1080P scaling on Laptop (15.6")

Matyy · Jan 23, 2025

Hi I think this is the correct place to post this "issue" of mine. I have a laptop that when using 1080P Resolution (native) at 100% scale on windows 11 23H2 v22361.4751, Windows Looks very big, taskbar are huge and also tabs and windows interfaces looks pixelated, is this normal or is something wrong ? I don't remember 1080p being so bad on a 24" monitor. Recently I have been using 1440p (Nvidia DSR) and everything seems to look much better and scaling works great, but are all 15.6" screens so bad at 1080p ? Is there a way to downscale 1080p lower than 100% ?
I would like to know if some other people is using this kind of resolution and screen combo and what do you guys think about it?

abactuon · Jan 23, 2025

I have a 15.6” and it's fine.

Win711 · Jan 23, 2025

Matyy said:
Is there a way to downscale 1080p lower than 100% ?

I had a similar problem when going from a 1080p 32 inch monitor to a 40 inch.... it looked horrible. This utility gave me the ability to choose any resolution I wanted even though the monitor officially shouldn't support it. Custom Resolution Utility (CRU)

Forcing a higher resolution is basically the same as scaling to less than 100%. You'll still have the pixilated look, but the desktop will be larger and icons smaller.

In the end I went to 43 inch 4k monitor set on 2k because I couldn't find 4k in anything 32-40 inches. It's bigger than what I wanted but everything looks great and I have plenty of room.

Matyy · Jan 23, 2025

this is a screenshot of windows settings interface at 1080p and it occupies almost the entire screen. Idk maybe is me that im used to 1440p but it looks huge in person.

Matyy · Jan 23, 2025

Win711 said:
I had a similar problem when going from a 1080p 32 inch monitor to a 40 inch.... it looked horrible. This utility gave me the ability to choose any resolution I wanted even though the monitor officially shouldn't support it. Custom Resolution Utility (CRU)

Forcing a higher resolution is basically the same as scaling to less than 100%. You'll still have the pixilated look, but the desktop will be larger and icons smaller.

In the end I went to 43 inch 4k monitor set on 2k because I couldn't find 4k in anything 32-40 inches. It's bigger than what I wanted but everything looks great and I have plenty of room.

I tried CRU once but forced a bad resolution or scale or refresh rate idk and the screen went weird and I couldn't see anything, it was like that until I was able to reset the CRU config and fix it because I dont have a second monitor at hand, so I was traumatized by that program xD.

abactuon · Jan 23, 2025

I'm not sure, but try changing something here, if it's on the laptop.

Win711 · Jan 23, 2025

Matyy said:
I tried CRU once but forced a bad resolution or scale or refresh rate idk and the screen went weird and I couldn't see anything, it was like that until I was able to reset the CRU config and fix it because I dont have a second monitor at hand, so I was traumatized by that program xD.

I would say just set it to something conservative with a low refresh rate. If you can do 1080 at 60 then maybe 1152 or 1440 at 30.

It's not an easy utility to figure out. You have to pick a preset automatic PC or HDTV then input the resolution you want and the refresh rate.

If you pick manual, then you have to figure out what to put in all these boxes, which could be the source of the problem you had last time.

There are lots of ways to undo the changes, but I never had to. The first one I picked happened to work. I couldn't believe it lol.

But if your native resolution is 1080, there is no other way of going higher or scaling below 100%, that I know of. You could try changing the icon and text sizes but that seems to work in some places and not in others.

PCUser · Jan 23, 2025

Matyy said:
Hi I think this is the correct place to post this "issue" of mine. I have a laptop that when using 1080P Resolution (native) at 100% scale on windows 11 23H2 v22361.4751, Windows Looks very big, taskbar are huge and also tabs and windows interfaces looks pixelated, is this normal or is something wrong ? I don't remember 1080p being so bad on a 24" monitor. Recently I have been using 1440p (Nvidia DSR) and everything seems to look much better and scaling works great, but are all 15.6" screens so bad at 1080p ? Is there a way to downscale 1080p lower than 100% ?
I would like to know if some other people is using this kind of resolution and screen combo and what do you guys think about it?

I have a 15.6" screen. I replaced the original with a used 4k 15.6". With the original screen, my settings were about 125% and screen resolution 1920x1200.
After swapping out the original for the 4K (like performing laptop surgery), my resolution settings changed dramatically.
My current 15.6" 4K screen resolution is 3840x2160 with 250% scale (recommended).

My laptop has onboard Intel(R) HD Graphics P530 video and also and NVIDIA Quadro M2000M w/ 4 GB GDDR5. Not a gaming laptop, more of a mobile workstation laptop capable of Photoshop, Video editing, etc. I suppose it would do gaming but not my thing.

Make sure your Display Adapter drivers are updated. This can make a huge difference.

Matyy · Jan 23, 2025

abactuon said:
I'm not sure, but try changing something here, if it's on the laptop.

View attachment 122944

Yeah im using this already at 1440p and works great but the only way for these options to appear are when using dGpu via deactivating Intel integrated graphics, my problem is not about the resolution but the scaling itself of 1080p but anyway I think iI will stay with 1440p and next time get a laptop with native QHD.

Helmut · Jan 24, 2025

Looks perfectly normal post #4. Well nigh identical to my Laptop screen 2560 x 1600 150%(Recommended).

Allowing for the 16:10 aspect ratio giving a bit more vertical room.

For a 1920 x 1080 screen the recommended would be 125%.
Going to lower values make things bigger which is contrary to what you want.

"Is there a way to downscale 1080p lower than 100% ?"

As I said, to get smaller appearance you need to go to higher scale values which you have available as standard.

Sounds a bit counter intuitive but Windows display scaling has always been like that. I am very surprised you have not sussed that out by now.

NormanF · May 16, 2026

abactuon said:
I have a 15.6” and it's fine.

View attachment 122942

I set mine at 105% on a 17" and everything now looks normal. The default drop-down scaling doesn't support granular adjustment. You click scale instead to set a custom value, you input what you like, click apply and sign out and sign in agaIn for the change to take effect. Finally, everything looked normal than appearing too small at 100% or too oversized at 125%.

spapakons · May 26, 2026

Your specs say 1440p resolution. If that's the native resolution no wonder 1080p looks blurry and large. Set the maximum resolution supported by the monitor and set scaling to 100. This should be as sharp as possible with normal Taskbar thickness.

1080P scaling on Laptop (15.6")

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