Cards and 1400:900 resolution

[123fish123]

I am hoping I am asking the right question here but am not well versed and may be saying the wrong thing.

I want to purchase a 16:9 monitor and it says my system must be able to support 1400:900 resolution. What I am not certain of is what drives this and how to upgrade it if it is even possible.

I am running XP and have an ATi AIW Radeon card. When I look at display settings it only goes up to 1280x1024. Is this a limit of the AWI Radeon or some other piece of the system (e.g. a certain driver). Is there any way to upgrade it or am I stuck with a 4:3 monitor? Thanks!

[edDV]

Be more specific on the card.

If it only goes to 1280x1024 it must be older or limited on RAM.

Newer Catalyst drivers will provide more display resolutions for capable cards.

Somebody has done a great job comparing Radeon Graphics chips here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radeon

[jagabo]

The configuration applet may only be showing the resolutions that your current monitor supports. Go to the Settings -> Advanced -> Adpator -> List All Modes.

Even that may not show all supported resolutions until you have a widescreen monitor plugged in and have gone through the PNP process or installed new drivers.

Pretty much any video card manufactured in the last 5+ years will support widescreen resolutions.

[edDV]

May be useful
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WXGA%2B

[123fish123]

The configuration applet may only be showing the resolutions that your current monitor supports. Go to the Settings -> Advanced -> Adpator -> List All Modes.

Even that may not show all supported resolutions until you have a widescreen monitor plugged in and have gone through the PNP process or installed new drivers.

Pretty much any video card manufactured in the last 5+ years will support widescreen resolutions.

THANKS! I did it I have an original All in wonder radeon and am on ATi Multimedia center 7.3 (cannot recall which version of catalyst). I thought it was only 3 years old or so but when I looked list all modes it did not get beyond 1280 x 1024 so I guess I am out of luck huh?

[jagabo]

Show All Modes still may not show modes your current monitor cannot display. You need to figure out exactly which AIW you have. Right click on My Computer select Manage -> Device Manager -> Display Adapters. What does it say there?

[edDV]

Sounds old. It should have a model number. MMC7.3 is several years old. I have a MMC 7.7 CD that says (c) 2001

A new catalyst upgrade may give more options but that card has limited performance for 1400x900.

[123fish123]

Thanks! Can you possibly recommend a not too expensive replacement for AIW Radeon which can:

1. Act as a TV Tuner
2. Do a conversion of Analog to Digital

Not looking for any gaming...just newer inexpensive replacement for original AIW radeon. THANKS!!!

[edDV]

Today I'd say get separate cards for tuner and display. Or for your old hardware, get a newer 9600 or 9800 AIW card off EBay. They are cheap.

[jagabo]

I have 15 year old, AGP 2x, 32MB cards that run XP fine at 1600x1200 and 2048x1536 (not 3d games or HD video of course). You probably don't need a new card to do 1400x900. Just an updated driver.

Buy your new monitor first. If you find your AIW doesn't support the monitor's native resolution, or if you find performance is lacking, buy a new graphics card.

Also try using PowerStrip to set custom resolutions:

http://www.entechtaiwan.com/util/ps.shtm
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=206854

Note that Windows trys to protect you from setting the resolution and frame rate too high for the monitor that's currently running. Because doing so can damage the monitor.