or the AlphaRes utility. The first two operate at the driver level and require reapplying after each Fortnite patch. The third operates on Fortnites own configuration file and persists if the file is set to read-only. AlphaRes automates the third method and ticks the read-only attribute by default， Epic Games Launcher updates， enter 1920 by 1080， vertical pixels (1080)， patching tolerance， a manual GameUserSettings.ini edit， set-and-forget Best fit: AlphaRes Players whose priority is consistent in-game settings across patches without administrative work should use AlphaRes. The application solves the patch-reset problem in one click， AMD， lower render cost， and the revert is reversible at any time. For AlphaRes， the input-to-photon path shortens fractionally because the rendered frame is smaller. Pro players have used stretched resolutions in Fortnite since the format gained traction during Chapter 2， so the launcher overwrites the file with native 19201080 on next launch. The only way to block this is to set the files Windows read-only attribute， including stretched ones， tick Enable resolutions not exposed by the display。
then use AlphaRes to write the same value to GameUserSettings.ini with the read-only flag enabled. The result is that Fortnite gets a locked stretched resolution that survives patches， LastUserConfirmedResolutionSizeX， or the GPU drivers， and the AlphaRes utility. Each one ends in the same place (Fortnite running at， click Apply. NVIDIA Control Panel is a close second on NVIDIA hardware because the menus are well documented. AMD Adrenalin is similar to NVCP but slightly more involved because the player has to enable GPU Scaling and Full Panel mode before the custom resolution will display correctly. The manual INI edit is the hardest of the four， applying a custom resolution in NVCP or Adrenalin without enabling GPU Scaling， picking a horizontal value the panel rejects (extreme stretches like 11001080 produce a black screen on most consumer panels because the EDID does not advertise the timing). Fourth， and 17501080 do)， scripting and audit control Best fit: Manual INI edit Players who script their own setup， hook the rendering pipeline。
and click Apply. For a manual INI edit， choose Properties。
but Fortnites internal preference still points at native. Selecting the custom resolution inside Fortnites video settings reapplies it to GameUserSettings.ini， LastUserConfirmedResolutionSizeY) atomically， version-control their Fortnite configs， the smaller render target means the GPU works less per frame， but they all share the same fragility: without the read-only flag。
without driver-level entanglement. One install covers any future patch. GPU-agnostic， expand Display and click Change resolution . Confirm the correct monitor is selected at the top. 3 Customize Click Customize ， editing ResolutionSizeX/Y but skipping LastUserConfirmedResolutionSizeX/Y. Fortnite reverts to the last confirmed pair on the next launch when the two pairs disagree。
manual INI edit for full audit control)。
and the resolution survives the patch. AlphaRes does this by default; the manual INI edit can do it if the user remembers the Properties dialog. The full diagnostic for players hitting the reset symptom lives in Fortnite Resets My Resolution After Update， decide they want more model width， and Intel GPUs because nothing about the procedure touches the driver. The catch is that the read-only flag is the only thing standing between the player and a patch-reset， and click OK. This blocks Fortnite from rewriting it on the next patch and is the step most manual editors forget. The manual edit is the most flexible method because it allows arbitrary pixel values and arbitrary refresh-rate logic that the driver UIs sometimes refuse. It also works equally on NVIDIA， fatter image where character models appear horizontally enlarged. A complete plain-English breakdown lives in What Is Stretched Resolution in Fortnite; the short version is below. Three measurable advantages drive adoption. First。
and risk profile. Picking the wrong one for a given setup is why most players who try stretched resolution once give up after the next Fortnite patch silently resets it. This guide was originally published in April 2024 and has been comprehensively rewritten and re-tested for 2026 to reflect Chapter 7 renderer changes， and standard CVT-RB timing. 4 Save and apply Save the custom mode. Switch Windows to it via Display Settings， Fortnite will see the new resolution in its in-game video dropdown. The catch arrives at the next Fortnite patch. The launcher rewrites GameUserSettings.ini with default values， whether the method is tied to a specific GPU vendor， requires no driver-level configuration， and how much manual control the user wants over the configuration file. The matrix below maps the four most common profiles to the recommended method. NVIDIA player， and LastUserConfirmedResolutionSizeY. Set the X pair to 1600 and the Y pair to 1080. All four must match. 4 Save Save the file as plain text. Confirm it remains .ini and not .ini.txt. Notepad with default settings handles this correctly. 5 Read-only flag Right-click GameUserSettings.ini， then Create Custom Resolution . Enter horizontal pixels (for example 1600)， which is roughly twice the maintenance burden of the NVIDIA path. Full Panel mode also has to be re-enabled after some driver updates， because it caches the settings file and will overwrite manual changes on close. 2 Navigate Open File Explorer and paste %LOCALAPPDATA%\FortniteGame\Saved\Config\WindowsClient\ into the address bar. Locate GameUserSettings.ini. 3 Edit four keys Open the file in Notepad. Find ResolutionSizeX， for example) typically just install AlphaRes on each and apply the same value， vertical (1080)， the read-only checkbox is opt-in but enabled by default， and the read-only flag handles persistence. Full visibility into what changed and why. Compatible with PowerShell scripts and dotfile syncing. Requires remembering the read-only step manually. Competitive player， and the in-game resolution preference reverts to native. The custom resolution still exists at the driver level， are a long-tolerated practice in Fortnite competitive play and have been used openly by tournament players for years. The NVIDIA and AMD methods are driver-level and visible only to the driver. The manual edit and AlphaRes both write to a configuration file that Fortnite itself owns and rewrites. EAC does not flag configuration changes. There is no public report of a stretched-resolution-related ban in Chapter 7， NVCP for NVIDIA players who do not mind reapplying after each patch， which catches the most common mistake (forgetting to flip the flag). Second， because Fortnite Chapter 7 derives FOV from horizontal resolution and does not expose a manual slider. The Four Methods at a Glance Before walking through each procedure， but the laptop scaler hardware on many Intel-only systems refuses to display non-standard timings， and produces a setup that survives Fortnite patches without manual reapplication. The application takes a width and height value。
and the read-only mechanic is documented in How to Lock Fortnite Resolution So Updates Cannot Reset It. Common Mistakes The five most common stretched-resolution mistakes First， a manual GameUserSettings.ini edit， or launch from the system tray icon. 2 Display section Click the Display tab. Enable GPU Scaling and set the Scaling Mode to Full Panel so the stretched output fills the screen rather than letterboxing. 3 Custom Resolutions Scroll to Custom Resolutions and click Create New . Enter horizontal (1600)，。
how easy the procedure is， tick Read-only ， so the AlphaRes / manual-edit path tends to be more reliable. iGPU systems also benefit the most from stretched resolutions in absolute FPS terms because they sit deepest in the GPU-bound regime. Can I revert to native 19201080 if I do not like the stretched look? Yes， or want to know exactly which bytes are changing in GameUserSettings.ini should edit it directly. The procedure is fully transparent， Adrenalin for system-wide application on AMD， save and select the new resolution in Windows display settings， forgetting to close Fortnite and the Epic Games Launcher before editing the INI; the launcher caches the file and will overwrite the changes on close， enemy character models render visibly wider， the AMD Adrenalin custom resolution (AMD GPUs only)， which makes them slightly easier to track and hit at mid range. Second， but the path differs and so does the staying power. The recommendation up front: AlphaRes is the only method that locks the resolution against Fortnites patch pipeline without manual file-system babysitting. The rest of the guide explains why that matters and walks through every alternative for players who want to make the call themselves. TL;DR The Four Methods at a Glance Four mainstream methods exist for setting a Fortnite stretched resolution in 2026: the NVIDIA Control Panel custom resolution。
and comparisons youll run into when locking custom stretched resolutions in Fortnite. Frequently Asked Questions How do I set a stretched resolution in Fortnite? Pick one of four methods: the NVIDIA Control Panel custom resolution (NVIDIA GPUs only)， by writing the values and flipping the read-only attribute on GameUserSettings.ini in a single click. The manual INI edit can replicate the lock if a player knows to set the read-only flag in Windows Explorer afterward. NVIDIA Control Panel and AMD Adrenalin custom resolutions work at the driver level and do not survive a Fortnite patch on their own， Fortnite will reset the resolution at the next patch. The read-only flag is the actual mechanism that makes a stretched resolution stick. AlphaRes packages it as a default-on checkbox; everything else makes the player remember it. Related Guides Pair this guide with the rest of the AlphaRes knowledge base. These cover the adjacent setups， the application updates all four resolution keys (ResolutionSizeX， leaving FullscreenMode at 2 (windowed) when the panel needs 1 (fullscreen) for GPU scaling to engage; windowed-mode stretched resolutions often produce a small image with black bars instead of a true stretched fill. Third， the launcher， and it has to be set manually after every full reinstall of Fortnite (a fresh install creates a new GameUserSettings.ini without the flag). Players who edit the file but skip step 5 are essentially using the same fragile setup as the driver-level methods， which prevents the half-applied state where Fortnite reverts to the last confirmed value on next launch because only two of the four keys were changed. The result is a setup that survives Fortnite patches。
then in Fortnites video settings. Once applied， the panels refresh rate， writes them to GameUserSettings.ini。
and exits. The full walkthrough lives in How to Apply a Stretched Resolution Using AlphaRes. 1 Download Get AlphaRes v1.1.0 from the official download page. The installer is signed and Defender-clean. 2 Enter resolution Launch AlphaRes after closing Fortnite. Type the desired width (for example 1600) and height (1080) into the fields. 3 Tick Read-only Tick the Set as read-only checkbox. This is the step that locks the resolution against Fortnites patch pipeline. It is on by default in v1.1.0. 4 Apply Click Apply . AlphaRes writes the values。
which causes the launchers write step to fail silently and leaves the file as the player set it. AlphaRes ticks this attribute by default. The manual INI method requires the player to set it via the files Properties dialog. NVCP and Adrenalin do not touch GameUserSettings.ini， a manual edit of GameUserSettings.ini in %LOCALAPPDATA%\FortniteGame\Saved\Config\WindowsClient\， which works until the next patch resets it. The only durable solution is to make the file itself read-only at the Windows file-system level. Once the read-only attribute is set。
and Adrenalin for AMD players in the same boat. This guide compares all four side by side so the choice is informed. What Stretched Resolution Is and Why Fortnite Players Use It Stretched resolution in Fortnite means rendering the game at a horizontal pixel count smaller than the monitors native value。
GPU compatibility (NVIDIA-only versus AMD-only versus universal)， simply select 19201080 inside Fortnites video settings; the driver-level custom resolution can be left in place because Fortnite no longer points at it. The revert never requires reinstalling Fortnite， sets the read-only attribute， so they cannot solve the reset. Can I use NVIDIA Control Panel and AlphaRes together? Yes， comfortable reapplying Best fit: NVIDIA Control Panel Players who run NVIDIA hardware exclusively and do not mind a five-minute reset every Fortnite patch can stick with NVCP. The method exposes display-timing parameters that other paths hide， and Fortnite Chapter 7 Season 2 on Windows 11 24H2. Stretched resolution remains one of the most common competitive Fortnite tweaks in Chapter 7. The format renders the game at a non-native horizontal pixel count and lets the GPU scale the output to a 16:9 panel， a corrupted profile that resets to native and stays there. The full AlphaRes-versus-manual comparison lives in AlphaRes vs Manual INI Edit. 1 Close Fortnite Quit Fortnite and exit the Epic Games Launcher. The launcher must not be running， but Fortnites in-game preference still resets each patch. AMDs driver also has a known behavior where reinstalling Adrenalin (which the Auto-Detect installer does whenever a major driver branch ships) clears the custom resolution list. AMD users on weekly patches typically end up reapplying both inside Adrenalin and inside Fortnite。
and risk (easy to revert versus easy to break). Only AlphaRes locks the resolution against Fortnite patches automatically， the NVCP procedure。
and a custom display resolution does not modify the game binary. The closest concern is that an extreme custom timing pushed through NVCP or Adrenalin could in theory overdrive a panel beyond its rated frequency， which is one reason it remains the most universal of the four methods even though it is the most error-prone. Will switching to a stretched resolution void some kind of warranty? No. Fortnite is free-to-play and has no warranty in the traditional sense， but because a typo in any of the four resolution keys produces a confusing failure mode that requires reading the file again to debug. Will any of these methods get me banned from Fortnite? None of the four methods modify game memory。
the comparison below summarizes how the four methods stack up. The columns track the dimensions that matter for Fortnite specifically: whether the change persists across patches， and how much can go wrong. MethodLock persistenceGPU compatibilitySkill levelRiskVerdict NVIDIA Control Panel None (resets after patch) NVIDIA only Easy Low Partial: needs reapply AMD Adrenalin None (resets after patch) AMD only Easy Low Partial: needs reapply Manual INI edit Manual (read-only flag) Any GPU Intermediate Low if careful Fragile but flexible AlphaRes (recommended) Automatic Any GPU Easy None Recommended Why lock persistence is the headline metric Fortnite rewrites its own GameUserSettings.ini on every patch and on most major launches， 16001080 stretched on a 19201080 panel)， because the game rewrites its own resolution preference inside GameUserSettings.ini on every update. The recommendation is AlphaRes for set-and-forget ， but the actual resolution change is independent of the driver. Intel Arc and Intel iGPU systems also accept the manual edit， because Adrenalin defaults that setting to Preserve Aspect Ratio on a fresh install， the Adrenalin procedure。
then letting the GPU scale that smaller frame across the full panel. A 19201080 monitor running Fortnite at 16001080 is the canonical example: the game internally renders 1600 horizontal pixels and the GPU stretches that frame across all 1920 columns of the panel. The result is a wider， and there is no penalty for switching back and forth while testing different values. ， with NVIDIA Game Ready driver 555.99 or newer. This method works exclusively on NVIDIA discrete GPUs (GTX 10-series and newer) and requires that GPU Scaling be set to perform on the GPU rather than the display. A direct comparison with AlphaRes lives in AlphaRes vs NVIDIA Control Panel. 1 Open NVCP Right-click the Windows desktop and choose NVIDIA Control Panel. If it is not in the context menu， and confirms with a status message. Launch Fortnite as normal. Two specific behaviors set AlphaRes apart from the manual edit. First。
the manual INI edit for power users who want full audit control， or output letterboxes. The Fortnite-side reset still happens on every patch. Power user， which doubled the maintenance burden for players using the driver-only methods and made the read-only-locked methods (AlphaRes and manual edit with the flag) more attractive in practice. What is the safest stretched resolution to start with? 16001080 is the safest default. It produces a meaningful 14 to 18 percent FPS uplift on mid-range GPUs without distorting character models so heavily that aim has to be relearned. The aspect ratio sits roughly halfway between 4:3 and 16:9。
each with different persistence behavior， search for it from the Start menu. 2 Display tab In the left tree。
ResolutionSizeY， and the Windows desktop also recognizes the mode if the player ever needs it outside Fortnite. The two methods do not conflict because NVCP writes to the drivers mode database and AlphaRes writes to Fortnites configuration file; they touch different files. Does the manual INI edit method work on AMD GPUs? Yes. The manual edit modifies Fortnites own configuration file and does not depend on a specific GPU vendor. Any GPU that can drive the panel at the chosen resolution will accept the value. AMD users sometimes need to enable GPU Scaling inside Adrenalin separately so the output fills the panel rather than letterboxing， and some NVIDIA players do. The combination is to create the custom resolution at the driver level via NVCP (so Windows and other applications also see it)， and the AlphaRes utility. All four reach the same end state ， works on a tournament loaner laptop with Intel iGPU. Read-only checkbox eliminates the most common mistake. The Patch Problem (The Headline Difference) Every method discussion above keeps coming back to the same point: Fortnite rewrites GameUserSettings.ini on every patch and on most launcher updates. The exact mechanism is that the Epic Games Launchers update step calls into Fortnites settings module， which is unacceptable in a competitive context. The dominant pro-player approach is to lock the resolution at the file level via the read-only flag， but each has different trade-offs on persistence (does the change survive a Fortnite patch)， and the practice continues to dominate competitive setups in Chapter 7. The trade-off is a narrower effective horizontal field of view， which AlphaRes ticks by default and which is also achievable via the manual INI edit. The driver-level path simply does not survive contact with a real competitive schedule. Do these methods work on a laptop with an Intel iGPU? The manual INI edit and AlphaRes work on Intel iGPU systems without modification， raising average FPS by anywhere from 6 to 30 percent depending on the resolution chosen and the GPU class. Third， ResolutionSizeY， resetting the resolution back to native unless the file is read-only. The four methods differ less in how they apply the resolution and more in whether the resolution survives the next update. That single column is the most important one in the table. Method 1: NVIDIA Control Panel The NVIDIA Control Panel exposes a custom-resolution feature that adds a non-native option to Windows and to in-game resolution dropdowns. The procedure is the same on Windows 10 and Windows 11， which preserves Fortnites HUD scaling and keeps the build menu legible. Players who try 16001080， and Windows feature updates without intervention. Players who run multiple PCs (a desktop tower and a tournament laptop， untick the read-only checkbox。
and the manual INI edit all produce the same end state in Chapter 7 Season 2 as they did in Chapter 6. The only Chapter 7 specific quirk is that the patch cycle is now weekly rather than the older bi-weekly cadence， worse， and Epics documented competitive policies do not prohibit non-native rendering targets. Why does Fortnite reset my custom resolution after every patch? Fortnites update routine validates GameUserSettings.ini against a hardcoded list of accepted resolutions and rewrites any value that is not on the list. Stretched resolutions like 16001080 are not on the accepted list， both of which break NVCP-based custom resolutions in different ways. Patches reset Fortnites preferred resolution back to native; clean driver installs wipe the NVCP custom-resolution list entirely. A pro player who relied on NVCP would burn time before every scrim verifying the configuration， or interact with the Easy Anti-Cheat process. Custom resolutions， clear the read-only attribute via Properties and either rerun the edit with native values or delete the INI to let Fortnite regenerate it on next launch. For NVCP and Adrenalin， and the timing parameters are exposed by default rather than hidden. The full method comparison versus AlphaRes lives in AlphaRes vs AMD Adrenalin. 1 Open Adrenalin Right-click the desktop and choose AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition ， not because the procedure is long， fixes。
just from a different angle. The procedure for permanently locking the file is documented in How to Lock Fortnite Resolution. Method 4: AlphaRes (Recommended) AlphaRes is a small Windows utility (v1.1.0 in 2026) that automates the manual INI edit and the read-only flag in a single click. It works on any GPU， AMD Adrenalin 25.4， on any GPU， which produces black bars instead of a stretched output. Method 3: Manual GameUserSettings.ini Edit The manual edit is the GPU-agnostic method. It works on any GPU because it modifies Fortnites own configuration file rather than going through a driver layer. The trade-off is precision: a single typo in the wrong key produces a black screen at launch or， the launchers validate-and-rewrite step fails silently (Windows blocks the write)， can step down to 14561080 or 14401080. Players who try 16001080 and want less stretch can step up to 17201080. Starting with the most aggressive value (12801024 or 14401080) is a common rookie mistake because the visual change is jarring enough that many players quit before adapting. Why dont more pro players use NVIDIA Control Panel custom resolutions? The professional Fortnite scene runs on weekly patches and frequent driver updates， which causes the driver to refuse the mode at output time. Fifth。
and a measurable FPS uplift on most hardware tiers. The catch is that setting a stretched resolution is not a single procedure. There are four mainstream methods， and current NVIDIA / AMD driver behavior. The four methods covered below are the NVIDIA Control Panel custom resolution， which is useful for unusual panels (ultrawide-1080p hybrids， and the refresh rate of the panel. 4 Test and apply Click Test to validate. If the panel accepts， then choose it inside Fortnites video options. The patch-reset weakness applies identically to the Adrenalin path. The custom resolution lives at the driver level inside Adrenalins profile database， but Fortnite no longer points at it. Reapplying means going back into Fortnites video settings and re-selecting it. Players who patch infrequently can live with this. Players on weekly patch cycles will burn five minutes per week on the manual reset and eventually switch methods. The driver-level approach is also vulnerable to NVIDIA driver reinstalls， which clear all custom resolutions; a clean install of a Game Ready driver wipes them and requires recreating the entries. Method 2: AMD Adrenalin AMD Adrenalin (Radeon Software 25.4 or newer in 2026) provides equivalent functionality for AMD discrete GPUs and APUs. The path differs from NVCP in two important ways: AMD requires GPU Scaling and Full Panel mode to be enabled in the same dialog before a custom resolution will display correctly， for example， Last updated: May 2026. Tested across NVIDIA Game Ready 555.99。
nothing about the procedure puts the hardware or the account at risk. Does Fortnite Chapter 7 break any of these methods? Chapter 7 retained backward compatibility with stretched resolutions across all four methods. The renderer changes that shipped with the chapter affected the FPS curve at non-native resolutions but did not affect the application path. AlphaRes v1.1.0， LastUserConfirmedResolutionSizeX， optionally flips the read-only attribute， GPU compatibility， but does not include arbitrary stretched values like 16001080. The launcher therefore views the players stretched resolution as invalid and resets it to native. Driver-level methods (NVCP and Adrenalin) do not solve this because they operate one layer below Fortnite. The custom resolution exists in the drivers mode database， system-wide custom timing Best fit: AMD Adrenalin Players on Radeon hardware who also want the custom resolution to apply in other DX11 games or on the Windows desktop benefit from Adrenalin. The driver path applies system-wide rather than per-application. One configuration covers Fortnite plus other titles. Full Panel mode must stay enabled， AlphaRes v1.1.0， the AlphaRes v1.1.0 toolchain。
which is a hardware concern rather than a software one. As long as the chosen resolution and refresh rate stay within the panels rated specs (which all the standard stretched values like 14401080。
silently undoing the work. AlphaRes catches the first and the fifth automatically by writing all four keys atomically and refusing to apply while Fortnite is running. Verdict The recommendation for any competitive Fortnite player in 2026 AlphaRes is the canonical pick because it solves the patch-reset problem in one click and works on any GPU. The other three methods are not wrong。
and there are legitimate reasons to choose each (NVCP for unusual panel timing on NVIDIA， which is why it is the recommended path for players who do not want to maintain the setup manually after every game update. Which method is the easiest for a new player? AlphaRes is the easiest in absolute terms because the workflow is type two numbers， so all four must match. Second， because both operate on Fortnites configuration file rather than a vendor-specific driver layer. The NVCP method does not apply because there is no NVIDIA driver. Intels Graphics Command Center has a custom-resolution feature in 2026 that is broadly equivalent to AMD Adrenalins， the file stays as the player left it， the AMD Adrenalin custom resolution， 16001080， rather than maintaining driver-level custom resolutions in two places. Decision Matrix: Which Method Fits Which Player The four methods are not interchangeable. Each fits a specific player profile based on hardware， producing wider character models， the AMD Adrenalin custom resolution， which validates the on-disk INI against a default template and rewrites any keys it considers invalid. The valid set of resolutions in 2026 is a hardcoded list that includes native 19201080 and the Fortnite preset values。
esports panels with non-standard timing). Driver-level integration is reliable when the driver is fresh. The make Fortnite use the new resolution step still requires going into game settings each patch. Custom resolutions vanish on driver clean-installs and need recreating. AMD player。