2x DVI or 1x DVI & 1x analog for dual LCD's

[SomaGaze]

just ordered a L90d+ today and most likely will order a 2nd pending my impression of the first. now comes the question: 2 dvi's or one of each? the easier route would be to go with one of each, and use the analog for my secondary monitor. vid cards are much cheaper and i have a much larger selection to choose from.

the only 2 cards that i would get that have 2x dvi are: (searched from newegg)

eVGA 6800 ultra
XFX 6600GT

where as i could get almost any other card with one of each. which would help me getting ATI, since i already have a waterblock for an ATI in my loop (on my 9800pro).

as far as IQ is concerned: will i notice a big enough difference between DVI and analog to warrent one of the nVidia cards listed above? or do you think a x800 pro with 1 of each would do the job?

thanks

[ajrettke]

in gaming you'll notice a difference but for everything else it's not that critical to have DVI. So just make the DVI your primary and the one you game on and you'd be fine.

[SomaGaze]

ok, thanks. that opens a lot more options up for upgrading my 9800pro...

[CPFitz14]

Yeah, but if you have two of the EXACT same monitors right next to eachother, you might be able to pick up the subtle differences. If it were me, i'd go dual dvi. It would bother me in the back of my mind, and I'd always be comparing the two. But if you don't have obsessive compulsive disorder... one and one could be the way to go.

-CPFitz-

[Pinky]

Aparently VGA has come a long way, and at 19" 1280x1024 and smaller resolutions there's really not a big (if any discernable) difference between VGA and DVI. I'll be able to tell you with 100% certainly as I also have a L90D+ coming and because my existing 21.3 really needs DVI at 1600x1200, I'm planning on running the L90D+ on the VGA.

[larva]

I've backed-to-backed it, and I simply cannot stand how much poorer LCDs look when driven from the VGA rather than DVI. Nearly all of LCD users fall into two categories--those that don't know enough about what they are looking at to see the difference, and those that aren't looking too hard for the difference because they settled for VGA (for other reasons, reasons that are now driving the cognitive boat). The more you learn about what you are looking at, the less acceptable LCD via VGA becomes.

[Pinky]

I've backed-to-backed it, and I simply cannot stand how much poorer LCDs look when driven from the VGA rather than DVI. Nearly all of LCD users fall into two categories--those that don't know enough about what they are looking at to see the difference, and those that aren't looking too hard for the difference because they settled for VGA (for other reasons, reasons that are now driving the cognitive boat). The more you learn about what you are looking at, the less acceptable LCD via VGA becomes.

We never finsihed this from another thread (or maybe you never saw my response). There's a lot of evidence on the net to the contrary, but you still continue to share your opinion like it's gospel. Yes the numbers would indicate that this should be true, but we're dealing with a fraction of difference and not enough at lower resolutions to warrant such a generalization.

Care to back this statement with some facts please? It does depend somewhat on the actual LCD monitor (some perform poorly as VGA because of a manufacturing issue, not the VGA standard), and seems even more so on the user. I'm sure there's a psychology behind having a need for it to look better.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=vga+versus+dvi

Example result:

http://forums.devhardware.com/archive/t-14709/VGA-vs-DVI-on-LCD-monitors

[SomaGaze]

thanks for the comment guys. its gonna be easier to just go with one DVI and one analog in the long run. it would be a pain to buy a new waterblock for nVidia, and it would be a waste to let my ATI block dangle with a nVidia card in there. i'll be sure to make the DVI primary and have all no IQ dependent items on the VGA

[Thrawn42]

If I didn't have a 6800 ultra that's probably what I would have ended up doing.
As it is I disable one monitor when I go to game just to speed things up.