Scale down a 24" LCD monitor

tigersty1e

Golden Member
Dec 13, 2004
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So after the native res on a 24" LCD (1920 x 1200), what's the next res below the native that will keep the LCD looking great?

Besides chopping it in half (960 x 600).
 

tigersty1e

Golden Member
Dec 13, 2004
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I vaguely recall somebody posted some formula to getting the monitor to scale down and keep 1:1 pixels without cutting the res in half.

Those res you guys posted will probably make the graphics look like crap.
 

TanisHalfElven

Diamond Member
Jun 29, 2001
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Originally posted by: tigersty1e
I vaguely recall somebody posted some formula to getting the monitor to scale down and keep 1:1 pixels without cutting the res in half.

Those res you guys posted will probably make the graphics look like crap.

non-native res n a lcd always looks bad. but the higher the resolution supplied the more the monitor has to work with si probably a better picture.
 

sygyzy

Lifer
Oct 21, 2000
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Originally posted by: tigersty1e
I vaguely recall somebody posted some formula to getting the monitor to scale down and keep 1:1 pixels without cutting the res in half.

Those res you guys posted will probably make the graphics look like crap.

I'd love to see this too. I am surprised it's not more common.

I think the biggest problem with LCD's and dropping prices is that it's so easy to reach 20+" LCD screens. But then you have to deal with native resolutions since that's what everything looks great at.

So now you have a cheap monitor that needs to be displayed at really high resolutions but to make the latest and greatest games run at 60fps at that resolution, you need a $600 graphics card and a fancy CPU. It sucks.

Additionally, all the popular resolutions don't follow the same scale. For example, if you do the math, 1680x1050 doesn't scale to anything!
 

BernardP

Golden Member
Jan 10, 2006
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Scaling doesn't have to involve round-number divisions. I have personnally seen a 22-inch LG 1680x1050 monitor scale very well at 1280x800 and 1280x768. There is even a button on the LG for instant 1440x900 downscaling.

My work computer has is a 19-inch 5:4 Dell LCD with 1280x1024 native, and it scales very well at 1152x864 and 1024x768 ( 4:3 formats, so there is a slight picture vertical stretch)

If you have an NVidia videocard, you can select your own custom resolution (1376x864 anyone?) and have the scaling done in the videocard. A native (eg: 1920x1200) signal is sent to the monitor who "thinks" that it doesn't have to scale anything. This function is only enabled through the DVI output. ATI cards don't do so well with scaling in the videocard.

Speaking of 19-inch 5:4 monitors, I have set up a custom 1024x816 rez for one of my friends (NVidia 7800GT) to avoid the picture stretch arising from using the 1024x768 preset rez.

Final hint: Custom resolutions are said to give better results if both numbers are divisible by 8.
 

VERTIGGO

Senior member
Apr 29, 2005
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1440x900 is 75% in each direction, so mathematically I'd assume it would be the best at scaling without going to 960x600.