Can't play any games full screen in less than native res? Please help!

[trevorman1]

Every game I own can not be played in a lower than native resolution without having black bars on the side of the screen. It is NOT in windowed mode it is like the game is not upscaled to fit my screen with native res of 1920 x 1080. For example if I play a game at 1280 x 720 it just leaves a rectangle of black around the screen. This happens at every wide screen resolution except native resolution. I have the latest drivers and catalyst control center but I can't find a fix for this anywhere on the net or in the CCC options. It has been happening since I built the computer in '09 I have just ignored it but I want to play metro 2033 and it doesnt play very smooth at 1920 x 1080. Has anyone experienced this? Am I being a noob?

Please help!

Thanks
*Edit* -It's not just games when I try to make the desktop 1280 x 720 it does the black bar thing as well
System specs:
Windows 7 ultimate
Phenom II X3 720 @ 3.6ghz OC
ATI Radeon 4890
4 Gigs DDR3
Monitor: 23" Acer H233H
Games: Battlfield Bad Company 2,Team Fortress 2, League of Legends, Metro 2033, STALKER

 

[Kari]

Check the OSD settings on the monitor itself, look for something like '1:1 pixel mapping' mode or 'wide mode', changing the setting should scale it up. The image will get slightly blurry though.

 

[swifty_morgan]

ALT/ENTER

 

[vvhocare5]

I call double noob...sorry

Its in CCC. You have to set your resolution to less than native for it to be available. The third world software engineers AMD uses to code some of this do not understand we like to check the option first then switch resolutions

 

[Kari]

I call double noob...sorry

lol what do you know
there is a monitor 'feature' that will do just what the op describes, not every monitor has it but one of mine does.