How to get monitor resolution of 1680x1050 using ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO in a dual monitor setup

I have Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO graphics card in my Windows Server 2008 x64 machine. It has two outputs a VGA and a DVI. I have connected the DVI to my Dell 24" monitor with 1900x1200 resolution and it works 100%. The VGA I have connected to my second monitor a Samsung 22" with native resolution of 1680x1050. But the ATI driver and Catalyst control centre doesn't show this resolution as an option. If I choose a lower resolution like 1280x1024 it looks really bad and fuzzy. I searched in google and downloaded the powerstrip tool that allowed me to create a custom resolution of 1680x1050 and then this option shows up in Catalyst control centre and my 2nd monitor works fine now.

But I don't want to pay for an application to choose a display resolution. Why doesn't ATI show me that option by default even though it has no problem in actually supporting the display at resolution. Is there a way to get 1680x1050 resolution using ATI drivers only ?

softveda

Posted 2010-02-01T11:42:29.657

Reputation: 133

Answers

I had a similar problem with my 1680 x 1050 monitor.

I found that I had to use the "Desktops and Displays" section of the ATI Catalyst Control Center software and click on the "Detect Displays" button. Thereafter, it showed the 1680 x 1050 resolution as an option under "Desktop Properties".

Ed McGuigan

Posted 2010-02-01T11:42:29.657

Reputation: 11

Unfortunately that EDID option is available only for VGA. I have a similar issue with DVI - Catalyst thinks that my monitor does not support 1360x768 and enables GPU scaling which makes everything look blurred. Only on VGA the image is crisp even at 1360x768, but I have to uncheck that EDID box, or else Catalyst GPU scaling kicks in again and makes things blurry. – JustAMartin – 2015-07-31T11:43:11.550

1I had to go to Desktop and Display > Display 2 > Configure and uncheck "[ ] Use Extended Display Identification Data (EDID) or driver defaults". After unchecking, I was able to force 1680x1050 as the maximum resolution for the monitor. This added it to all the appropriate dropdowns. – Leons – 2012-03-27T14:30:10.240

Might be a driver issue with the drivers of the monitor. Either Windows uses wrong drivers for the monitor, or the ATI and the monitor drivers are incompatible in some way.

Bobby

Posted 2010-02-01T11:42:29.657

Reputation: 8 534

You may want to try the ATI Omega Drivers. I don't use them anymore since I'm using a Mac now, but when I did I think they came with a utility to help with resolutions. Of course, they are free.

donut

Posted 2010-02-01T11:42:29.657

Reputation: 926

From the "about" section on the site "I do this hobby in my spare time, since I have a personal life and a day work, so don't expect me to be up-to-date with everybody or everything..." That doesn't sound like a driver package that I'd want to install. – MDMarra – 2010-05-20T01:10:58.897

When I was running I had no troubles whatsoever. Didn't notice any difference in performance, either. They're easy to uninstall if it doesn't work. Worth a shot if nothing else is working. – donut – 2010-05-21T04:01:49.230

You need the old drivers. No new ones work. CATALYST file version 3.0.741.0, released in 2009, has the correct drivers.

I had a lot of problems, but that was the solution.

Zed Black

Posted 2010-02-01T11:42:29.657

Reputation: 1

For me the fix was in AMD catalyst control center, set properties VGA Display. I had to set the max resolution to 1680x1050

Herman

Posted 2010-02-01T11:42:29.657

Reputation: 1