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Really confused about ATI/nVdia 1:1 pixel mapping on widescreen.

JSynnott

JSynnott

JSynnott

Associate
Joined
27 Jul 2006
Posts
30
Hey all,
at the moment I have an nVidia 6600gt and an LG L203WT(20 inch widescreen), which currently allow me to game at non-widescreen resolutions if necessary, by placing black bars on either side of the screen, instead of stretching the image to fit the monitor. The monitor itself does not have the option to do this, but the nVidia drivers force my monitor to do it.

I am about to upgrade my computer, and was deciding on which graphics card to get. At the minute, there is a one week deal which means there is an x1900xt going for about the same price as a 7900gt (£250), and as far as I am aware, an x1900xt is FAR superior to a 7900gt (correct me if im wrong).

I would jump at the opportunity to get this x1900xt, but the thing stopping me is that I have heard that ATI cards (or rather, the drivers), are not good at forcing 1:1 pixel mapping with certain setups, and quite often force the user to live with a stretched image.

Can anyone tell me whether the ATI drivers should allow me to 1:1 pixel map, since the nVidia drivers do? There is no way I want this card if it will force me to live with stretching, and I dont want to waste time/money sending back an item which is not faulty.

I would love it if this ATI card would support 1:1 pixel mapping. The offer currently on is absolutely amazing, and with the failure rate of the 7x00 nVidia series, I really think the x1900xt is the way to go. I'll be really greatful for any responses.
 
Ah darn, I've just found out that the one week deals last from thursday to thursday. I guess I'm too late to start discussing with people whether ATI is the way for me to go or not..

Thanks anyway though.
 
Hehe I wasnt being sarcastic!

I'm talking about the situations where you DO want black bars, for example in old games where widescreen is not supported. I'd rather have black bars down the side of my screen than have a stretched image. Some people seem to report getting their ATI cards to do this, whereas others seem to report not being able to get it to work. I wish I had some way of knowing whether or not it will work with my setup.
 
I've had a look through the Catalyst Control Centre and I couldn't see anything that looked like it would do what you want.
There is the option to force the desktop display to a resolution of your choice but (i.e. 1280 x 720 ) but the monitor then takes the image and makes it fill the whole screen, so that it looks stretched. I thought that was going to work but alas it didn't, well not for me any way.

Perhaps there is some third party software that could stop the game stretching.

Also (if you haven't already) check out widescreengamingforum as most games can be forced with some magic trickery to run widescreen.
There's also TigerDave that might help.
 
I have Crossfire and the NEC 20WGX2, and they both support 1:1 pixel mapping.

As said above , its the monitors that will either support it or not, as the Belinea i had before would not do 1:1 with the same ATi cards as above.
 
Are people not reading the orignal post. :confused:
He said that with the NVidia drivers, he can run a game in a res lower than the native res and the drivers will add black borders around the sides to make it fit the screen without stretching.

His question is, can the ATi drivers do this?
 
I also have a widescreen monitor and back when I was using an ATI 9800 their drivers did not have the option to do what you want. I do not know if they have added the option since then (running NVIDIA now which does it as you know :D ).
 
Thanks for the replies. I also post on the widescreen gaming forums, but there seems to be some confusion there also.
Apparently this is the screen I would be looking for in the ATi drivers:

ccc9dr.jpg


"Centered Timings" is the option I would need to select. Then, if I made my resolution lower than native resolution, I shold see black bars on the sides of my screen, rather than an image stretched to fit.
It seems that this works for some users, and not for others.
 
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