"native" DVI resolution for 9700Pro?

[cfineman]

I've heard some discussion (elsewhere) about the "native" resolution
with respect to driving a flat panel display. If I understand correctly,
this is the actual resolution of the screen and any different
resolutions are handled with a "digital zoom"/interpolation effect.

In my case I have an ATI 9700Pro and I'm sorta interested in the the new
dell flat panel i've been hearing good things about. I would like to be
able drive things (games and work stuff) at 1600x1200 or 1280x1024 but
folks have warned that many cards do not "natively" support this
resolution. I've seen specific comments that the 9600 only does 1024x768.

I've not been able to find anything specific about this in the ATI
documentation. Can someone tell me what "native" resolution the 9700Pro
supports for flat panels?

 

[Chip]

I've heard some discussion (elsewhere) about the "native" resolution
with respect to driving a flat panel display. If I understand correctly,
this is the actual resolution of the screen and any different
resolutions are handled with a "digital zoom"/interpolation effect.

In my case I have an ATI 9700Pro and I'm sorta interested in the the new
dell flat panel i've been hearing good things about. I would like to be
able drive things (games and work stuff) at 1600x1200 or 1280x1024 but
folks have warned that many cards do not "natively" support this
resolution. I've seen specific comments that the 9600 only does 1024x768.

I've not been able to find anything specific about this in the ATI
documentation. Can someone tell me what "native" resolution the 9700Pro
supports for flat panels?

The ATI cards will do every conceivable resoluion you might want.

Chip.

 

[Charles Fineman]

I probably should have been more explicit. The point I read was that
non-native resolutions on a FLAT PANEL display would look like crap.

 

[Chip]

I probably should have been more explicit. The point I read was that
non-native resolutions on a FLAT PANEL display would look like crap.

I don't think you understood my answer. I will say it again:

The ATI cards will do ***every*** conceivable resoluion you might want.

Name a resolution, the card can output it.

Clear?

Chip.

 

[Chip]

I don't think you understood my answer. I will say it again:

The ATI cards will do ***every*** conceivable resoluion you might want.

Name a resolution, the card can output it.

Clear?

Chip.

I just re-read what you wrote, and I can see you are confused. So let me be
even more clear:

The ATI cards will output ("natively", as you call it) every conceivable
resolution you might want. 1600x1200, 1280x1024, 1280x960, 852x480.
Whatever you want, it will output it. If you have a 1731x903 panel, you can
even use Powerstrip to get it to output 1731x903 if you really want.

Is that better?

Chip

 

[Rick]

Hi:

Whenever a "native" resolution is referred to, that means the device being
driven runs best at that resolution, regardless of the video card. In the
case of an LCD panel, they are manufactured with a physical amount of
apertures. I am wording this incorrectly, but think of it this way...
If there are physically 1024 pixels (dots) across the screen and 768 down,
than any other resolution is a "zoom in" or "zoom out" of what the LCD can
display. LCD's display much better at their native resolution (this has
never been a problem with CRT monitors that I know of).

Therefore, as long as your video card can display the native resolution of
an LCD at it's preferred frequency, you will have the best picture the LCD
can display with that video card.

Go to your LCD manufacturers web site (or look in the LCD's manual), and one
of the description specs will be the native resolution of the monitor.

Cya, Rick

 

[J. Clarke]

I've heard some discussion (elsewhere) about the "native" resolution
with respect to driving a flat panel display. If I understand correctly,
this is the actual resolution of the screen and any different
resolutions are handled with a "digital zoom"/interpolation effect.

In my case I have an ATI 9700Pro and I'm sorta interested in the the new
dell flat panel i've been hearing good things about. I would like to be
able drive things (games and work stuff) at 1600x1200 or 1280x1024 but
folks have warned that many cards do not "natively" support this
resolution. I've seen specific comments that the 9600 only does 1024x768.

I've not been able to find anything specific about this in the ATI
documentation. Can someone tell me what "native" resolution the 9700Pro
supports for flat panels?

The "native resolution" is a characteristic of the display, not of the video
board. Any folks who are warning you that current production video boards
will not support such standard resolutions as 1600x1200 and 1280x1024 is at
best misinformed.

 

[Barry Watzman]

One other comment regarding "Therefore, as long as your video card can
display the native resolution of an LCD at it's preferred frequency, you
will have the best picture the LCD can display with that video card."

Watch the LCD cable, especially if (as is often the case) it's too
short. Two weeks ago I helped someone setup a new Dell with a Circuit
City "Liquid Video" LCD display (an excellent display for the money, by
the way). Given the location of the PC, it was necessary to use an
extension cable, and the extension cable absolutely destoyed the picture
-- ringing, ghosts, loss of sharpness, it was just awful.

This wasn't the monitor's fault, but be aware that if you need to use an
extension cable, it can become a HUGE issue. Cheap cables will destroy
the picture, and unfortunately, almost all of the cables available at
retail ARE "cheap" (cheap here refers to quality, not to price). You
need a cable with individual high quality, low capacitance coaxial
cables for all 3 video signals (red, blue, green). Within broad limits,
you can almost judge the quality of a cable by it's thickness, you want
a big, fat cable approaching a garden hose in size. That said, if you
pay less than $20-$30 for a video extension cable, it's probably a low
quality cable. Unfortunately, lots of retailers also sell low-quality
cables for high prices.

[This all applies to analog monitors, there are some cable issues with
DVI extenstion cables as well, but they will be more of a "go/no-go"
issue than a quality issue.]

[One thing that I liked about the Circuit City "liquid video" display
was that the cable had a connector at the monitor, and you could use a
single longer cable instead of a cable permanently attached to the
monitor with an extension. Although it was analog only, this is a
low-cost 17" monitor (about $300-$330), I did some objective tests on it
with test-pattern softwae, and for an analog monitor, it's quality was
actually excellent.]