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U2515H, Custom 2560x1440 HDMI resolution is fuzzy
I use two computers with my U2515H purchased from Dell about a month ago. My Dell M4700 laptop (NVIDA Quadro K200M) with a Display Port output displays crisp text at the 2560x1440 native resolution, but my Desktop with a new (bought for this monitor) Asus GEFORCE ASUS GT610-2GD3-CSM video card displays fuzzy text at the custom 2560x1440 resolution for its HDMI port (card has VGA, DVI and HDMI ports). The Dell M4700 also displays fuzzy text with its HDMI port at the custom 2560x1440 resolution.
I exchanged a number of very helpful emails with NVIDIA tech support, and we both came to the conclusion only Dell can provide a solution. Here's what we tried:
- Updated to the most recent NVIDIA video driver (347.88).
- I could not find an HDMI 2.0 cable in town, but replaced my current cable with a certified 4Kx2K cable. Two websites suggest HDMI is a hardware improvement and does not define new cables or new connectors. This appears to be a dead end solution, and an excuse for cable manufactures to keep premium HDMI cables priced high. See: http://www.hdmi.org/manufacturer/hdmi_2_0/, http://www.cnet.com/news/hdmi-2-0-what-you-need-to-know/
- Downloaded the Monitor Asset Manager utility from the web page at:
http://www.entechtaiwan.com/util/moninfo.shtm. Tested the HDMI port, and like everyone on the the internet, the U2515H does indeed report it's highest HDMI resolution as 2048x1152. I was not able to test the DP, since my Dell laptop has security restrictions employed by my office.
Besides working with NIVIDIA, while setting up a custom 2560x1440 HDMI, I found the auto timing was stable, but has fuzzy text. All the other timing options (GTF, DMT, CVT and CVT-reduced) provide much crisper text, but become unstable when I log off and then try logging back on. To me, this suggests a non-standard custom timing might clean up the blurry text. Here's where Dell might be helpful. Below is the custom resolution options for a manual 2560x1440 HDMI resolution:
- Refresh Rate (Hz): set at 60, but appears adjustable in 1 Hz increments
- Color Depth (bpp): set at 32, 16 and 8 are other options
- Scan Type: set at Progressive, other option is Interlaced
- Active Pixels: adjustable in 1 pixel increments for both H and V
- Front porch (pixels): adjustable in 1 pixel increments for both H and V
- Sync width (pixels): adjustable in 1 pixel increments for both H and V
- Total pixels: adjustable in 1 pixel increments for both H and V
- Polarity: Positive or Negative for both H and V
- Refresh Rate: Horizontal appears fixed at 72.00 KHz, Vertical appears adjustable in 1.000 Hz. - with an apparent range of 59.000 to 61.000.
- Pixel clock: appears fixed at 162.0000 MHz
I don't know where to start with experimenting with the different options, so your advice is most welcome. I can experiment with my Dell M4700, but I'd prefer to experiment with my home-built desktop computer (my primary computer for this monitor). The video card was described above. I'm running Win 7 Home Premium, Service Pack 1, 64-bit. I've reset the monitor and tested it as suggested in the "Read this first before posting."
Thanks for your help.
40 Below
6 Posts
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June 13th, 2015 18:00
Well, not quite the perfect answer, but almost.
Update: After a number of helpful email exchanges with Nvidia, and some help from Dell, I was able to get crisp text with HDMI like I always could with Display Port input. I used Nvidia's Control Panel to setup a customized resolution. Nvidia suggested I start with a refresh rate of 30 Hz and work my way up. I was able to get my "entry level" ASUS GT610-2GD3-CSM graphics card to produce stable 2560x1440 HDMI output at 45 Hz refresh rate using GTF timing. However, following the instructions at www.notebookcheck.net/2560x1440-or-2560x1600-via-HDMI.92840.0.html I was able to get stable HDMI output at 55 Hz using CVT-reduced black timing (I used the "Nvidia GeForce graphics card without Optimus" suggestion). This is likely the best I can hope for with my entry level card, although I might try a shorter cable (3 ft instead of 6 ft) to see if I can squeeze out the extra 5 Hz. The video card needs to be HDMI 1.4 compatible (which Asus says it is after I asked), and I also bought an inexpensive HDMI 1.4 cable from Amazon (AmazonBasics High-Speed HDMI Cable), although I'm not sure the cable really helped.
DELL-Chris M
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April 27th, 2015 12:00
From another user = I couldn't get more than 2048x1152. If I went into the NVIDIA control panel I could set a custom resolution of 2560x1440, but had to set a lower frequency - it was high resolution, but looked poor. However, I then discovered that changing the 'timing' from automatic to GTF solved it. I now have beautiful 2560x1440 60Hz using a lowish cost (but 1.4) HDMI cable on a low cost NVIDIA card.
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April 28th, 2015 00:00
Well, now I'm worse off than before. I'm down to my secondary monitor. I tried GTF before and the text looks great at 2560x1440 until I log off (please review my detailed description above). Then both monitors are scrambled. Thinking I missed something, I tried GTF again as suggested, and the monitors are still scrambled when I log off. Now my video card remembers the bad setting and I can't regain control of my U2515H monitor, so I had to unplug it. Once I solve that problem, I'm open to other suggestions. Perhaps a print screen of the GTF settings might show something slightly different than what is selected for me.
DELL-Chris M
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April 28th, 2015 09:00
No clue. We did not mess with the GTF. I got this data last night from the U2515H team...
To support HDMI 2560x1440@60Hz:
* The video card HDMI output must support HDMI 1.4. The bandwidth is over 165MHz up to 340MHz
* The HDMI cable must support HDMI 1.4. Search for a high speed cable that supports HDMI Ethernet Channel and 4K@50Hz/60Hz (2160p) like this one:
C2G High Speed HDMI Cable with Ethernet (video/audio/network cable, 6.6ft)
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April 29th, 2015 23:00
Hi Chris,
Thanks for your prompt replies. I recovered from my corrupt monitor configuration (used Safe Mode in Low Video Resolution).
I submitted a technical request to Asus for the HDMI specs you provided. HDMI specs are not provided on Asus's website, but you can see the rest here: http://www.asus.com/us/Graphics_Cards/GT6102GD3CSM/specifications/ NVIDIA does not manufacture the Asus video card, but they believe it supports HDMI 1.4 and 165 MHz.
Amazon has part of the specs for my HDMI cable (http://www.amazon.com/GE-24201-6-Feet-Cable-Black/dp/B0049Z0SLS), but I think mine is newer, since my package also says "Certified 1080P 4Kx2K Full Ultra" and "ARC Audio Return Channel." I looked at the Dell HDMI cable you suggested. Nice price, but the shipping to Alaska is almost four times the price of the cable.
Attached is a printscreen of my custom GTF timing. Perhaps you can spot something I'm missing? This setting looks great until I log off, and then both my primary and secondary monitors (both Dells) go blank, and I have to use Safe Mode to recover.
Thanks!
[View:/cfs-file/__key/communityserver-discussions-components-files/3529/4848.GTF-Printscreen.tif:550:0]
DELL-Chris M
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April 30th, 2015 08:00
Looks fine to me. If you back down the resolution to 2048x1152 60Hz, do the fonts clear up when using HDMI from the desktop PC? Can you then restart multiple times and the windows desktop always appears correctly? If yes, there is some unknown device in the mix that is not true HDMI 1.4.
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April 30th, 2015 23:00
Text looks crisp at 2048x1152 and 60 Hz in both Auto and GTF timing. I can even reboot many times in GTF at this resolution. It's only at 2560x1440 the two modes differ. Auto is fuzzy text, but stable. GTF is crisp text, but goes blank when I reboot.
(For what it's worth, if I log off first (rather than rebooting) the screen looks fine, but the mouse does not display although I can muddle through options by seeing the mouse highlight icons. Logging back in with the missing mouse, results in blank screens too.)
Asus did not answer my direct question about HDMI 1.4, but instead suggested I try a different PCI slot. I can do that, but I'd have to downgrade to a lesser bandwidth PCI slot.
On the bright side, I'm getting really good at recovering from blank monitors (reboot in Safe Mode with Low Resolution, delete the offending custom resolution, reboot and choose stable resolutions).
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June 3rd, 2015 00:00
Time for an update. Asus says my GT610-1GD3-L video card supports HDMI 1.4. I ordered an HDMI cable from Amazon with the 1.4 specification Dell says I need to attain 2560 x 1440 on this monitor (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NH126Q0?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00), The cable did not make a difference at all. Thanks to an earlier suggestion from Nvidia I'm able to attain that resolution at 45 Hz, but the cable did not even let me bump up to 50 Hz with my GeForce GT 610 video card on my home computer. The new cable may have allowed my office Dell Precision M4700 with a Quadro K2000M video card work at that resolution with up to 40 Hz, but I don't remember if that computer worked at 40 Hz with the old cable - I seem to remember I could not get it to work at any refresh rate at 2560 x 1440 before with HDMI. My office M4700 has a Display Port and it works great at 2560 x 1440 with the DP.
I think I'm stuck for now using 45 Hz to get 2560 x 1440 on my home computer with only an HDMI port. I bought the GeForce GT 610 video card specifically to work with this Dell monitor. If I had known HDMI would have been such a problem, I would have bought a video card with a Display Port.
stanleyha
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May 24th, 2016 05:00
Dude, you are my hero.
I created this account to thank you for your sharing, it works for me.
I am using Asus GTX 560Ti with U2515H. the monitor was fine using the display port before. and switched to this card with HDMI. I tried buying a 1.4 HDMI Cable.
I am using CVT-reduced and reached 55Hz, I am more than happy now. Thank you!
bbottema
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November 5th, 2016 15:00
I was finally able to get 2560x1440 crisp thanks to you! I have to note though, that with a DVI cable, it is still crisper, but not by much. I'm running HDMI high speed at reduced blank@55hz.