Is it okay to change the resolution to play older games?

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xtremeclowny

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Hi, I have rather old games dating back to 2000 which don't happen to support 1080p. My current monitor's native resolution is 1080p, therefore that's the res. I use. However, whenever I try to play games under 1080p, they don't look very well. I know that the problem are the not the game's graphics but that the image is being stretched. I've thinking about dumming down the monitor's resolution to match the game's low resolution but that yields me a very blurry desktop. Is there any way to fix that? More importantly will lowering the resolution help me get a decent image on those old games? Or should I look into getting a smaller monitor to enjoy those old games?

Thanks,

I.R.
 
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LCD monitors have a setting in the menu to stretch the actual screen size to fit the wide screen, just like flat panel TV's do. Its usually enabled by default. You can disable it in the menu on you monitor, then you will have the actual screen size displayed. The image will look just like it did on your old CRT. You don't need to mess with resolution, just disable the screen stretch.
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Traciatim

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No, LCD's have a fixed resolution, and look like trash if run at any other resolution. Some screens let you pick if it stretches or just draws a small box with black bars around it, but that's your only choices.

Edit: What you could do is find an old, but nice quality, CRT monitor... they actually support resolution switching.
 
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Traciatim

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If you are going to do that, why not see if your monitor can disable stretching, the game will be a small box in the center of the monitor . . . which is similar to buying a smaller monitor anyway.

LCD panels have many good advantages, but being resolution flexible certainly isn't one of them.

Also, if you go the small monitor route, what resolution will you pick... and what if you want to play a different game that doesn't use that resolution. Are you going to buy a new monitor for every resolution?

 
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jitpublisher

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LCD monitors have a setting in the menu to stretch the actual screen size to fit the wide screen, just like flat panel TV's do. Its usually enabled by default. You can disable it in the menu on you monitor, then you will have the actual screen size displayed. The image will look just like it did on your old CRT. You don't need to mess with resolution, just disable the screen stretch.
 
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xtremeclowny

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No, most of them are in 1280x720. Even then, the stretching won't be as noticeable as it is now.

Couldn't figure out whether I can disable image stretching. Prob. not.

I should prob. make a new thread for this but eh, I'll ask anyways. I'm running a 7950. My catalyst stopped working a long time ago but I never bothered to look into it. Catalyst doesn't load up at all. A few months ago, I couldn't play any games. Whenever I did my machine would go nuts. The CPU would work at 100% after playing for 20-30 minutes. It'd keep on working at 100% even after leaving the game and having nothing open. Sometimes It would choke when I was simply loading 4+ videos. Then one day, it crashed, turned off, dr. debug came up and the machine refused to turn on. Gave it a few hours and it turned on but I decided to stop gaming altogether until school was over so I could look into it. School ended, I was getting ready to isolate the issue but all of the sudden my machine was working again. Can't say that it is working 100% well because I do get lag sometimes on bf3. However, the cpu is usually around 90% and never goes all out like before. I should prob. look into that.

Anyways, Thanks for the help. I'll look into a new monitor whenever I can.
 
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jitpublisher

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I play old games I downloaded from GOG all the time on my 1080x1920 LCD, that have native resolutions of 640x480 and 800x600. The look great, with screen stretch disabled. As said, it is in the monitor menu, its not anywhere in the software or driver package settings on your computer.
 
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xtremeclowny

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Looking for it. Can't seem to find it. I'll have to check out the manual.



 
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xtremeclowny

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I'm using a Asus VG236. According to the manual there is an option to switch aspect ratios which allows the change between "full" and 4:3 ratios. Is that what I'm looking for? Problem is that it only works for HDMI and I'm currently running a DVI set up. I'll see if I can switch over to HDMI.
 
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