lower screen resolution on notebook

[_r.u.s.s.]

i don't know if this is the problem with display, my graphic card or the driver. well, it is most probably "expected" behavior by manufacturer but it's indeed very retarded

on my notebook (some nvidia card+win xp), the lowest screen resolution possible mode to switch to is 640x480, and i mean inside fullscreen apps, not just desktop resolution. but this is very annoying for older fullscreen apps

when i try to play a game that runs natively in a lower resolution mode (for example 512x384), it runs it in 640x480 instead, with a black frame around the game screen. it just annoys the hell out of me, because on my home desktop computer (some radeon xwhatever) it will scale it to the proper resolution instead

does anybody have any experience with this? i'm not sure if this is some kind of my notebook's lcd screen limitation or just driver/gpu limitation

[Maxor127]

I have no clue, but I'd assume they don't bother designing monitors to run lower than 640x480 anymore, especially with LCDs. My first instinct would be driver/gpu issue, but I have a feeling it's a monitor issue, maybe even both.

It's been over 10 years since I've played any apps full screen lower than 800x600. And probably over 15 years since I've seen anything that has a 512 resolution. I just run old apps with an emulator in windowed mode with scalers.

That's one reason I still use my CRT. CRTs are more versatile when it comes to multiple resolutions. LCDs are designed to run a specific native resolution.

[_r.u.s.s.]

well, the lcd i use on my desktop pc is newer and it still supports lower resolution modes

[Japo]

Modern displays have only one native resolution, differently sized images are resized implicitly into that one way or the other:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lcd#Specifications
http://www.tft-lcd-monitor.co.uk/tft-monitor-native-resolution-1.htm

Pixels are actual hardware entities. Unlike in CRT displays which can in principle use any resolution, because pixels are just the spots on a continuous screen where electrons are made land, depending on the voltages applied to them.

Different manufacturers and configurations are bitches, and most times you have to figure out by yourself how to get what you want, and if you can at all. But if you have an ATI Radeon like me, try this. In the Catalyst Control Center, switch to advanced mode, go to "digital panel" or "monitor" properties > "attributes". Select "enable GPU scaling" and "maintain aspect ratio" (not "centered timings").

http://christoph.holas.name/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/catalyst-image_scaling.png

[_r.u.s.s.]

well .. yes, on my home pc with radeon it works. on notebook though i have nvidia :(