DVI & VGA-What's better?

[sgilewicz]

I have a DVI capable LCD Monitor and a 6800GT with a DVI port. I am currently just using the VGA ports but would like to know what the advantages/disadvantages are using DVI (especially with regards to gaming). Any thoughts? Thanks.

[B16Enk]

Disadvantage: Cost of the lead.
Advantage: Improved signal quality giving rise to improved image fidelity.

Speed, negligble.
Advantage gaming wise, you can see bogeys better http://forums.ubi.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

[BelaLvgosi]

digital output>digital display is always better than digital output>DAC(on card)>ADC(on monitor)>digital display because there are losses in both conversion processes. Probably you'll only find some difference in colour contrast in the end.
You should only need a standard DVI-I cable, it's not that expensive.

[sgilewicz]

So if I understand you folks correctly, I should expect to get some improvement in detail and no fps increase. Will the additional detail put increased load on the GPU or is this just performance that is already provided, but lost in the conversion process? Thanks for the replies.

[GT182]

Get a DVI cord and at the very least an DVI adaptor. You'll be glad you did. Quality is so much better with the digital input.

Actually, there are no disadvantages with the DVI.... only improvenents. http://forums.ubi.com/images/smilies/16x16_smiley-wink.gif

[sgilewicz]

Gettin' some pizza and then heading over to Radio Shack tonight http://forums.ubi.com/images/smilies/16x16_smiley-happy.gif. Thanks everyone!

[workky]

when i run DVI on my monitor,i only get 60fps max,When i run analog,i get as high as i can set my refresh rate

[JunkoIfurita]

Workky, you should start a new thread rather than hijacking anothers, but I'll help you out.

You have VSync enabled - VSync means that the frame rate of the 3D application is locked to refresh rate of your monitor. The reason for this is that you can get horizontal 'tearing' in the textures if the frame rate and monitor frequency get too far apart.

I'm assuming you're using an LCD monitor here (as 60Hz is default for LCD), but the same rules apply to CRTs.

So here's what you do. Go into your NVidia or ATI control panel (with no more information from you I can't be more specific than that).

If it's your NVidia control panel go to 'Performance and Quality settings', select the application profile for the game (either 'IL2: Forgotten Battles' or 'Pacific Fighters' depending on whether you're running merged or standalone), and check the 'show advanced settings' check box.

Now scroll down the list of settings and look for VSync - select it (so it's tick box is checked), and change the setting to 'off' or 'forced off'.

Now your frame rate will be whatever your card shows. However, you're probably going to get tearing in some applications - so I wouldn't reccomend turning VSync off unless you really need to.

It's the minimum frame rate that should worry you anyway, not the maximum. If you're normally getting 100fps and VSync locks you to 60, this doesn't mean your minimum frame rate is going to drop. And I challenge you to notice the difference between 60 and 100 frames-per-second. The eye doesn't start noticing stutter until the minimum frame rate falls below 30 (the frame rate of a modern analog television).

Cheers,
Junko 'Ifurita' Kimura

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