cru

Custom Resolution Utility (CRU)

GitHub Release GitHub License pages-build-deployment

This is just a fork of the work from ToastyX. Since 2012 his utility fixes several problems with graphic cards, monitors, drivers and their communication. Please download the latest version 1.5.3 from 2025-04-28 directly from https://www.monitortests.com/forum/Thread-Custom-Resolution-Utility-CRU and consider supporting him on Patreon.

Custom Resolution Utility (CRU) is an EDID editor that focuses on custom resolutions. CRU shows you how the monitor defines resolutions and other capabilities and gives you the power to change it. Add custom resolutions, remove unwanted resolutions, edit FreeSync ranges, and more. CRU creates software EDID overrides in the registry and does not modify the hardware.

Patreon support

Compatibility issues:

NVIDIA and DSC - ToastyX Wrote:

NVIDIA's driver currently ignores EDID overrides if Display Stream Compression (DSC) is active and
the maximum resolution @ refresh rate combination exceeds the GPU's single-head pixel clock limit:

GTX 1600-series: 1330 MHz
RTX 2000-series: 1330 MHz
RTX 3000-series: 1335 MHz
RTX 4000-series: 1350 MHz
RTX 5000-series: 1620 MHz

Workarounds:

  1. SRE can add custom GPU-scaled resolutions but not custom refresh rates: https://www.monitortests.com/forum/Threa…Editor-SRE
  2. Use RegEdit to disable using multiple heads, but the pixel clock will be limited to the single-head limit:
    Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class{4d36e968-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}#### (usually 0000)
    Value: “EnableTiledDisplay”=dword:00000000

NVIDIA and multiple displays - ToastyX Wrote:

NVIDIA’s driver currently has a bug that can cause Windows to hang during boot when an EDID override is present with multiple displays connected. Workaround using scripts: https://www.monitortests.com/forum/Threa…wn-scripts

Windows 11 with non-PnP displays - ToastyX Wrote:

Windows 11 ignores EDID overrides for displays that don’t have a valid EDID. This can happen if the EDID is corrupted on the monitor. This will appear as “PNP09FF - Generic Non-PnP Monitor” in CRU with no resolutions or extension blocks listed.

Workarounds:

  1. Try another port on the monitor. Usually each type of port has a separate EDID, so only one might be corrupted.
  2. Use an EDID emulator such as this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YMS18T7/?tag=mtests-20#ad
  3. Use Windows 10 with CRU to add the resolutions you need.
  4. Advanced: try to fix the EDID on the monitor using EDWriter with an AMD GPU: https://www.monitortests.com/forum/Threa…yID-Writer

Example

This is how this Windows program looks like:

sample image

Requirements:

Before making any changes, familiarize yourself with booting Windows in safe mode using a recovery drive in case you can’t see the screen. If you don’t have a recovery drive, press and hold the power button to shut off the computer while Windows is booting. Doing this twice should give you recovery options that you can use to get into safe mode: Troubleshoot > Advanced options > Startup Settings > Restart

Getting started:

  1. Run CRU.exe. A UAC prompt may appear because it needs permission to access the registry.
  2. Choose a display from the drop-down list.
    • “(active)” means the display is connected and recognized by the graphics driver.
    • “*” means changes were made and an override was saved in the registry.
  3. Edit the configuration as desired. Please read the sections below for more information.
  4. Repeat steps 2-3 for other displays if required.
    • The “Copy” and “Paste” buttons at the top can be used to copy all the resolutions, extension blocks, and range limits if included. It will not copy the name or serial number, but it will copy the inclusion of these items using the display’s own information. Import follows the same logic unless “Import complete EDID” is selected.
  5. Click “OK” to save the changes.
  6. Run restart.exe to restart the graphics driver.
    • If the display does not return after 15 seconds, press F8 for recovery mode. This will temporarily unload all the EDID overrides without deleting them. Restart the driver again to reload any changes.
    • On some systems, the graphics driver might crash while restarting. If that happens, the driver might be disabled after rebooting. Simply run restart.exe again to enable the driver.
  7. Set the resolution in the Windows display settings. To set the refresh rate:
    • Windows 10: right-click on the desktop > Display settings > Advanced display settings > Display adapter properties > Monitor tab
    • Windows Vista/7/8/8.1: right-click on the desktop > Screen resolution > Advanced settings > Monitor tab

To reset a display back to the default configuration, use the “Delete” button at the top to delete the override from the registry and reboot. To reset all displays, run reset-all.exe and reboot. This can be done in safe mode if necessary.

Alternative method for Intel GPUs:

If you have an older Intel GPU, use the “Export…” button and choose “EXE file” for the file type to export a self-contained EDID override installer. Then run the .exe file and choose “Install EDID” to install the EDID override on all matching displays.

Detailed resolutions:

Standard resolutions:

Extension blocks:

Editing FreeSync/VRR ranges:

Export formats:

CRU can import all of the above formats and any reasonably formatted text file with hexadecimal values.

Command-line options:

Memory clock issues:

Changelog

2025-04-28 Changes in 1.5.3:

2022-09-01 Changes in 1.5.2:

2021-01-18 Changes in 1.5.1:

2021-01-01 Changes in 1.5:

2019-10-30 Changes in 1.4.2:

2018-09-17 Changes in 1.4.1:

2018-07-14 Changes in 1.4:

More about Display Technology Information at https://glenwing.github.io/ with Display Industry Standards like DP, HDMI, DVI, CTA-861, DCI and VESA

2018-01-24 Patch 1 v1.3.99-p1

Version v1.4 will be released later the year. Release notes for this patch version are later mostly transferred to v1.4. The source code for this version code is published. It can be found at https://github.com/radamar/Custom-Resolution-Utility-ToastyX where it was uploaded 2018-04-11.

2017-08-24 Changes in 1.3.1:

2016-10-30 Changes in 1.3:

2016-09-28 Patch 2 for v1.2 in v1.2.99-p2

2016-04-23 Patch 1 for v1.2 in v1.2.99-p1

2015-12-22 Changes in 1.2.6:

2015-12-04 Changes in 1.2.5:

2015-11-20 Changes in 1.2.4:

2015-11-17 Changes in 1.2.3:

2015-09-05 Changes in 1.2.2:

2015-07-28 Changes in 1.2.1:

2015-02-14 Changes in 1.2:

2014-04-05 Changes in 1.1.2:

2014-02-14 Changes in 1.1.1:

2013-10-01 Changes in 1.1:

2013-08-24 Changes in 1.0.1:

Software environment for this C++ project

As posted 2020-12-20 in this forum https://www.monitortests.com/forum/Thread-What-is-the-development-enviroment-of-open-source-software-CRU this software is written with Borland Turbo C++ Builder 2006.