Okay, so I was beta testing some drivers for ATI and came across the fact that 5040x1050 had replaced 3840x1024 in my resolution options (my native desktop resolution is 5760x1200). The beta was from the 10.1 branch, but I hadn't seen anything about it here. Knowing that such a feature would have made headline news, I fired off an email to my contact in the driver department asking when it would be featured in a release driver. This was his response.
"Yes, we changed the algorithm that the driver uses to select the intermediate resolution. The results are better now in the sense that the intermediate resolution aspect ratios are consistent. For example 3840x1024 is based on three screens with a 5:4 aspect ratio, while the 5040x1050 is based on three 16:10 widescreens.
Basically, if you have widescreen displays, the intermediate resolution should always be based on three widescreens, so things don’t get stretched."
He went on to say that the feature should be in the 10.1 release drivers, and was glad we were excited about the feature. I hadn't dealt with the 10.1 release drivers. One, I have been testing the 5600, 5500 and 5400 boards and that required beta drivers. Two, I was running fine and stable on the 9.11 drivers, and there were lots of complaints being lodged here for 9.12 and 10.1, so I never moved up at release time.
So, I grabbed my spare Win7 OS drive and loaded the 10.1 release drivers (still beta testing the others on my main drive) and found this:
I will be asking what the intermediate resolutions would be for 2560x1600 and 1920x1080 panels. Will post that when I know. I will also be posting an update to my ATI 5870 review.