The quick story:
My Dell U2311H always had a problem with any Nvidia driver newer than 368.81 which is from many years ago, and this also goes for the generic drivers (the ones used in Windows' Safe mode) - neither Windows' Control Panel nor Nvidia's Control Panel recognizes the monitor as 1920x1080, but as 1024x768. It seems this is written in the registry post as well. Using the oldest drivers, 1920x1080 is available in both control panels. When instead of my old GTX 560Ti I wish to use my new GTX 1080, I'm forced to use newer drivers which exhibit this problem.
The longer story:
I've been forced to use the oldest drivers for my Gigabyte GTX 560Ti for years since I've always had this one problem. The same thing happens with my new GTX 1080! My monitor is a Dell U2311h, and I'm running Windows 7 x64 Professional on Gigabyte Z68X-UD4-B3 with an Intel 2600K.
The problem is that neither Windows Control Panel nor Nvidia Control Panel recognize that the monitor is capable of displaying 1920x1080. I've tried all monitor drivers including the generic PnP and non-PnP ones as well as the official and latest "U2311h - Digital"-driver (I'm using DVI-D, so it's dual link and all). The monitor itself has a menu in which it states that the current resolution is 1024x768 at 60Hz and that the maximum is 1920x1080 at 60Hz.
When I use the oldest Nvidia drivers with my 560Ti, 1920x1080 shows up in the Nvidia Control Panel as a resolution in a group for HD-resolutions, while the "built-in" resolution (1024x768) is, just like when I'm using the latest drivers, under a group called "PC".
- When using the oldest drivers, I can simply click on 1920x1080 in the HD-group on the Nvidia Control Panel's resolution page and everything displays just like it should, and the monitor's menu says that the current resolution is 1920x1080 at 60Hz.
- When using the newest drivers, however, only the "PC"-group of resolutions is shown in the list on the Nvidia Control Panel's resolution-page. Here's the interesting part: If I set 1920x1080 as a custom resolution in the Nvidia Control Panel, the OS seems to switch to 1920x1080 (and said resolution becomes available in the Windows Control Panel as well), but the monitor still displays it at 1024x768! Everything looks really pixelated, though scaled as if it's at 1920x1080, and the monitor's menu still says that the current resolution is 1024x768.
When installing the oldest drivers again, the monitor switches to proper 1920x1080 before the installation's even finished and everything becomes fine and dandy again until I install newer drivers again... It won't display in 1920x1080 in safe mode either, by the way, and it seems the Windows registry has registered the monitor as 1024x768 (according to Powerstrip when fetching the registry post).
Could someone help me out here?
Thanks!