DVI to HDMI Adapter Hz Question

[Twisted4000]

So I have an Acer GN246HL monitor and I am looking to buy another monitor, a curved one, to use as my main, and I plan on making this Acer my second monitor. From what I have read, although it can use HDMI, it cannot reach its 144Hz peak with it, only DVI can. However, I'm also getting a new GPU along with the new monitor (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 2060 Super) which does not have any DVI slots, only HDMI and DisplayPort.

My question is, and this is a long shot but I figured I'd ask, if I used a DVI to HDMI connector for this Acer monitor to connect to the GPU, would I get the 144Hz? Or would it just be recognized as HDMI by not only the GPU but also the monitor, limiting it back to 60Hz? Thank you.

 

[trents]

"DVI to HDMI" will have the same limitations as HDMI.

 

[freakdiablo]

Well here's the thing. HDMI *can* carry a 1080p/144hz signal. I even had my XB271HU hooked up via HDMI before I got a longer DP cable and it ran at 1440p/144hz.

But, it needs to be HDMI 2.0 to have the bandwidth. As the GN246HL came out in 2014 (according to Newegg) it may only be HDMI 1.4, and I'm not sure on that - if you're finding reviews saying no, then I'll have to side with them.

As for then changing the HDMI to DVI, I'd be surprised if there are 2060s floating around with HDMI 1.4 ports, they're likely all 2.0. If it comes with an HDMI>DVI adapter you're not going to hurt anything trying, passive adapters are fairly common and cheap as well if you want to grab one seperate.

The reason I'm not giving a hard yes is 1) I've seen some monitors that don't like HDMI over DVI, and I spent a few minutes looking and haven't found any active adapters that do 1080/144 and 2) if the monitor sees HDMI over DVI, it may fall back to HDMI 1.4 clocks/protocols and still be limited to 1080/60.

 

[Twisted4000]

Thank you both for the info so far.

What if I were to just use a DVI to DisplayPort adapter, like the one here? https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-DisplayPort-DVI-Adapter-1920x1200/dp/B0017K6BD2

 

[freakdiablo]

The problem with that is that's just a passive adapter - it'll change the pinouts but most likely won't do much, if anything, to convert the signaling. Being from 2014 and without onboard DP I doubt your Acer has the ability to decode it, regardless of framerate.

For the best chances when going from DP>DVI you'll need an active adapter. I personally have one of these, my secondary monitor is a QNIX that has DVI only and for the most part it works. The problem with that is it not only costs more, but like the active HDMI to DVI adapters, I don't know of any that'll do above 60hz.

 

[Twisted4000]

The problem with that is that's just a passive adapter - it'll change the pinouts but most likely won't do much, if anything, to convert the signaling. Being from 2014 and without onboard DP I doubt your Acer has the ability to decode it, regardless of framerate.

For the best chances when going from DP>DVI you'll need an active adapter. I personally have one of these, my secondary monitor is a QNIX that has DVI only and for the most part it works. The problem with that is it not only costs more, but like the active HDMI to DVI adapters, I don't know of any that'll do above 60hz.

Alright thanks, I wasn't looking to pay that much, but I will see what happens... I think I'll try out the DisplayPort passive adapter and just witness what happens, as either way I don't have a way to connect the Acer to the 2060 at the moment. When it comes in, I'll post back what Hz rate I'm able to run the monitor at, fingers crossed.

 

[freakdiablo]

Yeah can't hurt to try it, good luck.

 

[Twisted4000]

Great news! I found an active adapter for $36 (Dell Bizlink) and I'm getting 1080p @ 144Hz with the Acer Monitor, DVI to DisplayPort!

Thank you all for your help!

 

[trents]

Thanks for the update. All's well that ends well.

 

[freakdiablo]

Good to hear you've got it working. (where'd you get it for $36, anyway?)

 

[Twisted4000]

Good to hear you've got it working. (where'd you get it for $36, anyway?)

There's quite a few people selling them new on eBay, that's where I got mine. On other sites they're allover the place, on Amazon they go for $75.

So there's one thing that's a little weird, and this is some of the most bizarre behavior I've ever witnessed and I don't understand it... so when I'm putting a video on Hulu on this monitor I'm using the adapter for, and when it's set to 144Hz, it starts flickering with a white noise, and slowly gets worse and worse over a few seconds. When I change the resolution or hertz rate of the monitor, the problem goes away. Even afterward when I set it back to 144Hz, the problem remains to be gone. However, when I click on a new video and it loads up, the problem comes back. Again, this only happens when I have it set to 144Hz. When set to 120Hz I don't have this problem.

It's minor, as it is fixable, but it's slightly annoying to keep changing the resolution back and forth in-between each video if I want to keep the monitor set to 144Hz. I just absolutely don't understand what is going on. This doesn't happen to any other video/program I've tried so far, just Hulu, both with Firefox and Chrome. Any ideas? Thanks.

 

[freakdiablo]

HDCP glitch maybe? I know the DP>DVI adapter I have isn't HDCP compatible, so whenever I put on a HDCP-encoded stream that monitor goes static-y. Sadly though I don't know of a work-around, sorry.

 

[Twisted4000]

HDCP glitch maybe? I know the DP>DVI adapter I have isn't HDCP compatible, so whenever I put on a HDCP-encoded stream that monitor goes static-y. Sadly though I don't know of a work-around, sorry.

Sounds about right... I'll try to figure something out, thanks. Again, it's weird, when I'm at 120Hz, I don't have the static problem, it's just 144Hz, lol