What stretched resolution really does
Most monitors are 16:9. A 4:3 resolution such as 1440x1080 is narrower. When your graphics card stretches it to fill the screen, everything in the game is drawn wider: player models, doors and items look fatter, and side-to-side movement looks faster. In most modern games, including Counter-Strike 2, a 4:3 picture also shows a little less at the left and right edges than 16:9. So stretched is a trade: bigger-looking targets in the middle, a bit less at the sides. Neither choice is wrong. It is a preference, and many professional Counter-Strike players use it.
How this calculator picks a resolution
The calculator lists every common 4:3, 5:4 and 16:10 resolution that fits your monitor and scores it on three things:
- Sharpness. Any resolution below your native one is scaled up, which softens the picture. The more of your monitor's vertical pixels a resolution keeps, the sharper it stays. That is why 1440x1080 is the sharpest 4:3 option on a 1080p monitor: it keeps all 1080 lines.
- Stretch amount. This is how much wider everything looks, from 0% (no stretch) to about 33% for 4:3 on a 16:9 screen. 5:4 stretches more, 16:10 much less.
- Pixels to render. Fewer pixels means less work for your graphics card, which can raise FPS when the GPU is the limit. In CPU-heavy games such as Rust the gain is often small, so the calculator does not promise a number.
"Stretched, but sharp" favors full-height resolutions, "More FPS" favors fewer pixels, and "Only a little stretch" favors 16:10.
Black bars instead of a stretched picture?
This is the most common problem. A 4:3 image on a 16:9 monitor gets black bars unless something is told to fill the screen. On NVIDIA, set the scaling mode to Full-screen and perform scaling on the GPU. On AMD, turn on GPU Scaling with Full panel. On Intel, choose Stretch. Then check your monitor's own menu: if its aspect setting is on Aspect or 1:1, set it to Full. Our black bars fix walks through every case, including laptops and multiple monitors.
Keep your refresh rate
A lower resolution does not have to lower your refresh rate. When you create a custom resolution, type your monitor's real refresh rate (the calculator fills it in for you). If Windows only offers 60 Hz for the new resolution, delete it and create it again at 144, 165 or 240 Hz. Check the result in Windows Settings, System, Display, Advanced display.
Borderless or fullscreen?
In borderless windowed mode the game uses your Windows desktop resolution, so you switch Windows to the stretched resolution before you launch the game. In exclusive fullscreen the game sets the resolution itself, so you pick the stretched resolution in the game's video settings. Both work. Borderless makes alt-tab instant and lets overlays such as FPS counters and crosshairs show on top.
Which resolution for which monitor
1080p (1920x1080)
1440x1080 for the sharpest 4:3, 1280x960 for more FPS, 1280x1024 for a 5:4 look, 1680x1050 for a light 16:10 stretch.
1440p (2560x1440)
1920x1440 keeps every line and is the sharpest. 1440x1080 is lighter and very popular because it is the same resolution many players know from 1080p.
4K (3840x2160)
2880x2160 is full-height 4:3 but very heavy. Most players pick 1920x1440 or 1440x1080 for FPS; both scale reasonably on a 4K panel.
Ultrawide
On 21:9 monitors a 4:3 image stretches by more than 75%, which most players find too much. 16:9 or 16:10 resolutions are a better choice there, and the calculator shows how much each one stretches.
Is stretched resolution allowed?
Yes. Changing your resolution and your graphics driver's scaling are normal Windows and driver settings in every game. Some games limit what they show at 4:3 (for example by adding black bars on purpose), which the game note above explains for your game.
Switching back and forth
The part you repeat is changing the Windows resolution before you play and back after. PixelForge does that in one click with presets for 1440x1080, 1280x1024, 1280x960, 1600x900 and 1024x768, or any custom size and refresh rate. Press Restore normal when you are done. If a mode ever leaves you with a black screen, the old resolution comes back by itself after 15 seconds. See the stretched resolution switcher.