How to force Nvidia to do DO NOT SCALE regardless of resolution?

[Sub Zero]

I have 3 different LCD's all on Windows 7 Pro 64 bit systems with the latest Nvidia drivers (304.79) and have the same problem (though at different resolutions) with all of them.

Some modes, regardless of what I set in the Nvidia control panel, simply will not adhere to the DO NOT SCALE setting.

On a 2560x1600 screen, 1280x720 / 1280x800 stretch to the sides regardless of the setting. 1920x1080 does not - it's centered 1:1 in the middle of the screen.

Is there ANY way to FORCE each and every resolution to adhere to the DO NOT SCALE setting?

Thanks

 

[ShintaiDK]

Sure its not your monitor that scales?

Same reason why your lowres BIOS screen is shown on the entire screen at boot.

 

[Sub Zero]

The monitors do not have any settings for scaling that I can discern. Since the options in the Nvidia driver allow to choose to use the driver for scaling, I had thought it would / should push the setting regardless though.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Most monitors do scale automaticly. Same with TVs for that matter.

That you cant disable it on the monitor doesnt mean its not there.

If you selected no scaling in the drivers under "Adjust desktop size and position", and it still scales. Its the monitor.

 

[Sub Zero]

Samsung 305t is the clincher, btw.

I'm hoping there is some sort of utility or add-on or something that will just disregard whatever the monitor may do and force it inside of Windows.

Is Nvidia just defaulting to monitor hardware settings for only certain modes?

Thanks for the help. I just want it to do what I tell it to in software, and sometimes that seems hard to achieve with these silly computers.

 

[KingFatty]

Try looking into information about EDID settings. They are settings that let the monitor tell the computer what resolutions are supported.

Maybe your monitor understands not to scale the 1080p mode because it's a commonly desired mode where you expect letterboxing/black bars. Just a guess, but I wonder if your EDID settings are such that the monitor is instructed to scale anything that's not native or 1080p? Perhaps you can edit the EDID information and tell the monitor to treat all resolutions as it treats the 1080p resolution, not to scale them.

 

[PrincessFrosty]

I'm hoping there is some sort of utility or add-on or something that will just disregard whatever the monitor may do and force it inside of Windows.

Windows/drivers can only affect what signal the video card sends out, at what screen resolution and refresh rate, what the monitor does with that after the signal has left is entirely up to the monitor and how it's configured.

The closest you could get to manipulating it is to wrap a small resolution display in a higher resolution one by adding black borders appropriately and sending out an image which is the native resolution of the panel so no scaling is applied, I dunno if this is what the drivers do when you force scaling options I suspect it might be.

Are the monitors different resolutions? That might cause some issues...chances are if scaling is being forced it's probably just an option for the monitor itself, check the user manuals on changing internal scaling options.

 

[Sub Zero]

Thanks for helping. I'm frustrated Nvidia's forums are down. They have some highly technical people very familiar with topics like this.

As far as I can tell the Samsung 305t does not have any hardware scaling at all. It does not have an OSD at all. Frustrating

 

[ViRGE]

Thanks for helping. I'm frustrated Nvidia's forums are down. They have some highly technical people very familiar with topics like this.

As far as I can tell the Samsung 305t does not have any hardware scaling at all. It does not have an OSD at all. Frustrating

Ahh the 305T, now there's a classic. The 305T is one of the first generation 30" monitors (before 2560x1600 scalers and OSDs became available) so it doesn't have a complete scaler. Instead it only accepts 2560x1600, 1280x800, and 1280x720. For the latter two resolutions it will pixel double to 2560x1600 and 2560x1440 respectively.

As far as I know there's no real solution to your problem. When set to perform scaling on the GPU and to use the "no scaling" method, NVIDIA's drivers will pad out the other resolutions. But they will always try to send 1280x800/720 if that's the selected resolution. This is because for some reason the 305T reports itself as being both a native 1280x800 monitor and a native 2560x1600 monitor, which means the drivers will skip scaling on those resolutions.

 

[Sub Zero]

Ahh the 305T, now there's a classic. The 305T is one of the first generation 30" monitors (before 2560x1600 scalers and OSDs became available) so it doesn't have a complete scaler. Instead it only accepts 2560x1600, 1280x800, and 1280x720. For the latter two resolutions it will pixel double to 2560x1600 and 2560x1440 respectively.

As far as I know there's no real solution to your problem. When set to perform scaling on the GPU and to use the "no scaling" method, NVIDIA's drivers will pad out the other resolutions. But they will always try to send 1280x800/720 if that's the selected resolution. This is because for some reason the 305T reports itself as being both a native 1280x800 monitor and a native 2560x1600 monitor, which means the drivers will skip scaling on those resolutions.

The Samsung 305t is perhaps the finest LCD I have ever used. I have had a few Samsung LCD's and find in general their color saturation is outstanding. I have an HP LP2065, for instance, and it's colors are duller and lack the richness of the 305t.

That 20.1" LCD does properly scale 1280x720 when using the Nvidia drivers.

I wonder, if the driver was coded properly, could it correct this issue on the 305t? If it specifically addressed this issue?

Or is the hardware the final word on all of this? Even though there is no OSD or settings, does the LCD have something like a firmware or eprom chip that contains the settings that will always override whatever the driver sends out?

Thank you again for helping.

 

[ViRGE]

Ultimately the problem could be bypassed in drivers. If NVIDIA sent a 2560x1600 padded frame instead of a native 1280x800 frame, it would work as you want it to. But from the standpoint of NVIDIA's drivers, 1280x800 is native, so sending a 2560x1600 padded frame doesn't make a lick of sense.

I think you're going to have to look at EDID settings, and somehow block out the fact that 1280x800 is a native resolution. Otherwise I don't know what could be done.

 

[Sub Zero]

Okay - appreciate the details.

How / where would I find the EDID settings? I cannot seem to find an actual driver for the 305t.

Thanks

 

[ViRGE]

Okay - appreciate the details.

How / where would I find the EDID settings? I cannot seem to find an actual driver for the 305t.

Thanks

That's where my knowledge ends unfortunately. I don't know anything more about EDID beyond that.

You'll have to see what Google turns up

 

[KingFatty]

Okay - appreciate the details.

How / where would I find the EDID settings? I cannot seem to find an actual driver for the 305t.

Thanks

Ah, it's been a while but from what I remember, you get a utility that will simply pull the information from the current driver.

Then you modify it as desired. I believe here, the problem crops up because your monitor is identifying itself as having a native resolution that is not correct, or something along those lines, that confuses the NVidia software and not letting you use padding etc. how you want to.

Anyway, after modifying the info by removing the unwanted information (e.g., deleting the 1280x800 resolution so the NVidia driver no longer thinks that's native), you'll save the modified info as a driver file and install it.

That's all there is to it, just get the utility and try it out. Afterwards, the monitor will no longer confuse the NVidia software, and you should be able to create the setting you want using the NVidia software and ensure that it sends a 2560x1600 padded thing like ViRGE pointed out above.