Hi everyone! I’m reaching out to the community here because I think what I’m trying to is nigh impossible but I thought I would ask. I recently bought a new 4k 160hz monitor and have been a bit in a conundrum regarding FFXIV.
I want to keep the game in Borderless Windowed mode as it’s an MMO and I multitask a lot while playing it. That in itself is no problem although I also use a ReShade RayTracing shader making the game almost unplayable in 4k.
Now here’s the solutions I tried so far:
Setting the Desktop resolution to 1440p before starting the game:
Works but due to Windows being Windows and using different scaling amounts for 1440p and 4k my open windows all start to resize randomly once I switch back to 4k
Setting a global 150% scaling in Windows:
That actually works and makes shifting to 1440p before starting the game and back quite painless however due to Windows setting the custom scaling for all monitors my second, 1080p display now looks comically huge
Forcing the game to scale to 150% DPI via the Windows Compatibility Settings:
That’s an interesting one, once I do that I can maintain the 4k desktop resolution and the game actually renders in 1440p in Borderless Mode. However whatever the compatibility settings do prevent the Flip Model upgrade so G-Sync never engages. I can work around this by enabling G-Sync for Windowed Mode but it’s still quite stuttery compared to proper, Full Screen G-Sync.
Letting the game run in 1440p Windowed and then using Borderless Gaming or Lossless Scaling to “fullscreen” it:
Works too although G-Sync never engages.
Adding SpecialK into the mix:
I tried to add SpecialK into the mix for the Swap Chain management together with the DPI override. The game renders fine in 1440p and thanks to SpecialK G-sync engages but now the UI elements and ReShade have a wrong FrameBuffer resolution making all text disappear and ReShade work incorrectly.
And last but not least, actually running the game in 1440p fullscreen:
That works and G-Sync of course works just fine but that messes with the window layout in Windows and on the second monitor not to mention that this 4k 160hz monitor, as much as I like it, takes about 10-15 seconds to switch resolution making ALT+TABing very painful in that state.
So yeah it seems no matter what I do I can’t win. Any ideas or tips from the smart people here would be greatly appreciated!
For reference:
GPU: RTX 4070
Monitor: Cooler Master Tempest GP27U
Windows 11 23H2
EDIT: For anyone who finds this, I fixed it!
I set up the DPI trick again with the .exe and the scaling override and then in SpecialK unticked “Ignore DPI”
Now after a relaunch of the game I just have to go once into the options and select either Borderless or Fullscreen, whatever isn’t currently selected. After this the game renders at 1440p while the Desktop Resolution is still 4k, Hardware Independent Flip activates, G-Sync works and I can happily Alt+Tab, thank you SpecialK!