That’s one of those "It Depends" answers. It all "depends" on what you are looking for. Are you looking for the best input signal to your monitor, or will just any ol’ signal do? If you are looking for the best signal only DVI will do. Of course you have to have a video card and monitor that is capable of DVI. If you think about it a computer is digital. Why have the part of the computer that you look at be analog? That being the CRT monitor. IMHO the computer starts as digital and it should stay that way all the way to the monitor. Granted technology has always dictated the old analog monitor, but today we have LCD with DVI input that allows the monitor to stay digital just like the source. To me it has never made any sense for the medium to be digital and the display be analog. Whenever you have to "convert" a signal from digital to analog it degrades somewhat. That is exactly what your video card and CRT do. You mentioned that you are currently staying with your CRT. If you have no plans to change your CRT to LCD then the decision becomes easy. Does your CRT even have a DVI input? I doubt it. Speaking solely for Dell’s 2001FP I can tell you the monitor has much better performance with a DVI connection. When I first got my 2001FP I connected it analog just to see the difference between the 15 pin d-sub VGA connection and DVI. The analog VGA is OK, but the DVI connection is stunning. The DVI connection is sharper with better color and focus. Not to mention that the 2001FP uses about 85% less space! BTW I made sure my DVI to VGA comparison was apples to apples. I compared both connections at 1600 x 1200 x 32 with an ATI Radeon 9700 PRO video card. So, the VGA vs DVI connection isn’t solely about gaming. It’s also about the quality of the signal. Hardcore gamers will tell you the CRT still rules. In absolute raw numbers they are correct. However, I see no reason to have your FPS be 100 when the human eye can only see 26 to 30 fps. For example a big screen movie is 26 fps. With gaming I’ve found that I’ll take a steady 30 fps any day over one that fluctuates between 18 fps and 150 fps. Your mileage may vary!
In closing it is becoming more and more a digital world! You might as well give in and go DVI to LCD. Or, risk having the same stigma as an 8 track tape player in your home theater! Just my .02!
Message Edited by Joe Average on 02-18-2004 07:22 AM
@Neil999 wrote:
I would recommend DVI if you get an LCD monitor. Small text, in particular, is much sharper.
Small text is sharper _but_ it is also hard to read. :O)
And Joe Average wrote a lot of good stuff ...
I fully intend to get an LCD monitor when I find a good price. I have an NEC-Mitsubishi 17" w/DVI but it's not on this machine. Unfortunately, they only had one in stock when I bought on (an expiring) sale.
I was hoping to buy this machine from Dell with a free upgrade to an LCD but their offer when I bought was the double memory/disk offer and I'm happy with that.
So it's watch the electronics discount store weekly ads to try for another good buy. Thought I had one this week but the color wasn't good enough on the lowest priced semi-name brand item. Next week, more ads - gotta see the item in person before I buy.
I just made the switch myself to DVI after getting my LCD monitor. I can clearly see an improvement in color purity, accuracy and sharpness of the text.
For those who haven't done so, if you are running Windows XP,and have an LCD monitor, make sure you are running ClearType feature of Windows XP, it takes advantage of the LCD's subpixels to do font smoothing and makes a HUGE difference to the legibility of the text. http://www.microsoft.com/typography/cleartype/tuner/1.htm?fname=%20&fsize=
Joe Average
179 Posts
0
February 18th, 2004 10:00
That’s one of those "It Depends" answers. It all "depends" on what you are looking for. Are you looking for the best input signal to your monitor, or will just any ol’ signal do? If you are looking for the best signal only DVI will do. Of course you have to have a video card and monitor that is capable of DVI. If you think about it a computer is digital. Why have the part of the computer that you look at be analog? That being the CRT monitor. IMHO the computer starts as digital and it should stay that way all the way to the monitor. Granted technology has always dictated the old analog monitor, but today we have LCD with DVI input that allows the monitor to stay digital just like the source. To me it has never made any sense for the medium to be digital and the display be analog. Whenever you have to "convert" a signal from digital to analog it degrades somewhat. That is exactly what your video card and CRT do. You mentioned that you are currently staying with your CRT. If you have no plans to change your CRT to LCD then the decision becomes easy. Does your CRT even have a DVI input? I doubt it. Speaking solely for Dell’s 2001FP I can tell you the monitor has much better performance with a DVI connection. When I first got my 2001FP I connected it analog just to see the difference between the 15 pin d-sub VGA connection and DVI. The analog VGA is OK, but the DVI connection is stunning. The DVI connection is sharper with better color and focus. Not to mention that the 2001FP uses about 85% less space! BTW I made sure my DVI to VGA comparison was apples to apples. I compared both connections at 1600 x 1200 x 32 with an ATI Radeon 9700 PRO video card. So, the VGA vs DVI connection isn’t solely about gaming. It’s also about the quality of the signal. Hardcore gamers will tell you the CRT still rules. In absolute raw numbers they are correct. However, I see no reason to have your FPS be 100 when the human eye can only see 26 to 30 fps. For example a big screen movie is 26 fps. With gaming I’ve found that I’ll take a steady 30 fps any day over one that fluctuates between 18 fps and 150 fps. Your mileage may vary!
In closing it is becoming more and more a digital world! You might as well give in and go DVI to LCD. Or, risk having the same stigma as an 8 track tape player in your home theater! Just my .02!
Message Edited by Joe Average on 02-18-2004 07:22 AM
njr999
83 Posts
0
February 18th, 2004 13:00
Frobisher
52 Posts
0
February 20th, 2004 17:00
warpdrive
22 Posts
0
February 22nd, 2004 12:00
I just made the switch myself to DVI after getting my LCD monitor. I can clearly see an improvement in color purity, accuracy and sharpness of the text.
For those who haven't done so, if you are running Windows XP,and have an LCD monitor, make sure you are running ClearType feature of Windows XP, it takes advantage of the LCD's subpixels to do font smoothing and makes a HUGE difference to the legibility of the text. http://www.microsoft.com/typography/cleartype/tuner/1.htm?fname=%20&fsize=