How To Get Custom Resolution / Stretch Res for Fortnite, Apex Legends, Halo, and any other game

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This guide covers using Custom Resolution Utility (CRU) for EDID overrides on Windows — the tool of choice for stretched resolution in Fortnite, Apex Legends, Halo, and any other game. It works with AMD/ATI, NVIDIA, and certain Intel GPUs.

Custom Resolution Utility interface

Warning: Back up your current settings before changing anything, and know how to boot into safe mode for recovery. Skipping either will cause major headaches if a bad resolution blanks your display.

Download Custom Resolution Utility

Stretched resolution guides by game

This page covers the universal method that works everywhere. If you play one of these titles, the per-game guide gets you there faster:

Fortnite stretched resolution guide — the best stretched res values for Fortnite, plus how to stop the game from reverting your resolution.
Apex Legends stretched resolution guide — Apex often ignores in-menu resolution changes, so it needs -width/-height launch options to apply reliably.
Valorant stretched resolution guide — in Valorant the make-or-break step is forcing full-screen GPU scaling; this covers the exact combo that removes black bars.
Warzone stretched resolution guide — which stretched res values actually help in Warzone and the NVIDIA/AMD scaling setup to match.
CS2 stretched resolution — CS2 removed native stretched aspect ratios, so 4:3 stretched has to be forced at the GPU level; here’s how.

Requirements

Operating system: Windows Vista or later (Windows XP is incompatible with EDID overrides)
GPU: AMD or NVIDIA with the latest drivers
Safe mode knowledge: know how to access safe mode for recovery before you start

Initial setup with CRU

Launch CRU — run CRU.exe. Admin rights may be required to modify registry settings.
Select your display — choose your monitor from the list. Active displays are marked; changes are saved to the registry.
Edit configurations — the customization options are extensive; read the in-app documentation for settings you don’t recognize.
Clone settings — use copy-paste to apply the same configuration to multiple displays.
Save and restart — after saving, restart the graphics driver (CRU ships restart64.exe — or restart.exe on 32-bit Windows — for this). If the screen stays black, safe mode + CRU’s reset-all.exe recovers you.

Detailed resolutions

What they’re for

Detailed resolutions fine-tune display properties beyond the presets your GPU or monitor offers — this is where stretched res lives. The first detailed resolution is typically the monitor’s native/preferred resolution; keep it configured correctly for normal desktop use.

Adding custom resolutions

In CRU, add new entries under the Detailed resolutions section.
Stay within your monitor’s and GPU’s maximum resolution and refresh rate — exceeding them causes display issues.
Example for stretched res: add 1750×1080 or 1600×1080 at your monitor’s refresh rate, then select it in-game or in Windows display settings.

Resolution and refresh rate notes

Performance: lower-than-native resolutions reduce GPU load — part of why stretched res is popular in competitive play.
Refresh rate: higher refresh = smoother visuals, but only add rates your panel genuinely supports.

GPU scaling

CRU adds monitor resolutions, not scaled ones. Enable GPU scaling in your graphics driver’s control panel (NVIDIA Control Panel → Adjust desktop size; AMD Adrenalin → Display → GPU Scaling) so lower resolutions stretch up to fill the native panel. Set scaling mode to Full-screen (not “Aspect ratio”) for true stretched res — see GPU scaling vs display scaling below for the full breakdown.

Limitations and warnings

Maximum limits: EDID detailed resolutions cap at 4095×4095 and a 655.35 MHz pixel clock.
Invalid values: if a value turns red in CRU, it’s invalid or out of limits — fix it before saving.

Timing parameters

Automatic options — “Automatic PC”, “Automatic HDTV”, and “Automatic CRT” set timings to common standards; pick the one matching your monitor type. This is the right choice for most users.
Manual timing — for advanced users who understand monitor timings.
Exact timings — for hitting exact integer refresh rates, useful if you’re sensitive to refresh variations.

Testing and validation

Test each new resolution thoroughly — watch for flickering, color distortion, or blurry text. Make changes incrementally so you can identify what caused any problem.

Creating a custom resolution in NVIDIA Control Panel

If you’d rather skip CRU, NVIDIA’s driver can create custom resolutions directly:

Open NVIDIA Control Panel (right-click the desktop).
Go to Display → Change resolution.
Click Customize…, then Create Custom Resolution.
Enter your width and height (e.g. 1750×1080 or 1440×1080) at your monitor’s refresh rate, leave timing on Automatic, and hit Test.
If the test displays correctly, save it — it now appears in the resolution list and in most games.

The driver method is quicker, but it’s a driver-level resolution rather than an EDID override, so some games (and some driver updates) ignore or wipe it. If a resolution made this way doesn’t show up in your game, recreate it with CRU instead.

AMD: Adrenalin Custom Resolutions and CRU

AMD users have two routes:

Adrenalin Custom Resolutions — in AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition, go to Settings (gear) → Display, scroll to Custom Resolutions, and create a new entry with your target width, height, and refresh rate. As with NVIDIA, this is a driver-level resolution and occasionally gets ignored by games or reset by driver updates.
CRU for AMD — CRU’s EDID overrides work especially well on AMD GPUs and are the more reliable option when Adrenalin’s custom resolution doesn’t stick or doesn’t appear in-game. Follow the CRU steps above; nothing is AMD-specific except the scaling settings below.

Either way, for stretched res you must also enable AMD’s scaling: in Adrenalin go to Display, turn on GPU Scaling, and set Scaling Mode to Full Panel. Without this, your 4:3 or narrow resolution shows black bars instead of stretching.

Intel Graphics Command Center custom resolution

On Intel integrated or Arc graphics, open Intel Graphics Command Center (from the Microsoft Store if not installed), go to Display → Custom Resolutions (under the Resolution section, select Custom), enter width, height, and refresh rate, then add it. Accept the warning, and enable scaling under Display → Scale (choose Stretched) to fill the panel. Older Intel iGPUs that don’t expose this can often still use CRU, but support varies by driver.

GPU scaling vs display scaling

When you run a non-native resolution, something has to map it onto your panel’s physical pixels — and where that happens matters:

GPU scaling — the graphics card rescales the image before sending it to the monitor. This is what you want for stretched res: it guarantees the stretch happens regardless of what the monitor would do, and it’s required for “Full-screen”/“Full Panel” stretching. Cost: a tiny amount of added processing, generally negligible.
Display scaling — the GPU sends the low resolution untouched and the monitor’s own scaler stretches it. Some monitor scalers add less input lag than GPU scaling, but many monitors only scale to aspect ratio (black bars) or center the image, so you lose control of the result.

Rule of thumb: use GPU scaling with Full-screen/Full Panel mode for stretched res. Only experiment with display scaling if your monitor’s OSD has an explicit “Wide”/“Full” aspect option and you want to test whether it feels lower-latency.

NVIDIA: Control Panel → Adjust desktop size and position → Scaling mode Full-screen, Perform scaling on: GPU, and tick Override the scaling mode set by games and programs.
AMD: Adrenalin → Display → GPU Scaling: On, Scaling Mode: Full Panel.
Intel: Graphics Command Center → Display → Scale: Stretched.

Common questions

Does stretched resolution give more FPS?

Usually yes, modestly. You’re rendering fewer pixels than native (e.g. 1440×1080 is ~26% fewer pixels than 1920×1080), which lowers GPU load. The bigger reason pros use it is the visual effect — player models appear wider — not the FPS gain. If FPS is your main goal, lowering in-game settings often gains more.

Is stretched res bannable?

No. Custom and stretched resolutions are display-level changes, not game modifications — anti-cheat systems don’t flag them. Some games simply don’t allow non-standard aspect ratios (or letterbox them), but using stretched res where the game permits it won’t get you banned.

Why does my stretched res look blurry or not fill the screen?

Black bars or a centered image mean scaling isn’t set to stretch: enable GPU scaling with Full-screen (NVIDIA) or Full Panel (AMD) mode, and on NVIDIA tick “Override the scaling mode set by games and programs.” Blurriness is inherent to running below native resolution — the image is being upscaled — but it’s worse if the monitor is doing the scaling, so switch scaling to the GPU.

Why is my custom resolution not showing up in game?

Common causes: the game only lists resolutions matching your current desktop aspect ratio (set the custom res on the desktop first, or use launch options); you created it in the driver panel but the game reads EDID modes (recreate it in CRU); you forgot to restart the graphics driver after saving in CRU (restart64.exe); or the game is in borderless/windowed mode — custom resolutions generally need exclusive fullscreen.

Credit and next steps

CRU is designed by ToastyX from MonitorTests.

Once your stretched res is set up, finish the job with the rest of the competitive-edge stack: optimize your monitor settings, work through our full guide to minimizing input delay for competitive gaming, and read up on timer resolution for gaming — then run Tier1Timer to cut input delay at the system level.