Video card with DVI?

[John Richards]

Have to buy a new AGP card for a M/B & CPU upgrade. I'm currently using a
15" CRT and don't play games so I'm sure a very basic card would be
adequate. Though I don't know a lot about LCD monitors, I might want to get
one in the future but most of the LCD monitors I have seen don't seem to be
real clear. I have used a laptop with a TFT (active matrix) display that I
thought was very clear so I'm thinking that a TFT LCD monitor with a DVI
connector might be the thing to get. My current dilemma is whether to look
for a graphics card with a DVI connector (probably a little more expensive)
or just get a cheap AGP card with only a VGA connector.

 

[Guest]

John,

I just went through this. My computer has a AGP 4x slot on the motherboard,
and the older NVidia GeForce card only had an analog connector (for CRTs).
Given that I wanted to upgrade from a 19" NEC CRT to a 20" Dell LCD, I
learned the following:

1) My old analog connector would have worked with the LCD display, but
wouldn't have been optimal for it,
2) Digital monitor connectors come in 3 flavors: DVI-A (analog), DVI-D
(digital), and DVI-I (works with all DVI connectors).
3) Dell's LCD display has a DVI-D connection, so DVI-D or DVI-I would be
great.
4) The best video cards seem to have 256M of video RAM, but I didn't
have to be state-of-the-art, and wasn't ready to pay several hundred $
for the priv.
5) NVidia has older card (FX5900) with a quadruple the video RAM that I
had (128M vs. 32M), and at under $200 (when you can find it), was a
reasonable upgrade.
6) This NVidia card is an AGP 8x, but is backwards compatible with an
AGP 4x slot. But it will be running at peak capacity.
7) The card is power-hungry, and needs a spare internal power connector.
8) The card also runs hot, so it needs empty space nearby.

Bought the video card in Nov, ordered & received the monitor last night. So
far, GREAT. Screen has been boosted from 1280x1024 to 1600x1200. For
standard apps, it is great. This weekend, I put it through its paces with
the games.