I'm playing on a laptop which is only slightly above minimal required settings for BG3 (8GB of RAM, Nvidia GeForce 3060 RTX with 6GB VRAM). As expected, the game is playable but stutters heavily in some areas and sometimes during cinematics, even on low settings. I'm only at act I, so things will only get worse once I start exploring cities.

I'd like to lower my resolution to mitigate the problem, but the in-game settings won't let me select anything else than native resolution (1920x1080). I tried modifying the graphicSettings.Isx file to get a lower res (1600x900 or 1366x768), but it reverts back as soon as I launch the game.

Does anyone know of a solution to force a lower res on BG3?

is your desktop resolution (1920x1080) as well? that is 1080 pi

try setting it to 1366 X 768 or any other 16:9 ratio... that allows 1080pi which i what the game wants to be


to answer your main question - yes the game can run in older 720 pi format IF your system can display that ratio

[see image 720] but the steps depend on your system settings more than they do the game

step 1 set scale to 100% [see image scale 100] this is important because having a different scale changes how much work your gpu does

step 2 open your system display and check what other ratio options you have [see image display] a 720 is best but you can also fug that with 768 if your gpu can rendor


if wont work, most laptop gpus can at least do 1280 X 750 or 1280 X 768 [720] i.e any, 720 pi, ...

once your laptop setting has been made boot the game and change its ved options [see image 720 again] then close the game and reboot into it again;

notes 1 the first time you boot the game it may look work because older textures are still set to your old 1080 pi but when you change ved to 720 RESTART these errors should fix thhem selves

note 2 loading old saves made under your 1080 pi settings will take longer and you should hear your system working harder because again it has to recalulate the textures... once you enter each new area these textures should not need to be remade each time i.e, its more work it gets eaiser

final note; multiplayer will assume your on 1080 pi and kill you from casual hookups unless other players in the group are also running a 720 ratio but it does not tell you why it kicks you... more of a problem with Steam than Gog but be aware of it

Thanks a lot for your reply, I especially appreciate the pictures and clarifications!!

Following your advice, I lowered my desktop resolution, booted the game, and changed its res to match it - I tested with both 1600x900 and 1280x720.

Unfortunately, if I set my desktop back to 1980x1080, the game automatically reverses back to native resolution when I boot it again: it just won't let me select anything lower than my current resolution. I guess I'll have to change my desktop res manually each time before launching BG3, it's impractical but better than nothing.

Since a new patch is released every week or so I hope the devs will fix this small inconvenience at some point.

Use the official troubleshooting profile provided by Larian Studios as basis
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3025213577

Well, so far as I can tell, all the troubleshooting profile does is replacing the files located in the “AppData/Local/Larian Studios” folder by new ones. As indicated in my original post, I have already tried manually changing my res using those, which sadly doesn’t work.

Under "Display Mode" if you switch between Windowed, Fullscreen, or Borderless Window, for resolution - are the options to chose a lower resolution available?

If you manually make changes to graphicSettings.lsx, save the file, then right click and select properties, under General, attributes - checkmark the box for Read-only and apply. then ok.

If you end up needing to make changes to your settings you will need to undo the Read-only setting. I don't know if the game will just over write the file and you will need to redo the read only checkmark every time. So make sure you have adjusted all the game settings to your liking before making the file read only.

Thanks for the suggestions! But I have already tried those: making the .lsx file read-only does not force the game to change resolution. It indeed prevents BG3 to undo changes made to the file: it’s just that the game refuses to take these changes into account, at least when it comes to resolution. I’ve seen on forums that this issue has also been noticed by other users.

The resolution option is also still the same no matter what display mode I choose (windowed mode does not even work, which I don’t really care about but still, it’s a problem).

I think the issue is that BG3 is somehow not meant to run at anything lower than the current desktop resolution, no matter how you tried to force it to. No idea if it’s because of the game itself or my graphics card. For now, I’ll have to change my desktop res before each play session, it’s not ideal but it will do.

correct the 'troubleshooting profile' is just a set of default settings for testing i.e, turn off mods and run in a safe windows fakescreen [a laptop tends to like that]

the only way to run at lower than 1080p is to have your desktop rez set to something less... sorry i wasn't clear the first time

It's alright mate, I would prefer the game to automatically stick at a lower resolution when I boot it, but having to change the desktop res each time is still better than having BG3 run at 20 FPS in crowded areas.