What is scaling

[Fistandantilis]

I know this is a rather dumb question, but can somebody explain scaling to me, thanks

Jawshuwa

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

Scaling could refer to quite a few things. We talking scaling images to an LCD running at a non-native resolution? We talking scaling of hardware performance with clock frequency or shader count? CPU scaling as regards to gaming performance?


We'll need context to answer that.

 

[Fistandantilis]

we talking about video card scaling and an LCD monitor.

 

[gramboh]

LCDs run at a native resolution. My 2407 runs at 1920x1200 (16:10 widescreen). If I want to display say 1024x768 I have a few options:

1) 1:1 pixel mapping/no scaling, this displays the picture in the centre of the screen with black bars on all 4 sides
2) ''Fill" scaling - this stretches the image to fill the entire screen. This looks horrible if you stretch a 4:3 res like 1024x768 to a ws res like 1920x1200.
3) Fixed aspect ratio scaling - this stretches the image but maintains the aspect ratio. If you are displaying non-WS content it will stretch it vertically but keep black bars on the side to maintain the aspect ratio. This looks a lot better than filling on a widescreen LCD.

 

[Bet]

Originally posted by: gramboh
3) Fixed aspect ratio scaling - this stretches the image but maintains the aspect ratio. If you are displaying non-WS content it will stretch it vertically but keep black bars on the side to maintain the aspect ratio. This looks a lot better than filling on a widescreen LCD.

This one doesn't get nearly enough love. ATI doesn't support it and Nvidia keeps breaking it. My next choice of videocard relies almost solely on who supports this better in the coming weeks, as my 7900GT is executing it perfectly and anything less would be a downgrade. At the moment it's leaning towards Nvidia since no one has reported that it's now supported with the 2900XT driver