diff --git a/src/ui/ui.c b/src/ui/ui.c
index 9dbb6a6fd..31225bfe3 100644
--- a/src/ui/ui.c
+++ b/src/ui/ui.c
@@ -53,6 +53,11 @@ meta_ui_init (void)
 
   if (!gtk_init_check (NULL, NULL))
     meta_fatal ("Unable to open X display %s\n", XDisplayName (NULL));
+
+  /* We need to be able to fully trust that the window and monitor sizes
+     that Gdk reports corresponds to the X ones, so we disable the automatic
+     scale handling */
+  gdk_x11_display_set_window_scale (gdk_display_get_default (), 1);
 }
 
 Display*