How to re-enable image sharpening via the Registry Editor

The Registry Editor is a tool built into Windows that you can use to modify some values and restore image sharpening in the Nvidia Control Panel.

Right-click on the Start button and select Run.

• Type regedit and press OK.
• Navigate to the FTS folder by pasting the following location into the Search Bar.
• Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\nvlddmkm\FTS
• Right-click on EnableGR535 and select Modify…
• Change its Value Data from 1 to 0 and hit the OK button.
• Restart your system.
• Once your PC boots up, you’ll notice the Image Sharpening option in the Nvidia Control Panel.
• How to re-enable image sharpening via Integer Scaling
• The Nvidia Control Panel has an Integer Scaling option that, when enabled, replaces Image Scaling with Image Sharpening. To enable this feature,
• Right-click anywhere on the Desktop while holding Shift and choose Nvidia Control Panel.
• Click on Adjust desktop size and position under the Display tab.

Switch the scaling mode of your monitor from Aspect ratio to Integer scaling and hit Apply. If you have multiple displays, make sure the primary monitor is selected. Choose Yes when prompted to save the settings.

Besides allowing you to bring back image sharpening, integer scaling is an amazing feature for those who want better visuals in retro games. However, it’s not available on anything released before Nvidia’s RTX 2000 GPUs and can cause scaling issues even on newer graphics cards.

How to re-enable image sharpening by installing older drivers

If you can’t access the registry editor or integer scaling, you can switch to older Nvidia drivers. A quick way to uninstall your current Nvidia drivers involves using the Display Driver Uninstaller utility. Once you’ve removed the drivers,

• Head to the Nvidia drivers page.
• Click on the Search button after entering your GPU details.
• Pick any driver that’s older than version 496.61 and click on Download. If you’re unable to find an older variant, switch the Windows Driver Type from DCH to Standard.
• Run the driver.exe file you downloaded as an admin.
• Decide whether you want to install GeForce Experience before picking the Express installation option.
• Although installing old drivers will bring back the image sharpening feature, I recommend sticking to the other options. Not only will you see worse performance in newer games, but you could also encounter crashes and bugs if you game on outdated drivers. So, there’s one final workaround that you can use to sharpen images on your Nvidia graphics card.