My problem in Pictures!

[OVS]

Just for my benefit(to prove I'm not going MAD!) and also to hopefully
come across someone who has managed to sort this problem out, I have
decided to take photo's of the problem I am experiencing with my monitor
output.

The relevant parts of the PC are

Iiyama E431S TFT
Sapphire 9800 Pro
MSI K8N Neo

The problem is the image output on non-native resolutions. Everything is
fine and smoothing/scaling works wonderfully with *no* ATI drivers. As
soon as I install the required ATI driver, output is a mess.

This first picture is with no graphics driver installed(uninstalled all
instances of the ATI driver)
http://img71.exs.cx/img71/7591/nonATI2.jpg

Maybe not crystal clear as native. But still a surprisingly excellent
result.

This next photo is when I install an ATI driver (in this case Catalyst
4.9). I have tried different variations of these drivers with same results.
http://img71.exs.cx/img71/9900/ATI4.jpg

The photo doesn't do it justice, in actuality its completely unusable.

It doesn't make sense to me. How can the Windows XP default VGA adaptor
driver be able to output better than the ATI driver. You'd think ATI
would be able to implement a feature found on the most basic of drivers.

Anyway, thats the end of my story!

Thanks

 

[Noozer]

This first picture is with no graphics driver installed(uninstalled all

instances of the ATI driver)
http://img71.exs.cx/img71/7591/nonATI2.jpg

Maybe not crystal clear as native. But still a surprisingly excellent
result.

This next photo is when I install an ATI driver (in this case Catalyst
4.9). I have tried different variations of these drivers with same results.
http://img71.exs.cx/img71/9900/ATI4.jpg

The photo doesn't do it justice, in actuality its completely unusable.

It looks like when you set it for 1024x768 without drivers that it doesn't
really switch.

Unfortunately, these two pictures are from different angles, at different
sizes and different focusing. Do you have a tripod for your camera? How
about sitting it on top of a box so it won't move between photos?

Does your monitor have an INFO button or a SETTINGS button that will tell
you what resolution or refresh rates that are currently in use?

Finally, does the picture size get smaller when you don't have the ATI
driver loaded and use a non-native resolution? (Take some pics showing the
whole monitor at each setting as well as the closeups)

 

[Noozer]

This next photo is when I install an ATI driver (in this case Catalyst

4.9). I have tried different variations of these drivers with same results.
http://img71.exs.cx/img71/9900/ATI4.jpg

...oh ya..

See the rainbow effect here? Try turning off the font smoothing in the
display settings.

 

[OVS]

It looks like when you set it for 1024x768 without drivers that it doesn't
really switch.

It definetly does switch. It also switches to 800x600 correctly.
The switch is exactly how you would expect on a CRT. Icons and text
bigger etc.

Unfortunately, these two pictures are from different angles, at different
sizes and different focusing. Do you have a tripod for your camera? How
about sitting it on top of a box so it won't move between photos?

You're right Noozer. I realised what a mess I made of the photo after I
had re-installed the ATI driver. Would have been good to take exact
condition photos of both. I'll try again and do it properly next time.
Will also take photos of whole screen too.

Does your monitor have an INFO button or a SETTINGS button that will tell
you what resolution or refresh rates that are currently in use?

Not sure. But it tells me what resolution the screen is at on 'Display
properly' > settings.

Honestly, I have seen monitors (CRT and LCD) in many different
resolutions and there is no problem with the output dimension wise.

Finally, does the picture size get smaller when you don't have the ATI
driver loaded and use a non-native resolution? (Take some pics showing the
whole monitor at each setting as well as the closeups)

Not exactly sure what you mean. Everything looks bigger
Icons/text/graphics. Of course as a result you have less space on the
screen to work in. But the screen isn't shrunk down too 1024x768 in the
centre of the screen if thats what you mean. Its a normal switch of
resolution as you would expect on a CRT.

The non-native resolutions, using the ATI or not, look exactly the same
dimensionally. Only the quality is different.

Thanks

 

[OVS]

..oh ya..

See the rainbow effect here? Try turning off the font smoothing in the
display settings.

Turning off Font smoothing has no noticable effect maybe because the
text is already so messed up.
If you notice the nonATI screenshot, it also has Font smoothing enabled,
but no noticable rainbowing.

 

[OVS]

Turning off Font smoothing has no noticable effect maybe because the
text is already so messed up.
If you notice the nonATI screenshot, it also has Font smoothing enabled,
but no noticable rainbowing.

Maybe a better explanation is that with ATI drivers its not scaling
non-native resolutions, therefore the graphics look corrupted.

 

[Noozer]

Maybe a better explanation is that with ATI drivers its not scaling
non-native resolutions, therefore the graphics look corrupted.

Actually, the messed up image is what I'd expect an LCD monitor to look like
when not at it's native resolution... Not sure how it could look so good
otherwise.

 

[OVS]

Actually, the messed up image is what I'd expect an LCD monitor to look like
when not at it's native resolution... Not sure how it could look so good
otherwise.

Recent LCDs seem to scale down and smooth better on non-native rez's.
It looks good, but on native it looks pin-sharp. In non-native, it looks
slightly blurry and almost too smooth.

I'm starting to think this may be a fault with the hardware. I'm going to
see if I can swap the card as soon as I feel I have the necessary patience
to deal with 'customer support'.

 

[kony]

Recent LCDs seem to scale down and smooth better on non-native rez's.
It looks good, but on native it looks pin-sharp. In non-native, it looks
slightly blurry and almost too smooth.

I'm starting to think this may be a fault with the hardware. I'm going to
see if I can swap the card as soon as I feel I have the necessary patience
to deal with 'customer support'.

If same card displays same resolution fine without the
driver installed, it's not the hardware.

 

[OVS]

If same card displays same resolution fine without the
driver installed, it's not the hardware.

You are probably right, but I've run out of ideas why it isn't working with
the ATI drivers installed. I've done a google/groups search and no-one else
seems to be suffering from the same symptoms. I'm lost for whats causing
this problem.