20" and 23" - Maintaining Aspect Ratio when Stretching? (PC)

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Level 1

100 points

20" and 23" - Maintaining Aspect Ratio when Stretching? (PC)

On Mac OS X, choosing resolutions that are smaller than the native resolution of a Cinema Display presents two options -- stretching a 4:3 resolution like 1024x768 to completely fill the display's 16:10 aspect, or centering a 4:3 resolution like 1024x768 with the height maximized, and two black bars on the side (i.e., maintaining the aspect ratio).

Sadly, most PC cards simply stretch without maintaining the ratio, which distorts the image and is annoying, especially for full-screen games.

I know that some ATI cards allow for stretching while maintaining the ratio -- (see http://www.nativehue.com/temp/x300.gif ).

* * * * *

My question is for people using 20" and 23" displays on PCs -- do any of your cards support stretching while maintaining the aspect ratio? If yes, please list them below. (I am specifically interested in the SAPPHIRE ATLANTIS RADEON 9600, if someone has that card.)

Any tips greatly appreciated. 🙂

Posted on Jul 28, 2005 11:59 AM

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Answer 1

Al Brower

Level 2

200 points

Jul 28, 2005 2:19 PM in response to Adam Polgar

Unfortunately, ATI's drivers lack the scale-while-maintaining-aspect-ratio option. Only certain ATI laptop video chips offer this.

Nvidia's drivers do offer this option for all its desktop cards (which is why I switched from an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro to Nvidia 6600GT).

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Answer 2

Adam Polgar Author

Level 1

100 points

Jul 28, 2005 2:22 PM in response to Al Brower

That's incredibly unfortunate, especially since I'm told the feature has been there since 1998, it's just not exposed in the driver. 😟

Thank you for your reply.

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Answer 3

Al Brower

Level 2

200 points

Jul 28, 2005 2:29 PM in response to Adam Polgar

I agree. I have asked ATI about it via email several times and only gotten the canned "read the FAQs" responses. Maybe they'll see the light in the future.

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Answer 4

Phil Ta

Level 6

10,400 points

Jul 29, 2005 3:35 AM in response to Adam Polgar

In ATI settings, with either ATI Control Center or Control Panel which runs on many of the Radeon chips including the 9600, there's a setting for scaled output or centered output. With centered output, the display will be centered and not stretched if the output resolution is lower than the LCD's native resolution. This may only work for DVI though, I'm not sure. For analog output, and DVI output as well, the LCD may have settings to either scale or maintain the aspect ratio. Given that Apple's LCD's don't have any sort of on-screen settings or controls, it's not possible with them.

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Answer 5

Al Brower

Level 2

200 points

Jul 29, 2005 12:16 PM in response to Phil Ta

"Centered" output makes a box in the center of the screen (example: 1024x768 box in the center of a 1680x1050 20" ACD). It won't be scaled at all. "Scaled" stretches a resolution to fill the entire screen. That same 1024x768 will be stretched so that everything appears short but wide.

The option ATI is missing is scale while maintaining aspect ratio. 1024x768 would be stretched until it vertically fills the screen, but there will be black bars on either side.

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Answer 6

Adam Polgar Author

Level 1

100 points

Aug 17, 2005 8:50 PM in response to Al Brower

I ended up going with an AOpen Aeolus NVIDIA GeForce 6200 (128MB) for my brand-new 20" ACD with Windows. Like you wrote, the card offers the fixed aspect ratio scaling feature, and it works quickly and very well.

I can't believe I even considered ATI. Thanks again for your suggestion.

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