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When I press the power button, the boot logo and the loading circle is in low resolution and is stretched (probably because it's in 4:3). It becomes normal (2560x1440) in the login screen. Integrated GPU is disabled. The monitor is connected to the GPU via DisplayPort cable.

soshimee_
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    Is the system booting in UEFI or "legacy"/BIOS mode? (Only UEFI supports high-res boot screens.) Is the resolution correct when you use the integrated GPU? – u1686_grawity May 31 '22 at 05:51

2 Answers2

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Ok, different solution to a different boot logo. Maybe the one you initially meant anyway?

I managed to get a high res initial Windows boot logo, no more switching of resolutions during Windows' boot sequence.

  1. Open an command shell as Administrator.
  2. Type in bcdedit /set {globalsettings} highestmode on if you use cmd.exe or bcdedit /set "{globalsettings}" highestmode on if you use PowerShell.
  3. Reboot.

The Windows boot logo and loading circle will be at your monitor's native resolution.

BCDEdit (Boot Configuration Data) is a tool that comes with Windows to change various aspects of the Windows boot process.

What does the {globalsettings} do? It changes the resolution to native not only for the normal Windows boot up, which has the identifier {current}, but also for recovery mode {some-GUID-I-won't-type-out}, memory test {memdiag}, the boot manager {bootmgr} and so on. I guess. I haven't tested those boot entries yet. If you don't want that you can ommit {globalsettings} and it will only change it for {current}, i.e. your normal bootup. If you are interesting in what identifiers there are you can type in bcdedit /? ID or bcdedit /enum ALL.

I haven't found an easy 100% sure way to force the UEFI BIOS setup menu to 4K or some other widescreen resolution, as it is totally unaffected by Windows settings. Disabling legacy CSM might work as @user1686 has suggested. On my system though even with the latest BIOS it didn't work.

Sampeet
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  • Yes, I already have CSM disabled (because I have experiences with OS's that only support UEFI without CSM. – soshimee_ Jun 01 '22 at 03:07
  • It does change the resolution to the monitor's resolution, but for some weird reason it now tiles small loading screens multiple times. – soshimee_ Jun 01 '22 at 03:09
  • Then you should set it to off again: bcdedit /set "{globalsettings}" highestmode off. And try to set it to a specific resolution, for example: bcdedit /set "{globalsettings}" graphicsresolution 1920x1080 – Sampeet Jun 02 '22 at 11:18
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    It doesn't tile anymore for some reason, but the manufacturer logo is at the corner of the screen (but the loading icon isn't) – soshimee_ Jun 03 '22 at 05:45
  • Thanks a lot, man! It worked really well – lad May 30 '23 at 19:19
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This is done by your graphics card. At boot time it is set to stretch the graphics mode of your mobo's setup BIOS screen which is still 4:3 for legacy or nostalgic reasons to the 16:10 aspect of your modern monitor. 4:3 BIOS setup fully stretched to 16:10 is what the issue is. Maybe some of the latest UEFI setups can be set to a 16:10 graphics mode, but that's still not the standard for the BIOS/UEFI bootup setup menu and the initial Windows logo, unfortunately the standard in 2022 is still a 4:3 graphics mode.

You'd have to edit your graphics card's BIOS in order to have the correct aspect ratio at boot time. It sucks, but it's what >90% of gfx cards nowadays do. Normally only the drivers can set the gfx card from fullscreen stretch to 1:1 aspect ratio. I had some gfx card back in the day that would stretch the 4:3 text mode of the mobo's BIOS setup in a 1:1 fashion, or not resize it at all and then I'd have a small thumbnail in the middle of my screen.

There are tools out there to read out, edit and then reflash your gfx card's BIOS and I'm pretty sure some of them let me set the resizing method at boot time when I tinkered with overclocking a decade ago. I don't know if modern gfx cards still let you do this though. An alternative would be to buy a different graphics card. Or just accept the unacceptable and live with it.

EDIT: If you use DisplayPort instead of HDMI. High res UEFI setup can become unavailable or the screen might even be black until Windows starts. This is because your gfx card lacks full DP 1.3/1.4 support via its BIOS and needs the driver for that. NVIDIA has provided a tool to check whether your gfx card needs a BIOS update.

Sampeet
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    Modern graphics cards support high resolutions via EFI GOP (providing a minimal driver to the firmware, similar to VESA video modes in the past), so both the OEM logo and the Windows boot screen can be shown at 16:9 1920x1080 without any editing or reflashing. – u1686_grawity May 31 '22 at 07:54
  • I use UEFI boot, and my BIOS has option to reflash (although I'm not sure if it's safe to reflash to an edited one that wasn't verified). Not sure if I should buy a new graphics card just for this since the current one is expensive enough. – soshimee_ May 31 '22 at 07:54
  • @user1686 Never knew that, but do you mind elaborating on it more so I know exactly what it is? – soshimee_ May 31 '22 at 07:58
  • @user1686 Do these minimal drivers actually exist (for all gfx cards) are they universal? And are they obtainable for end users/mere mortals? That would be more convenient than reflashing the gfx card's BIOS, of course. I'd be interested in this for myself as well because I find the UEFI and Windows bootup screens being stretched from 4:3 to 16:10 annoying as well. – Sampeet May 31 '22 at 08:08
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    soshimee_: That option is for flashing the BIOS of your motherboard, I was referring to the BIOS of your gfx card. You need third party tools to read, edit and flash your gfx card's own BIOS. It's risky and probably not worth it unless you really hate that low resolution. Ofc you shouldn't buy a new card for this, not to mention that you'll only find out after installing and booting it whether it sets the correct aspect ratio. Also this method will only change the method by which the image is stretched, it won't set a higher resolution at bootup since that can only be done by UEFI and Windows. – Sampeet May 31 '22 at 08:09
  • @Sampeet: For integrated GPUs they usually come with the system, for newer external GPUs they're also part of the GPU itself (similar to how there used to be "VGA BIOS" in the past). Not all GPUs have UEFI-compatible drivers embedded (older ones did not), but for those which do, if your system is set to "UEFI only" boot (not mixed UEFI/legacy!), it tends to just work by default. – u1686_grawity May 31 '22 at 08:16
  • @user1686 Cool, I gotta try that out. But also when the EFI GOP sets a higher resolution, won't Windows fall back to a low resultion 4:3 legacy mode until it loads its own driver? – Sampeet May 31 '22 at 08:16
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    @Sampeet: In my experience, no, it will also use the high resolution mode. I've done a few fresh installs of Win10 recently (on ASUS and ASrock motherboards with integrated GPUs) – if the firmware settings still have CSM enabled then the OEM logo shows up at 1024x768, if I disable CSM then the logo is at native resolution. And similarly if I boot the Win10 install ISO in legacy mode it's at 1024x768, if I boot in UEFI mode it's native 1920x1080, and the newly installed system also uses 1920x1080 even with "Microsoft Basic Display". (That's 16:9, I don't think we have any 16:10 monitors here.) – u1686_grawity May 31 '22 at 09:19
  • @user1686 I tried disabling CSM and unfortunately this didn't change the bootup resolution on my system. I installed the latest BIOS just yesterday. – Sampeet May 31 '22 at 10:07
  • _What is it with CSM Mode misinformation?_ @Sampeet **[CSM Mode](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Extensible_Firmware_Interface#CSM_booting) should never be enabled for an OS** since its _sole purpose_ was to support distros that didn't yet support EFI boot circa <2017 _(Windows ≥7 supports EFI boot)_. CSM Mode emulates BIOS' 16bit architecture within a 32bit environment & doing so will cause performance degradation _(boot times increase by 400%+, GPT can't be used, etc)_; only reason to enable it is if needing to access a legacy OP[tion] ROM, and once done, CSM Mode should be re-disabled – JW0914 May 31 '22 at 11:53
  • @JW0914 Don't worry, it stays disabled. It's enabled by default in my BIOS. Or I think it was set to Auto or something... I won't reboot to check again now. – Sampeet May 31 '22 at 13:07
  • @user1686 I've done some digging on the net why disabling CSM doesn't result in a HD resolution in UEFI. There's two likely reasons: It's not working via Display Port cable, because they only implemented it for HDMI. But my gfx card doesn't even have HDMI ports anymore. Or simply the gfx card's BIOS is too small so they skimmed the HD graphics and thus can't use a higher resolution. My cards BIOS is only 32 MB big. I think the latter is the likely reason. – Sampeet May 31 '22 at 18:04