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I have a ViewSonic VP2365WB monitor which claims to support 1360x768 resolution: ViewSonic VP2365WB user guide, see page 16

I have a AMD HD7750 based video adapter ASUS HD7750-1GD5

I need to set my monitor to 1360x768 resolution, but I cannot get acceptable image quality - I can get good sharpness or accurate colors, but not both. Here is what I have tried:

  • the monitor is connected to DVI port. If I set 1360x768, everything is too blurry. If I look in the information menu (OSD) on the monitor itself, it reports that it has 1400x1050 resolution. When I go to GPU scaling settings, I see that Catalyst has GPU scaling enabled and I cannot disable it. If I remove the tickmark and hit Apply, the checkbox gets ticked back again. For some reason Catalyst enforces GPU scaling even if the monitor itself is capable of handling 1360x768. So, now we have two stages of scaling going on - the GPU scales form 1360x768 to 1400x1050 and then the monitor scales 1400x1050 to its native 1920x1080.

  • the monitor is connected to VGA. At first everything looks the same, but this time I see an option in Catalyst to ignore EDID. When I uncheck it, my monitor is recognized by Windows as "Generic Non-PNP Monitor" and the image gets sharp and the monitor itself reports being in 1360x768, as expected. No more GPU scaling. The monitor itself is clearly capable of much better scaling to 1360x768 than the GPU.

I could live with VGA mode, but then colors look somewhat strange, especially subtle tones are washed out and I cannot fix that with any color settings on the monitor or Catalyst. On DVI the colors are much better.

I really would want to get my monitor to work at 1360x768 resolution on DVI, but I cannot, because Catalyst for some reason thinks that this resolution is not supported and turns on GPU scaling which looks blurry. But maybe 1360x768 isn't supported on DVI by the monitor or the video adapter? I can't think of any reasons, why. The monitor user guide does not say if some resolutions are VGA only (and only without EDID).

I guess, it might work if I find an option to disable EDID for DVI, but there is no such option in Catalyst. Also it might work if I can set GPU scaling to scale directly from 1360x768 to the native 1920x1080 thus avoiding scaling twice (GPU+monitor), but I don't see such and option. The GPU seems to pick the closest resolution reported by the monitor and then scales the desktop to it.

I have Windows 7 Pro x64 and I have the latest Viewsonic monitor drivers (which are pretty old, year 2009, but there are no other options) and the latest Catalyst drivers.


UPDATE:

Somehow after multiple restarts and driver reinstalls GPU scaling on DVI started to work as expected - scaling 1360x768 to native 1920x1080 instead of previous blurry 1400x1050. Anyway, it seems that the monitor itself does not support 1360x768 on DVI or maybe the video adapter does not support it because there is no way to set exactly 1360x768 on DVI. But now GPU scaling works much better and I'm satisfied.


The long story:

I suspect many would ask why do I need 1360x768 on a 23" monitor. I have visual impairments since birth but I have been working as a programmer for years. The only thing I need is to have a larger monitor and set the resolution to be lower than native. I know that non-native resolutions make image less sharp, but for me everything is somewhat blurred anyway, so a tiny additional blurring does not make any difference (except if it is GPU scaling which looks really bad). I have tested multiple different resolutions on this monitor and I find 1360x768 to have the most appropriate text and UI element sizes to my eyes. I know that I can change text size (DPI) in display settings, but there are lots of programs which ignore this setting and UI looks ugly or corrupted. I could replace my monitor to something else, but I really like the uniformity of colors and background lighting on it. I have tried to work on Asus PA238Q, but white pages on it looked too cloudy and dirty and uncomfortable to my eyes, so I decided to keep VP2365WB. There is just this 1360x768 on DVI problem which I'd like to solve to be completely happy with this old but still good IPS monitor.

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  • Whether it’s software-scaled (only on unsupported programs, of course) with the DPI setting or hardware-scaled by lowering the resolution probably doesn’t make that much of a difference. The proper resolution is 1366x768, by the way.
    – Daniel B
    Jul 31, 2015 at 10:50
  • The difference between DVI with GPU scaling and VGA with monitor scaling is noticeable, even I with my poor vision see the blurryness when GPU scaling kicks in. 1366x768 is different and it is not officially supported on my monitor. I can set it in desktop properties, but my monitor always reports 1360x768, as expected from its specifications. Both 1360x768 and 1366x768 are specified in WXGA standard: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/… Jul 31, 2015 at 11:06

3 Answers 3

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1360x768 is absolutely garbage for 23". You know, for 23", I'll suggest 2048x1152. Yes, I've tried setting 1360x768 and then it came out that I can see the pixels all over the place. People think 1360x768 for 23" is garbage, 3840x2160 is definitely uncomfortable and too tiny for most. So if you ask me, 2048x1152 or 2560x1440 will do the job, but I'll prefer 2048x1152 for 23".

720p is absolute garbage for most desktop monitors, people say that they can see pixels all over the place. 1080p is for 19 to 21.5", depending on the vision. 1440p is for 24" monitors, 1600p is for 27" monitors, I should say, for 2160p, 28 to 30" computers.

Most people start switching from 640p or 720p, to 900p or 1080p, or higher. 1024x640 and 1280x720 is a Fathers' generation resolution, and 1600x900 is a Son's generation resolution. I've seen blurry letters in 640 and 720p computers, but of course I can still read them. I haven't seen a LCD with 1024x768 resolution, but an old CRT has them.

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  • Thanks, yes, I agree that 1360x768 seems ridiculous for large monitors. I'm considering upgrading to 27" so I can use larger resolutions, however I won't be able to use native res because of my vision issues. It is so hard to find a good 27" IPS monitor which wouldn't cost a fortune. Most of modern affordable LED back-lit IPS monitors have awful backlight uniformity, much worse than my current CCFL back-lit monitor. Mar 13, 2016 at 18:38
  • You're right. And then it came out all pixelated.
    – Chris
    Mar 15, 2016 at 13:27
  • For your 27" to upgrade, try 1920x1080.
    – Chris
    Mar 20, 2016 at 6:33
  • But 1920x1080 FHD seems garbage to 27" monitor. People are reporting about pixelated screens at 1920x1080.
    – Chris
    Mar 25, 2016 at 5:54
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For upgrading to 27", I think you'll use 1920x1080, but when I try doing that, the screen gets pixelated. You must be following the pixelated screen line.

Desktop screen size Resolution recommended Pixelated resolution

18.5" 1839x1030 1280x720

19.5" 1920x1080 1360x768

21.5" 2048x1152 1500x800

23" 2200x1200 1600x900

24" 2560x1440 1776x1000

27" 3200x1800 2048x1152

30" 3840x2160 2560x1440

In this chart, you will see the resolutions that the natives are for 18.5,19.5,21.5,23,24,27 and 30" computers. The third column is what you'll approximately use (I'm not God, so I'll not be correct all the time in every situation).

1280x720 is absolutely garbage for 18.5". 1360x768 is absolutely garbage for 19.5". 1500x800 is absolutely garbage for 21.5". 1600x900 is absolutely garbage for 23". 1776x1000 is absolutely garbage for 24". 2048x1152 is absolutely garbage for 27". And 2560x1440 is absolutely garbage for 30".

As for most people, 1839x1030 is ok for 18.5". 1920x1080 is ok for 19.5". 2048x1152 is ok for 21.5". 2200x1200 is ok for 23". 2560x1440 is ok for 24". 3200x1800 is ok for 27". And 3840x2160 is ok for 30".

I always like high resolutions just for some reasons.

  1. Programming software might need a high resolution. Because of that, for example AdventureCow requires 2048x1152. You might have limits to programming software if you have low resolution.

  2. New programming software sometimes needs 3840x2160. I've see programming software as demanding as that, but unfortunately I don't remember the name of it. It has been years ago since I last used it.

  3. Some websites are much more demanding nowadays. Usually, websites use the 1360x768 format, but some use the FHD or even the UHD format. I've created a website years ago in the FHD format.

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If I am not mistaken I believe your ViewSonic owners manual states that you should set the resolution to 1920 x 1080 in the Catalyst menus and then set the monitor scaling to 1360 x 768.

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  • Unfortunately it is not possible to configure both resolutions in Catalyst or on the monitor itself. I can configure only Desktop resolution which I set to 1360x768 and then I expect Catalyst to pass this resolution directly to the monitor. But it does so only in VGA and only with EDID disabled. In any other mode (DVI or VGA with EDID) Catalyst takes control over both resolutions. At least now Catalyst scales to 1920x1080, but some days before it was scaling to 1400x1050 and I could not change it. Still its strange that it's impossible to set the monitor to its 1360x768 in DVI mode. Aug 5, 2015 at 7:31

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