Thank you "NOLOVE" and "malak" for you inputs
It does seem most video card manufacturers are leaning toward the DVI and the LCD monitors so the quality of vga is probably going to suffer. I would consider going to LCD if I could find one which isn't too contrasty. I've been told by multiple video editors that any adjustments made on a LCD monitor in regards to brightness, contrast or sharpness will most likely not look good on CRT computer monitors or televisions.
I've heard there is a different type of LCD monitor which is lower contrast but it's VERY expensive. I have no idea what they are or who makes them. One thought occurs to me now, maybe the high contrast of the LCD that makes the "fuzziness" less noticable?
As far as Windows Cleartype, no I haven't looked into it. Since my monitors look fine on my older system, I was thinking the fuzzy text was a hardware problem and was hopeful of finding a hardware solution. I don't know how Cleartype works but one of my concerns would be how it would affect my videos or my still photographs. But I will check into it.
At this point I'm thinking there are multiple problems.....
First is the quality of the video card. I expect problems with the lower end cards but most of the high end cards seem to be optimized for gaming and less emphasis is placed on CAD like applications, text or movie editors.
Secondly, most new cards are now leaning towards DVI and LCD's. Hopfully there wouldn't be any quality loss when converting to VGA but it seems there is. The only exception to this that I have found is the nVidia Quadro cards. The movie editing vendors like the Quadros. That's why I tried one.
The NVS 280 I tried was one of the lowest priced in the group, around $158 at NewEgg. It has a DVI output but comes with a heavy Y adapter to two SVGA ports. Of the cards I tried, it had the sharpest text. The primary monitor looked really good and the secondary monitor was almost acceptable but not quite as sharp. If I don't find any other solutions, I might have to stick with this card.
Thirdly, I'm still thinking electrical interference could be part of the problem. As I mentioned earlier, some ghosting problems have been solved by using triple shielded vga cables. But then again, I didn't personally see the ghosting problems that were solved by better shielding.
High cpu and buss frequencies could cause harmomic frequencies which monitors don't like. But the most likely suspect would be the power supply. If it is under powered in any way, it could easliy set up problematic frequencies. And the prebuilt computer manufacturers are notorious for installing under powered power supplies. From what I've read, even the 350 watt supplies are not necessarily enough because there could be one voltage where the wattage is low.
I don't really have the time to build computers anymore but I also don't have time to waste dealing with the problems I'm having now. So I guess my next step will be to buy my own system and put in a good power supply. If that doesn't work, I'll try a more expensive Quadro or graphics (not gaming) card. If that doesn't work, I'll look for a really good (and expensive) LCD monitor and plan on eating beans for a few weeks
Again, thank you NOLOVE and malak for your comments.
If anyone else has any suggestions, I'd be very grateful !!
Cheers,
Jeff
Facebook
Twitter