thanks for the help! i do have nvidia-settings installed, and have been using it to create my xorg file. now when i do use it to create the file, the RandRRotation and Twinview options aren't put into the file by default. this is the default file that nvidia-settings create if i have it configure itself:
# nvidia-settings: X configuration file generated by nvidia-settings
# nvidia-settings: version 340.46 (pbuilder@zam904) Fri Oct 17 21:29:34 UTC 2014
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Layout0"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
Option "Xinerama" "0"
EndSection
Section "Files"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
# generated from default
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
# generated from default
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
# HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "DELL P2211H"
HorizSync 30.0 - 83.0
VertRefresh 56.0 - 76.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Device0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce GTX 660 Ti"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Device0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "Stereo" "0"
Option "nvidiaXineramaInfoOrder" "DFP-0"
Option "metamodes" "DVI-I-1: nvidia-auto-select +0+0, HDMI-0: nvidia-auto-select +1920+0, DVI-D-0: nvidia-auto-select +3840+0"
Option "SLI" "Off"
Option "MultiGPU" "Off"
Option "BaseMosaic" "off"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection
i tried adding the options i was missing options from the file you listed (RandRRotation / Twinview), but it still wouldn't recognize the resolution.