Why is my 3200x1800 laptop delivering a blurry image to my 1080p monitor??

I have a new Dell M3800 Laptop, screen resolution 3200x1800, and an external 1080p Samsung monitor.

No matter what I do, the external monitor is slightly blurry.

Laptop: Dell M3800 (the 3rd one that is listed at $2484)
Vid Card: Nvidia® Quadro® K1100M, w/ 2GB GDDR5
Monitor: Samsung PX2370
OS: Windows 7 Pro
Connection: HDMI. And it's not the cable - I tested with another HDMI cable, no difference.
Desktop Background: is at least 1800 resolution, set as "fit" not stretch.


This is a breakdown of how settings affected the two displays.

Display Mode:
- Duplicate mode: adopts the lower resolution for both.
- Extend mode: see below
- Projector only: Samsung display is same as in extend mode


Regardless of settings, these issues persist for the Samsung display:

- Display is expanded, edges go off sides (e.g. only half taskbar visible) ------> Scaling aspect ratio to 66 (both vert and horiz) brings it back into frame.
- Some entire lines of text are blurry/shadowed while other entire lines are fairly clear. ------> running ClearType made almost no difference.

Samsung display only changes under 2 circumstances:

Background size: changes depending on laptop resolution if laptop is set as primary.
- When laptop is at max resolution, Samsung background looks "zoomed in."
- Lowering the laptop resolution to 1152 and 1080, Samsung background zooms out until normal size.

Text/object size: changes only by scaling text, regardless of primary or resolution.


Laptop display:

When laptop is set as primary, changing its resolution or scaling text have the expected effects on the laptop display.

But when Samsung is set as primary:

- If laptop is at 1800 resoluation: the laptop background image is sized like a 1080 image on a 1800 screen (a small background image framed by black a rectangle in center of black background).
- Bringing laptop down to 1080: background image is framed normally, and everything is larger, but I lose all benefit of QHD resolution.


And even then, the Samsung monitor is still blurry.

It's overall worse than with my 5 year old laptop on a VGA cable.

What is going wrong?

I've been researching for hours but can't find a workaround anywhere for this particular issue (it's usually a higher res monitor with lower res laptop).

We need more info about the Samsung display (model), but it sounds to me like the HDMI input and/or the display is the culprit (doesn't accept a 1080p input, it's not a true 1080p screen but accepts 1080p signal and upscales it, etc).

Mpegger said:

We need more info about the Samsung display (model), but it sounds to me like the HDMI input and/or the display is the culprit (doesn't accept a 1080p input, it's not a true 1080p screen but accepts 1080p signal and upscales it, etc).

Click to expand...

Thanks - updated post with specs/links.

It's a Samsung PX2370, and my husband's desktop exported full 1080p beautifully to it. Now that I remember, it was via DVI. Should I try an HDMI-DVI (or Mini Display Port - DVI) converter?
Laptop has HDMI and Mini Display Port

Well it's not a TV screen as I assumed, so it should not have any problems displaying via HDMI just fine from a PC, though it still makes me think there is a communication issue between the video output and the monitor if the image isn't centered and is blurry. I would try the DVI input on the monitor and see if you have the same issue. Luckily, converting between HDMI, DVI, and DisplayPort is as simple as a cable/adapter with the appropriate ends since they all use a compatible digital data stream to communicate via those connections. No active converter required, so the cables can be purchased very cheap from Monoprice or other places. Here's a 3-foot HDMI to DVI cable from Monoprice to give you an idea of what to look for and what prices they can be had for. Could be you may already have an adapter that was included with your laptop, or a video card purchased for the PC.

AH! Before you order anything, with a Nvidia card, you sometimes have to reboot after pluging in the 2nd monitor for it to be setup/detected properly. Also, you'll want to use the Extended mode, but setup each screen at its own resolution. Do not just let Windows or the Nvidia drivers default to some odd resolution for the screen. Each screen should allow you to setup its resolution individually, no matter if you use the Windows display settings or the Nvidia control panel to change it. If you are using the Nvidia control panel to change the resolution, do not use the resolutions displayed under the (Ultra) HD, SD section, use the resolutions under the PC section.

External monitor issue solved!
Thanks for the advice! By compiling replies to my post on several forums, I finally found the solution.

(Now only the laptop display issue remains: I can't use its native 1800 resolution, it has to be set to 1080 when the external display is primary… see details at the end of this post.)

Solution Steps:

Ensure monitor is set to PC, not AV. I rechecked my PX2370 in-monitor settings and it somehow had reset to AV mode instead of PC. Changing to PC helped clarity, though only partially. It also fixed the issue where the desktop was extending beyond the edges of the screen. Now it fits perfectly.

No custom aspect ratio. After fixing step 1, I re-reviewed the scaling settings in the Intel Graphics Control Panel. At the very beginning of this disaster, in order to actually fit the desktop on my external monitor, I had set it to "custom aspect ratio" of 66. That brought the edges of the picture within the boundaries of the screen. I didn't realize that that was a scaling effect, and per advice to check scaling settings, I set it back to "Maintain display scaling."

This fully fixed the clarity issue. Finally, the external monitor is clear, crisp, and scaled correctly!

_________________________________

Now 1 major issue remains: I lose all the benefits of the QHD display whenever I use the 2nd monitor.

In order for me to have the external monitor be the primary, my 1800 laptop has to be set to 1080.

• 
  This is because the laptop display can't have separate settings for object/text size. In 1800, it has to be set to 150% or it's illegible. But 150% makes everything comically large on my external monitor.

• Also, the 1800 resolution background is shrunken and framed in black when laptop is set to 1800 and ext monitor is primary. (My conjecture is that the system rescales it to 1080 for the primary display and then uses that on both displays?)

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Any idea if this can be fixed?

I'm willing to live with this for now, until I get a higher res monitor (which was the plan in the next few months).


But will this still be a problem if I get a 1440 monitor?

What about with a 4k monitor?

When Laptop is at 1800






When Laptop is at 1080






Other settings: