AMD GPU Scaling: makes the gaming experience full of fun

AMD GPU Scaling

Hello, gamers out there!! You all might know about AMD GPU scaling perks as it makes the gaming experience full of fun, pleasure, and refreshment. But I am sure some of the things about AMD GPU scaling that you are unaware of are on your way. The screen is one of the primary requirements for any kind of entertainment or work done using the software. Let us start from there.

Starting from the start:

One of the important use of screens is for watching videos and playing games and to enjoy these experiences we keep opting for better quality screens. Let the screen be CRT, LED or LCD, the quality of the screen is decided by its size in general terms, the bigger, the better. But what it means is, big size screen is more number of pixels. Pixel is one point on the screen which is square-shaped. A whole lot of pixels together form a screen. These pixels are so small and so closely placed that they give an illusion of a whole jointless screen. More the number of pixels on the screen better is the quality of the screen. This also leads to a better resolution of the screen. Now is the time to introduce the term scaling after getting to know the concept of pixels and resolution.

Scaling:

Scaling in simple terms is the number of pixels used to display an image. For instance, to explain this concept, let us take an example of a part of an image. A particular part of an image uses 20 pixels in its normal size. If we double the scaling, the same part of the image will use from the screen. But one of the constraints of scaling is the fixed size of the screen. Hence scaling can be done to a limited extent. Beyond it, the image or video may fall apart or can be unrecognizable.

Sizes of the screen do matter:

The aspect ratio i.e., width by length measurements of the screens of the PCs or desktop we use nowadays, maybe 16:11 or 16:9, etc. That is, the screen size varies vividly. It is not necessary that every software, game, or video you use may be of the same aspect ratio as of your screen. The older games mostly are of the aspect ratio of 5:4 or in this range. In this case, the tool GPU scaling comes into the picture. GPU scaling is a graphic processing unit. Mostly the AMD GPU scaling is used for gaming, videos, or software like CAD, etc.

AMD is the manufacturer of this graphic card. The full form of AMD is Advanced Micro Devices, which is an American multinational semiconductor company.  The function of this tool is to optimize the setting and gain the most from the screen by adjusting the screen resolution and scaling automatically when the tool is enabled.

But while using this tool, one may experience a time lag in real-time, since this is the processing time. Though the range of the time lag lies in milliseconds, it is still one of the aspects that must be considered. My laptop has an AMD graphic card of a 2 Gb RAM, hence I experience a lag of a couple of milliseconds while starting a game. In short, AMD GPU is a graphic adaptor.

In some cases, the graphic card comes inbuilt with the CPU, while in other cases, if it is not available, then it is to be installed separately.

Have I enabled GPU scaling on my screen?

So, how do you understand whether this toolset is enabled on your PC? Let us consider the real-time scenario. When I play the game GTA Vice city on my laptop, which has a 2Gb graphics card, I see that there are black lines (black bars) on the upper and the lower side. Or in case I play some other game, there are black lines to the left and the right. This may be because my setting of GPU is not enabled. Hence this is the time to turn on my setting of GPU. We will see how to turn on this setting further in detail. Now let us consider I have enabled my GPU setting. But how?

Steps for enabling GPU scaling:

1. Right-click on the screen
2. Select AMD Radeon software
3. Click on setting and select display from the ribbon bar.
4. Enable the GPU set by the toggle button beside
5. Select the required mode by opting for the scaling option
6. You may now close Radeon software.

Wallah!! Here you have enabled the GPU settings.

Modes of operation:

Each person has a different preference, considering this there are various modes in GPU scaling. You can opt for your favorite mode anytime. While enabling this setting, there, I see three modes:

Maintain aspect ratio

The function of this mode is to improve the quality of the image without changing the aspect ratio.

In my PC, when I enable this mode, the game will be displayed with the same size but with better resolution. While the remaining screen will be filled with black spaces, also called black bars.

Scale size to full normal size

The function of this mode is to stretch the image and fill the whole screen with the image.

In my PC, when I enable this mode, the game will be displayed throughout the screen. Imagine an image of aspect ratio 5:4 stretched to 16:9. The image will, of course, lose its quality and may seem blurred out. Hence I don’t recommend using this model. It’s not a compulsion, though; interests may vary person to person.

Centre trimming

The function of this mode is to just place the image in the center of the screen in its original form. This function neither uses scaling nor improves resolution.

In my PC, when I enable this mode, the image of the game in its original aspect ratio and original quality just is placed in the center of the screen, and the whole remaining space is filled with black space or black bars. Though this may sound like it is not very useful, this is mostly used to gain the originality of the game or video. Sometimes this mode brings a cluster of memories. Aren’t I right?

Though you follow all the steps and enable the GPU setting, it does not mean that the black bars will disappear. They will appear while maintaining the best possible picture quality according to the mode you have selected. Still, if one wishes to remove these black bars, they can opt for HDMI scaling by AMD. This is an extended version of GPU scaling.

Processing time:

There might be a time lag while enabling the GPU tool. The screen even might go black for fractions of seconds. This is just the part of the process and hence called as processing time. But the time lag must be as less as possible for better performance.

Possible doubts you may have:

FPS is frames per second. This is a measurement unit of the number of unique images a particular camera can handle consecutively. This can also be termed as the rate at which the screen of a PC is refreshed to maintain the quality of the image. If the FPS is low, you can see the flicker on the screen. In old computers, this flicker was visible. But nowadays, the FPS is at a high frequency such that one cannot point out the flicker. The maximum FPS can lie up to 240FPS. For an enjoyable gaming experience, 60FPS to 120FPS is sufficient. There is a misconception that the GPU scaling tool affects the FPS of a device. Let me clear the confusion. The GPU scaling function does not affect the FPS.

What is new in the market?

The GPU series, which is supported by AMD, is Southern islands, Sea Islands, Volcanic Islands, Arctic islands, Vega, and Navi. Out of the series, the latest GPU is Navi found in 2019 with the name Radeon RX5000. AMD has also stepped into the medical field by launching a series of embedded GPUs. Virtual super-resolution is also technology available in AMD GPU scaling, but it is not available for all games. This technology allows you to simulate up to 4k quality even if the screen has a capacity of 1080p.

Who needs to consider enabling this tool?

In conclusion, the main purpose of GPU scaling is to improve the quality and experience for gamers who like to play games of older versions. The same applies to videos or even work software. But if one is interested in only newer games or uses only updated versions of software, for those people, what is the use of GPU scaling? For them, the GPU scaling will only add time lag i.e., input lag. Since newer games will be designed with the aspect ratios like 16:9 or 21:11 etc. That is, if the aspect ratio of the application software matches the aspect ratio of the screen, there is no use of GPU scaling in this case.

But a common person cannot keep on updating the screen at home with the improving technology while the market keeps on flooding with new software and new ideas. Hence it is necessary to consider AMD graphics card while an original purchase is intended to give benefit in the long run of technology.

Conclusion

In conclusion, AMD GPU Scaling makes the gaming experience full of fun, pleasure, and refreshment. We have discussed the methods to AMD GPU Scaling. Hope you able to do it. Put you feedback or query below.