Flat Panel Scaling? (the software side)

Hi. I am having an issue with flat panel scaling on my computer. This is an issue that generally only comes up as a result of games but I think the issue itself is more of a general software thing. If this should be moved to games, feel free.

I have a widescreen LCD monitor and a not so good computer set up, so when I play a game I am stuck with either a high resolution and bad performance, or a low resolution and 'fat' objects. I would like to have it at the low resolution but at the proper aspect ratio (in other words the kind of scaling that results in bars to the left and right of the image).

To that end I am trying to use NVIDIA's Control Panel, and under Change Flat Panel Scaling I have the option of

Use NVIDIA Scaling
USE NVIDIA Scaling with fixed-aspect ratio
Use my display's built-in scaling
Nothing

The problem is none of the options above seem to work. The game programs will not scale even when I have these options selected. So I guess the logical inference is that NVIDIA's software doesn't work or I am doing something wrong. Is there some way to fix this?

Alternatively, is there a third party software that you can download to do the scaling for you?

I know scaling might not seem to be a big deal, but it is something that I would like to be able to do somehow.

 

Is this the right forum for this thread?

 

does your monitor have software? i have an LG that came with some software to help with the proper settings.

 

As far as I know, Viewsonic does not have flat panel scaling software.

 

But it seems as though the newest Nvidia drivers fixed that problem. So far so good!