What the crap is native resolution?

[xxenclavexx]

I dont know what this is.

 

[RichPLS]

It varies depending on display, and it is the recommended viewing resolution.

 

[michaelahess]

To expand, it's the actual number of pixels an lcd has for display area, if it's a crt, well, there's only a MAX res on those and a recommended one that usually allows a higher refresh.

i.e. a 21" crt that goes to 1600x1200 @ 60 would recommend 1280x1024 @ 85

i.e. a 19" lcd would have a physical 1280x1024, any other res would interpolate and blur the image to a degree.

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

I would add that for a CRT native resolution as one would think of it in regards to truely 'native' could be considered a 'range' of resolutions that the monitor is known and certified to suport, and recommend as operating within. Whereas you can run outside of those parameters (usually at some risk to your monitor) it's not seen as the optimal balance for the scan line refresh. What they usually call 'native' for CRt I'd simply refer to as 'default', because I just don't consider a CRT as having just ONE native resolution so much as a min a max, and everything in between that fits within a 'native range'.

I like to force 1440x1080 on my 16x12 17" because it looks best to me and increases the refresh slightly, however it's withing the range of the horizontal scan rate. It's not a listed resolution, it's not a driver enabled resolution, but it works fine when forced.