Gaming on external monitor issue

Okay, here is my problem, i have been hooking a 1080p samsung syncmaster monitor to my laptop for a few months now, it happens that the 9800M GS has the power to handle almost all the games i played at 1920x1080 pretty good so far.

However, the problem began when i bought dragon age yesterday, either my CPU is too weak for it or my 9800M GS couldn't keep up, anyhow, i can't manage to run the game at 1080p with playable frame rates, even with medium settings. So i stepped a bit to 1600x900, god, the graphic was awful and blurry, i just couldn't stand it. I exited the game and turned down the desktop resolution to 1600x900, all the texts and images turned blurry, i know lowering resolution will make images less clear, but by no means the difference should be that big.

I know there is a "flat panel scaling" option that will allow you make images/texts look still good at non-native resolution, but it seems that i can adjust that for my laptop screen, whenever i am using the external monitor, the "image scaling" option in the nvidia control panel simply disappears.

Is there any solution for this? or is this simply the way it is supposed to be?

Thanks for your time reading, all responses will be appreciated!!!

 

I'm playing it at 1920x1080 8xAA max settings with 1.6 cpu over 1x pci-e speed and i rarely get slowdowns to 15 fps (ostagar night battle + wind effect), other than that it's 30 fps almost all the time(vsync on). No way your 2.26\9800 are too weak for it.
Anyway you could try playing in a window then the image won't be stretched.

Try changing this setting in DisableAspectRatioCorrection=0 dragonage.ini tho doubt it'll do anything

Are both cpu cores used? Do you have the dual core patch from microsoft installed it it's win xp?

 

Thanks for your input. I am sure both cores are utilized and it is vista 64, that's what i don't understand, i was running the game at 1920x1080 with no AA and medium settings, i was constantly getting below 20fps in big fights all the time. I just noticed turning off frame buffer effect in game boosts the fps a lot, but the graphic looks kinda crap without it.

The blurry graphics in game at non native resolution ain't the only problem, everything on the desktop will be like a big mess if i set up a non resolution, say 1600x900, the text appears unclear, image looks foggy and blurry. BTW, I connect the monitor to the laptop through a DVI cable, if it matters.

 

Does the monitor have DVI-A (analog) or DVI-D (Digital) input? I think if you have analog, the resolution may be limited. I dunno. Blurry to me usually means analog.

 

Thanks for your reply. htwingnut!!

Yes, the monitor does have both analog and digital options, but what does both mean to me? i am currently running at 1920x1080 with analog input, I have no idea what these may affect the graphics and resolutions. DO i need another kind of cable or something?

 

A DVI-I cable contains both Analog and Digital pins. DVI-D, digital only, DVI-A, Analog only. And higher resolutions usually require a "dual link" DVI cable. Check your monitor's specs. My Dell 1920x1200 requires Dual-Link and will accept digital only.

With a "bad" cable analog can look like crap. There should also be an "auto-adjust" feature on your monitor. Try that too. It should do its best to compensate for the analog signal, but don't expect miracles.

If your monitor and video out on your PC accepts a digital DVI connection, I would recommend using that instead. Analog can be hit or miss depending on the cable. Most likely it needs a dual-link as well.

See details at wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Visual_Interface

If you need a new cable, I recommend monoprice.com:

http://www.monoprice.com/products/subdepartment.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10209

They have inexpensive but quality cables. You'll probably pay 10-20% of the retail price from most stores. Yes, that's only 20% OF normal price, not OFF, so very cheap, and reasonable shipping too.

 

Okay, i just checked my monitor, the cable is actually plugged in the "RGB IN" slot on the monitor, there is still a "DVI IN" slot, and here i thought i was using DVI all the time, sorry for the confusion. I tried "auto-adjust" on the monitor, but it didn't help one bit.

I guess all i need is a DVI dual-link cable, right? Thanks for your information, they help a lot!!