Monitor cable setup

[Jack Letts]

Hi everyone, I have just built my first PC and I am a bit lost as to which cables to use the connect the monitor. I understand HDMI DVI and VGA but I want to know what is the best setup to use? My monitor only has a HDMI and a VGA connection. My graphics card has all three and my motherboard has all three. So my question is what is the best setup to use? Do I connect HDMI and VGA from my monitor to the graphics card or to the motherboard? or one to graphics card and one to motherboard?
Thanks in advance!

 

[EaglePerception]

Congratulations on your first home built PC! It's an awesome feeling when you get it all together and turn it on and it actually works! It can be frustrating when it doesn't but that's not that point. So you're asking what kind of connection would you prefer to use? Well let me first ask what kind of cables do you have lying around, if it's an option to not spend money at all, and you have one of the cables you mentioned lying around I would use one of those. As for where you connect your cables you run a cable from your monitor to your graphics card. I assume you have an intel processor, and one thing intel processors have is integrated graphics. Those video ports on your motherboard are for the processor, since you have a gpu, you have no need to use those. I hope anything I have said can be of any help!

 

[Jack Letts]

Congratulations on your first home built PC! It's an awesome feeling when you get it all together and turn it on and it actually works! It can be frustrating when it doesn't but that's not that point. So you're asking what kind of connection would you prefer to use? Well let me first ask what kind of cables do you have lying around, if it's an option to not spend money at all, and you have one of the cables you mentioned lying around I would use one of those. As for where you connect your cables you run a cable from your monitor to your graphics card. I assume you have an intel processor, and one thing intel processors have is integrated graphics. Those video ports on your motherboard are for the processor, since you have a gpu, you have no need to use those. I hope anything I have said can be of any help!

Hey, thanks for the speedy reply!
Yes I do have an Intel processor. I have a HDMI cable and a VGA both lying around which are the two possible cables that I can connect to my monitor. So should I connect both of these from the graphics card to the monitor? or is it better to just use one of them?

 

[k1114]

Only one gets used and you want to stick with a digital connection. It makes no sense why vga is still even around.

 

[EaglePerception]

I assume you only have one monitor, and forgive me if I am wrong, you will only need to connect one cable from the Monitor to the Graphics card. I will give you an idea of which cable you should choose in each possible scenario. If your monitor has speakers and you plan on using those as your main source of sound use the HDMI cable as it can carry both visual and audio signals through the cable. The VGA however, does not carry audio signals through it, and if you don't have a secondary source for sound, being speakers or a headset or whatever that source of sound may be, then you won't be able to hear anything.
Another piece of information to keep in mind is that each type of cable has their limitations, HDMI cables, as of right now until HDMI 2.0 or whatever comes out, is limited on how well it can present 4k video. It is currently capped out at 30fps, and if you intend on using a 4k resolution on your monitor then this might be an issue, if not then this is cable that I would pick over the two.
The VGA cable, depending on when it was manufactured, can be limited as well, VGA was created and manufactured in a time of analog signals. Therefor it transmits an analog signal over the cable to your monitor, and because of this it can produce less than desirable results when it comes to the crisp look of the video displayed on the monitor. It's similar to how TVs work, sure you can get a digital to analog converter for your TV, but the picture will never look as good as it does when it can be digitally displayed on your TV.

Once again I hope I can be of help!

 

[unksol]

HDMI to the GPU. No wall of text required.

 

[Jack Letts]

Thank you everyone for the answers

 

[k1114]

Hdmi 2.0 is not limited to 30 fps. One of the main points of 2.0 was to raise it to 60. 1.4 was limited to 30. Analog is no noticeable difference in many modern pcs even with the conversion people always want to state.

 

[EaglePerception]

Hdmi 2.0 is not limited to 30 fps. One of the main points of 2.0 was to raise it to 60. 1.4 was limited to 30. Analog is no noticeable difference in many modern pcs even with the conversion people always want to state.

Hi K1114, I apologize if I was unclear, but when I said HDMI was limited to 30fps I was referring to 1.4, not 2.0, my words did get a bit choppy their and I apologize for that. As for VGA's conversion it doesn't make that big of a difference in most cases. However, in my experience when you bring the resolution to 1920 x 1080 you can tell slightly that their is some interference in the output of the imagery. It's nothing significant no, but I wouldn't recommend using obsolete technology anyway.

 

[k1114]

Hdmi 2.0 has had devices released for over a year now. The 900 series along with plenty of tvs/monitors. One person's vga experience can't be used as a blanket statement. The fact that it doesn't happen to some is proof enough that "it will never look as good" is false. I do suggest digital but like to keep the misinformation to a minimum if possible.