nvidia card and screen resolution too low

[tehk]

I've had 8.10 running for a few months and have been using the nvidia v177 drivers for quite a while. However lately, I've gotten into doing 2d animation work using javascript and html and have found that the nvidia drivers are rather poor in this area. So, I switched back to using the open source nvidia drivers and found that they greatly solved the 2d animation problems and were much faster. The 3d animations were slower and lacked antialiasing, but I don't miss that stuff at all.

The Problem:

When using the open source drivers, my display resolution is limited to 1280x1024, whereas with the proprietary nvidia drivers I was able to achieve 1920x1200. I hacked around for a few hours yesterday messing with my xorg.conf file in attempt to configure the open drivers to allow be the higher screen resolution, but alas to no avail.

Just as an example of the 2d performance issues I've been encountering, try this page: http://blog.miernicki.com/?p=82 which uses an animated <canvas> element. In the open source drivers, nice and smooth and using the closed drivers, the animation is jagged and stops periodically.

Back to the issue:

I thought it may help to put up my xorg.conf files up in advance of others asking, so here they are:

Open source drivers version:

Section "Device"
	Identifier	"Configured Video Device"
	Driver		"vesa"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier	"Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier	"Default Screen"
	Monitor		"Configured Monitor"
	Device		"Configured Video Device"
EndSection

And next the nvidia closed basic xorg.conf:

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier	"Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier	"Default Screen"
	Monitor		"Configured Monitor"
	Device		"Configured Video Device"
	Option	"AddARGBGLXVisuals"	"True"
	DefaultDepth	24
EndSection

Section "Module"
	Load	"glx"
EndSection

Section "Device"
	Identifier	"Configured Video Device"
	Option		"UseFBDev"		"true"
	Driver	"nvidia"
	Option	"NoLogo"	"True"
EndSection

And finally the xorg.conf as configured using the nvidia-settings applet:

# nvidia-settings: X configuration file generated by nvidia-settings
# nvidia-settings: version 1.0 (buildd@crested) Mon Nov 3 08:46:04 UTC 2008

Section "ServerLayout"
  Identifier   "Layout0"
  Screen   0 "Screen0" 0 0
  InputDevice  "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
  InputDevice  "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "Module"
  Load      "dbe"
  Load      "extmod"
  Load      "type1"
  Load      "freetype"
  Load      "glx"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
  Option     "Xinerama" "0"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
  # generated from default
  Identifier   "Mouse0"
  Driver     "mouse"
  Option     "Protocol" "auto"
  Option     "Device" "/dev/psaux"
  Option     "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
  Option     "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
  # generated from default
  Identifier   "Keyboard0"
  Driver     "kbd"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
  # HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid
  Identifier   "Monitor0"
  VendorName   "Unknown"
  ModelName   "DELL2407WFPHC"
  HorizSync    30.0 - 83.0
  VertRefresh   56.0 - 76.0
  Option     "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
  Identifier   "Device0"
  Driver     "nvidia"
  VendorName   "NVIDIA Corporation"
  BoardName   "GeForce 6800 XT"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
  Identifier   "Screen0"
  Device     "Device0"
  Monitor    "Monitor0"
  DefaultDepth  24
  Option     "TwinView" "0"
  Option     "metamodes" "1920x1200_60 +0+0"
  SubSection   "Display"
    Depth    24
  EndSubSection
EndSection

I thought the solution honestly would be to snag some of the info from the closed nvidia-settings version and import the monitor, device, and screen sections to the open driver version. But nothing I tried would allow me to go any higher than 1280x1024.

Argggg. Please help!

t

[sithlord48]

Re: nvidia card and screen resolution too low

Open source drivers version:

Section "Device"
	Identifier	"Configured Video Device"
	Driver		"vesa"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier	"Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier	"Default Screen"
	Monitor		"Configured Monitor"
	Device		"Configured Video Device"
EndSection

for that shouldn't you be using the driver "nv" cause thats the open nvidia driver...

and for you closed try adding to your device section ..

Option  "RenderAccel" "0"

i have to do that for my nvidia (96 driver) or i get really bad proformance (btw my res on my card is 1400*1050 and yours is much newer ..)

[tehk]

Re: nvidia card and screen resolution too low

cheers mate. the new option for the closed drivers didnt change anything noticeable.

the nv drivers solved the 2d acceleration tho! no more sluggish animations...

however, the only remaining issue is the fact that i can see some screen rendering artifacts such as occassional missing pixels and it only happens when typing is going on....

[sithlord48]

Re: nvidia card and screen resolution too low

however, the only remaining issue is the fact that i can see some screen rendering artifacts such as occassional missing pixels and it only happens when typing is going on....

and you have that issue using the driver "nv" ?

there is also a newer beta or non legacy cards driver is 180beta, that might help with your nvidia driver issues but idk as i can't even attempt to use it on my old geforce440go.

i found this about xorg.conf for 8.04 (about half way through is nvidia info)
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/XORGHardy
there are some examples (prolly not for you) but i did find this nugget of usefulness.

"More information on this driver and it's options can be found by typing "man nv" in a terminal. "

check it out and you might find some useful options. just make sure you back up your xorg.conf before you edit don't want to have to start all over