m17x-R2, Limited Game Resolutions?

Hello Guys, I just went out and bought the following R2 system:

AlienWare M17x Laptop: DUAL 1GB GDDR3 Radeon HD4870x2 - Intel i7 820QM (1.73GHz) - 6GB 1067MHz DDR3 Dual Channel - 500GB (7200RPM) - 17in WideUXGA 1920x1200 - Beyond HD (1200p).

Now my question lies in the resolutions for games...

I would love to play in the following resolutions: 1440x900 and 1680x1050, in some games such as maybe battlefield. The reason for this is, that i can squeeze more fps out of the computer doing so.

However i CANT choose those resolutions in ANY game. Why is this so? and how can i be able to run those resolutions. Even a 1280x768 is impossible.

Please help me with this

Thanks alot

//Kjærulff/Carewolf

PS: I benchmark this system 15159 in 3dmark06, is this acceptable?

Heres a link to what it looks like:

http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/8148/resos.jpg





UPDATE! UPDATE! UPDATE:

I tried the new resolutions that was given to me in the 10.4 driver, and i found that two resolutions specifically "1600x1200" and "1400x1050" are not 16:10, as i require. Those are 13.3:10.

http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/6900/resolution.jpg


I've searched so long now to find a solution, but i really want those resolutions to be 16:10 resolutions (1440x900 and 1680x1050) those are my preferred gaming resolutions.

Can anyone help me fixing this? You've already helped alot.

 

What you are writing makes no sense. I play many games including Battlefield and I am able to choose the resolution without any issues.

I don't understand what would be wrong with your PC that the resolution is "locked".

 

Yeah neither do I Joebarchuck, The resolution is locked i'll get a screenshot uploaded in some minutes to show exactly what i mean.

 

Hmmm. I don't have any probs choosing different resolutions. Indeed, I like playing some games on my M17x at 1920 by 1080 in a window, so I can multi-task with other things.

Make sure you got the latest drivers of course...

 

I can change resolutions too.. I just cant go any higher than what the monitor supports on the notebook.

What games? I know some games in the past once I edited a con fig file I could change resolutions or run a shell command within the game.

I actually have wow set up for dual boxing on my laptop and the first screen has reg resolution and the secondary account has 800x600 or something like that so i can read stuff in the small window if needed or swap it to my main.

 

Heres a link to what it looks like:

http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/8148/resos.jpg

 

59hz? That doesn't sound right..

 

Laptop LCDs are 60Hz so 1 less pulse will not make a difference. I would try reloading the videao driver/software and maybe even the game after that if the former does not remedy your situation.

Edit: I remeber playing BF2 on my dell that has a 1920x1200 screen and not being able to choose that res or anything close to it. Would be nice to see someone elses screen shot to see if its possible to chose other resolutions or if they just limit the choices for that game.

 

So it is clear that something is wrong?

 

Don't have BF2, so can't try it out. But in virtually every game, e.g., Crysis Max, Far Cry 2, Civ 4, Sims 3, Oblivion, Fall Out 3, etc., I can choose any res, play it. Some games let me play in a window, making task switching a breeze.

I also never understood why there's a 59Hz option, I've seen it on many laptops.

 

Seems to be a game issue.. What do you have your resolution set to for the desktop?

I know on my nvidia cards with the regular lcd not rgb it would always default to 59hz. On my r2 with ati and rgbled i can set to 60hz...

Did you google that game and see if it has issues setting resolutions?

 

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm......

So if im going to reinstall the drivers for the graphics card to the newest catalyst, then should i uninstall the current one first? or use some special tool like driver sweeper?

 

The resolution options on my desktop is EXACTLY the same as in battlefield, as it is in ALL games i've tried.
So its not a game specific issue. I cant choose 1440x900 fx for my desktop either.

Could this be a monitor driver issue? I cant find any monitor drivers on the driver CD nor the alienware/dell website.

 

It's the Catalyst drivers, if you go into them you'll see that they are missing from there as well. If you have the Dell version then you only get a few options, 10.4 added a bunch more, but say 1680x1050 is still missing.

I play WOW sometimes in a window and to get it to work on 1680x1050 I has to manually edit the config file. The system supports those missing resolutions, you just might have to manually edit a config file to use them.

 

It does sound like a driver issue. Your drivers typically inform the applications (i.e. games) what resolutions it can choose from. Some games also limit their choices too, but most nowadays allow you to pick from what the driver's allow.

I simply download the latest drivers first. If it happens to be the same version I have, then I allow for a corrupt driver, and try a rollback first, then removal, then reinstall.

Try what Jakkarus suggests. If it's not the drivers, the your game will work fine.

 

If the in-game resolutions available are calling out 59 Hz I'd imagine that your video card is defaulting to 59 Hz for some reason and not 60 Hz. Have you checked your video settings per Windows and the Catalyst drivers? That would be a good place to start. Perhaps additional in-game resolutions will be available once 60 Hz is being used instead.

On a related note...well, sort of.
I had a display issue with a desktop system and a LCD due to 59 Hz being selected by default. I was working on a project and needed to display a 800x600 window on one of my 24" DELL monitors which normally run at 1920x1200. When changing the resolution to 800x600 the default refresh rate being selected was 59 Hz. This was resulting in the image being stretched the width of the display and not maintaining the proper aspect ratio. Once setting the refresh rate to 60 Hz the image displayed properly.

 

Updating the driver to 10.4 Catalyst solved the problem. The problem was the DELL installed Catalyst driver. Thankyou all for the help specially Jakkarus who brought the final solution.

 

happy to help!

 

Updated the thread with a "new" issue regarding this.

I need 1440x900 and 1680x1050, and not the 13.3:10 resolutions 1600x1200 and 1400x1050 as im offered in my driver currently.

Any ideas on how i can fix that?

 

That's why I said you might have to look at the config file for your games and manually edit them for the resolution that you want. Most of them are just text files and you should just be able to use notepad to make the changes. ATI doesn't have the ability add custom resolutions like nVidia does so I don't know of any other workaround at the moment...

 

You should be able to force your desired resolution via a configuration file or other tricks.

Google for Wide Screen Gaming, there are suggestions for lots of games there.

Also, make sure the latest drivers for your hardware are installed properly.

 

Must be the game. I don't have those 2 resolution as my options too on BC2. Specs are similar to yours (in sig)

 

Carewolf, I had the same complaint when I first got my R2. After a lot of searching, I finally stumbled across the answer. The screen resolutions are stored in the registry. They are not difficult to find and are very easy to edit.

Open the registry editor (pressing the windows key and 'R' at the same time will bring up the run dialog box, the type in "regedit" without the quotes and press enter) sorry if I'm being too basic here and you aleady know this, but some don't and if you don't it avoids you posting for instructions on how to get to the registry editor.

Go to 'Edit' then 'Find'
Type in "DALNonStandardModesBCD1" without the quotes and hit enter.

After some searching it will find a string that matches, there will be a long string of numbers to the right of this text that looks something like "08 00 04 80 00 00 00 60 ..."

These are the values you are going to edit.
Doubleclick on the text at the left and it will open an editing window.
The screen resolutions are stored as groups of 2 numbers.
800x600 60hz = "08 00 06 00 00 00 00 60"
1920x1200 60Hz = "19 20 12 00 00 00 00 60"

just go down to the next row after the last entry and add the string:
1680x1050 = "16 80 10 50 00 00 00 60"
1400x900 = "14 00 09 00 00 00 00 60"

You will notice that there are 3 sets of 00 in between the resolution and the refresh rate. I'm not sure if they are used for anything, but they must be there.

Click on the OK button and it will update the registry.

Now press the F3 button, this will search for the next instance of the DALNonStandardModesBCD1.
When it finds the next string, repeat the above procedure to add the new modes.
Keep repaeting until you have finished searching the registry.
You will notice after you have entered the strings a few times that you will come across strings that have already been updated. When you find one of these, just move on to the next.

After all the updates are done, close the ditor and restart. When it comes back up, you will have your new resolutions. Enjoy!

Also, this does not work if you have installed only the Dell drivers. The Dell driver does not enable any non-standard modes so the registry string will not be there when you search for it. This must be used with the AMD drivers.

 

This was perfect. Finally, i feel i cant thank you enough. This solved my problem, perfect guide it was very easy to understand and perform. I will save this guide in a notepad on my backup drives so I never forget it going to start testing in games, but i dont see why it shouldnt work, i'll come back crying if it dont.

Thankyou +Rep,