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I just bought an LG W3000H because of the listed 2560x1600 resolution, however, upon hooking it up, I see it only has a 1280x800 native resolution. The specs for the monitor doesn't mention a lower native resolution. Is this simply a marketing scheme, that they don't even list the native resolution, or is it possible that I'm not detecting the native resolution right?

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What graphics card are you using to drive the monitor? If your graphics card is particularly old then it may not support the maximum resolution of your monitor and so may fall back to a lower resolution. – Mokubai Aug 22 '11 at 19:18
I have an GeForce GTX 285, which according to nvidia, supports 2560x1600. – William 'MindWorX' Mariager Aug 22 '11 at 20:18
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From the page you linked there is a manual that shows the following:

enter image description here

It appears that your monitor has two default resolutions that it natively reports and I suspect that if your graphics card does not support the higher horizontal frequency that your monitor expects for its true native resolution and so is falling back to the other "native" resolution of the monitor.

-=EDIT=-

Looking at your comment I would fully expect your graphics card to support that resolution, but I believe above 1900*1200 you require "Dual Link" DVI for it to work.

Next I would have a look at the cable you are connecting to your monitor, that resolution may require a cable that is "Dual Link DVI" compatible. I've found an image of what to expect from various cables but it may be that you simply need to buy a higher quality cable. If you have any other DVI cables you can try then I would start there.

enter image description here

-=EDIT=-

Yep, Check the cable or get a new one (information from this page):

The dual link DVI pins effectively double the power of transmission and provide an increase of speed and signal quality; i.e. a DVI single link 60-Hz LCD can display a resolution of 1920 x 1200, while a DVI dual link can display a resolution of 2560 x 1600.

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I have a GeForce GTX 285, which according to nvidia supports 2560x1600. Could it be some sort of malfunction then? What's important right now is, that I need to know that the monitor supports 2560x1600 natively, and not just upscaled 1280x800, because if it doesn't support it natively, then I need to return it within 14 days, so I can get a monitor that does. – William 'MindWorX' Mariager Aug 22 '11 at 20:21
@Mindworx, my next bet would be your cable, it may not have all the pins connected for the monitor to get the full bandwidth necessary to drive the monitor. – Mokubai Aug 22 '11 at 20:25
I just checked the cable, and indeed, that seems to be the problem. I was using an older DVI cable. I thought they were the exact same, but it appears I was using a Single Link cable. I'm hooking up the monitor now, and will mark as answer once I've tested it. – William 'MindWorX' Mariager Aug 22 '11 at 20:29
Alright, just hooked it up with a Dual Link cable instead. It now allows me to enter the higher resolution, but still shows only 1280x800 as the native resolution. However, when viewing text on the screen, it doesn't appear to do any apparent scaling. The text stays crips clean at the 2560x1600 resolution. I wonder if this is because it has two native resolutions, which may not be supported properly. – William 'MindWorX' Mariager Aug 22 '11 at 20:38
It may well be that the monitor reports that the lower resolution as native (so that older or lower performance graphics cards default to a resolution they can handle) but likewise it could just be something odd about the monitor, graphics card or drivers... Glad to hear you now have full use of the monitor. – Mokubai Aug 22 '11 at 20:41
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Looking at the product specs and manual for the LCD, the native resolution is 2560x1600 @ 60 Hz. And should support that resolution.

The problem might actually be your video card. It might not be capable of that resolution, or that resolution at that frequency. Check your video cards specifications.

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See the comment on my question. – William 'MindWorX' Mariager Aug 22 '11 at 20:18
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