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to DVI or not?

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morinfen

Registered
Joined
Feb 20, 2012
so, i got this monitor that comes with a DVI and VGA input. it didn't come with a DVI cable(is it the standard?). so... is it worth the hassle to go to the city and buy a DVI cable? it's fairly ok now, using VGA.
 
DVI will support setting of higher resolutions than VGA. That's the only real difference.
 
i use it at 1600x900(that's its max resolution) using the supplied VGA cable. i'm not satisfied with some fringing on the text as i see it now. reducing the text size(browser) somewhat makes it clearer though.
 
Don't buy cables at stores they are way over priced. Get them from Amazon or somewhere online. I recently got a cable from Amazon by Bluerigger that is really solid. I would recommend their cables.
 
@juane, the question though is whether i'm going to get an improvement or not. if i will just get a slight improvement using digital instead of analog, i think i will just use my current setup.
 
@juane, the question though is whether i'm going to get an improvement or not. if i will just get a slight improvement using digital instead of analog, i think i will just use my current setup.

That depends on the monitor and the computer that you have. I just got a new monitor recently that has a vgi and a dvi port. My laptop only has vga and hdmi, so initially I was connecting my laptop to the external monitor with a vga cable. I got a lot of interference with the vga connection on my laptop. My laptop's vga port doesn't have the holes for the screw pins which I think help to ground the cable. Without being able to screw in the cable to my laptop I was getting these weird waves going up and down my screen. When I connected the monitor to my desktop using vga it was crystal clear. I ended up getting an hdmi to dvi cable from bluerigger and now the monitor looks great connected to my laptop. In my case, the dvi cable made a big difference in image quality when connected to my laptop. The vga connection looks good with my desktop, but even though I have both PCs set to 1080p the monitor looks better when connected to my laptop.

Anyway... that's my recent experience with vga and dvi. I personally think it's worth it. Digital connections always look better to me than analog connections. Not everyone thinks the difference is that big of a deal though.
 
Personally I noticed a huge difference going from VGA to DVI with my cheapo acer monitor. With vga it was fuzzy almost blurry, with dvi it is crystal clear.

Monoprice = good cheap cables
 
i was kind of looking for a closeup shot of the screen at the same resolutions comparing DVI and VGA but found none... i'll post a macro shot tomorrow.
 
how overpriced is overpriced? i'll be getting it for about 8USD for a 1.5m 24+1 cable.
 
seems like a good price, but compare the final price (add shipping) it to another suggested store. also compare it to something just a little bit longer, just in case you need it in the future. when i bought some cables a couple years ago, sometimes I would even see longer ones for cheaper...supply and demand i guess
 
so... here's the direct comparison between DVI and VGA


a0hwco.png.jpg ncfa4x.png.jpg


can you guess which one is digital and which one is analog? i couldn't. the DVI is just a teeny bit sharp compared to VGA but it could be the autofocus of my camera. too lazy to take the DSLR out of the box. i also just took a limited amount (three) of pictures to get this over with.

the fist picture is the one taken using VGA. here's another view.


jb4a5v.png.jpg

i found out that DVI is still better than VGA because i get interference which is visible when the display is about 80% black. using DVI gets rid of the interference 100%.

total spent: $7US
 
VGA can pick up interference (I get to deal with this with my docking station at my other house for my laptop). VGA also blurs text a little bit at 1080p on my monitors. It's nothing bad, and i probably wouldn't notice if i hadn't run one VGA and one DVI next to each other for a few days, but there difference is there.
 
In general, I think it depends on your display adapter and the monitor. I have tested both on a range of monitors...and have seen significant differences.

And for cables, monoprice.com is the king. I just bought two high-quality 10 foot DVI-D cables there for less than 15 beans.
 
it could be that buying a better VGA cable might have solved my problems since 1600x900 is not that high.
 
Make sure you get a single-link DVI cable if that's what your monitor has....I found out the hard way. I bought 3 DVI cables for $25 online and turns out they are dual-link and i'm unable to use them
Nevermind...Didn't read every post and didn't think you had gotten it yet :D :p
 
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