Forced higher Screen Resolution

I was wondering if I can force my monitor to a higher screen resolution than the factory settings.

My current setup is a ATI Mobility Radeon 9000, with max res to 1600x1200.

My external monitor is a 16in Samsung 700DF, with max resolution 1280x1024.

The drives for the card are the latest from HP and the drivers for the monitor are Plug and Play for Samsung700DF.

Not an expert or anything, but I'd have to say it's very unlikely. Your max res is how many dots of phosphor are on the screen as I understand it.

The maximum resolution is determined more by the frequency range of the monitor, and the frequency ranges your card outputs. Every time the screen is drawn (usually 60+ times a second), the electron beams have to sweep across the screen so many hundred times, once for each line of vertical resolution, for every refresh. As the resolution goes up, the horizontal frequency must go up too (and/or the refresh rate drops). If the manufacturer's specs say the monitor can't do a certain resolution, it's because it can't maintain a horizontal frequency high enough to support those higher resolutions. That's why you sometimes get those distorted diagonal lines on a monitor if you set the display to an unsupported resolution or incorrect refresh rate/horizontal frequency. There is nothing you can do to change that, short of completely redesigning the control circuits. Monitor manufacturers generally won't design the circuitry in a smaller monitor to handle really massive resolutions because it's unlikely people will want to use them on a small screen. There's also the fact that >>2 mentioned that once the picture reaches the maximum dot pitch of the phosphor coating on the screen you won't be getting any extra detail. By today's standards, CRTs are rather crude and blurry compared to digital displays.

Ok thank you both for your responses and explaination.

Guess I'll need to look into a new monitor here soon.