Please help me test if GPU scaling on AMD GPUs works as expected

midix · October 26, 2021

Hi.

If you happen to have an AMD GPU that's not older than about 5 years and you have reasonably up-to-date AMD GPU drivers and Windows 10 64 bit, then please help me with a test.

Here are the test steps:

if you have more than one monitor connected to your PC, disconnect all but one. Set your display resolution to 1360x768 or the closest non-native resolution supported by your monitor. Important: please check your monitor documentation for officially supported resolutions and frequencies. It might support 1366x768 and not 1360x768. Pick the one that's supported. If you choose a wrong mode, GPU scaling might take over making this test meaningless. Apply the settings.
verify that your monitor is indeed switched to this resolution by opening your monitor's OSD (on-screen display) information sections and looking up the current resolution there. Make sure the image fills the entire screen without any black bars (you might have to adjust your display settings to use Fill mode and not 1:1 mode). Important: Do not trust your eyes and don't assume the display has switched to the requested resolution just because everything got bigger! In my experience, it could have switched to a different resolution, as commanded by GPU drivers to (wrongly) combine monitor's scaling with GPU scaling! That's why it's important to check the result in the monitor's information section.

Please report your success for step 2:

- if your desktop image fills the entire screen and looks enlarged, and your display reports to be at the exact resolution that you specified, then leave a comment "2 worked"

- if the result is something else, then leave a comment "2 didn't work". I'll also appreciate a description of what exactly went wrong.

3) now open up your AMD GPU settings (Crimson etc.). Open Display tab. Toggle the GPU Scaling option to On. The screen will go black momentarily while GPU Scaling is being enabled. Select "Full panel" mode from the Scaling Mode drop-down menu.

4) verify that your monitor is at its native resolution by opening your monitor's OSD (on-screen display) information menu and looking up the current resolution there. Verify that the image fills the entire screen without any black bars.

Please report your success for step 4:

- if your desktop image fills the entire screen and looks enlarged, and your display reports to be at its native resolution, then leave a comment "4 worked"

- if the result is something else, then leave a comment "4 didn't work". I'll also appreciate a description of what exactly went wrong.

Also, it would be great to know your exact Windows 10 and AMD driver version, GPU model and also the tested monitor model.

If you see that someone else has already left a comment with their results and your results differ, it would be good to know your system specs to compare. The issue might be specific to the driver/Windows version.

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Now the long story.

I'm a visually handicapped programmer and have to use my LCD monitor at non-native resolution to be able to work comfortably. Windows built-in text scaling does not work well because not every software deals with it the same way. I have seen broken texts, hidden input elements and other issues. So, a reduced resolution is still my best option.

I have noticed that on some LCDs their internal scaler gives better image quality than the GPU one, and on other LCDs, it's the opposite. So, to have full freedom of choice, I need a GPU that can correctly switch between the monitor's built-in scaling and GPU scaling.

Before Windows 10, I was using an AMD GPU. At that time I had a monitor that had pretty good built-in scaling. When I set the desired reduced resolution in Windows display settings, it worked just fine, I saw the correct resolution in the display's OSD menu.

Then I upgraded to Windows 10 and GPU scaling started messing things up. When I set GPU scaling to Off in Crimson, I still see my display reporting it's at the native resolution, which means that the GPU scaling took over. I tried everything - reinstalling drivers, changing resolution after/before I switch GPU scaling On/Off. Nothing helped. The only thing that worked was to install old AMD drivers that weren't even officially Windows 10 compatible and I would have no future updates for them.

Then I decided to try my older Nvidia GPU. Scaling worked as it should - I could turn it on/off, and the scaling was handled by my LCD or GPU accordingly. One important thing is that Nvidia drivers have their own resolution dropdown, and it must be used to make things work right. If I use Windows Settings resolution, it starts messing things up. So, the AMD's issue might be actually a combination of the fact that Crimson had no place to set the resolution, and Windows resolution setting messes up the GPU scaling on/off state.

So, I upgraded to a new Nvidia GPU, scaling worked fine, and I haven't tried AMD since. But now, when in some stores there's a better chance to get an AMD GPU, I might consider AMD again, only if I'm sure it can handle both GPU / non-GPU scaling properly.

I hope you will help me to verify if AMD / Windows GPU scaling issues have been resolved.

Thank you for your time.

Pixelfie · October 26, 2021

Not sure if this is any helpful but for me the monitor says 1920x1080 at every resolution, with both GPU scaling enabled and disabled. Running Windows 10 with a Gaming X 5500 XT 8gb on driver 21.10.2. I think it's still broken

They released a new driver, will try that but it probably won't help since there's nothing mentioned about it in the changelog.

Edited October 26, 2021 by Pixelfie

Pixelfie · October 26, 2021

Just installed the new driver and it didn't change anything. When I change the scaling mode it does change, even when I have GPU scaling disabled, so I'm pretty sure the GPU is always scaling.

midix · October 26, 2021

Thanks. So, most likely, it's not fixed then. That's sad. At some point they added integer scaling but did not care to fix this bug.

But it might work through custom resolutions settings. Maybe that's actually how AMD thinks it should be done in their drivers? I haven't had a chance to play with those and don't have an AMD GPU anymore.