RFI: Does DVI matter?
Posted on:: September 18th, 2004
I just sold my 22″ CRT and have replaced it with a 17″ Advueu 723A from NewEgg. (NewEgg has become one of my very favorite online stores. Fast, honest, reliable, cheap…and customer reviews.) I want to add a second LCD. The Advueue is so bright that I’m getting glasses-shaped tan lines on my face.I’m wondering whether it’s worth an extra $80 to get an LCD with a DVI interface. Will that actually set fire to my hair? (I’m looking at the Samsung 710T.)
I don’t do a lot of image work, but I do play 3D games. Does the DVI interface really make that much difference?
Categories: Uncategorized dw
Yes, get the DVI, I really have found it to be a lot sharper! Maybe it doesn’t matter for games but for reading text I think it makes a big difference.
You definitely want DVI. When using an LCD with a regular VGA connection, the bits in VRAM in your video hardware are being converted to an analog signal that’s sent to your display and converted back to digital bits before pixels can actually be lit up. If the cabling is perfect and the timing of the A/D conversion hardware in your display is sufficiently precise, that’s not necessarily so bad, but it is an impedance mismatch that can cost you some signal quality.
With DVI, the bits that are in VRAM in your video hardware are what are being sent to the display. No D/A-D/A conversion, no worries about imprecise pixel timing between the display and the video hardware. Just bits. This is such an advantage that I didn’t even know you could still get LCDs with plain VGA connectors.
Oh, and while you’re looking at LCDs, check out Apple’s new line of aluminum Cinema Displays. The 20- and 23-inch models use single-link DVI and will work on either a Mac or PC. And they’re gorgeous.