DVI or VGA

[Uncleadolph]

Ok, first things first, I am writing this on behalf of a friend. He currently doesn't have access to the internet.

He is considering buying a widescreen monitor and wants to know whether DVI will show any huge differences at 1650x1080 (i think that's the resolution) with a 22" widescreen monitor.

In his price range all he can find is VGA monitors, to purchase a DVI one would cost £20 more or so. He wants to know whether the £20 would be worth it as obviously he won't be upgrading monitor for a long time.

He has an 8800GTX so is able to run things pretty much at max.

I also read that using VGA from a card like an 8800GTX can increase the time it takes for the image to get the monitor as it needs to convert from digital to analogue and that some of the quality can be lost in this conversion.

Thanks very much.

[=98=]

DVI is best, if you want good quality.

VGA is fine, but obviously isn't quite as good. You just have to decide whether you can put up with slightly worse quality, but with a lower cost.

I personally think VGA was fine, and thus, I didn't get DVI. However, my screen has HDMI which the 9 series cards will likely incorporate. Better quality than VGA i believe.

[iQue]

I have a CRT screen with VGA and the quality is superb, he probably won't notice that much of a difference (at least I don't when I play on bigger DVI screens)

[Corkum]

The reason you don't see any image degradation on your CRT is that the information being transmitted is analog and is being displayed as analog. With an LCD the analog data is being converted to digital and then displayed digitally. Which is why VGA looks worse on an LCD than it does on a CRT. It is also worth mentioning that the DVI interface is capable of higher resolutions and when used to display on an LCD screen can output a 1:1 ratio of pixels from graphics card to monitor. Otherwise there is some stretching involved.

[Uncleadolph]

Hmmm...

So you would suggest I tell him to fork out the extra £20 for the DVI version?

[Vash2051]

Yes and usually those will come with either a spare VGA port or an adapter. Theres no good reason to not go with DVI with an LCD.

[Corkum]

Very much so.

[Uncleadolph]

Ok, thanks very much for your feedback.