The first time I had this problem was after installing all the updates to Linux Mint Nadia 14 after the final release. I ran just like nvidia x server settings said I must and I got immediate results. I didn't even have to rebbot. But now that the driver isn't being recognized again it's not working.
I ran that same command and rebooted the computer 5 times with no result. Everthing is HUGE.

Here's what my xorg.conf file looks like
My screen resolution should be 1280x1024 by the way, but as you can see there's not even a modeline for whatever reason.
I hope someone out there has a solution to this problem. I have no idea why it worked the first time, but not this time.

http://wiki.ubuntuusers.de/nvidia-settings

here it says
============
Probleme

Auflösung in xorg.conf wird nicht übernommen (GNOME)

Das GNOME-Programm zur Konfiguration der Bildschirme speichert die Monitorkonfiguration in der Datei ~/.config/monitors.xml. nvidia-settings verwendet dagegen die Datei /etc/X11/xorg.conf. Beim Start der grafischen Oberfläche wird zuerst die Bildschirmkonfiguration der xorg.conf aktiviert, anschließend jedoch durch die Konfiguration in der monitors.xml ersetzt. Bei Verwendung von nvidia-settings zur Monitorkonfiguration sollte daher eine bestehende monitors.xml gelöscht und auf den parallelen Einsatz des GNOME-Konfigurationsprogramms Bildschirme verzichtet werden.
============

so, delete ~/.config/monitors.xml
?

Try senaptic and install whatever is current on nvidia for Mint 14; chances are your display is automatically configured and might get right upon reboot. Menu -> Admin -> Synaptec -> (Search 'nvidia' or 'envy') -> Apply -> wait -> done.

I had a similar problem in ubuntu,
what happened was that I needed to reinstall the driver.
What I did was delete the driver.
update the kernel and the headers to the latest ones.
Then installed the nvidia driver via terminal.
i saw that the driver was compiling for a .17 kernel and I had a .18 kernel.
What I did was go back and installed the .17 kernel and headers, then the driver again and all was swell.
Not sure if this will help or not.

I removed the driver nvidia-current and installed nvidia-current-updates because it was described as being the same driver in a different package, and since the other one was acting up I figured 'why not'.
After installing, I ran and rebooted. Everything was the perfect size again. Sooooo I go into Nvidia X-Server Settings and it says I have no idea what that is about, or if I should be concerned. Should I? Keep in mind that before things went wonky this morning, I had never opened that program before and have no way of knowing if it's just a bug specific to it. Is there something else I should do? Or should I just be happy that my sreen resolution is back to what it should be?