Missing resolutions with my NVidia drivers

English Hardware
1

Hi,

I have an NVidia graphics card installed on my computer and I would like to run some games at 1600x900, instead of the native resolution of my monitor which is 1920x1080. This resolution isn’t listed in the available resolutions in any of my games, but not on the Gnome display settings neither, or even in the NVidia X-server settings. After reading this post, I found out that this should related to my NVidia drivers, and I would like to know what can be done about it.


rpm -qa | grep nvidia
nvidia-glG04-352.79-19.1.x86_64
nvidia-uvm-gfxG04-kmp-desktop-352.79_k3.16.6_2-19.1.x86_64
nvidia-gfxG04-kmp-desktop-352.79_k3.16.6_2-19.1.x86_64
nvidia-computeG04-352.79-19.1.x86_64
x11-video-nvidiaG04-352.79-19.1.x86_64

Is it possible to achieve this?
Thanks

2

you can add listings to the xorg.conf

as root run “nvidia-settings”


su -
nvidia-settings

under " x server display configuration "

look for the resolution setting
if it is there set it
if not

then AS the root user save the config AS the xorg.conf
"save to x configuration file "
/etc/X11/xorg.conf

then edit that file and ADD the option under the "screen section "


Option "metamodes" "1920x1080_60 +0+0; 640x480 +0+0; 1600x900_60 +0+0 "
3

Thanks for your reply. I just tried this and it hasn’t changed anything. However, there is a “monitor” section, don’t you think that’s the part I should edit?

4

This just makes the res available to the Xstack you need to change it in the desktop also since the desktop overrides the NVIDIA defalts

5

I don’t think you need to change X settings, from what I’m seeing this should happen at desktop level.

Here: oS 13.2 KDE4 Nvidia driver 340.65.

nvidia-settings - only the native resolution is shown for both DVI and HDMI-connected monitors.

KDE system-settings>Display - monitor can be set from 640 x 480 to native resolution.

:~> xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 8 x 8, current 3840 x 1200, maximum 16384 x 16384
VGA-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DVI-D-0 connected 1920x1200+1920+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 520mm x 330mm
   1920x1200     59.95*+
   1920x1080     60.00    60.05  
   1680x1050     59.95    59.88  
   1600x1200     60.00  
   1440x900      59.89  
   1280x1024     75.02    60.02  
   1280x960      60.00  
   1280x720      60.00  
   1024x768      75.03    70.07    60.00  
   800x600       75.00    72.19    60.32    56.25  
   720x480       59.94  
   640x480       75.00    72.81    59.95    59.94  
HDMI-0 connected primary 1920x1200+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 520mm x 330mm
   1920x1200     59.95*+
   1920x1080     60.00    60.05  
   1680x1050     59.95    59.88  
   1600x1200     60.00  
   1440x900      59.89  
   1280x1024     75.02    60.02  
   1280x960      60.00  
   1280x720      60.00  
   1024x768      75.03    70.07    60.00  
   800x600       75.00    72.19    60.32    56.25  
   720x480       59.94  
   640x480       75.00    72.81    59.95    59.94

Same behaviour in another desktop connected through VGA.

When running a game with different res., the desktop adjusts itself, and (almost always) returns to normal when exiting the game, so I never needed to change resolution manually.

6

What do you mean by “change it in the desktop”?

7

By the desktop display settings, that in KDE - as I wrote - is in system-settings>Display. Not in X (xorg.conf and such). Dont know about gnome, never used it.

Perhaps you should try xrandr to see what res, if any, you have available.

Obs: metamodes (in xorg.conf or it’s partial files) specify not only resolutions but frequencies and other geometry parameters, and are monitor-specific. copying someone’s else values, rarely work, and at worst may bork your monitor. There’s an utility to determine your monitor’s parameters, I forget the name now.

8

OK I’m using Gnome and the resolution I’m looking for is not in the list.

xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 8 x 8, current 1920 x 1080, maximum 16384 x 16384
DVI-I-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DVI-I-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI-1 connected primary 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 160mm x 90mm
   1920x1080     60.00*+  59.94    50.00    60.05    60.00    50.04  
   1680x1050     59.95  
   1600x1200     60.00  
   1440x900      74.98    59.89  
   1280x1024     75.02    60.02  
   1280x960      60.00  
   1280x800      59.81  
   1280x720      60.00    59.94    50.00  
   1152x864      75.00  
   1024x768      75.03    70.07    60.00  
   800x600       75.00    72.19    60.32    56.25  
   720x576       50.00  
   720x480       59.94  
   640x480       75.00    72.81    59.94  
DVI-D-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
9

Well, your desktop display utility should enable you to set one of the listed resolutions. I’ve no idea why it doesn’t. Perhaps someone running gnome through a nvidia HDMI port will report here.

10

Also, could you explain exactly why you need the lower resolution? both 1920 x 1080 and 1600 x 900 have the same aspect ratio.

I’ve played with nvidia-settings underscan, it reduces the pixel size, keeping the same AR. For example, here I could go from 1920 x 1200 to 1600 x 1000 (same 1.6:1 AR). You’ll get black borders around the image however.

11

This is ridiculous…

Looking again at nvidia-settings, In the X Server Display Configuration click the Advanced button and set the viewportin/out and panning to the resolution you want. I’d also suggest you experiment with them, like reducing viewportin but leave panning to native resolution, etc. Here it works.

12

Thanks for your replies. Basically I would like to reduce the resolution when playing certain games to get higher framerates. The resolution I’m looking for (1600x900) isn’t in the list, and I would like the games (and only the games) to run using this resolution, not all the desktop environment. I haven’t tried your trick, but even if it does work I don’t want to have to do that every time I want to play.

13

It’s not a trick, it’s a somewhat non-obvious feature of the nvidia driver. (the ridiculous part was me never noticing it before).

But, as the saying goes: no pain, no gain. Unfortunately I don’t have a ready-made, one-button solution for you.

Also, as I mentioned before, when I play games here they automatically resize. The (KDE) desktop adjusts itself, and, for most games, returns to normal when exiting, so I never needed to change resolutions manually. I just go to the game options and choose the resolution. This goes both for steam and non-steam native games.

Perhaps you’ll have better luck at a DE (i.e. gnome) forum or mailing list.

14

OK thanks for your replies.