Hack for higher resolution?

[weez999]

I have a 2011 non retina Macbook Pro 13 inch that has a native 1280x800 resolution. When I run this on apple tv, it flips to 1080p and gets much more screen real estate and I can also decide to modify this and move it to a resolution such as 1680x1050 which I happen to love. Is there any way to run a hack or some sort of modification that will allow me to choose this 1680 resolution without connecting to the apple tv for air play?

I always thought it couldn't display a higher resolution but it clearly can. Any help guys?

 

[Nermal]

The GPU in your computer is capable of displaying 1080p, and internally it'll be creating a 1080p image to send to your TV (I think that this is called a "framebuffer"). The actual laptop screen, on the other hand, is still 1280x800 and it's not capable of displaying at a different resolution.

The only thing you could possibly do is make everything smaller to give an "effective resolution" of 1680x1050. It'll still be displayed at 1280x800 but you'll be able to fit more on the screen, as if you were running at 1680x1050. This probably works fine for Web browsing etc, but is likely to be problematic if you're doing anything that requires accuracy (such as image editing).

I've never tried it myself, but if you wish to continue then I believe that "SwitchResX" lets you set this up.

 

[saturnotaku]

I always thought it couldn't display a higher resolution but it clearly can. Any help guys?

The GPU is capable of displaying higher resolutions, but only on external sources. The built-in display is only capable of whatever its native resolution is and lower.

A hack with the program SwitchResX might be possible, but you risk creating a situation where your system will end up with a blank screen, and you have to boot into safe mode to get your desktop back.