Custom resolutions?

[andrewfee]

So it seems I chose the worst possible time to buy a GTX460, and I’m now thinking about returning it for one of the new AMD cards rather than opening it when it turns up today. (will wait a few days for the full details) I ignored most of the news because I had assumed they were positioned higher up as the 5850/5870 are priced significantly higher than the GTX460 here, but apparently they’re now direct competitors.

They have 3D support now, which was one of the reasons I was sticking to nVidia, but I also need custom resolutions for my CRT.

Do the ATi drivers have support for custom resolutions now? It’s been years since I had an ATi card, and back then you had to make do with powerstrip. (which never worked well)

 

[Tamlin_WSGF]

If you are in need of some obscure custom resolutions, Nvidia is your best bet still.

There will always be offers and better cards. The GTX 460 is a good card and if it forfills your needs, why not stick with it?

 

[BlueStorm]

So it seems I chose the worst possible time to buy a GTX460, and I’m now thinking about returning it for one of the new AMD cards rather than opening it when it turns up today. (will wait a few days for the full details) I ignored most of the news because I had assumed they were positioned higher up as the 5850/5870 are priced significantly higher than the GTX460 here, but apparently they’re now direct competitors.

They have 3D support now, which was one of the reasons I was sticking to nVidia, but I also need custom resolutions for my CRT.

Do the ATi drivers have support for custom resolutions now? It’s been years since I had an ATi card, and back then you had to make do with powerstrip. (which never worked well)

The "3D support" is the same thing they've had with 4000 series too.. it's for 3rd party 3D, not built-in 3D support. Don't be fooled by a bulletpoint, you still will have zero 3D stereo experience unless you buy a third party solution. AMD simply offers a quad-buffer solution which puts the opt-in responsibility for stereo on the developer, meaning it won't "just work" for many games which were designed without stereo in mind.

 

[andrewfee]

If you are in need of some obscure custom resolutions, Nvidia is your best bet still.

There will always be offers and better cards. The GTX 460 is a good card and if it forfills your needs, why not stick with it?

It would be nice and easy if I had a flat panel and could do with standard resolutions, but I’m using a CRT still so I do need weird custom timings to get the right resolutions/refresh rates without things being cut off etc. (but it looks great when it’s set up right)

I’m now unsure if the GTX does suit my needs. It was sounding like it would just run OK on my current power supply (topic) but now people are suggesting an AMD card because of the lower power consumption and/or a PSU upgrade. (which I was hoping to avoid right now)

The "3D support" is the same thing they've had with 4000 series too.. it's for 3rd party 3D, not built-in 3D support. Don't be fooled by a bulletpoint, you still will have zero 3D stereo experience unless you buy a third party solution. AMD simply offers a quad-buffer solution which puts the opt-in responsibility for stereo on the developer, meaning it won't "just work" for many games which were designed without stereo in mind.

Thanks, so I won’t just be able to play anything in 3D that runs in 3D on the nVidia cards then? It seemed like that had a reasonable amount of support. (was thinking it would save a bit of cash because nVidia are going to be charging for the 3DTV Play software)

 

[Tamlin_WSGF]

It would be nice and easy if I had a flat panel and could do with standard resolutions, but I’m using a CRT still so I do need weird custom timings to get the right resolutions/refresh rates without things being cut off etc. (but it looks great when it’s set up right)

I’m now unsure if the GTX does suit my needs. It was sounding like it would just run OK on my current power supply (topic) but now people are suggesting an AMD card because of the lower power consumption and/or a PSU upgrade. (which I was hoping to avoid right now)

Thanks, so I won’t just be able to play anything in 3D that runs in 3D on the nVidia cards then? It seemed like that had a reasonable amount of support. (was thinking it would save a bit of cash because nVidia are going to be charging for the 3DTV Play software)

I don't think you'll get away from buying a new PSU if you are going to use a card that can handle the performance hit in 3D. The 6000 series seems to be better in this regard (if slides I will post is genuine, 6870 will have 151W on load), but I don't trust PR monkeys anyway. For custom res, going Nvidia gives you less headache, since it has support for custom resolutions. Stick with the GTX 460, or if you have free return, return it and see if prices will drop after 6000 series launch and perhaps pick up a GTX 460 a bit cheaper.

As for the 3D part, I'm curios about BlueStorms answer to your question (might be funny to see him wiggle out of that one), so I'll not comment that much. Here's a link for you to read up on while waiting for his answer, when it comes to one 3rd party 3D provider. Read the forums there as well.

www.iz3d.com