How to Set a Custom Resolution for DLSS on a 3:2 Screen
A custom resolution can preserve your screen’s aspect ratio and reduce DLSS’s workload. Here’s how to calculate and set one for your laptop.
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Tom’s Hardware tested the Surface Laptop Ultra with the RTX Spark platform and ran into a problem familiar to anyone gaming on a laptop with an unusual screen shape: the 3270×2180, 3:2 display either stretches game images or costs performance through DLSS scaling. The fix was to add a custom 1764×1176 resolution. The same method works on any laptop with an Nvidia GPU - and that’s the most interesting part.
What this means for you
DLSS isn’t free. The higher the output resolution, the more processing power goes into upscaling rather than rendering the game. On high-density displays, that overhead is real: the Surface has only 14 percent fewer pixels than a 4K 16:9 screen. If you game on a laptop with a 3:2 or 16:10 display and the image looks oddly stretched or games run worse than they should, the problem may not be your graphics card. You may simply be missing a useful intermediate resolution in the display modes list. You can fix that in five minutes without spending a cent.
Why the problem happens
Laptop makers configure a list of supported display modes in the system. For the tested Surface, Microsoft included a 1600×1024 resolution - slightly less than half the native resolution on both axes. That works out to about 1.6 megapixels, fewer than standard 1920×1080, or 2.07 MP. Upscaling from that starting point to a large, high-density display produces a noticeably soft image before DLSS adds its own processing.
The second issue is aspect ratio. Games designed for 16:9 and 16:10 can look visibly distorted when stretched vertically to fill a 3:2 screen. The original article points to character models and vehicle tyres as examples where the distortion stands out. The alternative - playing in a window - means gaming in a small rectangle on an already modest-sized display, which can quickly tire your eyes.
How to calculate a custom resolution
The idea is simple: aim for a pixel count close to a familiar target, such as 1080p or 1440p, while matching your screen’s aspect ratio. For 3:2 and a target of 2.07 MP, that gives you 1764×1176. For a target of 3.7 MP, equivalent to 2560×1440, the result is 2352×1568. Both figures come from the source article.
| Mode | Resolution | Pixels | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Native display resolution | 3270×2180 | About 7.1 MP | DLSS has the most work to do here |
| Factory intermediate mode | 1600×1024 | About 1.6 MP | Below Full HD; image looks soft |
| Custom, 1080p equivalent | 1764×1176 | About 2.07 MP | Preserves 3:2 without stretching |
| Custom, 1440p equivalent | 2352×1568 | About 3.7 MP | Use when you have performance to spare |
The same method works with a 16:10 display: multiply the width and height by the same factor until their product is close to your target pixel count. Round to whole numbers, preferably even ones.
Where to set the resolution
The author notes a detail that matters for ARM devices: the classic Nvidia Control Panel does not work on Windows on Arm. You can still add custom resolutions through the Nvidia App. Go to System, open Display Properties, select “Customize Resolution”, then add a mode - 1764×1176 at 120 Hz in the test - and check whether the display accepts it.
The same app has a Scaling panel with an “Aspect Ratio” mode. This adds black bars instead of stretching a 16:9 image across the whole screen. The author advises against it for this particular device. That’s an opinion, not a fact: if you’re paying $5,899, the argument goes, you don’t want some of the pixels left black.
What the source doesn’t tell us
The source article ends as the author begins comparing results with earlier tests in Control. So there’s no quantified frame-rate gain: we don’t know exactly how much switching from the native 3270×2180 resolution to 1764×1176 improves performance on this device. We also don’t know whether or when the Surface Laptop Ultra will be sold in any particular market, or what it might cost there. The $5,899 figure is the price given in the source article; it does not establish a local checkout price.
Our view: despite the missing figures, the underlying mechanism is well documented. The fact that DLSS overhead increases with output resolution is not in dispute; it is part of how the technology works.
How to try it on your laptop
- Check your screen’s aspect ratio. In Windows, go to Settings, System, Display, then divide the width of your native resolution by its height. A result of 1.5 is 3:2, 1.6 is 16:10, and 1.78 is 16:9.
- If you have a 16:9 screen, this guide probably isn’t for you - the factory resolution options should be sufficient. If you have a 3:2 or 16:10 screen, continue.
- Calculate your 1080p equivalent: choose a scale factor so the width multiplied by the height comes to about 2,070,000. For 16:10, the result will be around 1824×1140.
- Open the Nvidia App, go to System, expand Display Properties, select “Customize Resolution”, and add your calculated resolution at your display’s refresh rate.
- Test the mode using the button in the setup window. If the screen goes black and comes back after several seconds, the display did not accept it. Round the values and try again.
- Set the new resolution in a game running in fullscreen mode. Compare the frame-rate counter before and after; the difference should be visible in GPU-intensive scenes.
- If you prefer black bars to a stretched image, select “Aspect Ratio” in the Nvidia App’s Scaling panel.
- If your system has performance to spare, add a second profile for the equivalent of 1440p at your screen’s aspect ratio. You can then switch between resolutions for lighter and more demanding games.
Source
Tom’s Hardware: One easy change makes Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Ultra with RTX Spark a better gaming system. Accessed October 22, 2026.
