Not too long ago, I purchased an 4850 hoping to see a better frame rate, and better graphics capabilities, than my nVidia 6800 series card.  The price was reasonable -- about $199.00 so I jumped at the opportunity.  I chose ATI partially because of their new stance of (somewhat) open source video drivers (for my Linux partition), but mostly because I was excited about the opportunity of competition in the video market.   Oh, how I was fooled.  Why?  I have a monitor that supports 1920x1200, it's Viewsonic so I guess you could say that, at least, it's not some no-name brand.  I ripped open the package like a kid in a candy store, happy to enjoy faster frame rates and a nicer experience only to have my hopes dashed.  Thankfully, I have TWO monitors.  The very nice 24" Viewsonic... and my $99.00 piece of crap 1680x1080 no-name brand.  Yes, your card recognized that piece of crap like a sibling.  But recognize my 24" 1920x1200 Viewsonic?  No way!  For HOURS... DAYS... I fought the good fight until, completely exhausted, hours of tweaking powerstrip settings only to APPEAR to have 1920x1200 (actually 640x480 with panning) I ripped the card out in disgust and, finally, about two weeks ago, trading it for a bag of weed from a friend of mine that also had a piece of crap monitor it worked with.  Popped my 8800GTS card back in... defeated... but at least enjoying the larger playing field I deserved.  A couple of days wasted.

 

Fast forward ahead about 9 months.  I started putting together a new machine based on a SFF box.  I chose ONLY the best components.  Reading an article on the new 5770 based cards was an inspiration that FINALLY, I could truly have a HTPC that could play reasonably high powered games.  A tiny spark, in the back of my brain whispered silently to me, "It's a farce... it cannot be real."  Throwing caution aside, I ignored that warning and purchased the 5770.

 

The days passed and packages arrived on my doorstep like manna from heaven.  Finally, having the machine built I fired it up.  It worked PERFECTLY... on my generic, no-name piece of crap, monitor.  I shut down, attached my "glorious" Viewsonic monitor, and powered on.  For a brief moment I had hopes... oh... I had HOPES it would work.  Hopes that my $160.00 was not PISSED away.  Hopes that FINALLY, your cards would WORK with my monitor.  Friends ridiculed me when buying ATI!  "Are you CRAZY?  You bought an ATI card?  Are you NUTS?"  I ignored them.

 

Now... three days later, here I sit typing this on my piece-of-freaking-CRAP $99.00 monitor staring at a 24" monitor that can't get beyond 640x480.  You got me!  You fooled me!  I can't even download DRIVERS on your GOD DAMNED web site for my card.  You released a card and DRIVERS AREN'T EVEN AVAILABLE?  The only thing THIS time that's saving the card from being completely RIPPED out and thrown away is the fact that the SFF case that is resides in CANNOT drive any other reasonably high-end card.

 

I'd love to rant here, and honestly, I have a good reason to.  What I posted above is a real account, devoid (mostly) of ranting.  I had one more paragraph prepared to just rant, but I deleted it.  I just can't believe how... defeated (for lack of a better word) I feel.  Days gone.... no... WASTED... trying to get YOUR card to recognize that, YES, MY MONITOR DOES DO 1920x1200.  Trust me.... I'VE SEEN IT.

 

I couldn't even find the right FORUMS (I think) to post this so I put it here.  I've been an AMD fanboy for a bit... no more.  I was originally an ATI fanboy... no more.  Hello Intel and I'll be staying with nVidia for the foreseeable future.  I just cannot trust you to get your crap together.  Not yesterday... not today... and not tomorrow. 

Gee...  you don't sound too happy !

You must be doing something wrong, or the 24" monitor is a POS and not as good as you think it is.

Never, ever, ever, ever ,ever had the problem you describe with either nVidia or ATi cards.

 EDIT.   btw, viewsonic is crap  ( in case you didn't know ).

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Phenom II 965BE @ 3.4 Ghz
Swiftech H20-220 WC
4 Gig G.Skill DDR3 12800 ( 1600Mhz )
Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UD5P Mobo
CyberESport 1000Watt GamePWR PSU
Auzentech X-Fi Prelude
Logitech Z-5500D Sound system
Sapphire 5870 ( 2nd one coming )
Asus VW246H 24" 16:9 LCD - MAIN
Samsung 226bw 22" 16:10 LCD - Extended
Win 7 64Bit Ultimate

I can't say it will definitely work, but did you try CCC and forcing the resolution? I had a few people mention for me to try it on my 20" widescreen LG (which btw, this video card can't scale it properly either for apps that require 1280 x 1064... yet my nvidia could)

I would hang tight though, seriously man, they HHHHHAAAAAVVVVEEEEEEE to address this. I went into best buy to see if I could exchange my monitor for another one, every single monitor in the store was widescreen format. Seriously not a single non widescreen format, so AAAALLLLLLLLLLLL of them were the 1600 x 900 native resolution like mine (well the smallers ones at least) which my video card cannot scale for applications. Mine is an LG Flatron W2061TQ. I have to use my older busted Samsung 216BW for certain apps that require certain aspect ratios like 3dmark06 and the such

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AMD Phenom II 955 Black Edition -- MSI 790FX-gd70 motherboard -- XFX Radeon HD5850 -- Azza Salano 1000 full tower case -- 4 gigs OCZ AMD Black edition ddr3-1600 ram -- 850w Thermal Take black widow gaming PSU -- 500g Western Digital cavier black hard drive -- Zalman CP9500 cooler

Check if your monitor has right dvi cable may need a dvi-d also download a colour profile for that monitor and install it into windows or do a windows update with the monitor plugged in, these things may help.

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Intel Q9650_3.6Ghz. 8Gb DDR3 1333. 2x HD4890 CF. Gbyte GA-X48T-DQ6. LG DVD\HD\Blueray. AntecTPQ 850w. Samsung2333sw, Viewsonic2233mw, W7 64bit. Antec900 case

+1

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System: I7 920 @ 3.8GHz, 4870X2 + 4870 @ 1920 x 1200, G15 + G500, 6GB OCZ Reaper Tri-Channel DDR3 @1900MHz, OCZ 120GB Vertex SSD, XFI Extreme Gamer, Sennheiser PC 350's, Windows 7 Pro x64

If you're too stupid to use linux, go windows.

Less QQ because you lack the experience to fix the problem.

Now now, lets not be too hard on the guy, I feel his pain in a small way. But DUDE, how about freaking teling us what this Viewsonic model is so we can at least ridicule it from an informed viewpoint?

I haven't had that good of an experience from Viewsonic. The ones I've tested with it's like a lottery which graphics cards they'll work with and not and it didn't matter if it was Nvidia- or Ati-cards.

Anyway try and see if an updated driver for the Viewsonic solves anything. And like it already has been suggested: try and change the DVI-cable (maybe it'll work better if using DVI-I and not DVI-D).

P.S. I've never had any problems with my BenQ FP241W and 1920x1200 with either HD4850 nor HD5870.

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HD5870 | Core 2 Duo E8500 | P5E Deluxe | 4GB PC8500 | X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS | 4xWD Raptor | Vista Ultimate x64, DX 11

 

Yep, never a single issue about monitor on BenQ got here G2400WT, but it's curious that something like monitor actually can not display. I mean there's not that many frequencies to play it even for custom EDID to consider what ever the monitor can display.

In these cases I don't think the issue lies in the EDID but more in the monitor itself (its electronics).

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HD5870 | Core 2 Duo E8500 | P5E Deluxe | 4GB PC8500 | X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS | 4xWD Raptor | Vista Ultimate x64, DX 11

wow there is no point even tryingto help this guy its clear to me he is just an nvidia fan boy comin here to spout a load of crap.

graphics card wise the only thing nvidia do right is advertisment (they hook slilly little pots heads like this this guy in 1 easy step)

Oh my little pot head look at this top of the line all singing all dancing card it beats everything on the market... said card costs like double the top of the line ati card.
& will actually take us like 6 months to get proper drivers.. then 7 months down the line we wont be doing anymore drivers for said card.

!. iv been running 1920 / 1200 for ages on my dell 24" way back on the cf 1950xt setup i had through 2900xt cf & now my 3870x2.

So id say its downtoeither linux or your viewsonic. So my advice is go keep buying your nvidia cards and only play limited games.

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core i7 920 oc 3.6ghz
3gb corsair tri channel 1333
asus p6t deluxe
ati 3870x2
sb x-fi fatality
wd raptor
4 x sata HDD
water cooled cpu

Fooled me twice reminds me of someone who used to hold the reigns of my Country....

 

Anyways, for starters, you'll wanna get the latest monitor drivers. Most, if not all Viewsonic monitors use some sort of driver (for whatever reason nowadays is beyond me why ANY company does this anymore, as the built-in EDID should ID the monitor anymore... That is, is they still do this, which I'm sure they do because they want you to feel helpless when your monitor doesn't work).

Secondly, going from an Nvidia card to an ATi card, or vice versa only spells trouble if you do NOT uninstall the competitors' drivers before deciding to plunk in the new card. And even then, sometimes things don't go as planned as some registry entries or straggling files will make you think your card is a piece of junk and go back to the one which worked. You can call these loose files 'smart marketing' by both companies, but in reality man.... *puff puff* it's the aliens...

In all seriousness, make sure the Nvidia, and now the ATi drivers are both WIPED from your system before you install any other video card, regardless of which fanboy brand you choose.

***BTW: Viewsonic USED to be very good, and some of their larger, but much older CRT's really are the REAL DEAL when it comes to Viewsonix quality. However, as it seems to go when companies become popular and get a little too big (Think Antec's power supplies here) the people behind the scenes do whatever they can to lower the quality as much as possible to produce a product which they could produce for less, but charge the same or more because of the NAME of it's association. Anymore, Viewsonic is no worse than your run-of-the-mill "crap brand" because most companies get the SAME third-party to produce the product.

 

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I love computers. I love them so much, I'm getting an education to engineer hardware.

I hope you aren't right cause there are already too many of those only spewing their ignorance.

The same goes for Intel, they also are better at advertising. Maybe it's a cultural thing – Americans are good at speaking in their own favour?

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HD5870 | Core 2 Duo E8500 | P5E Deluxe | 4GB PC8500 | X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS | 4xWD Raptor | Vista Ultimate x64, DX 11