Stretched resolution widens a game’s native 16:9 aspect ratio to increase the width of objects on the screen. Stretched resolutions are commonly used in competitive FPS games to improve framerates and make targets easier to hit. This article covers everything you need to know about stretched resolution in Apex Legends.
Table of Contents
How to get stretched resolution in Apex Legends
Here’s how you can get stretched resolution in Apex Legends with a couple of simple steps:
- Launch Apex Legends and select the settings icon in the bottom right corner of the screen.
- Select the Video tab at the top of the screen and pick your desired Aspect Ratio and Resolution settings. Click Apply in the bottom right corner to save your new setting preferences.
The Firing Range is the ideal place to adjust and test any Apex Legends settings. To enter the Firing Range, go to the main menu and click on the area where game modes are selected. Choose the Firing Range game mode in the upper left corner of the screen and press Ready to enter the range.
Apex Legends stretched resolution with no black bars
Some monitors might display black bars at the top and bottom of the screen with stretched resolution using the above instructions for Apex Legends. Here are the steps to remove those pesky black bars for a full-screen stretched resolution experience.
- Open the NVIDIA Control Panel on your PC (follow similar instructions for AMD graphics cards) by right-clicking the background of your desktop.
- Select Change resolution under Display settings, select Customize, and check the box marked “Enable resolutions not exposed by the display.” Then choose Create Custom Resolution.
- Input your desired resolution, e.g., 1440×1080 for 4:3 stretched resolution. Click test to create your new custom resolution.
- Next, go to where your Apex Legends game files are located and find the videoconfig.txt file. Right-click on the file to bring up Properties and uncheck the box labeled “Read-only.”
- Open the videoconfig.txt file and change the “setting.defaultres” and “setting.defaultresheight” parameters to your desired resolution (1440×1080 for this example). Save the file to apply the changes.
- Right-click on the videoconfig.txt file again, go to Properties, and re-check the box labeled “Read-only.”
- Now, go to your Apex Legends game launcher, right-click on Apex Legends, and select Properties. Enter this text in the Launch Options area: +mat_letterbox_aspect_goal 0 +mat_letterbox_aspect_threshold 0 +building_cubemaps “1”
- Launch Apex Legends and wait at the screen that says “Click to Continue” before continuing to the main menu. Press Alt + Enter, which will take the game into a windowed mode, then press Alt + Enter again. (You must repeat this step every time you launch the game.)
- Enter the game, and Apex Legends should be running in stretched resolution with no black bars!
Should you play Apex Legends on stretched resolution?
Competitive FPS players have been using stretched res in games like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive for years to gain an edge on their opponents. But Apex Legends players should consider what they are trying to achieve when playing the game before deciding if a stretched resolution is right for them.
Pro tip
It can take time to adjust to new settings before seeing improvement. Give yourself at least one week of playtime before deciding if a stretched resolution is right for you.
Competitive players looking to improve their Apex Legends gameplay might use a stretched resolution to make targets easier to hit. A stretched resolution will make character models seem bigger, making them easier to track.
Content creators and casual players may want to stay away from using stretched resolutions. Image quality is usually a priority for casual players and content creators, and using stretched resolutions can downscale and distort the native image quality.
Professional Apex Legends players and stretched resolution
We analyzed professional Apex Legends players’ settings from pros we track on-site. Here are the resolutions the best players are using:
- 85% of pro players we track on-site use Apex Legend’s native aspect ratio of 16:9.
- The 15% of pro players that use a stretched resolution also use a 16:10 aspect ratio.
The data shows that most professional Apex Legends players prefer using a native aspect ratio over stretched resolution. It’s safe to assume that since many pros are also content creators, they aren’t willing to sacrifice native image quality in favor of performance.
Does stretched resolution affect Apex Legends framerates?
Yes, a stretched, downscaled version of Apex Legend’s native 1920×1080 resolution will improve FPS and make the game perform better on PC. However, it’s unnecessary to stretch the resolution when downscaling from 1920×1080.
If you don’t want to play on stretched resolution, a better option to improve performance is to downscale resolutions while maintaining a 16:9 aspect ratio. For example, choosing a resolution of 1280×720 will maintain Apex Legend’s native 16:9 aspect ratio while significantly increasing performance and FPS.
Playing on a downscaled resolution is a good option if your computer can’t maintain a consistent 60 FPS while playing Apex Legends. Check out our Apex Legends FOV guide for more information on settings that can improve framerate and gameplay.
