Drop in quality when using a DP->VGA adapter ?

[guiniol]

Hello all!

A friend just gave me an old monitor. It only has a VGA input, but I don't have any spare VGA outputs on the computer, so I need to use an adapter.

EDIT: I'm talking about passive adapters

Here are my options:
- DVI-D to VGA: not supposed to be possible even though lots of adapter are sold. Why are there no DVI-I ports on the latest cards? Can someone confirm DVI-D to VGA doesn't work?
- HDMI to VGA: I don't know if this works, but I think not.
- DisplayPort to VGA: works. Are there cases where it doesn't work? Do I need to check anything?

So my question is, if I use a DP->VGA adapter, will I see a difference in quality? More latency? I'm asking because the only DP output I have is on my discrete GPU which will be used for gaming.

Cheers,

--
guiniol

 

[kanewolf]

Any of those conversions can work. They are all ACTIVE devices because you have to convert from digital to analog.
Will you see a loss in quality, probably. You are doing extra conversions so you lose quality. More latency, probably because you have to have an active conversion step.

 

[guiniol]

Any of those conversions can work. They are all ACTIVE devices because you have to convert from digital to analog.
Will you see a loss in quality, probably. You are doing extra conversions so you lose quality. More latency, probably because you have to have an active conversion step.

It wasn't clear from my post, but I was talking about passive adapters. I know I have a mini-DP to VGA adapter that's just a small dongle and cost about 2$ (so I figure it's passive). I'll edit my post to reflect that.

 

[kanewolf]

I don't think passive adapters will work for VGA. It is an analog signal and display port is digital. You would have to have an active converter for any of the types you mentioned converting to VGA.

 

[guiniol]

I don't think passive adapters will work for VGA. It is an analog signal and display port is digital. You would have to have an active converter for any of the types you mentioned converting to VGA.

It seems you're right: Analog VGA and dual-link DVI require powered active adapters to convert the protocol and signal levels and do not rely on Dual-Mode. VGA adapters are powered by the DisplayPort connector, while dual-link DVI adapters may rely on an external power source (see Dual-mode). [Wikipedia]
However, since for VGA the adapter is powered by the DP port, it allows small self-contained dongles like this one: http://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-Mini-DisplayPort-Thunderbolt-Adapter/dp/B00NH13I08/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1456303919&sr=8-7&keywords=vga+dp

Thanks for the info. I guess my question becomes: Is anyone doing this, and at 1080p, will I see the difference?