Trying to force a 1280 x 540 resolution with Nvidia control panel custom resolutions feature

I'm trying to force my PC to output at 1280 x 540. I went into the Nvidia Control Panel, and clicked on Change resolutions. Then I scrolled down and clicked on custom resolutions. I set a resolution of 1280 x 540. When I first did it, my projector lost sync for a second,and then synced to the new resolution. Windows then said something about 15 seconds to keep resolution and I clicked yes, but then after a few seconds it goes back to 1280 x 720.

It never keeps it at the 1280 x 540.

Yeah, it's a 720p projector. I'm going to try screwing around with playing PC games in a 2:35.1 like ratio. It's just an experiment really.

1. make custom 1280 x 540 resolution - Ok, I can do this via the Nvidia control panel custom resolution option.

2. set windows to 720p - but, I just changed it to 1280 x 540 in the Nvidia control panel. How do i set windows to 720p, but still have that custom rez ? Maybe you can elaborate a bit

3. Select 540p inside of game..... All the games i do into, they don't show 1280 x 540 as an option. Are you saying to take the option that has 540 even if it isn't 1280 x 540 ?

4. How do I turn GPU scaling on ?



I'm using Windows 7, with a Nvidia 560 Ti GPU and i5 2500K cpu.

I think I found it. I go to the Nvidia Control Panel. Under the "Display" area, there is an option called "Adjust desktop size and position".

Here are the options it gives:

Scaling / Size

When it's under the Scaling part of it, it shows:

Select a scaling mode:

Aspect Ratio (X)
Full Screen ( )
No Scaling ( )

(Aspect Ratio is the one currently selected)

Perform scaling on:

(there is a drop box with these options:)

Display (x)
GPU

It's currently set to Display, so I'm guessing I change it to GPU.

There is also a box that says:

Override the scaling mode set by games and programs ( )

(that box is currently unchecked. Should I activate it ? )

Then it has a preview area.

It has a resolution dropbox

a refresh rate dropbox

and then at the bottom, it shows the current native resolution.

(right now, I have my PC hooked up to my regular PC monitor, so it's showing it at 1920 x 1080 and the refresh rate at 60Hz. I don't have it hooked up to the projector right now, but I'm guessing that box would show 1280 x 720 and 60 Hz, with the Native resolution at 1280 x 720)

Later this afternoon, I'll hook the PC back to the projector and test some stuff out. I'll go ahead and set "Perform scaling on" to GPU, and I'll also mark the "override the scaling mode set by games and programs" option. That might screw things up, but if it does, I'll just go back and uncheck it. I have the original Portal, so I guess I can try it with that.
Oh, by the way, when I'm changing custom resolutions, for some reason, it seems to want to use 61Hz instead of 60Hz. What I mean is, when I first change the resolution, it automatically changes the Hz to 61. I change it back to 60, and then it seems to save it, but just wondering if maybe I should be leaving it at 61Hz for some reason ?

I tried a bunch of games last night, and the only thing I could get to "kinda" work was Portal. When I went into Portal, I was able to select 1280 x 540 as a resolution. All the other games I tried didn't let me have that option. I tried Bulletstorm, Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit and Fallout 3.

In Portal, I went into the graphics options and I was able to select 1280 x 540 as a resolution. Only thing is, it didn't see like a cinemawide game until I checked the box on playing in a windowed mode. When I did that, then it was the proper widescreen, and I was able to do the zoom trick, but instead of black bars on top and bottom that would fade into my black wall, it was the windows desktop that was kinda showing up a bit on my black walls, so the zoom effect didn't really work quite right in that regard. I'm going to try a bunch more games out.