Widescreen Gaming Forum

Hey I can't seem to find an answer to this anywhere.

I have a Dell E228WFP with a native resolution of 1680x1050. My preference for graphics is to have all the detail settings maxed and then adjust the resolution. If the performance is not satisfactory at the native resolution, I want lower it and increase anti-aliasing. The problem is that any resolution other than the native gets scaled and you get that fuzzy look.

What I want to do here, is create a custom resolution of 840x525 which is exactly half the pixels both horizontally and vertically so that they line up with the physical native dots on my LCD (essentially making each pixel that is drawn take up 4 native dots on the screen). *please let me know if you're unsure of what I mean by this*

I tried creating it in the nvidia control panel but it just gives me a simple error message "Custom test mode failed."

Ideally I would like a way to create this res that is fairly simple and have it applicable to most games. Let me know if you have any info, thanks!

What game can't the GTS handle at 1680x1050? Because I haven't found one at 1920x1200.

What is your CPU?


I remember once reading something about creating custom resolutions on this forum. Do a little search.

I searched and found nothing that could apply to this.

It's not whether or not the card can handle it. It can, you're right, but I'm trying to customize the settings to my taste for graphics vs performance.

Let me know if you know of a better forum to ask this question. (I have it in NVidia Forum as well)

the forceware has a custom resolution sections, just make sure to use the advanced button and specify something other than auto, that's what causes most custom res. fails for me.

Do you know how to adjust those advanced options or where to find specific info? Because I'm not familiar with all the settings in there.

*Edit* I just played with it a bit and got it to test but all I got was some white bands that didn't fill the screen. I tried reading the help file but its very un-descriptive.... does anyone know about using this tool to create custom resolutions?

I've never adjusted much, just a single setting that I got from using powerstrip previously to fix my image having 1 pixel off screen. It should fill in the info just don't use auto, using it has caused 'test failed' in just about all cases for me.

Not all resolutions might work either, I can get 1440x1080 (4:3 within 1080p) working yet 960x540 has been a problem. Same for trying to make a 1920x480 (th2g virtual try out) to work, it works but stretched to fill vertically, making it useless.

I managed to get it to change to 840x525 and it shows up in HL2 as an option, but on desktop and in game it still gets scaled for some reason. Can you see if you can get your display to do half the native without scaling?

Wait, I thought 840x525 scaled to 1680x1050 was what you wanted?

As for running it as 1:1 as 1/4 your screen that wouldn't be very playable and is unlikely to be possible with the scaling options fubarred in the current forceware for 8800's.

When I tried 960x540 under 1920x1080 it worked, a little too well, it actually replaced 1920x1080 in games, causing em to be scaled full-time, even if I picked the original 1920x1080 res.

I do want it to scale to fullscreen but I'm hoping to get it so that it lines up with the native dots thus not have that fuzzy look.

I suppose that might depends what scales it, monitor or video card.
Did you check the flat-panel scaling part of the forceware drivers?

I do know some monitors scale things regardless, my benq FP231W for example, it sometimes gives a fuzzy result for a native res.1920x1200 as long as 'aspect' or 'fullscreen' is selected, even if it shouldn't have to scale, and it's fine once I put it as 1:1. That sort of option wouldn't work for you though, 1:1 would only make it 1/4 the screen. I do know I've had adapter/video card scaling create fuzzy looks so maybe you need to swap it for 'let my display handle it'.