16:10 monitors

so I am having some trouble rapping my brain around this problem. I understand that lcd monitors have a prefered resolution (ie 1680x1050 in my case) but I am not able to play all of my games at the resolution. If I say select 1280x768 (also 16:10 ratio) it puts black bars at the top and botton and I would then assume the aspect ratio was right, wrong. for some reason it is still stretched horizontally. is there a way to fix this?

 

1280x800 is 16:10 not 1280x768

 

hmmm, that could be my problem is there a way create resolutions for ATI? I have done so in the past with a nvidia card, but I dont understand how with my 1600. and oen other thing, my w3j is 16:10 as well, but its native res is 1280x768, how is it differnet? differnet size of pixels i guess?

 

thats interesting. Pretty sure your monitor only has 768 pixels. That is not true 16:10 its 5:3

 

Actually, your W3J is a 15:9 monitor, not 16:10. The aspect ratio is how the horisontal and vertical resolutions are to each other. if you divide 1280 by 15, then multiplie by 9, you get 768. Hence, 15:9.

 

ah I see, ok I found powerstrip and I am tinckering with it. couple of questions. what resolution on my 22 in monitor woud fix nicely besides the native one? 1280x800 is still stretch horizontally. and I tried 1440x900 and its reverted into a pan mode, can some one explain that, cause as I understood it 1440x900 is less that my native so it should work

 

what is the native resolution? if it's 1680x1050, both 1280x800 and 1440x900 will work, since they're all 16:10. And why would you want to lower the resolution? it will be blurry.

 

well I cant play a couple of my games at a steady enough frame rate at the native res, ya the monitor is 1680x1050, if I set it too 1280x800 it puts bars on top and bottom which is fine, but the aspect ratio is still wrong by a long shot

 

...It shouldn't be, since they're the same aspect ratio. Are you sure it's not 1280x720 or 768?

And in games, the less than native can be ok, since the blurriness is not as pronounced.

 

oh and if it makes a difference I am using the analog input (vga)

I would try and take a screen shot but that doestn really work...
both 1280x768 and 760 make a circle appear stretched horizontally

another option might be to put black bars on the sides too? is there anyway of doing this? alothugh that is a bit of a last resort

 

You could try to change the screen settings from the screen itself. It should have an auto size button, or a setting from it's OSD.

 

it just keeps telling me that for optimal picture use 1680x1050. I am using the vga plug (w3j doesnt have dvi) could that make a difference? also I suspect it has something to do with the black bars it keeps enforcing on my screen

 

It shouldn't make a difference.

 

ok, after doing some looking and tinckering I figured out my problem of aspect ratios. It turns out that a pixel is not a perfect square, they are slightly rectangular, this means your native res is only res it will display properly at, or it will display correctly at exactly half your resolution. This means a monitor with a native resolution of 1680x1050 will also work correctly at 840x525. So in other words, use your native res, the options are very few if you want a full screen game, I find 840x525 way to low.

thought i would share what I learned if it helps anyone out there

 

Actually you can use any resolution with the correct aspect ratio, not just submultiples of the native resolution. But it will look blurry in text applications. In games you won't notice the blurriness.

I suggest different video drivers (maybe stock?)