LCD scaling

[Dennis Le]

I have a Viewsonic LCD monitor (VX900) and recently switched
to an ATI video card. Under the Displays tab for the Catalyst 3.8
drivers, I have the "Scale image to panel size" checkbox UNCHECKED for
my monitor. According to the help info, that's supposed to center the
display when I'm running a game at a lower resolution (i.e. 1024 x
768) than the LCD's resolution (1280 x 1024) and leave a surrounding
black border. Instead, the image still is being scaled from the lower
resolution to the higher resolution, which is what should happen if
the checkbox is CHECKED. In other words, the image is being scaled
whether the checkbox is checked or not. BTW, I am using the DVI
output from the video card. On my previous nVidia card, this
equivalent option worked without any problems, so I'm pretty sure it's
not a problem with the monitor or DVI cable (which haven't changed).

Has anyone else had this problem? Is this a known issue with
the ATI cards or Catalyst drivers, or is it specific to my particular
setup? Is there a way to work around this? Thanks in advance for any
thoughts or suggestions.

Dennis

 

[ELVIS2000]

black border. Instead, the image still is being scaled from the lower
resolution to the higher resolution, which is what should happen if
the checkbox is CHECKED. In other words, the image is being scaled
whether the checkbox is checked or not. BTW, I am using the DVI
output from the video card. On my previous nVidia card, this
equivalent option worked without any problems, so I'm pretty sure it's
not a problem with the monitor or DVI cable (which haven't changed).

Has anyone else had this problem?

YES - ATI cards have crappy support for digital LCDs. Its a known
problem ATI has done nothing about. You probably do not have scaling
at non-standard resolutions, but have this problem at 800x600 and
1024x768, right? Same with me on my somewhat top-of-the-line Hitachi.

It is actually your monitor forcing the scaling... Nvidia cards "faked
it" -- but it worked for me. Nvidia drivers are much more complete
than ATIs. Too bad about that whole performance thing.

jw

 

[Dennis Le]

YES - ATI cards have crappy support for digital LCDs. Its a known
problem ATI has done nothing about. You probably do not have scaling
at non-standard resolutions, but have this problem at 800x600 and
1024x768, right? Same with me on my somewhat top-of-the-line Hitachi.

So, in other words, when the LCD detects a common resolution
like 1024x768, it has some built-in circuitry for scaling to 1280x1024
.... but if it detects a non-standard resolution (like 1280x960), it
doesn't "know" what to do with this resolution, so it leaves the image
unscaled. Is that kinda what you're saying?

It is actually your monitor forcing the scaling... Nvidia cards "faked
it" -- but it worked for me. Nvidia drivers are much more complete
than ATIs. Too bad about that whole performance thing.

So, with common resolutions like 1024x768, the nVidia drivers
would pad the image with extra pixels to increase the image size to
the LCD's native resolution, so then the monitor wouldn't scale it ...
is that right?

Just trying to understand the whole scaling thing. Thanks.

Dennis