# Lower resolution,black borders.



## Cvrk (Jan 7, 2015)

In order to search something on search engines like Google or Bing,one first has to know exactly what to search for....in my case i have no idea. I gaved it a few hours of random sites and considering i am not even close,here i am.

I have a Asus MX239 monitor 24inch. Native resolution 1920x1080.
When ever i play a game i tend to lower the resolution of the game.For example....
I am playing now Gas Guzzlers at 1152x648(9:10). Why ? Because my video card wont support the native res.
Yes i could invest money in a new video card. However i don't have it right now or in the near future.

The problem is when i turn down the resolution i get black borders all around.Leaving the picture somewere in the middle. Witch looks bad.
I tried a trick. Setting the lower res,going to window mode and turning full-screen back on again. This works,but only in a few games.

Did not had this problem back in the days. I had a 17 inch Acer. Mative 1024x720 res. I belive...When ever i played games in 800x600 i always got a full screen picture.No black borders.

P.S.: I am using HDMI cable.
Did more internet research. I have the Scaling Option tunred to Overscan all the way. Reason for this is...in 1080 res on desktop i get huge black borders.


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## qubit (Jan 8, 2015)

Several things. You're using a different aspect ratio, so you're guaranteed to get black borders unless the picture is stretched to fit. It always looks terrible like this, too.

If you must lower the resolution, then select a video mode that has the same aspect ratio as the monitor eg 1600 x 900. It's better to have a 1:1 pixel mapping and hence a smaller picture than a stretched one. It looks much better (same as native, but smaller) and has less lag since the scaler doesn't have to do any work.

I don't have an AMD card, so can't advise which control panel settings to use get the non-native resolution mode to look its best on your monitor.


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## Cvrk (Jan 8, 2015)

I do use same aspect ratio all the time. Still get black borders.The smaller the res,the bigger the black borders are.
I found a temporary fix,but it's a bad one. I change the desktop resolution to a smaller one ,and then enter game.Set same res in game as desktop...and that does it.
It is inconvenient


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## ZenZimZaliben (Jan 8, 2015)

You need to run all resolutions at 16:9 ratio, then stretch/overscan the view to fill the screen. This will look like crap, think legos, but will fill in the black borders. You can try running higher Aliasing, but then you may as well have disabled all aliasing and ran at native resolution.

Also I would seriously look at changing cards out. You could get an older highend card for very cheap of craigslist and it will out perform that 5670. Like an older GTX285 would kick that cards butt, yeah it doesn't have the latest DX but it will run most games at 1920x1080 and I just found 1 on Craigslist for $45.

Edit - Okay I just had another idea. Go to the thrift store and purchase a cheap monitor that only runs at 1600x1200 or 1280x1024. Not the ideal solution but would also work.


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## CJCerny (Jan 8, 2015)

It could be either the video card settings or the monitor settings that are causing this or both. You need to figure out which one. All video cards have a 1:1 pixel setting. Find it and turn it off. Some monitors also have a 1:1 pixel setting. Find it if you have it and turn it off.


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## Cvrk (Jan 8, 2015)

Ok Zen...you are an exciting person,full of ideas and what not  I like you already. However.......
I will not buy another monitor(doh). I'll just keep changing the res,and it will cost me zero $
Buying a high end video card might actually work,provided i can find one on the websites from my country. Craigslist doesn't do it for me, the shipping prices will cost more then a new card (i live outside the USA)

I will try that Cj


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## natr0n (Jan 8, 2015)

Look in the monitors menu for image settings should be auto and wide maybe more options.


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## Cvrk (Jan 8, 2015)

Just did this. Found nothing.Also i don't think it has this 1:1 pixel mapping. Here are the monitors specs 
http://www.asus.com/Monitors_Projectors/MX239H/specifications/

I am looking in the Ati Catalyst menu ,now...maybe there is something there.


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## natr0n (Jan 8, 2015)

Do you have any other non hdmi cable to use ?


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## Cvrk (Jan 8, 2015)

Well yes i do. But,word in town is, if i use vga wouldn't that be bad ? it lowers picture sharpness,the colors be more dim and all that jazz.  With hdmi you get digital signal,with VGA you get analogic,right ? 

I will still give it a try. To see the difference


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## xvi (Jan 8, 2015)

If the monitor doesn't want to scale, try checking the Catalyst Control Center for GPU scaling. Probably want to try it both on and off. Could be the issue.

HDMI often acts funny. I prefer DVI.


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## Cvrk (Jan 8, 2015)

Did try that xvi. I found something on the internet yesterday. I found the setting about GPU scaling and turn on / off. Nothing happened. 
I think i can also use DVI.  I need to google to see the differences between VGA / DVI / HDMI.


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## natr0n (Jan 8, 2015)

Cvrk said:


> Well yes i do. But,word in town is, if i use vga wouldn't that be bad ? it lowers picture sharpness,the colors be more dim and all that jazz.  With hdmi you get digital signal,with VGA you get analogic,right ?
> 
> I will still give it a try. To see the difference



yes, dvi/hdmi is digital, vga is analog
You shouldn't notice any difference in quality.


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## Cvrk (Jan 8, 2015)

Found this person that saved me from reading 100 pages of content .









My question is....do i have HDMI 1,4 or 2.0 I have no idea.


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## natr0n (Jan 8, 2015)

Cvrk said:


> Found this person that saved me from reading 100 pages of content .
> 
> 
> 
> ...



depends on release date of your gpu and monitor.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI


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## eidairaman1 (Jan 8, 2015)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16:9

read that and step your games down to the next 16:9 resolution.

read this manual
http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/LCD Monitors/ASUS_MX239H_English.pdf (make sure to have adobe or foxit pdf reader)

read Pages 3-1, 3-3


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## qubit (Jan 9, 2015)

Cvrk said:


> I do use same aspect ratio all the time. Still get black borders.The smaller the res,the bigger the black borders are.
> I found a temporary fix,but it's a bad one. I change the desktop resolution to a smaller one ,and then enter game.Set same res in game as desktop...and that does it.
> It is inconvenient





Cvrk said:


> Ok Zen...you are an exciting person,full of ideas and what not  I like you already. However.......
> I will not buy another monitor(doh). I'll just keep changing the res,and it will cost me zero $
> Buying a high end video card might actually work,provided i can find one on the websites from my country. Craigslist doesn't do it for me, the shipping prices will cost more then a new card (i live outside the USA)
> 
> I will try that Cj



I think you've misunderstood what I've said here.

By using a lower resolution, by definition you will get black borders unless the picture is stretched to fill the screen, which seems to be what you're trying to do (and it looks like crap and the scaler adds lag. Sorry, but it's the truth and you should know about it). Again, I can't give you specific settings info as I don't have the graphics card brand and monitor model as you, so you just gotta play with the settings. Try downloading the manual for the monitor, which might help you.

As the others have said, upgrading your graphics card would certainly give you a better framerate. If you do get another graphics card.


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## eidairaman1 (Jan 9, 2015)

qubit said:


> I think you've misunderstood what I've said here.
> 
> By using a lower resolution, by definition you will get black borders unless the picture is stretched to fill the screen, which seems to be what you're trying to do (and it looks like crap and the scaler adds lag. Sorry, but it's the truth and you should know about it). Again, I can't give you specific settings info as I don't have the graphics card brand and monitor model as you, so you just gotta play with the settings. Try downloading the manual for the monitor, which might help you.
> 
> As the others have said, upgrading your graphics card would certainly give you a better framerate. If you do get another graphics card.



Yup he needs to read the manual i posted too


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## kn00tcn (Jan 9, 2015)

are we confirming here that in CCC, gpu scaling is set to OFF or ASPECT? (let's remind ourselves of the fact that amd made a stupid decision to block the setting from being available if you're using native in windows)

if you go into the monitor's settings, it most likely has a menu item that tells you 'information' about the current image, here you can see if it's 1080 or not (if it is, that means the gpu is likely doing the black bars for you)

hdmi is awful so it would be very enticing to try using dvi (what monitors & gfx drivers do whenever hdmi is present is most of the time nonsense that ruins the image or interferes with what you're trying to do)


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## Cvrk (Jan 9, 2015)

Where to start......
My monitors game Mode, Theater Mode etc only changed some colors around,nothing else. Indeed, in set to Game Mode if you go to Image aspect ratio and set to Overscan ,it will give you less then 1 inch more picture.However i did solve my issues (with the people from this forum of course).
The monitor comes with a  HDMI 2.0 and DVI-D cable. The one that i was using was a hdmi-hdmi (both ends) 1.4 How can i tell the difference? I have researched,you can easily notice the difference just by looking at it
So i plug in the hdmi-dvi cable and problem solved.Almost... 
AMD Catalyst Control Center settings:








In game i tested these resolutions:
*-The ones that don't have black borders*
1600x900(16:9)
1440x900(16:10)
1400x1050(4:3)
1366x768(1.78:1)
1360x1024(1.33:1)
1360x768(1.77:1)
1280x960(4:3)
1280x800(16:10)
1280x768(5:3)
1024x768(4:3)

*-The ones that have black borders*
1280x720(16:9)
1152x864(4:3)
1152x648(16:9)

Yes,one must understand,in order to not have black borders you must always use the native monitor aspect ration.In my case 16:9. Even so i did test these resolutions for the scientific purpose,and as you can see some 16:9 res don't act correspondingly as they should. 

I am still in the blur here. Should i buy a hdmi-dvi cable,or a hdmi-hdmi 2.0? 
My existing cables: Hdmi-Dvi is 1 m long.Not long enough. And the other one i suspect the reason it act's out funny is cuz its a 1.4 instead of 2.0
My instinct tells me,go with what works. I tested the hdmi-dvi so i should get one like it but longer.Around 3m
I can not use dvi-dvi since my monitor only has 2 hdmi ports and a vga.

Do you think a hdmi-hdmi 2.0 is better? Will i get better video image ?


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## Cvrk (Jan 10, 2015)

After much more research apparently there is no difference in how a HDMI cable looks like from 1.4 to 2.0 They all look the same. And at a closer inspection mine look the same as well. Found this on internet:
"*Unless the manufacturer identifies the cable is such there is no way to tell beyond testing. Using a 1080p/60 or higher resolution/freq signal with HDMI Deep Colour at the max bit depth the kit supports is a relatively high bandwidth to use as a test.

All HDMI cables handle "all" the mandatory features of HDMI (ethernet is optional). The difference is the bandwidth the cable will properly support at a given length before signal attenuation causes issues. The exact length/bandwidth can also be influenced by the tolerance of the attached HDMI products. 

Also there's no such thing as an HDMI 1.4 or HDMI x.x cable as this relates to HDMI hardware/software features not cables (although it is often used to "market" HDMI cables).

A properly certified HDMI High Speed (sometimes called Cat2) should support all current mandatory HDMI features up to the length certified. Beyond the certified length it may still continue work depending on the attached devices and bandwidth being used. However as length and bandwidth increase a passive cable will eventually reach a point were attenuation causes a problem.*"

I have decided to by the HDMI-DVI 2m cable after all


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## qubit (Jan 11, 2015)

Great stuff, let us know how you get on.


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## Cvrk (Jan 11, 2015)

I won't be getting on. Not right now.
First i will buy this. https://www.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/R9270DC2OC2GD5/   Hopefully at the beginning of february.
I have a PCI Express 2.0 And the card is 3.0 but after some research i will be losing a maximum of 5% quality in my video games cuz of my motherboard old 2.0 connection. Witch is something i can leave with for this year. It will get me through some decent looking gaming in Far Cry 4,Dragon Age Inquisition, Witcher:Wild Hunt, Tom clancy's  The division and Mortal Kombat X.
Witcher takes 1 month to finish (going to work and other "real world" stuff),can say the same for D.A. so...that's it for me.
After i get the card i will buy the cable.Will get back to you with more news then.
Found this on the internet.For those  who did not possess this knowledge (just like me) and are interested.


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## qubit (Jan 11, 2015)

You might want to consider going nvidia, as they seem to generally work better. The drivers tend to be better and they produce less heat and noise. Perhaps get both, try them and return one of them if you can. Amazon is your best bet for this. Just don't buy from a Marketplace seller.

Thanks for putting up those pics, it's always good to spread knowledge. However, if you look at your post, you'll see that your pictures don't show unless you click them, therefore you might like to use TPU's own picture server at www.techpowerup.org My Lunar Swimming thread is a good example of using this - and it's a fun read!


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## Cvrk (Jan 11, 2015)

I am very hesitant when it comes to nvidia cards. I use a amd cpu. My understanding is that for best performance over all you have to pare amd+amd or intel+nvida. 
Second,nvidia cards are more expensive then amd. If  had the money i would by a new pc ,not try to upgrade an old one.


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## BarbaricSoul (Jan 11, 2015)

Cvrk said:


> I am very hesitant when it comes to nvidia cards. I use a amd cpu. My understanding is that for best performance over all you have to pare amd+amd or intel+nvida.



Not true at all. Your 5670 will work exactly the same with my Intel CPU as it does with your AMD CPU.



Cvrk said:


> Second,nvidia cards are more expensive then amd.



Yes, Nvidia has higher priced cards, but those are the best cards available today. If you compare the price of a AMD card with an Nvidia card with the same performance, the prices are not that far off. At 1080p, the GTX 970 is about equal to the R9 290X in performance, uses a lot less electricity, and only $25 more than the 290X.


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