Guys i really need your help, ive got no idea what to do.

[PrISM506]

Originally posted by: Mermaidman
You must have some seriously serious hardware to play games at 1600x1200!

Not if the games are fairly old. I doubt he's playing DOOM 3 at that resolution, and if he is, it can't be very playable especially during a firefight. I know my machine chugs a bit at 1280x1024 during firefights (DOOM3).

Then again, I haven't over clocked...yet.

 

[thorin]

Originally posted by: Heen05
OK, so i went back and lowered it to 75, and it still does it. And get this...if i lower the refresh rate to 72 at 1024x768, it messes my DESKTOP (outside of the game, ie not running) the same way too!

You ran it out of spec for how long? And now you're surprised that it doesn't want to behave, that's funny.

Thorin

 

[cjard]

Originally posted by: Heen05
OK, so i went back and lowered it to 75, and it still does it. And get this...if i lower the refresh rate to 72 at 1024x768, it messes my DESKTOP (outside of the game, ie not running) the same way too!

Theres quite a few things you dont know about a monitor, most importantly, that the picture you see on screen is positioned by 6 variables that are not shown to you. They are not shown, because setting them is too complex, and most users would damage their monitor doing so. If you have good monitor driver software (i.e. if your card is made by a company like Matrox, who put lots of effort into making their cards good for 2D users) then you can tweak these settings (clock sync, pixel rate, fporch, bporch etc..) but mostly you will not bother.

Your monitor has a "driver" that is basically a text file that declares these 6 settings.. and this file is what windows uses in order to correctly identify your monitor, and also what windows uses to correctly present you with a list of resolutions and refresh rates that will work with your monitor..

Now, you need to understand that windows generally controls what the refresh rate is when a game changes resolution. many games can change refresh too (in quake3 example, command is r_displayRefresh) but most games that have a menu where you pick the res e.g. 1600x1200 will go ahead and use whatever refresh and other associated settings windows knows..

Every res/refresh combination has a different set of those 6 variables, and it is those 6 variables that determine where the image starts to be drawn and where it stops. Because windows doesnt allow you to change these settings (because they are part of the monitor.inf driver) you have to correct the geometry of the monitor using the monitor controls.

You probably didnt want to know all that, so here is the solution for you:

Set your monitor in windows, to 1024x768. Set the refresh to what you want. Use the OSD menu or knobs on the monitor to centre the image

Now set your monitor to 1600x1200, again set the refresh to something you want and use the monitor hardware controls to centre the image. Dont use the nvidia control panel to centre the image.
If the nvidia control panel doesnt allow you to select 1600x1200, then downlaod an updated monitor.inf driver file form the manufacturer (of the monitor) website

It is a little known fact that most modern monitors (of reasonable quality) will remember the geometries for a range of different resolutions. My old iiyama VMPro 450 (19" mitsubishi tube) can remember about 8 geometry settings. All i had to do to ensure i got a good centred picture every time, was to change to each resolution (witht he desired refresh) in turn, and centre the image.. upon swithcing between them, the montior will look up the geometries for the new resoltion and set that

and if your monitor appears incapable of remembering more than one geometry, either adjust the game manually every time, or run windows in 1600x1200 with large fonts (prevents switching from 1024 <-> 1600, or run the game in 1024 (makes it faster)

 

[ManBearPig]

Oh boy, thanks for all this help, i appreciate it. Ill get to reading it all in a minute. 100hz at 1024x768 isnt hurting my monitor, is it? my old crap monitor ran that fine, this one seems fine too. i dunno.

 

[ManBearPig]

Ok well, i went and did some detective work lol. Switched to 1600x1200, set it to 72 hz, change the screen to fit, and went and loaded the game. no dice. i decided that id reposition the screen, and see if it worked, and even tho my desktop would change, so what. well, the game was fine after i repositioned it in 1600x1200, and i got the added bonus of the desktop (miraculously) not changing.

So i figured ya know, i was lucky, lets go boot it up in 1024x768 and see if it is repositioned. it wasnt, shucks. so i figured because i got lucky with the desktop not changing in 1600x1200 when i loaded the game and repositioned it, i might as well do it while the desktop was in 1024x768 and see if i got the same results. i did. yes! Thanks. Is it ok if i have it set to 100hz though (desktop)? Apparantly it switched to 72hz or less when its in 1600x1200 heh.