Trouble with setting monitor resolution

[Midgetguy]

Hey guys, I could use a little help here. I have a Dell UP2414Q, which is a 16:9 UHD monitor, and I've got it hooked up to my PC, but most of the time I want to run it at 2560x1440 instead of the full 3840x2160. Thing is, I can't seem to figure out how to do that. Logic tells me that since it's a 16:9 monitor and I just want to run it at a lower 16:9 resolution, it should be doable, but I can't find the resolution setting when I go to change resolution. The next lowest thing I've got is like 3840x1440 which seems weird to me.

Help please. I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate if that's helpful to know. Thanks to all in advance.

 

[Essence_of_War]

I think we need to know a little bit more about your set-up before we can help you.

What is the rest of your hardware configuration?

How are you connecting it to your PC? What sort of physical connector (DisplayPort? MDP?HDMI?) connection, and what's on the PC end, (GPU make/model?, igpu? Drivers up to date?)

How are you trying to change resolution? Are you doing it from your windows' default "Screen Resolution", your graphics card control bar, or are you doing it on the monitor?

 

[mfenn]

The monitor presents a list of modes that it supports via the EDID information. IF you don't see 2560x1440 in the normal list, then the monitor is not presenting that mode to the OS and graphics driver.

There are ways around this by using custom resolutions or GPU-based scaling, but we need to know a little more about your setup like Essence mentioned.

 

[Midgetguy]

Rest of the relevant info is as follows:
GPU: EVGA GTX 780 SC
Connection type: DisplayPort 1.2
Drivers: nVidia WHQL 340.52 (most recent drivers)

I tried changing the resolution using the standard Windows Screen Resolution settings and the nVidia Control Panel. Only weird-looking resolutions show up in both of them, like 3840x1440 for example, the lowest being something like 1600x600. I also downloaded MonitorInfoView from NirSoft to look at the EDID info and while I didn't see 2560x1440 on the list (so that wouldn't work, fine I'll live), I did see 1920x1080 on the list, which like I said, doesn't show up in the list of resolutions. After seeing that though, I tried to go through the nVidia Control Panel to set a custom resolution of 1920x1080 and it wouldn't do it, saying the monitor doesn't support it. Kinda hitting a wall, thanks for the help.

 

[monkeydelmagico]

Curious why do you want to run at lower resolutions?

 

[Essence_of_War]

I've seen a few reviews of this monitor that indicate that it either lacks a built-in scaler, or that the scaler doesn't work properly with DP MST.

Does the monitor have an OSD option for switching the DisplayPort compatibility mode?
Could you try running it at DP 1.1? That might fix the MST problem, and present you some other resolution options.

Alternatively, if you have an HDMI cable, could you try hooking it up via HDMI and seeing what resolution options are available to you. HDMI doesn't have MST, so that should sidestep any compatibility problems with MST on DP.

Both of these have the advantage of being fairly easy, give it a shot and let us know if either of those give you additional options.

 

[mfenn]

Rest of the relevant info is as follows:
GPU: EVGA GTX 780 SC
Connection type: DisplayPort 1.2
Drivers: nVidia WHQL 340.52 (most recent drivers)

I tried changing the resolution using the standard Windows Screen Resolution settings and the nVidia Control Panel. Only weird-looking resolutions show up in both of them, like 3840x1440 for example, the lowest being something like 1600x600. I also downloaded MonitorInfoView from NirSoft to look at the EDID info and while I didn't see 2560x1440 on the list (so that wouldn't work, fine I'll live), I did see 1920x1080 on the list, which like I said, doesn't show up in the list of resolutions. After seeing that though, I tried to go through the nVidia Control Panel to set a custom resolution of 1920x1080 and it wouldn't do it, saying the monitor doesn't support it. Kinda hitting a wall, thanks for the help.

Try using the GPU based scaling:

- Open the Nvidia Control Panel
- Display -> Adjust desktop size and position
- Scaling tab -> Perform scaling on -> GPU
- Scaling tab -> Check Override the scaling mode
- Click Apply

Then try changing the resolution. Your monitor will still get sent a 3840x2160 image, but it will be scaled up by the GPU.

By the way, if you're wanting to lower the resolution becasue text is too small, then you should enable DPI scaling.

Screen Resolution (standard Windows control) -> Make text and other items larger or smaller. As a side note, high DPI displays are one area where Windows 8.1 is vastly superior to Windows 7. Here's an Anandtech article with a lot of information.