Win11 scaling on a 48in monitor

Try it and let us know. There's zero performance difference as far as I can tell (I run 175% all the time).

I guess it might be a difference in what you're doing. Desktop work. I would think Windows cheats by doing anti-alias and figures it out for you better then changing native resolution. So it looks better then native. Processing time. You're rendering less for the most part so that trade off equals out i guess.

Like a curve when you force it would look to be more smooth scaled then native. Maybe?

Native where you force 1x1 pixels into 4x4 blocks.

Higher Native but scaled it might make a curve smoother as you're playing with 1x1 pixels but software is making them 4x4 making a decision to make it smoother.

But like dedicated GPU stuff like a game you'll want to force it to no scaling.

I use a cheap 40 inch 4K TV at 125% and I don't have any blurriness at any of the zoom settings. When single-tasking in the web browser, I often raise the browser's zoom and sit farther back for comfort.

I did have to adjust the TV's settings to get a proper picture. Some picture modes zoomed the image slightly or crushed the gray scale. I even broke everything by upgrading the TV's firmware. After the upgrade, everything was blurry and there was no fix. Thankfully, some Redditors had the same problem so I was able to download an old version from them to restore the image quality.

The computer's settings need to be correct as well. My TV uses the less common BGR subpixel layout so I needed to run ClearType Text Tuner to set it. I also had to set 8-bit RGB 4:4:4 full range to get the best picture.

When the settings were wrong, the screen was completely illegible at lower zoom settings. Check to see if your settings are correct. Whenever I reinstall Windows, I have to redo the computer settings and I carefully check the screen with a magnifying loupe to make sure I've set it correctly.

I have a 43" 4K TV that is running at 150%, with no issues.

If your machine meets Windows 11's minimum requirements, scaling will not tax the system. Most laptops with a resolution higher than 1080p are using scaling anyway. Most of the machines I work on are usually using 150%-200% scaling.

So don't worry about taxing your system. Don't get a headache because you're worried about your computer. Use whatever Windows recommends in the Settings app and increase scaling as needed to be comfortable.

We all get older. One of the first things I do on a new computer is head to Accessibility > Mouse pointer and change the pointer colour to black and bump up its size a point. Makes the pointer easier to use.