senderj said:
The EVGA 8800GTS has this in its chart:
1600x1024
1600x1200
But the Dell 22" LCD resolution is 1680x1050, which is not in the EVGA
chart. What will I see on the screen if I put them in my system and use the
above 2 resolutions of the card?
Some Dell monitor drivers are here. Not all LCD monitor makers provide
drivers, so some users get screwed when they go looking for drivers.
http://support.dell.com/support/top...en/monitor_download?c=ca&cs=cadhs1&l=en&s=dhs
Sample of a monitor driver. This is a 6KB download.
http://ftp.us.dell.com/monitors/R137889.zip
The INF inside the ZIP says MaxResolution,,"1680,1050"
With the monitor driver installed, then try the "Custom Resolution"
dialog in the display control panel and see if it works. Note that
Nvidia now has "New" and "Old" control panels, and to access the "old"
one requires a hack. Some of the recent posts to alt.comp.periphs.videocards.nvidia
may have details. The "New" control panel would be fine, if it did
everything the old one could. As far as I know, the Custom values
would work, if the driver thinks the monitor can handle it.
Installing the monitor driver, is one way to make the Nvidia
software happy, if all else fails.
In theory, the computer gets the display info via the serial link
on the display cable. The EDID serial EEPROM is supposed to hold
all the details. In the worst case, installing the monitor driver
gives some of the same info.
You can try this tool, and view the EDID, before installing the
monitor driver. Just to see if the EDID is coming across the DVI
cable or not.
http://www.entechtaiwan.com/util/moninfo.shtm
Download "moninfo.exe" from this link:
http://www.entechtaiwan.com/files/moninfo.exe
Another thing - I prefer to see monitors that have both a VGA
and a DVI connector. The reason being, that if the DVI does not
behave as expected, it is much more likely that you'll get the
desired native resolution setting via VGA. The trend to remove
the VGA connector from LCD monitors, means there are no alternatives
if the DVI doesn't work out. (Doesn't work out, meaning, you
cannot get native resolution to work.)
Note that details for WinXP and Vista are different. YMMV etc.
LCD monitors do resampling, but it is unclear to me whether they
will resample any arbitrary inputted resolution, or will only accept
the "standard" values. For example, if the computer puts out 640x480
(say in the BIOS screens), and the LCD screen is 1680x1050 pixels,
then chances are, a single pixel takes up four or more pixels on
the LCD. The picture might also be stretched, and if you drew a
circle on the 640x480 sized virtual screen, it would appear as
an oval on your wide screen. Resampling doesn't hurt movies or
games too much, but you'll notice it most in trying to read text.
I run my monitor at native resolution (1280x1024) but my LCD is
a small one. I use the "Larger Font" setting, to make is usable.
(Display control panel, Settings, Advanced, General tab, but I'm
in Win2K).
Paul
