Matrox G550 at 1680x1050?

[GeneralZod]

Has anyone got this working?

I am using Matrox BIOS v.2.58.002 and the Sept 6, 2006 "1.12.00.110 SE WHQL" drivers, but I still can't get it to display 1680x1050 on my 20" Acer flat panel.

Current ideas:
1. Upgrade to the "2.05.03.003 SE U WHQL" Mar. 13, 2008 drivers hoping that this time they don't cause an endless reboot now that I have a working Matrox install. Also hope that they support the resolution.

2. Install the Jan 2007 beta 5.96 available on Matrox public FTP here
ftp://mgidrv:FRiukl7x@privftp.matrox...0beta%20ws.zip
I discovered this in this http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=177767 post that says this gave him 1680x1050

3. Try software that can force the custom resolution
Candidate 1: http://www.majorgeeks.com/PowerDesk_...ager_d390.html
Candidate 2: ftp://ftp.matrox.com/pub/mga/utils/t...mtstu50204.zip
Description ftp://ftp.matrox.com/pub/mga/utils/t...mtstu50204.txt
Candidate 3: PowerStrip which I'm not familiar with but I've seen referenced and will look up

I think the first 2 just add the option to Matrox config but the 3rd actually fakes the resolution but I'm not sure.

4. Try my VGA port to see if that helps.

5. Wait for Matrox tech support to respond to my query about how to get 1680x1050 to work on the G550

Advice is appreciated and I will post an update of what worked.

[dZeus]

I've had good success adding any resolution I ever fancied using MTSTU and/or Powerdesk Resolution Manager

[GeneralZod]

I solved the endless reboot problem and the resolution problem!

I had two Promise Fasttrak TX2 PCI cards installed. Once has 2 harddrives plugged into it in RAID 1, the other was empty (I thought I would need it but ended up using ports on the motherboard for my remaining IDE drives).

Well, I removed the extra Promise card and I stopped getting the endless reboots!

Then I was able to add the custom resolution with MTSTU. Before when I tried MTSTU I got the rebooting cycle.

Just now, Matrox tech support replied to my query about 1680x1050 with drivers at this URL:

http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/corpo/support/drivers/driverInfo.php?id=230

I'm not sure I want to mess with my system now that it's finally working but maybe I'll give it a go tonight.

Also, everything I'm doing is on my VGA port. I incorrectly stated I was on my DVI port before.

[Bosanek]

I have had similar problem with GeForce 4 Ti 4200 using DVI. I tried Detonator 44 and 52, and both have never heard of wide resolutions (1440x900, 1680x1050). I have Samsung 2032BW (20" wide LCD, 1680x1050). The largest resolution which I could get with the drivers was 1600x1024.

Luckily, the drivers have an option to either stretch the picture across the screen (the common case with all legacy cards), or to center the picture, (using only actual pixels, with the rest of the borderline pixels being black). I used the centered output, and I was quite happy as I lsot only a small amount of pixels (80 horizontal and 26 vertical pixels).

But I could not resist to try to use every single pixel. So, after some investigation, this is what I realised - first and foremost, there is a hardware requirement to display a particular DVI resolution.

Many older DVI capable cards can display max. 1280x1024 (= 1310720 pixels) at 60 Hz on their DVI output. They can not display more than 1310720 pixels at 60 Hz. Such cards ARE hardwarely capable of displaying 1400x900 (= 1260000 pixels, what is ~4% less than 1310720), but AFAIK they are NOT hardwarely CAPABLE to display 1680x1050 at 60 Hz.

I realised that the DVI generator on my card is luckily officially capable of displaying 1600x1200 (= 1920000 pixels) at 60 Hz, so it is hardwarely capable to display 1680x1050 (= 1764000 pixels, what is ~8% less than 1920000) at 60 Hz.

So, the only matter was how to make that resolution available in software. I found my solution in PowerStrip. It has an option to add a custom resolution into Windows display system. It comes with many predefined "custom" resolutions, so you don't need to define one from scratch (there a lot of parameters other than resolution and horizontal frequency). I picked 1680x1050 at 60 Hz digital, and after a restart, I got it in Control Panel / Display Properties. Now everything works just fine, and PowerStrip is not even needed anymore (no need for it to be resident at all).


So, to conclude - first check if your card can officially display 1600x1200 at 60 Hz on DVI. If it can, than use PowerStrip to add 1680x1050. It does not matter which driver you use.