezzing (I’ll explain in the next section).

How do I know if my laptop supports GPU scaling?

You will need to know what graphics card your laptop has, as well as the resolution it can handle. While most laptops support some GPU scaling, there are key differences between them.

Most laptops have Intel integrated graphics with no discrete graphics. These will only support Super-Sampling, which we’ll discuss in the next paragraph.

Most gaming laptops have either an NVIDIA GT or GTX graphics card, which supports GPU scaling. 

You can check to see what resolution they support on this page on NVIDIA’s website. NVIDIA also specifies what resolutions their cards can handle natively for each game.

Why use GPU scaling?

GPU scaling allows for an easier game-playing experience with laptops and other mobile devices. In addition, it’s much more convenient to control a laptop from one central location with the extra monitor, rather than constantly switching in and out of windows on separate screens.

How to enable GPU scaling?

What you want to do is change the resolution of your discrete graphics card.

On Windows 10, open the control panel and search for the monitor. On Windows 8, you will need to go into the NVIDIA Control Panel and select ‘Change Resolution.’ For other operating systems, check with your device manufacturer’s website or use Google to determine how to change resolution on a specific OS.

How to disable GPU scaling?

To disable GPU scaling, you would do the same things as in the previous step. You can then play your game in whichever resolution suits your needs — don’t forget to set the right resolution back for gaming after!

What is an ideal resolution?

An Ideal resolution for GPU scaling depends on the game and graphics card in use. A popular GPU, NVIDIA’s GTX 850M, performs best at 1600×900 (just slightly below full HD) while performing nearly as well at 1920×1080 (Full HD). You can change the resolution of your gaming laptop to find which one works best for you!

What if I want different resolutions on each monitor?

Some games will let you have different resolution settings for each monitor while using GPU Scaling, and many also allow you to do this without switching the game’s full-screen mode. To do this, however, follow these steps:

  1. Open (in Windows 10) your Nvidia Control Panel. For other operating systems, find out through google how to open it in your OS.
  2. On the left-hand side, you should see your graphics card. Under “Set up multiple displays,” there will be a ‘clone these displays’ option – click on it and then select the check box for the other monitor.
  3. Then click Apply at the bottom right of the Nvidia Control Panel.
  4. Once that is done, open your game (being sure to launch with GPU Scaling if you haven’t already). Then using whatever method your game gives you, set a different resolution for each monitor. This makes one display run like the full-screen mode while the other runs in windowed mode. This can enhance gaming!

What about external monitors?

Using an external monitor for gaming is a great way to avoid eye strain. Plus, as stated above, it’s much easier to control your laptop from one central location while playing games – you don’t have to constantly switch between apps and windows on two or more separate screens.

However, getting the resolution right can be tricky. You want to make sure that your external monitor and laptop are both set up with the same resolution. 

Whether or not they are using GPU scaling does not matter here! You can then connect them both through either HDMI or VGA (DVI won’t work) cables that would enable your laptop’s display to show up on the external monitor in the number of pixels it supports.

This will make everything appear on your external monitor at the right size (because it is not larger than your laptop’s display) and thus make playing games designed for full-screen mode easier. However, what will also happen is some of your peripheral vision will disappear, which may take getting used to.

In addition, this method will disable parts of the Windows interface like “the little blue box” in the corner of each app or window – so if you’re a gamer who likes to use alt+tab frequently, this might not be an ideal option for you!

What about using GPU Scaling with multiple monitors?

Something that isn’t well known yet is that there’s no limit to how many displays can be used through GPU Scaling (or through multiple GPU Scaling methods).

This means if you have four monitors, for example, and two video cards in your computer – then each monitor could be connected to a different card. The only limitation here is that you will need to use HDMI cables for all of them.

So the possibilities are pretty much endless! If someone has come up with another method besides 2+1 or 3+1, feel free to comment saying what it is below, and I’ll add it to this article 🙂

What are some dangers of using GPU scaling?

While there’s no inherent danger in using GPU scaling, your laptop could get pretty hot if you spam the lower-resolution desktop mode with a lot of documents/web pages/games all at once.

This also means that your battery may drain faster than usual when you’re running games on lower resolutions through it— but then again, this is why we have laptops!

What is another downside of using GPU scaling?

The most prominent downsides are performance and cost. For example, while a laptop with discrete graphics can manage 60 FPS in many more demanding titles at 1920×1080, it may only get 30 FPS when running three-quarters of the resolution.

This means that more dropped frames (some people hate this) and less complex assets will be visible in the distance, such as low-detailed buildings.

Pros and cons of using GPU scaling

Here are a few pros and cons of using GPU scaling: Scroll Down!

Some of the pros of using GPU scaling are: 

  • Enabling you to play games at higher resolutions than your laptop could handle before, like 1920×1080 instead of 1600×900.
  • Helps with avoiding eye strain and headaches from constantly switching in and out of windows on different screens.
  • Allows you to put your laptop into settings that will make it easier for you to use, like turning off screen dimming or screen lock while gaming.
  • Decreases eye strain from staring at a close monitor all day.
  • Balances out lighting across multiple displays, reducing the “flashlight effect” or “black bars.”
  • It’s even easier to control your laptop from one central location in games.

There are some cons of using GPU scaling as well:

  • It doesn’t always work due to the operating system or device manufacturer not providing support for that particular resolution – so keep track of what resolutions your laptop supports!

What are some future plans for GPU scaling?

In the future, GPU scaling may be used to allow another user to play a game on your machine while you enjoy your normal desktop experience.

This is already possible through external graphics solutions such as NVIDIA’s GRID and AMD’s Shadow platform, but it may become easier with mobile devices in the future!


GPU scaling is a technique in which the rendering of graphics can be distributed across multiple GPUs.

This approach has been used to improve performance and reduce power consumption, both lowering costs for consumers. It’s also important because it allows for more efficient use of hardware resources by distributing some tasks among different devices.

In this way, each device only needs to achieve 50% or 75% as much processing speed (processing per second) to reach their goal, so they work together to get there faster than if they were working alone on 100%.

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