How do I find out a list of all possible resolutions that a monitor supports? [closed]

Question

I am shopping for a new monitor. Every monitor I've seen lists its "maximum" resolution and/or its "recommended" resolution, but I'm unable to find a list of all possible resolutions.

Take as an example a random monitor for sale at Newegg.com, such as this one. The Details tab lists the recommended resolution (1920x1080) but does not provide a full set of available resolutions. Likewise, going directly to the manufacturer's page and selecting the Specifications tab lists the "true" resolution (1920x1080), but no other resolutions.

In particular, I need to determine whether a given monitor supports a resolution with of some width by 1024 pixels tall. In general, I'd like to just know all possible resolutions.

Answer 1

While monitors support resolutions below what their specifications state, most modern video cards also have the ability to scale/crop a user-defined resolution and output it to the monitor's native resolution (on a hardware/driver based level). I would highly recommend you use the latter method, as you can be guaranteed that it will work with any monitor, so long as it supports at least the resolution you need.

Do note that most monitor-based scaling techniques will introduce noticeable blur into the image, unless you use the video card's drivers to crop or resize the image. Most monitors simply expand the signal they are passed to their native resolution (where the blur comes from), so the use of video card scaling is preferred (especially since you require a very specific height in pixels).

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Again, just note that if you deviate from the monitor's native resolution, you will either have to crop or scale the image. Either case is not advisable, but scaling is usually worse, since it introduces more artifacts into the image.

If you for some reason really have to run below the native resolution, say for example in games that are too heavy for your GPU, the most tolerable option is often 1/4 of the native pixels, ie. half the resolution on both axis. This way every in-game pixel renders as 4 pixels on monitor, which is usually least bad of the options you have.