unable to get 640x480 to work

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modulus

Limp Gawd
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Sep 20, 2010
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I'm out of town at some relatives home that have a computer setup with an i7 3770k processor with no video card - just using the on-chip graphics. This computer is hooked up to a 19" 1280x1024 lcd display.

I'm trying to get some old games working that run at 640x480, and the screen is ending up all jacked up looking. The intel graphics options only let me select down to 800x600. When I use advanced boot options to "allow low resolutions" the screen is still jacked up.

1. I think my problem is that the intel display drivers don' work with 640x480? Is this correct?
2. Or could it be something with the monitor?
3. Do AMD and nvidia cards/drivers allow you to setup 640x480 regardless of the display?

I'm out of town right now and can't check on my main system to see what works. If one had like a 27" 2560x1440 could you still use nvidia/amd settings to set the resolution that low?
 
1. I have never used on chip graphics
2. I bet it is the lcd not playing nice with that low of a resolution most lcd's look like crap at anything other than native
3. this is what I did to get BF 1942 to work @ 1920x1200 <--a 16:10 ratio the game did not like. Right click on the icon you launch the game with and hit properties. In the "target" field, right after +menu 1 +fullscreen 1 add this: + szx xxxx + szy xxxx < X = YOUR desired resolution so if you want 800x600 you add +szx 800 +szy 600 remember to add the space after the x and y
4. Google up higher resolution tricks for the games you are trying to play
5. find an old CRT monitor they don't care what lower than native resolution you set them at
 
Last edited:
what do you mean "the screen is ending up all jacked up looking"? how? completely garbled unrecognizable graphics? Squished or stretched?
 
By jacked up I mean it looks like different parts of the image are in different places with vertical bands on mixed image at different places. I think as stated the problem is that this 19" lcd panel's scaler is unable to do 640x480.

I attempted the suggested szx/szy fix and the same thing happened.

So I guess my lingering question, is that if the computer had a different gpu that was capable of gpu scaling, couls i get a 640x480 output on that monitor.

What I'm thinking is like all the 27" korean panels with no scaler so they can only display native resolution. But, you can use your gpu as the scaler instead output content at different resolutions. I'm just wondering if my situation is similar and would work by using this.
 
I have a 560ti with two monitors attached, one is 1920x1200 the other has the same resolution as yours. Nvidia control panel says 800x600 is the lowest I can go with either of them, the weird effects you are getting is your monitor not playing nice with the forced 680x480, find a resolution trick for your game, or get a CRT.
 
thank you for the help everyone.

as a related question, any way to run lower resolutions letter-boxed - have it display a little 640x480 box in the middle of the screen or something? if so is this something that is monitor dependent or video card dependant?
 
and another question as it's been a long, long time since i've used a crt.

say i go pick up some cheap crt off craig's list or something, my understanding is that any crt will be able to output 640x480 and pretty much whatever other resolution I want up to that monitor's maximum? Or are there crt monitors that wouldn't be able to work that?
 
modulus said:
thank you for the help everyone.

as a related question, any way to run lower resolutions letter-boxed - have it display a little 640x480 box in the middle of the screen or something? if so is this something that is monitor dependent or video card dependant?
Click to expand...

Some LCDs are able to do this if they don't support scaling, or if you are able to turn off scaling in the menu options.

modulus said:
and another question as it's been a long, long time since i've used a crt.

say i go pick up some cheap crt off craig's list or something, my understanding is that any crt will be able to output 640x480 and pretty much whatever other resolution I want up to that monitor's maximum? Or are there crt monitors that wouldn't be able to work that?
Click to expand...

Almost any you find on craigslist should work for 640x480, but CRTs do exist that wouldn't be able to. They'd have to be really really old though.
 
In windows, in the advanced graphics settings / properties dialog box, under the adapter tab, there is a button titled "list all modes". From there you should be able to select 640x480.

Windows usualy doesn't want you to go below 800x600 as some of the UI elements don't work right with the resolution that low, so MS hides anything lower than that from the main slider for selecting screen resolution. It has nothing to do with your graphics card.
 
Sgraffite said:
Some LCDs are able to do this if they don't support scaling, or if you are able to turn off scaling in the menu options.



Almost any you find on craigslist should work for 640x480, but CRTs do exist that wouldn't be able to. They'd have to be really really old though.
Click to expand...


Thank you. appreciate the help
 
SCSI-Terminator said:
In windows, in the advanced graphics settings / properties dialog box, under the adapter tab, there is a button titled "list all modes". From there you should be able to select 640x480.

Windows usualy doesn't want you to go below 800x600 as some of the UI elements don't work right with the resolution that low, so MS hides anything lower than that from the main slider for selecting screen resolution. It has nothing to do with your graphics card.
Click to expand...



PURE GENIUS. WORKED FLAWLESSLY. I have no problem running all the old games at 640x480. I'm amazed because every other solution I looked up would result in the same problems, but this works flawlessly. I'm just surprised given how well and easily it fixed the problem that I didn't find this solution elsewhere. Thank you for the help, much appreciated.

This does confuse me a bit more on what the exact problem was to begin with though. It seemed that the massively distorted visuals when games output the 640x480 was easily explainable by just the monitor not being able to work it or whatever. This makes it seem like not enabling the "list all modes" button would make windows actually prevent other resolutions from working properly? I guess at this point things work so I'm pumped. Thanks again.
 
And to think about 15 years ago, VESA 640x480 is what you selected when you had a badass system.....

Now we have to force systems to get them that low.
 
Issue might be with the DX version being used. I have a lot of older DX 5-7 games that give messed up color pallets and I have to do a few things to get them to work.

1. run in compatability mode
2. disable desktop compilation
3. tell the game to render in SOFTWARE mode if it supports it
4. for games that require it, force 256 color desktop
 
YeuEmMaiMai said:
Issue might be with the DX version being used. I have a lot of older DX 5-7 games that give messed up color pallets and I have to do a few things to get them to work.

1. run in compatability mode
2. disable desktop compilation
3. tell the game to render in SOFTWARE mode if it supports it
4. for games that require it, force 256 color desktop
Click to expand...


Those options do fix a lot of games but I could only get games that would run at 800x600 or higher. I wasn't able to get anything running 640x480 to display correctly on this system.
 
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