On this thread it appears modern version of Catalyst Control Center always strecth 4:3 resolution into wide screen. Then I tried PowerStrip in an effort to maintain 4:3 aspect ratio on wide screen monitors.

Alas, while PowerStrip is able to maintain 4:3 aspect ratio, it refuses to scale up the said 4:3 resolution. making the picture look like the "Use centered timings" mode in CCC GPU scaling options. For example, 640x480 resolution would look like tiny area amidst the wide screen monitor, instead of filling the entire screen while maintaining the 4:3 aspect ratio with two horizontal black bars on both sides.

I'm not sure if it's PowerStrip's fault, or my own inexperience in using it. Nonetheless, the following is my steps. Basically I tried to follow these steps. I would really appreciate if experienced PowerStrip user(s) could point out my mistakes, so I could take the right steps to make PowerStrip scale up 4:3 resolutions while maintaining aspect ratio.

The following is my monitor. It is an el-cheapo LG wide screen monitor I pulled out from my home office computers. I haven't tried PowerStrip on the Radeon HD 7770 computer, though. I merely tried it on an office computer which happens to have Radeon HD 3000 (AMD 760G) graphics. If it was successful, then I'd try it on the Radeon HD 7770.

The wide screen monitor I was using to test PowerStrip. The resolution is 1360x768.

1. The steps I took to create a 1024x768 resolution.

My first step was right-clicking on the PowerStrip icon on system tray, then choosing 'Display profiles' and then 'Configure', which brought me to the 'Display profiles' window as shown below. From here, I chose the 'Advanced timing options...', which is represented by big horiziontal button.

The 'Display profiles' window. Here where I clicked the 'Advanced timing options...' button.

Then I was brought to the 'Advanced timing option' menu. From here, I was supposed to go to the 'Custom resolutions' window, so I did.

The 'Advanced timing option' window. I was supposed to click the the 'Custom resolutions...' button.

On the 'Custom resolution' window, I was supposed to check the 'Lock total geometry' check box, then click on the small ruler icon on the lower right area, which is called 'Design a resolution-in-a-resolution'. 'Designing a resolution' is where was I supposed to create my desired resolution, like, say, 1024x768.

The 'Custom resolution' window, where I supposed to design a resolution.

The following step is to create the resolution I want, by dragging an sizing black box. Like I said above, the resolution I made was 1027x768, an 4:3 resolution. So I clicked and dragged a black box accordingly. For some unknown reason, this part cannot be captured by PrintScreen, so I photographed my LCD screen instead.

Creating a 1024x768 resolution by dragging a black box to size.

After clicking 'OK', I was brought back to the 'Custom resolution' window. Here I was supposed to click on the 'Add new resolution' button to proceed, so I did.

The 'Custom resolution' window after creating the 1024x768 resolution.

Then PowerStrip asked whether I would keep the new 1024x768 resolution, so I did.

Yep, I wanted to keep the 1024x768 resolution.

And voila! I got the 1024x768 resolution, in the correct 4:3 aspect ratio. Note the black bars on the sides of my screen. Yes, it was the correct aspect ratio. Without PowerStrip, there is no way to have 1024x768 with correct 4:3 aspect ratio; the resolution is always streched to wide screen, giving me the impression that some corporate assholes really love to see their consumer suffer from screen streching.

The 1024x768 resolution, with correct 4:3 aspect ratio. Note the black bars.

Up to this point, it seems I have made it, doesn't it? Finally, I got 1024x768 desktop resolution with correct 4:3 aspect ratio, with black bars. Turned out I was wrong, but I'd keep it for later. In any case, I have to save the 1024x768 resolution in order to use it later, so I did. I saved it under the name '4:3 1024 x 768 pixels, TrueColor (32 bit)'.

Saving the 1024x768 resolution.

Then it came the time to test the newly-made resolution on games. In order to do so, I had to create an Application Profile. I choose to test it with a 2D game called Majesty. Perhaps you too, remember the game? In any case, Majesty is a great game.

Creating Application profile to use the 1024x768 resolution with Majesty.

Then I fired up the game, and this is where I discovered PowerStrip does NOT work. For starter, the game's intro video was not scaled properly.

The game's intro video unevenly fills the screen.

And then, as soon as I got to the game main menu, I got the 'NO SIGNAL' message on the LCD screen. The game did NOT crash. I could clearly hear Majesty's main menu theme song playing despite the blank screen.

The game's main menu caused the GPU to send NO SIGNAL to the LCD monitor. Pardon the blurry, out of focus photograph.

So, it seems PowerStrip-made resolution only works for desktop, but does not work for games, or doesn't it?

Then I remember... Majesty is 800x600. My bad. So I repeated all the steps above, but this time, I created 800x600 resolution instead of 1024x768.

2. The second attempt: creating 800x600 resolution using PowerStrip.

Okay, so I repeated all the steps above, but I created 800x600 resolution instead. However, the 800x600 resolution does not scale up, neither on desktop nor on the game.

800x600 had the correct aspect ratio, but it does NOT scale up.

Yes, take a look at the photograph above. It was my desktop on 800x600 resolution made using PowerStrip. It has the correct aspect ratio, but it does not scale up. It does not fill up the entire screen vertically.

This time, Majesty's main menu was shown. It no longer caused the GPU to send NO SIGNAL to the monitor. However, just like the desktop, it doesn't fill up the screen vertically.

800x600 does NOT scale up on the game either.

So is there any way to make PowerStrip scale up 4:3 resolutions while maintaining the correct aspect ratio?