Check the manual and see if it supports forced 4:3 aspect ratio (usually one of the OSD settings). Without that it will certainly be limited.

I have several 27-inch Dell monitors that I really like for DOS. One is S2721DGF, which is no longer made, but I just bought a S2725QC and it's nice. 4K resolution, freesync, 120 Hz, can force 4:3. It's a business-oriented monitor rather than gaming, though, so there might be better options there. I don't know if all Dell monitors support forced 4:3 but maybe worth checking, as there might be cheaper options (the S2725QC is a bit expensive).

Don't waste money on bad VGA converters, though. Invest in an OSSC or similar. There's no easy/cheap way to properly do the VGA -> HDMI conversion that you'll have to do on a modern LCD. The OSSC adds no latency at all.

My issue is the widescreens I have that support legacy 4:3 don’t mention support let alone forced aspect in the manual.

They just work and have manual screen geometry adjustments .

That LG only mentions 1:1 mode or scaled, manual lists many legacy resolutions but does not Mention forced aspect

rmay635703 wrote on 2026-05-05, 16:46:

My issue is the widescreens I have that support legacy 4:3 don’t mention support let alone forced aspect in the manual.

They just work and have manual screen geometry adjustments .

That LG only mentions 1:1 mode or scaled, manual lists many legacy resolutions but does not Mention forced aspect

The manual seems to make it clear that there is no forced 4:3 under the aspect ratio options (p. 12), and I also don't see any options for manually adjusting the display size, so I don't think this is a good monitor for DOS. At least, not for use with a simple upscaler like the OSSC.

It's more common these days for monitors to not support forced 4:3, so I wouldn't buy anything that didn't clearly list it in the settings section of the manual. Most consumers don't seem to care about forced 4:3, so it is almost never advertised or listed under tech specs, even when it is available as a setting.

Dell's ultrawide monitors do support forced 4:3 (at least the ones I checked), but they're quite a bit more expensive. However, they're generally all-around much better monitors than that LG.

Bleh I completely managed to miss the aspect ratio mention.

Three of the four aspect selections all seem to be almost identical with minor differences.

My old lcd widescreens at least allow some level of manual horizontal and vertical resizing and positioning.

I never thought I would see the day that monitors became less multisync with minimal ability to manually adjust the image.

Years ago (circa 2006) some sites were providing the ability to program the junction board of lcd monitors to add missing resolutions and custom user created features. It turned out many features on higher end LCDs could be added to cheaper screens.

Feels like we need to go back to that, too bad everything is landlocked in Russia 4pda