Monitor not displaying native res full-screen

[bert8for3]

Can someone help me out? I've run out of ideas.

I'm running Win7 with a Sapphire Radeon 7870 and a Samsung 27-inch monitor. The native resolution on my monitor is 1920x1080, but I can't get it to display to the full screen size; i.e. it has black edges all the way round. It's the same in some of the other resolutions, but others, e.g. 1680x1050, display full-screen.

I've uninstalled/re-installed repeatedly Catalyst apps and drivers, also the screen driver. I've also tried re-installing with a previous version of Catalyst.

If I go to screen resolutions via the Catalyst icon in the lower-right taskbar (the little up-arrow that gives various icons) and go to available resolutions, it doesn't list 1920x1080. The highest one listed is 1680x1050.

If I right-click desktop and go to screen resolution, it shows the highest res as being 1920x1080, but like I say if I activate it, it doesn't go full-screen.

If I open the Catalyst app itself, it happily identifies the monitor and that the highest available res is 1920x1080. But I can't try switching to it within the Catalyst app (which they seem to have renamed and doesn't have that option anymore).

I've tried the scaling option within Catalyst, although AFAIK it shouldn't be necessary. But no go anyway.

Any ideas/suggestions?

[bert8for3]

Well, go figure. I think I've answered my own question. I'll post it via edit here in case it helps anyone else as soon as I collect the links.

Here it is.

The answer seems to be in the underscan and overscan options in Catalyst, and which are part of the scaling features. I'd seen them but hadn't played with them, 'cause stuff about graphics and monitors basically sends me running for the nearest cover.

I hadn't been finding anything recent or directly on via Google. But I finally Googled … the title I put on this thread. So I found this, which is a recent post on Tom's Hardware … http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/307812-33-monitor-displaying-full-screen. It refers the overscan option and links to this, which describes it pretty well … http://www.aoclarkejr.com/ati-catalyst-9-9-overcan-and-underscan-options.html .

At any rate, I tried that and I now have full screen on 1920x1080.

Hope this helps someone.

[frau kaleun]

The answer seems to be in the underscan and overscan options in Catalyst

Lol, I was just getting ready to open Catalyst and see where they were in the menu to suggest you have a look at them. I had the same problem when I first got this monitor, and it was a real headscratcher until I saw those options. It seems like the default is set to underscan a bit and I can't imagine why.

[Herr-Berbunch]

Well done for posting the solution, a lot would just carry on playing and forget about the folks here scratching their heads.

I used to love Tomshardware, but the last year or so it's becoming more disappointing with the level of unanswered or wrongly answered questions, but I'm glad it worked for you. :up:

[bert8for3]

Thanks, both of you. I'm always a bit antsy about fiddling with more than the basics in graphics settings, so I was glad to stumble on something fairly recent and which sounded authoritative. As you say, there's a lot out there and not always accurate. Or hard to assess the accuracy.