ATI Driver Font issue

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[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Aug 23, 2001
Messages
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So I just got a bunch of new hardware. I've got an X1950. It's the first ATI card I've used and I'm having some rather annoying issues with it. At first, I installed just the regular drivers but that wouldn't let me use a resolution greater than 1600 x 1200 without scrolling. So I installed the Catalyst control panel software and found a way around that.

But now all of my Windows fonts are messed up. I've tried both font smoothing options in the appearance effects dialog and both of them cause a really headache-inducing distortion. I've never had that kind of problem with nVidia hardware and I don't think it was a problem before I installed the Catalyst control panel business.

What's the deal? Any suggestions?
 
In case anyone cares, I think I've got it worked out. I uninstalled all of the ATI configuration tools and display drivers and installed just the latest base drivers. The text looked fine but that gave me the same problem of not getting higher than 1600x1200. Then I used ATI Tray Tools to adjust the accepted monitor resolutions.

It seems like that knocked out the text problem.
 
Alright, so after messing with it a bit further, it seems as if it's still broken. I suspect that the Catalyst drivers are still forcing 1600x1200 and just scaling my 1920x1440 desktop down to that.

I tracked the problem down to an error in my monitor reporting the proper DDC information to the video card. ATT confirms that it isn't detecting the DDC info. Supposedly, the solution was to update to the proper monitor drivers that allow the supported resolutions. Well, I found my drivers and forced Windows to use them. Oddly, those max out at a resolution lower the actual max and lower than the default WIndows drivers but still don't change the apparent capped maximum resolution.

So is there a way to disable the Catalyst DDC cap and force it to use whatever resolution I tell it?
 
Alright, so after messing with it a bit further, it seems as if it's still broken. I suspect that the Catalyst drivers are still forcing 1600x1200 and just scaling my 1920x1440 desktop down to that.

I tracked the problem down to an error in my monitor reporting the proper DDC information to the video card. ATT confirms that it isn't detecting the DDC info. Supposedly, the solution was to update to the proper monitor drivers that allow the supported resolutions. Well, I found my drivers and forced Windows to use them. Oddly, those max out at a resolution lower the actual max and lower than the default WIndows drivers but still don't change the apparent capped maximum resolution.

So is there a way to disable the Catalyst DDC cap and force it to use whatever resolution I tell it?

You should be able to go into the CCC in advanced mode then click monitor properties 1 (could be a different number depending on your setup) then click on attributes, then uncheck "Use extended device identification data (EDID) or driver defaults" once thats unchecked right below it you can set your max resolution manually.
 
So I just got a bunch of new hardware. I've got an X1950. It's the first ATI card I've used and I'm having some rather annoying issues with it. At first, I installed just the regular drivers but that wouldn't let me use a resolution greater than 1600 x 1200 without scrolling. So I installed the Catalyst control panel software and found a way around that.

But now all of my Windows fonts are messed up. I've tried both font smoothing options in the appearance effects dialog and both of them cause a really headache-inducing distortion. I've never had that kind of problem with nVidia hardware and I don't think it was a problem before I installed the Catalyst control panel business.

What's the deal? Any suggestions?
Hi,
I may have this same problem. What do you mean by "distortion"? Like, is your text blurry every few words/lines? That's how mine is.
 
You should be able to go into the CCC in advanced mode then click monitor properties 1 (could be a different number depending on your setup) then click on attributes, then uncheck "Use extended device identification data (EDID) or driver defaults" once thats unchecked right below it you can set your max resolution manually.
That's precisely what I've done, but it seems like it's just scaling my desktop down to 1600x1200 and displaying it full screen instead of panning like before.

Hi,
I may have this same problem. What do you mean by "distortion"? Like, is your text blurry every few words/lines? That's how mine is.
Yeah, something like that. It pretty much looks like what you would get if you resized an image of text down and it antialiased it poorly.

I've tried to get a picture of it, but it doesn't seem to show up in screenshots. Perhaps that indicates a problem with my monitor and not my video card? I don't know why it wouldn't work now, though. I had no problems at all on my old rig.
 
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