[driven]

Folks,

I'm in the market for an LCD for my desktop PC. I found a good deal on a unit which has a fantastic display, BUT there is only one interface and it's analog.

How much am I loosing with the analog only input? I've seen other monitors with the DVI plug, but they are about $300-$500 more than this deal that I found.

Has anyone done a side-by-side between an analog or digital interface?

(This isn't for my Apple ... I have a 17" Studio Display with ADC on there and am THRILLED with it.)

Thanks in advance.

[dadder]

Try looking at the Formac 2010 display.
www.formac.com
It's awesome and well priced. Haven't seen one in person, but the side-by-side on their website with the Apple Cinema Display blows it away tech-wise and price. It is for Mac or PC, dual connectors.

[driven]

Originally posted by dadder:
Try looking at the Formac 2010 display.
www.formac.com
It's awesome and well priced. Haven't seen one in person, but the side-by-side on their website with the Apple Cinema Display blows it away tech-wise and price. It is for Mac or PC, dual connectors.

But that is $899 ... the one I found is $450.

I'm just wondering how much the analog connection hurts things.

[motti]

Originally posted by driven:


But that is $899 ... the one I found is $450.

I'm just wondering how much the analog connection hurts things.

I'm wondering the same, because I've found a 19" LCD with integrated tv tuner and it looks great (sure, not as great as Apple's), but it's only analog and costs less than the 17" Apple LCD.

[rm199]

if your graphics card has good ramdacs ie matrox analog is equal to digital except that you need to do some initial setup.

the formac 2010 is nice, i much preferred its image quality to the cinema displays

RM

[driven]

Originally posted by rm199:
if your graphics card has good ramdacs ie matrox analog is equal to digital except that you need to do some initial setup.

the formac 2010 is nice, i much preferred its image quality to the cinema displays

RM

So, for example if I had a GeForce 4 Ti or an ATI Radeon 8500 (or later) I wouldn't see a difference between analog and digital, assuming all other things are equal?

I appreciate your feedback.

[CatOne]

Originally posted by driven:
Folks,

I'm in the market for an LCD for my desktop PC. I found a good deal on a unit which has a fantastic display, BUT there is only one interface and it's analog.

How much am I loosing with the analog only input? I've seen other monitors with the DVI plug, but they are about $300-$500 more than this deal that I found.

Has anyone done a side-by-side between an analog or digital interface?

(This isn't for my Apple ... I have a 17" Studio Display with ADC on there and am THRILLED with it.)

Thanks in advance.

There's a pretty significant difference... text is LOTS clearer with DVI (digital) than with analog. I ran my monitor on analog while I got a DVI cable (it didn't come with one and it took me about a week to get one) and it was MUCH nicer once I got the digital. The conversion from digital to analog and then back from analog to digital does have some effects, and guaranteed you will notice -- it's just whether you care about blurrier text. I'd say the text on an LCD running analog is about as clear as the text on a CRT.

[driven]

Originally posted by CatOne:


There's a pretty significant difference... text is LOTS clearer with DVI (digital) than with analog. I ran my monitor on analog while I got a DVI cable (it didn't come with one and it took me about a week to get one) and it was MUCH nicer once I got the digital. The conversion from digital to analog and then back from analog to digital does have some effects, and guaranteed you will notice -- it's just whether you care about blurrier text. I'd say the text on an LCD running analog is about as clear as the text on a CRT.

Thank you. I care alot about blurry text. (The 17" Studio Display that I slapped on my G4 is the best thing that I ever got for my eyes!)

I guess I'll wait until the DVI equipped monitors come down in price.

Thanks again.

[rm199]

as i said if you have good ramdacs you will not see a difference between dvi and analog. geforce is not a good example they use poor ramdacs (compared to workstation cards ie matrox or the 8500/9700 radeons).

if you have dvi support use it! but if not it doesnt mean your doomed.

if you push a ramdac too close to its limits everything including text will suffer.

RM

[driven]

Originally posted by rm199:
as i said if you have good ramdacs you will not see a difference between dvi and analog. geforce is not a good example they use poor ramdacs (compared to workstation cards ie matrox or the 8500/9700 radeons).

if you have dvi support use it! but if not it doesnt mean your doomed.

if you push a ramdac too close to its limits everything including text will suffer.

RM

What cards have good ramdacs?
I thought that the nVidia's would have them since they are top-tier. I apparently would have been wrong.

How about ATI?

[rm199]

have a look at what they say on tomshardware, but unless the latest generation of geforce is radically different nvidia have never bothered with 2d image quality as a major priority. Yes ATI have a good name for this as do matrox (which isnt any use to you). The reality is that if the card handles very high res at high refresh rates the ramdac will be very stable at a more reasonable resolution.

As the others have said, dvi elimates all this worry in most cases so it is worth springing for, i just wanted to defend analog a little because with the right card it can be tack sharp at even 1920x1440

RM

[driven]

Originally posted by rm199:
have a look at what they say on tomshardware, but unless the latest generation of geforce is radically different nvidia have never bothered with 2d image quality as a major priority. Yes ATI have a good name for this as do matrox (which isnt any use to you). The reality is that if the card handles very high res at high refresh rates the ramdac will be very stable at a more reasonable resolution.

As the others have said, dvi elimates all this worry in most cases so it is worth springing for, i just wanted to defend analog a little because with the right card it can be tack sharp at even 1920x1440

RM

And I do appreciate your feedback and especially your breaking down what the actual thing is that makes the difference.

Take care.