Native 4k Resolution > 1080p in WoW is blurry

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1

Hello! I currently use a 4k UHD monitor, but sometimes struggle with FPS drops in WoW. I’d like to downscale my game to 1080p (1920x1080 resolution) but I’m having some issues with the downscaling. I have not had these issues in other games, just with WoW.

Here are my normal settings when running in 4K: i.gyazo[dot]com/0729b4c00e4ee50c4225d3a6de8478a5.png

When I change my window size to 1920x1080p and keep Resolution scale to 100%, my game looks fine but my UI elements and the fonts become blurry and hard to read: i.gyazo[dot]com/fc32c4021a16fc274e202d245c104cc0.jpg

I have also tried to keep the window size at 3840x2160 and the resolution scale to 50% i.gyazo[dot]com/ab3d97ce84d7560e0ceadcf3f35db44d.png, but then the opposite happens - smooth text and UI elements, blurry game: i.gyazo[dot]com/092fcddc4b43ae87fe902868c4d598d7.jpg

It should not be a hardware issue as my PC is more than enough to run the game. My system specs are:

     Operating System: Windows 10 Home 64-bit (10.0, Build 18362) (18362.19h1_release.190318-1202)
             Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
  System Manufacturer: System manufacturer
         System Model: System Product Name
                 BIOS: 0903 (type: UEFI)
            Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-9900K CPU @ 3.60GHz (16 CPUs), ~3.6GHz
               Memory: 32768MB RAM
  Available OS Memory: 32684MB RAM
            Page File: 15830MB used, 49620MB available
          Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
      DirectX Version: DirectX 12
  DX Setup Parameters: Not found
     User DPI Setting: 144 DPI (150 percent)
   System DPI Setting: 144 DPI (150 percent)
      DWM DPI Scaling: UnKnown

Any ideas on how to fix this? I’d like to run at the lower resolution for better performance, especially in raid content.

2

Provided you want the game window to take up the whole screen, your best bet is going to be to use the in-game resolution scale feature. This will invariably make the game world appear more blurry, but you might find it a little less undesirable if you adjust the Resample Quality setting in the Advanced options - bicubic tends to be sharper, but can introduce ringing/haloing.

Otherwise, if you adjust your display resolution you’re at the mercy of whatever scaling mechanism your GPU uses. This is typically going to be bilinear (though NVidia recently announced integer/point scaling for appropriate resolutions), which will blur the picture. Unlike CRTs, LCD screens can only run at their native resolution - anything else has to be interpreted/rescaled to fit.

That having been said, both NVidia and AMD (you don’t mention which you’re using anywhere) also have features recently implemented designed to sharpen the picture. NVidia offers a Shapen filter via Freestyle (requires GFE and a supported title, which WoW is), while AMD now offers RIS (Radeon Image Sharpening) via a driver setting. Either of these may clean up the picture enough for you.

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