Vga vs DVI vs HDMI

[Srinivas Bharadwaj]

hey guys as the title says i wanted to know the difference in the three. by difference i mean the real world difference of the visuals on the screen. if u guys could post some screenshots showing the the difference between the three it would be great. i see many articles saying that the quality is better. im using a vga and i see pretty good colors and im unable to understand how a dvi or hdmi would look like. thanks in advance

 

[mauller07]

dvi and hdmi will not be subject to noise or the quality of the DAC or ADC of the gpu or display so the picture on the screen is the picture the gpu is outputting since the link is entirely digital, you also do not need to mess around with screen scaling.

dvi has the advantage of max output resolution over hdmi using dual link dvi, but hdmi can output sound over the same cable.

display port trumps them all in resolution, sound, ethernet, return channel, multiple displays by daisy chaining monitors.

 

[Srinivas Bharadwaj]

dvi and hdmi will not be subject to noise or the quality of the DAC or ADC of the gpu or display so the picture on the screen is the picture the gpu is outputting since the link is entirely digital, you also do not need to mess around with screen scaling.

dvi has the advantage of max output resolution over hdmi using dual link dvi, but hdmi can output sound over the same cable.

display port trumps them all in resolution, sound, ethernet, return channel, multiple displays by daisy chaining monitors.

Could you post a screenshot or something showing the same? looks pretty cool :O

 

[mauller07]

screenshots will not show connection quality since the image is taken from system memory so does not even go near the display outputs.

you need to just use a connection yourself to see it, pictures wont help since its subjective to each individual monitor and graphics card.

 

[4745454b]

For the most part there won't be a difference. Unless you have some weird interference going on with your VGA cable. The biggest real world difference is if you want to watch encrypted Disks. (think blu rays.) To do so you'll need to support HDCP, which REQUIRES a digital cable. VGA isn't supported. If you are happy with your VGA connection then keep using it. Difference overall is really tiny, and won't show up in pictures.

 

[RetiredChief]

VGA - Max resolution = 2048 x 1536 @ 85. Analog signal threfore can be affected by Noise, This veries widely based on location and quality of Cable. NO audio and does not support HDCP

HDMI/DVI and DisplayPort:
.. All three are Digital so not suspetible to Noise.
.. All three upport HDCP.
... Max resolution:
... HDMI - 2560 x 1600 @ 75 Hz, With Audio. However the qualiy of many of the HDMI cables are only good up to 1920 x 1080. Also Some GPUs may limit Output on HDMI to 1920 x 1080.
... DVI - 2560 x 1600 @ 60 Hz NO Audio
... DisplayPort - 2560 x 1600 * 75 Hz, W/Audio

For up to 1920 x 1080, with quality cables and NO noise would be hard pressed to tell the difference in Picture quality.

For Hig res Monitors (I have 27" 2560 x 1440) and Only the DVI-d and Displayport are recommended. I have 3 devices connected:
computer 1, Display port. Computer two DVI-d Both set to 2560 x 1440) and the 3rd input is connected using HDMI from a Stand-a-lone DVD recorder w/cable TV input.
Absolutely no diff between computers for DVI vs Displayport. HDMI is limited to 1920 x 1080 by the DVD recorder.

Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_connectors