ATI Catalyst: any way to prevent stretching in non-standard resolutions?

[grant2]

I have a Dell 2007WFP with a 1680 x 1050 native resolution.

When I input a 1280x1024 signal (playing a game etc.) the display stretches it out to fill the entire monitor.

I would like the display to be unstretched & instead surround the smaller picture with black bars.

I could set my Nvidia card to do this, but even when i set catalyst to "Use Centered Timings" the picture is still stretched.

Any ideas how to fix this?

 

[apoppin]

What drivers are you using?

Only the very latest - Cat 8.3 - allows for many resolutions to be properly surrounded by black bars .. i found that a few of the lowest resolutions still don't work and will stretch the picture

 

[grant2]

Very latest 8.3 drivers, downloaded them yesterday. I created a support ticket and their response:

Catalyst Control Center does not scale/center standard 4:3 resolutions (800x600, 1024x768, 1280x1024). It simply stretches them to fill the entire screen. It does seem to work for other resolutions (1440x900, 1400x1050, 1360x1024, 1360x768).

Solution:
Scaling is being performed by display.

Huh? What kind of "solution" is that? I can force the monitor the go to 1:1 mode though the menu, but that's a huge PITA after every resolution change, and my drivers should be doing that for me.

 

[Sylvanas]

Digital panel properties > click 'Enable GPU scaling' > select 'maintain aspect ratio'.

 

[DerekWilson]

Originally posted by: apoppin
What drivers are you using?

Only the very latest - Cat 8.3 - allows for many resolutions to be properly surrounded by black bars .. i found that a few of the lowest resolutions still don't work and will stretch the picture

resolutions where screen width and hight are 1/2 or less of the panel width and height will usually be stretched by the monitor at least on the handful of monitors i've worked with (mostly dell, but a couple others as well).

this happens regardless of whether i'm running nvidia or amd hardware.

... a couple things you might try though ...

they recently added a "hardware" scaling option .. you might try that.

they also have something that says something like "use alternate frequency" or something ... try toggling that as well ...

if it really is your monitor doing it, then its likely the nvidia unscaled signal was the one that was messed up -- if you monitor is set to stretch when possible it will unless the signal can't be understood as a specific resolution that it is capable of stretching.

if you can't permanently set you monitor to not stretch, then that's a whole other issue.

 

[grant2]

Originally posted by: Sylvanas
Digital panel properties > click 'Enable GPU scaling' > select 'maintain aspect ratio'.

I cannot find that in the Catalyst Control Center. The closest I have is "Digital Panel (DVI) 4 -> Attributes -> "Use centered timings"

Am i running a different CCC or just misunderstanding you?

Originally posted by: DerekWilson
they recently added a "hardware" scaling option .. you might try that.

they also have something that says something like "use alternate frequency" or something ... try toggling that as well
[...]
if you can't permanently set you monitor to not stretch, then that's a whole other issue.

I can't find either of those options in CCC. Do you mean to set these things in another software?

My monitor was permanently set not to stretch using my 6800gt. So right now i feel the real issue is ATI giving me weak software.

thanks guys.

 

[Sylvanas]

Are you sure you are running Catalyst 8.3- it will say in the 'Information Center'. The scaling tab looks like this. If not I would uninstall drivers, run Driversweeper and reinstall on a clean slate. What OS are you running? Have you got all the latest updates etc.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Make sure you are viewing it in Advanced View mode, and it should be a sub category under Digital Panel (DVI) - Attributes shows this for me.

 

[grant2]

Originally posted by: Sylvanas
Are you sure you are running Catalyst 8.3- it will say in the 'Information Center'. The scaling tab looks like this. If not I would uninstall drivers, run Driversweeper and reinstall on a clean slate. What OS are you running? Have you got all the latest updates etc.

Done; now that option shows up.

The funny thing is "Maintain Aspect Ratio" works on all resolutions (i.e., the image will still stretch, but it will maintain the ratio) ... however "Use Centered Timings" still will NOT work on 4:3 ratios. In those cases it will distort to fill the entire screen.

 

[DerekWilson]

Originally posted by: grant2

Originally posted by: Sylvanas
Are you sure you are running Catalyst 8.3- it will say in the 'Information Center'. The scaling tab looks like this. If not I would uninstall drivers, run Driversweeper and reinstall on a clean slate. What OS are you running? Have you got all the latest updates etc.

Done; now that option shows up.

The funny thing is "Maintain Aspect Ratio" works on all resolutions (i.e., the image will still stretch, but it will maintain the ratio) ... however "Use Centered Timings" still will NOT work on 4:3 ratios. In those cases it will distort to fill the entire screen.

what os are you running?

is it just 4:3, meaning that 1280x1024 runs appropriately unscaled?

are you using the gpu hardware scaling and centered timing? (try it both ways)

you still need to pay attention to your monitor settings ... what monitor are you using?

like i said before, if you monitor is set to scale in some cases then it's more likely the nv drivers were doing something wrong that gave you result you wanted.

 

[Qbah]

The "Use Centered Timings" option didn't work for me for 4:3 resolutions on my 16:10 monitor last time I checked (the screen was stetched both ways even with the option checked). However it did work for the non 4:3 ones fine (I think ). I don't mind however, since I was using the Maintain Aspect Ratio one anyway

Edit: Was under Vista x64 Ultimate

 

[grant2]

Originally posted by: Qbah
The "Use Centered Timings" option didn't work for me for 4:3 resolutions on my 16:10 monitor last time I checked (the screen was stetched both ways even with the option checked). However it did work for the non 4:3 ones fine (I think ). I don't mind however, since I was using the Maintain Aspect Ratio one anyway

That is exactly how the ATI support ticket response described. It's strange that they can make it work in every resolution except 4:3 ratios. Non-4:3 ratios will indeed center unscaled.

Derek, I'm running WinXP SP2, with a dell 2007wfp monitor. I have tried all resolutions & options.

I don't buy that NV drivers were "doing something wrong" since the ATI drivers work the same way, delivering the promised image... except in certain resolutions.

Since the experts here don't know of any 3rd party fix... i guess i'll have to live with it.

thanks for the advice!

 

[DerekWilson]

Originally posted by: grant2

Originally posted by: Qbah
The "Use Centered Timings" option didn't work for me for 4:3 resolutions on my 16:10 monitor last time I checked (the screen was stetched both ways even with the option checked). However it did work for the non 4:3 ones fine (I think ). I don't mind however, since I was using the Maintain Aspect Ratio one anyway

That is exactly how the ATI support ticket response described. It's strange that they can make it work in every resolution except 4:3 ratios. Non-4:3 ratios will indeed center unscaled.

Derek, I'm running WinXP SP2, with a dell 2007wfp monitor. I have tried all resolutions & options.

I don't buy that NV drivers were "doing something wrong" since the ATI drivers work the same way, delivering the promised image... except in certain resolutions.

Since the experts here don't know of any 3rd party fix... i guess i'll have to live with it.

thanks for the advice!

the major issue is that i always run with out scaling ... i use centered timings because it makes it easy to see what res i'm running while benchmarking.

on my dell 30" i can run 1600x1200 and 2048x1536 at centered timings with no scaling and no problem on all nvidia and amd cards.

actually amd cards have been less problematic for me, as there was a bug with 9800 gx2 quad sli that made running games not work at all with out nvidia scaling.

with my set up, if i run a res that is <= 1280 wide and <= 800 high, no matter what card i am using, my dell 30" will always scale 2x on both width and height (it never distorts the aspect ratio).

this is independent of nvidia or amd hardware.

i really think the monitor is at the heart of the issue.

 

[grant2]

Originally posted by: DerekWilson
i really think the monitor is at the heart of the issue.

Well the monitor displays correctly 75% of the time, and 25% where it fails is with only ATI hardware in a situation that ATI acknowledges...

so while there may possibly be a cause of the issue, it is proven possible to solve that issue with well developed software drivers.

In the end I think I will go back to an nvidia video card unless ATI tech support gives me some satisfaction soon.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: apoppin
Only the very latest - Cat 8.3 - allows for many resolutions to be properly surrounded by black bars

About freekin' time! Ah well, already swapped out the x1950 Pro in my wife's system for an 8800GT. That was one of two things bugging me about that Radeon. The other is that for some reason Warcraft III (and no other game) will have spontaneous reboots with the Radeon, but not with the 8800GT.

 

[grant2]

Still playing tech-support-tag with ATI... they replied "Use centered timings works PERFECTLY in a digital connection, but not VGA!" ... then i reminded them that not only did they tell me otherwise earlier, but that the card only comes with digital connections anyways so why would i be using a VGA connection?

After I pointed this out he offered to try to reproduce the error for himself. Gee, why didn't you do that in the first place instead of spending time with 3 off-target replies? I might have kept your card if there was light at the end of the tunnel that this issue was going to be fixed.

If this is the regular quality of their employees... no wonder they're losing ground to nvidia. Stop making excuses for the problems and put that effort into fixing them instead.

 

[grant2]

dupe