Does DVI cable make any difference?

AirForceElite

Senior member
Nov 8, 2004
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hey guys.

i have 9800 pro right now.
and 21 inch widescreen LG monitor

i only have VGA cable right now hooker between gfx and monitor.

if i get DVI cable, will it make any noticeable difference?
Cause at BestBuy in Canada, it costs like $49.99 for the digital cable.

So would it make any difference?

And 2nd question, assume that i want to buy that cable, what do i need to loook for?
i tried ebay, but when i searched for DVI, i got a lot of auctions which are not for monitor and computers, but rather HDTV..so what exactly do i need to search?
 

John

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Oct 9, 1999
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DVI Male Digital/DVI Male Digital Dual Link 28AWG Cable - 6FT $6.35

DVI is an all digital signal and each pixel on the screen is rendered individually. DVI allows the display to automatically adjust to screen size so no manual adjustments are required unless you want to tone the brightness or contrast to your liking. I've always found DVI to give a slight improvement over vga, and it's more noticable in high resolutions.
 

John

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Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
I don't know if monoprice ships to canada
http://www.monoprice.com/home/home.asp?pn=support&style=

Sorry, No International Credit Card except Canadian customer.
USPS Air Parcel - Takes 5-7 Business Days plus 1 days processing time, however, when the custom in Canada holds it, it may take longer.
No International shipment except Canada and APO & FPO.

:thumbsup:
 

YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Moderator<br>A/V & Home Theater<br>Elite member
Aug 6, 2001
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Originally posted by: John
Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
I don't know if monoprice ships to canada
http://www.monoprice.com/home/home.asp?pn=support&style=

Sorry, No International Credit Card except Canadian customer.
USPS Air Parcel - Takes 5-7 Business Days plus 1 days processing time, however, when the custom in Canada holds it, it may take longer.
No International shipment except Canada and APO & FPO.

:thumbsup:

:D go for it AirForceElite
 

John

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Oct 9, 1999
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A DVI-D cable fits in a DVI-I slot on your video card. Your DVI-I connector also supports analog via a DVI to VGA adapter.
 

John

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LOL I was going to post that URL but decided not to. :p
 

SkyDiver

Senior member
Aug 3, 2000
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Thanks for that info John. I just got a 19" widescreen LCD today. I asked a staffer at CompUSA if there was a noticeable difference with a true DVI cable instead of an analog cable with converters on both ends. He said there was no difference.

He should have at least known about the auto adjust issue, don't you think?
 

YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Moderator<br>A/V & Home Theater<br>Elite member
Aug 6, 2001
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Originally posted by: SkyDiver
Thanks for that info John. I just got a 19" widescreen LCD today. I asked a staffer at CompUSA if there was a noticeable difference with a true DVI cable instead of an analog cable with converters on both ends. He said there was no difference.

He should have at least known about the auto adjust issue, don't you think?

What do you mean by converters? DVI to VGA and then "VGA to DVI" converters?
 

AirForceElite

Senior member
Nov 8, 2004
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guys i am not stupid, but this still confuses me.
what i understood from that article is:
my video card is DVI-I
my monitor is DVI-D

i wont bother buying cables. too confusing

instead i ll just wait for the Nvidia 7900GS and see if the video card is DVI-D or DVI-I...hopefully 7900GS is DVI-D so it matches my monitor and i will know what cable to buy in case it doensnt have one.
 

John

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Oct 9, 1999
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Most minimum wage workers at the 'tech stores' can't even manage work the time clock to log their hours, yet alone offer up valid advice to customers. At least he didn't try to sell you a $100 Monster DVI cable.
 

YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Moderator<br>A/V & Home Theater<br>Elite member
Aug 6, 2001
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Originally posted by: AirForceElite
guys i am not stupid, but this still confuses me.
what i understood from that article is:
my video card is DVI-I
my monitor is DVI-D

i wont bother buying cables. too confusing

instead i ll just wait for the Nvidia 7900GS and see if the video card is DVI-D or DVI-I...hopefully 7900GS is DVI-D so it matches my monitor and i will know what cable to buy in case it doensnt have one.

If you use a DVI-I cable, you're still just going to be using the DVI-D portion of it.

The reason videocards have DVI-I ends is so that you can use those little adapters to get the analog signal out of them.

A DVI-D cable is the kind you want to use if your monitor has a DVI connection. It will work.
 

John

Moderator Emeritus<br>Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
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Originally posted by: AirForceElite
guys i am not stupid, but this still confuses me.
what i understood from that article is:
my video card is DVI-I
my monitor is DVI-D

i wont bother buying cables. too confusing

instead i ll just wait for the Nvidia 7900GS and see if the video card is DVI-D or DVI-I...hopefully 7900GS is DVI-D so it matches my monitor and i will know what cable to buy in case it doensnt have one.

The 7900GS should be DVI-I as well. There are very few DVI-D outs on video cards. Seriously you will not be able to see a difference so purchase the cable that I linked you to. If you don't believe 'us' then email NVIDIA or your monitor mfg.
 

YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Moderator<br>A/V & Home Theater<br>Elite member
Aug 6, 2001
31,204
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Originally posted by: John
Most minimum wage workers at the 'tech stores' can't even manage work the time clock to log their hours, yet alone offer up valid advice to customers. At least he didn't try to sell you a $100 Monster DVI cable.

John, does it sound like this minimum wage worker was telling him he could use two DVI-I to VGA converters to use a VGA cable to connect between the computer and monitor?

I'm confused about that part still.




AirForceElite, the bottom line is that a DVI-D cable is what you need to connect your videocard to your DVI input on your monitor.