Last updated: June 2026. Verified against AlphaRes v1.1.0 on Windows 11 24H2 with Fortnite Chapter 7 on a Radeon RX 6700 XT reference card. AMD Adrenalin specifics (current driver branch, Custom Resolutions feature behaviour, supported card families) reflect public information at time of writing from amd.com Adrenalin release notes and the standard Display tab layout.
For AMD Radeon owners chasing a stretched resolution in Fortnite, two tools come up over and over in the conversation: AlphaRes, the small Windows utility that writes width and height directly into Fortnite’s GameUserSettings.ini and locks the file as read-only, and AMD Adrenalin GPU Scaling, the driver-level feature that tells the Radeon GPU how to scale a non-native resolution onto the panel and, in newer Adrenalin builds, lets the user create custom resolutions outright. Both deliver a working stretched mode in Fortnite. They land the player in different places after the next patch, and they place the controls at completely different layers of the Windows display stack.
This article walks through twelve practical aspects, two setup workflows, the combined-tool stack that some AMD players actually need, and the risk profile that separates the two. AMD Adrenalin is a full-featured GPU control panel with capabilities AlphaRes does not pretend to match. AlphaRes wins decisively on Fortnite-specific lock persistence and on the GPU-agnostic side of the equation. The honest verdict at the bottom: AlphaRes alone for typical Fortnite stretched-res use on a Radeon card, Adrenalin alongside AlphaRes for power users on exotic monitor setups.
TL;DR Verdict
- Compatibility: AMD Adrenalin GPU Scaling works on AMD Radeon hardware only (RX 5000-series and newer per public information at time of writing). AlphaRes works on any GPU including AMD, NVIDIA, Intel Arc, and integrated graphics, because it writes the Fortnite INI rather than the display driver.
- Lock persistence: AlphaRes locks the resolution against Fortnite patches by setting the read-only attribute on
GameUserSettings.ini. Adrenalin’s GPU Scaling toggle and any custom resolution it creates survive at the driver level, but Fortnite’s stored resolution still resets to native after a patch. - Scope: Adrenalin’s GPU Scaling and custom resolutions are system-wide, affecting the desktop, video playback, OBS captures, and other games. AlphaRes scopes the change to Fortnite alone.
- Risk: Adrenalin custom resolutions and timings can leave certain panels on a black screen if pixel clock or refresh rate exceed what the panel firmware accepts, recoverable in Safe Mode. AlphaRes carries no equivalent risk.
- Verdict: AlphaRes for set-and-forget Fortnite stretched resolution on AMD. Adrenalin if a system-wide custom resolution with manual timings is genuinely needed, in which case stack the two rather than picking one.
What Each Tool Actually Does
Before the comparison table, the two tools deserve a clean side-by-side description because they operate at different layers of the Windows display stack. Confusing the two is the source of most of the questions that show up in r/Amd and r/Fortnite threads on this topic.
AlphaRes
AlphaRes is a 533 KB portable Windows utility that opens, reads three numeric inputs (width, height, frame rate cap), and writes those values into Fortnite’s GameUserSettings.ini file under %LocalAppData%\FortniteGame\Saved\Config\WindowsClient. The keys it touches are ResolutionSizeX, ResolutionSizeY, FullscreenMode, and FrameRateLimit. After the write, AlphaRes flips the file’s read-only attribute so the operating system refuses any further write at the filesystem layer, which prevents Fortnite’s own update process from rewriting the resolution after a patch.
AlphaRes touches nothing outside Fortnite’s configuration file. The desktop’s resolution stays native. Other games launch at their normal modes. Browser windows render at the desktop’s actual width. Only Fortnite picks up the stretched resolution, because Fortnite is the only application that reads from that specific INI file. The binary is MIT-licensed, x64, and verified clean on VirusTotal across the full antivirus engine panel.
AMD Adrenalin
AMD Adrenalin (formerly Radeon Software) is the official AMD driver control panel. The relevant features here are two: GPU Scaling under Settings, Display, which controls how non-native resolutions are scaled onto the panel (Preserve Aspect Ratio, Full Panel, or Center), and Custom Resolutions, also under Display, which lets the user define new modes the driver will expose to Windows alongside the panel’s native list. Once enabled, GPU Scaling applies system-wide and a created custom resolution becomes a standard entry in Windows’s display mode list visible to every application.
The settings are stored in the AMD driver profile and persist across reboots. Adrenalin requires a Radeon discrete or integrated GPU and is GPU-specific in two senses: it requires AMD hardware to run, and any custom resolution exists only when the AMD driver is installed and active. Removing the driver removes the resolution. AMD documents these features on amd.com support pages for the current Adrenalin release.
The 12-Aspect Comparison Table
The table below maps each meaningful difference to a verifiable property of each method. Rows where the result is binary use a check or cross. Rows where one tool wins outright tag the Winner column accordingly. The aspects were selected by working backwards from the questions that recurrently appear when an AMD Radeon player searches for “AlphaRes vs AMD Adrenalin Fortnite”.
| # | Aspect | AlphaRes | AMD Adrenalin | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Method scope | Game-only (writes Fortnite INI) | System-wide (driver-level scaling and custom modes) | AlphaRes for Fortnite use |
| 2 | GPU compatibility | Any GPU (AMD, NVIDIA, Intel) | AMD Radeon only (RX 5000-series and newer per public information) | AlphaRes |
| 3 | Lock persists across Fortnite patches | Yes (read-only attribute) | Driver settings survive, Fortnite preference resets | AlphaRes |
| 4 | Display restart on apply | No (instant INI write) | Yes for custom resolutions (driver restart required) | AlphaRes |
| 5 | Multi-monitor handling | Targets primary display via Fortnite INI | Per-display scaling and custom resolutions | AMD Adrenalin |
| 6 | Custom resolution creation | No (writes existing modes only) | Yes (Custom Resolutions dialog with W, H, refresh, timings) | AMD Adrenalin |
| 7 | GPU Scaling toggle (full panel vs aspect) | No | Yes (Preserve Aspect Ratio, Full Panel, Center) | AMD Adrenalin |
| 8 | Black-screen risk on apply | None | Possible if custom timings exceed panel firmware limits | AlphaRes |
| 9 | Skill level required | Beginner (type W and H, click Apply) | Intermediate (timings, CVT-RB, scaling mode) | AlphaRes |
| 10 | License | MIT, fully open-source | Proprietary AMD driver | AlphaRes |
| 11 | Last update / maintenance | v1.1.0 January 2025, actively maintained | Updated with each Adrenalin driver release per public information | Tie |
| 12 | Chapter 7 verified for Fortnite stretched res | Verified working through 24-30 | Driver features work, Fortnite preference reset is recurring | AlphaRes |
Seven aspects resolve in AlphaRes’s favour, three in AMD Adrenalin’s favour, and two land as ties or shared territory. The three aspects that define the headline difference for a Fortnite player (lock persistence across patches, GPU-agnostic compatibility, zero black-screen risk) all sit on the AlphaRes side. The three aspects where Adrenalin leads (per-display custom resolutions, custom resolution creation, GPU Scaling mode toggle) are genuine and matter for power users on exotic monitor setups.
Lock Persistence: The Headline Difference
The lock-persistence story for these two tools is more nuanced than a simple “one locks, one does not”. AMD Adrenalin’s GPU Scaling preference and any custom resolution it creates live at the driver level, in the Adrenalin profile store, and those entries survive both reboots and Fortnite patches without any user intervention. The custom mode stays in the Windows display mode list every time the system boots. So in one sense, the Adrenalin-side configuration is permanently locked.
The catch is what Fortnite does with it. Fortnite’s GameUserSettings.ini stores the player’s chosen resolution as ResolutionSizeX and ResolutionSizeY values. When Epic ships a patch and the launcher’s update process touches the configuration file, those values can be reset back to the monitor’s native resolution because the launcher logic considers native the safe default after an update. The Adrenalin custom resolution still exists in the driver, but Fortnite is no longer pointed at it. The player has to launch Fortnite, open Settings, Display, and re-pick 1600 by 1080 from the Resolution dropdown. The custom mode is still selectable, the player just has to manually re-select it every time Epic ships an update that touches the configuration file.
AlphaRes solves this at a different layer. After writing the resolution into GameUserSettings.ini, AlphaRes flips the Windows read-only file attribute. NTFS enforces the attribute at the filesystem level, which means Fortnite’s update process cannot rewrite the file even if its logic wants to. The write call fails before it reaches the resolution validation step. The file stays exactly as AlphaRes wrote it, the resolution survives the patch intact, and the next Fortnite launch loads straight into Battle Royale at the same width and height the player set weeks ago. For a competitive Radeon player, this is the practical difference: with AlphaRes the patch happens silently in the background, while with Adrenalin alone the patch happens and the next session needs a manual reselect step before the lobby music starts.
GPU Compatibility
AMD Adrenalin exists exclusively on systems with AMD Radeon graphics and the AMD driver installed. It does not appear on systems with NVIDIA cards, Intel Arc cards, or systems running solely on non-AMD integrated graphics. The Custom Resolutions and GPU Scaling features within Adrenalin require a relatively recent Radeon part: as of public information at time of writing, Custom Resolutions is reliably exposed on RX 5000-series and newer, and on Ryzen APUs from the 5000-series onward. NVIDIA users have the equivalent NVIDIA Control Panel Custom Resolutions feature, and Intel Arc users have Intel Graphics Command Center.
AlphaRes is vendor-agnostic by design. Because it writes Fortnite’s INI file and never touches the GPU driver, the underlying graphics card vendor is irrelevant to its operation. The same AlphaRes binary works identically on a Ryzen 5600G with integrated Radeon graphics, an RX 6700 XT, an RTX 4090, and an Intel UHD 630 laptop. For a player who mixes hardware between a desktop and a laptop with different vendors, or for school esports labs running varied Radeon and GeForce machines, AlphaRes is the workflow that travels with them. AMD Adrenalin can only ever cover the AMD portion of that fleet.
System-Wide vs Game-Only Scope
The scope difference between the two tools has practical consequences beyond Fortnite. AMD Adrenalin’s GPU Scaling and any custom resolution it creates become real Windows-visible configurations the moment they are applied. Every application that queries available resolutions or scales output through the GPU sees the change: the desktop right-click resolution menu lists any custom mode, video playback applications can switch to it, other games detect it as a valid mode, and external tools like OBS treat it as an option. For a player who specifically wants a system-wide custom resolution available everywhere, that is exactly the right behaviour.
For most Fortnite players, however, the system-wide scope is a side effect rather than a feature. Stretched resolution at 1600 by 1080 is great for Fortnite’s competitive read on player models, but it is a poor desktop resolution: text rendering is slightly off, video playback gets letterboxed or stretched, and other games that auto-detect the new mode might switch to it on launch when the player wanted native. Chrome’s hardware video acceleration can pick up unusual scaling behaviour. Multi-monitor setups where the player only intended to change behaviour on the primary display can see the configuration leak across the second panel. AlphaRes’s narrower scope avoids all of this by definition: the desktop stays at native, video playback stays at native, OBS captures stay at native, other games stay at their own configured resolutions, and the only application that loads the stretched mode is Fortnite, which is exactly the intent for a Fortnite-specific tweak.
Setup Walkthrough: AlphaRes
The AlphaRes workflow is intentionally short. The full path from download to working stretched resolution in Fortnite takes under two minutes on a clean Windows 11 system. The four steps below cover the entire process; see How to Apply a Stretched Resolution in Fortnite Using AlphaRes for the deeper walkthrough including SmartScreen handling and edge cases.
Download AlphaRes v1.1.0
Visit the verified AlphaRes download page and grab the 533 KB x64 binary. No installer, no registry entries, just a single executable that runs from any folder including a USB stick or a synced cloud drive.
Launch and enter dimensions
Run alphares_x64.exe. The interface presents Width and Height numeric fields. Type the target dimensions, for example 1600 and 1080 for the most common competitive stretched mode. The FrameRateLimit field below maps to Fortnite’s frame cap; set it to match the monitor’s refresh rate or a multiple of it.
Tick Read-only and pick window mode
Select Fullscreen from the Window Mode radio group for competitive play, then tick the Read-only checkbox. This is the step that drives the persistence guarantee: AlphaRes sets the file attribute after the write so Fortnite’s patch process cannot reset the resolution.
Apply and launch Fortnite
Click Apply. The INI write completes in under a second and AlphaRes closes. Launch Fortnite through the Epic Games Launcher and the game loads straight into the new stretched resolution. No display restart, no driver reload, no logout required.
Setup Walkthrough: AMD Adrenalin GPU Scaling
The AMD Adrenalin workflow is longer because the tool was not designed specifically for Fortnite, it was designed for any application that wants a custom display mode or a specific scaling behaviour. The five-step path below covers both halves of the workflow: enabling GPU Scaling so non-native modes scale the way the player wants, and creating a custom resolution if the target stretched mode is not already in the panel’s mode list. The process takes three to five minutes the first time, plus a brief driver restart if a custom resolution is created.
Open AMD Adrenalin
Right-click the Windows desktop and select AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition, or open it from the system tray icon. The home screen loads. From the top navigation, click Settings (the gear icon), then choose the Display tab from the secondary navigation. This is where both GPU Scaling and Custom Resolutions live.
Enable GPU Scaling and pick a mode
In the Display tab, locate the GPU Scaling toggle and switch it on. Below it, the Scaling Mode option appears with three choices. For Fortnite stretched res, pick Full Panel rather than Preserve Aspect Ratio. Full Panel forces the GPU to stretch the rendered image edge to edge across the panel, which is the behaviour competitive players want. Preserve Aspect Ratio adds black bars instead, which defeats the point of stretched res.
Open Custom Resolutions
Still in the Display tab, scroll to the Custom Resolutions section. Click Create. A dialog appears with fields for Horizontal Resolution, Vertical Resolution, Refresh Rate, Scan Type (Progressive), and a Timing Standard dropdown. Most fields populate sensible defaults once the resolution is entered.
Enter target resolution and timings
Type the target Horizontal Resolution (for example 1600) and Vertical Resolution (1080). Leave Refresh Rate at the panel’s native value. For Timing Standard, CVT Reduced Blanking is the safe default for modern LCD or OLED panels and produces the lowest pixel clock, which reduces the chance of the panel firmware refusing the mode. Click Save. Adrenalin restarts the display driver to apply the new mode; the screen blanks briefly.
Pick the new resolution in Fortnite
Launch Fortnite and open Settings, Display. The new custom resolution now appears in the Resolution dropdown. Select it and click Apply. The match loads at the stretched mode. Note that on the next Fortnite patch, the in-game preference resets to native and this step has to be repeated. AlphaRes solves that part separately.
AMD Adrenalin does not provide an integrated Fortnite-specific shortcut. The custom resolution is created system-wide, GPU Scaling applies system-wide, and the player still has to enter Fortnite’s own settings after the fact. Some Radeon players are satisfied with this workflow because the same custom resolution becomes available to other applications. Others prefer the AlphaRes workflow because the scope is exactly Fortnite and nothing else.
What AMD Adrenalin Does That AlphaRes Cannot
This article would not be honest editorial if it skipped the genuine capabilities AMD Adrenalin offers that AlphaRes simply does not address. Adrenalin is a full-featured GPU control panel with years of feature accretion behind it, and the gap between the two tools widens significantly outside the narrow Fortnite-stretched-res use case.
The first is custom timing parameters for monitors that do not natively accept stretched resolutions. CRT-style panels, ultra-wide displays with incomplete EDID data, and older displays sometimes refuse a stretched signal at the panel’s nominal refresh rate. Adrenalin’s Custom Resolutions dialog exposes manual front porch, back porch, sync polarity, and pixel clock fields that can force a panel to accept modes it would otherwise reject. AlphaRes writes the INI but cannot influence what the GPU’s display engine actually emits across the cable. The second is refresh-rate overclocking on panels rated for it. The third is Radeon Image Sharpening (RIS) and the newer RIS Plus, which apply a post-process sharpening pass that some competitive players find improves player-model definition at stretched resolutions. The fourth is Anti-Lag and Anti-Lag+, which trim queued GPU frames to reduce input latency. None of these features are needed for typical 1440×1080 or 1600×1080 Fortnite play. Power users on exotic displays may need timing control. Players who care about input latency may want Anti-Lag enabled regardless of resolution.
What AlphaRes Does That AMD Adrenalin Cannot
The reverse side of the comparison is shorter but the single feature on it is the headline of the entire article. AlphaRes locks Fortnite’s resolution against patch-time rewrites at the filesystem layer. Adrenalin cannot do this. The Adrenalin custom resolution survives the patch as a Windows display mode entry, but Fortnite’s stored pointer to it does not survive, and Adrenalin has no mechanism for reaching into Fortnite’s configuration file and pinning the values. That is the entire reason AlphaRes exists as a separate utility rather than as a feature request against the AMD driver.
The practical consequence is that for AMD Radeon players who only want one tool installed, AlphaRes is the better default for typical Fortnite use. The two can also be used together for AMD players on exotic monitor setups: Adrenalin to expose the resolution at the driver level when the panel does not accept it natively, AlphaRes to lock that resolution inside Fortnite. This combined stack is the topic of the next section. AlphaRes is also vendor-agnostic in a way Adrenalin can never be, which matters for players who occasionally swap hardware or game on multiple machines with different GPUs.
The Combined-Tool Stack: Adrenalin Plus AlphaRes
The stacking workflow runs through Adrenalin first, then AlphaRes second. Open Adrenalin, Display tab, Custom Resolutions, Create. Enter the target width and height. Pick CVT Reduced Blanking as the Timing Standard. Save and let the driver restart. Confirm the resolution appears in Windows display mode list. Launch Fortnite once and verify the new mode is in the Settings, Display dropdown. Quit Fortnite. Open AlphaRes. Enter the same width and height. Tick Read-only. Click Apply. From this point forward the resolution survives Fortnite patches because the file is locked at the filesystem layer, and the resolution itself remains valid because Adrenalin keeps exposing it at the driver level. The two tools never conflict because they sit on different rungs of the stack.
For roughly ninety-five percent of Radeon players reaching for Fortnite stretched res, this stack is overkill. AlphaRes alone covers the typical 1280×1080, 1440×1080, 1600×1080, and 1750×1080 cases on any panel that already accepts those modes. The combined stack earns its place specifically on the long tail of unusual hardware where Adrenalin’s timing controls are actually needed.
Risk Profile
The risk gap between the two methods is real but should be kept in proportion. AMD Adrenalin is used safely on tens of millions of Radeon systems, and the Custom Resolutions dialog includes a Test step specifically to catch mode failures before they brick the next boot. New Radeon owners who pick a Standard timing entry and stay within the panel’s documented limits rarely trigger black-screen states. The gap matters most for users who experiment freely with manual timings or who push refresh rates above the panel’s nominal limit. AlphaRes does not have a recoverable failure mode in this category at all because its operations happen at the filesystem layer, not the display engine.
Verdict
Related Guides
Pair this guide with the rest of the AlphaRes knowledge base. These cover the adjacent setups, fixes, and comparisons you’ll run into when locking custom stretched resolutions in Fortnite.
- AlphaRes for Fortnite, Complete Guide (2026), The full reference for AlphaRes itself: features, install, safety, comparisons, and links to every cluster guide.
- AlphaRes vs NVIDIA Control Panel: Stretched Res Method Compared, Direct comparison of AlphaRes vs NVIDIA Control Panel for setting custom Fortnite resolutions, with persistence, GPU lock-in, and ease-of-use trade-offs.
- AlphaRes vs Forknife: 22-Aspect Comparison (2026), Twenty-two-aspect head-to-head between AlphaRes and Forknife covering safety, lock persistence, install footprint, and Chapter 7 support.
- AlphaRes vs CRU (Custom Resolution Utility): Method Comparison, AlphaRes vs Custom Resolution Utility (CRU) compared on driver-level vs game-level scope, lock persistence, risk profile, and Chapter 7 compatibility.
- Best 7 Fortnite Custom Resolution Tools (2026 Tested and Ranked), Seven custom resolution utilities benchmarked head-to-head on safety, persistence, FPS impact, and Chapter 7 compatibility.
FAQ
Can I use AlphaRes and AMD Adrenalin together?
Yes, and there is one specific scenario where the combination is genuinely useful: an AMD Radeon player on an unusual panel that does not natively accept the target stretched resolution. Adrenalin creates the resolution at the driver level with custom CVT-RB timings the panel will accept, then AlphaRes writes that same resolution into Fortnite’s INI and locks the file with the read-only attribute. The two tools never conflict because they operate at different layers: Adrenalin defines the mode at the driver and exposes it system-wide, while AlphaRes selects which mode Fortnite specifically requests on launch and pins it against patch-time rewrites. For roughly ninety-five percent of Radeon players this is overkill and AlphaRes alone is enough, but the combined stack is the right answer for the long tail of exotic monitor setups.
Does AMD Adrenalin GPU Scaling get you banned in Fortnite?
No. AMD Adrenalin is the official AMD driver control panel shipped with every Radeon driver release. GPU Scaling, Custom Resolutions, Image Sharpening, and Anti-Lag are documented features that Easy Anti-Cheat does not flag. Tens of millions of competitive players run Adrenalin daily, including in tournament play. The same applies to AlphaRes: writing a configuration file before the game launches is not a category of action that anti-cheat systems treat as suspicious. The ban-risk concern around stretched resolution generally is a non-issue for either tool, with the standard caveat that downloading any utility from a non-verified source could in theory rebundle a separate payload, which is a download-source problem rather than a tool problem. Use the official AMD driver installer for Adrenalin and the verified AlphaRes download page for AlphaRes, and the safety question goes away.
Why doesn’t an Adrenalin custom resolution survive Fortnite patches?
The custom resolution itself does survive at the AMD driver level: the mode stays in the Windows display mode list across reboots and Fortnite updates equally. What does not survive is Fortnite’s pointer to it. Fortnite stores the player’s selected resolution as integer values (ResolutionSizeX, ResolutionSizeY) in GameUserSettings.ini, and when Epic’s update process touches that file, the values are reset back to the monitor’s native resolution because the launcher logic considers native the safe default. The player then has to launch Fortnite, open Display Settings, and re-pick the custom mode from the dropdown. This is the recurring friction the AlphaRes read-only lock eliminates. The dedicated Fortnite Resets My Resolution After Update guide covers the underlying mechanism in full.
Will AlphaRes override my AMD Adrenalin settings?
No. AlphaRes does not interact with AMD Adrenalin in either direction. AlphaRes writes Fortnite’s GameUserSettings.ini file under %LocalAppData%, which is a user-data file that has nothing to do with the GPU driver profile store. Adrenalin’s GPU Scaling toggle, custom resolutions, Image Sharpening settings, Anti-Lag preferences, and per-application 3D profiles are all preserved exactly as the user configured them. Running AlphaRes on a system with Adrenalin customisations does not touch any of those settings. The only thing AlphaRes changes is the four INI keys in Fortnite’s configuration file plus the read-only attribute on that single file. The two tools coexist cleanly because they operate at different layers of the Windows display stack.
Does AlphaRes work on AMD Radeon GPUs?
Yes, fully and identically to its behaviour on NVIDIA and Intel hardware. AlphaRes is vendor-agnostic by design because it writes Fortnite’s INI file at %LocalAppData% and never touches the GPU driver. The same 533 KB AlphaRes binary works on a Ryzen 5600G with integrated Radeon graphics, an RX 6700 XT, an RX 7900 XT, an RTX 4090, and an Intel UHD 630 laptop. There are no AMD-specific configuration steps. The tool ignores which GPU is installed and only cares about Fortnite’s INI file path. This vendor-agnostic property is one of AlphaRes’s main advantages over driver-level tools like Adrenalin and NVIDIA Control Panel, which only ever cover their respective vendor’s hardware.
Is AlphaRes faster than AMD Adrenalin for changing resolutions?
Yes, in two senses. Apply time: AlphaRes’s INI write completes in under a second and Fortnite picks up the change on next launch with no display restart and no driver reload. Adrenalin’s custom-resolution apply step triggers a full driver restart, which blanks the display for several seconds while the GPU’s display engine re-initialises. Workflow time: AlphaRes’s interface has four numeric fields and one button, so the entire interaction from launch to apply takes under thirty seconds. Adrenalin’s path through Settings, Display, Custom Resolutions, Create, then entering width, height, refresh, timing, and saving takes three to five minutes the first time. For ongoing resolution changes (testing different stretched modes during a tuning session) AlphaRes is meaningfully faster.
Can Adrenalin custom resolutions cause a black screen?
They can, in specific circumstances. If the custom resolution’s pixel clock exceeds the GPU’s HDMI or DisplayPort bandwidth, or if the refresh rate at the requested resolution exceeds what the panel firmware accepts, the monitor can drop the signal at the next driver restart and stay black. Recovery is real but routine: boot Windows in Safe Mode (which loads the basic display driver and ignores Adrenalin’s overrides), open Adrenalin, reset the display profile or delete the offending custom resolution, reboot normally. The risk drops sharply if the user picks CVT Reduced Blanking as the timing standard and stays within the panel’s documented refresh limits. AlphaRes does not have an equivalent risk because it never changes the GPU’s actual display output, only the mode Fortnite requests on launch.
Why does Adrenalin require a driver restart for custom resolutions?
Because applying a new display mode at the GPU driver level is a hardware operation, not a configuration write. The Radeon GPU’s display engine has to retrain the link to the monitor with new pixel-clock timings, the panel’s input controller has to lock to the new sync signal, and Windows has to reconfigure the desktop compositor for the new dimensions. All of this happens during the brief screen blank that follows a Save in the Custom Resolutions dialog. AlphaRes does not need a driver restart because it does not change the active display mode. The desktop stays at its native resolution, and only Fortnite (when launched) requests the stretched mode through its own internal display logic. The mode switch happens at game launch rather than at AlphaRes runtime.
Which method works on a 240Hz Radeon setup?
Both methods work fully on 240Hz Radeon setups and on higher-refresh panels through 360Hz. AlphaRes writes the resolution and frame cap into Fortnite’s INI; the monitor’s refresh rate is unaffected because AlphaRes does not touch the display mode itself. The monitor stays at its native 240Hz, Fortnite renders at the stretched resolution, and the FrameRateLimit field caps the engine at the desired number. Adrenalin’s Custom Resolutions dialog allows the player to set a specific refresh rate alongside the custom width and height, which is useful for non-standard panels but unnecessary for a typical 240Hz display whose native refresh is what the user wants. Both approaches reach the same outcome on high-refresh AMD hardware. The dedicated 240Hz and 360Hz stretched resolution guide covers the resolution recommendations per refresh class.
Should I delete my Adrenalin custom resolution after installing AlphaRes?
Not necessarily. The two tools coexist without conflict, so leaving an existing Adrenalin custom resolution in place causes no problem for AlphaRes. The reason a player might delete the Adrenalin mode anyway is to keep the system-wide display mode list clean: if the custom resolution was only ever needed for Fortnite, removing it from the driver profile means the desktop right-click menu, video players, and other games no longer see it, which is the cleaner state. To delete it, return to Adrenalin, Settings, Display, Custom Resolutions, select the custom entry, and click Delete. The change is immediate and the driver restarts to apply. Players who use the custom mode for OBS captures or other applications should keep it in place. Players whose panel already accepts the stretched mode natively never needed the Adrenalin entry to begin with and can safely delete it.
What if Fortnite doesn’t see my Adrenalin custom resolution?
This is a known edge case with the Adrenalin approach. Fortnite’s display mode list is populated on launch from the Windows display API, which queries the active driver’s mode list. If the custom resolution was created but the driver did not fully apply it (the Save step encountered an error, or the resolution exceeds the panel’s reported EDID limits and Adrenalin is hiding it), Fortnite will not see it in the dropdown. The fix is to return to Adrenalin, Settings, Display, Custom Resolutions, confirm the entry is present and not flagged with an error, then restart Fortnite. AlphaRes sidesteps this category of issue entirely because it writes the resolution directly into Fortnite’s INI regardless of whether the resolution is exposed in the system display mode list. AlphaRes can request a width and height that no driver-level custom mode exists for, and Fortnite still loads it on launch as long as the underlying display can accept the equivalent pixel count.
Should I pick Full Panel or Preserve Aspect Ratio in Adrenalin?
For Fortnite stretched resolution, Full Panel is the correct choice. Full Panel forces the GPU to stretch the rendered image edge to edge across the panel, which is the behaviour competitive players want when running 1600 by 1080 on a 1920 by 1080 panel: the player models become slightly wider, the read on lateral movement improves, and there are no black bars. Preserve Aspect Ratio adds black bars to maintain the 16:10 (or whatever) source ratio inside the 16:9 panel frame, which keeps player models at native proportions but defeats the entire reason for running stretched res. Center is the third option and produces a small image surrounded by black on all sides, which no competitive player wants. The setting is on a per-display basis, so multi-monitor users can configure each panel independently.
Where to Go Next
Continue your AlphaRes setup with the cluster guides
- AlphaRes for Fortnite: Complete Guide (2026), the pillar reference covering features, install, safety, and every cluster guide.
- AlphaRes Download Page, verified v1.1.0 binary with checksum and release notes.
- How to Apply a Stretched Resolution in Fortnite Using AlphaRes, the deep walkthrough referenced in this comparison’s setup section.
- How to Lock Fortnite Resolution So Updates Cannot Reset It, the read-only attribute mechanism that drives AlphaRes’s persistence advantage over Adrenalin.
- Best 7 Fortnite Custom Resolution Tools (2026 Tested and Ranked), the broader benchmark that places AlphaRes alongside Adrenalin, NVIDIA Control Panel, CRU, and four other utilities.