falcon409
May 4th, 2013, 08:11
Well, I've had my fill of video cards for this week, lol, so I thought I would impart some knowledge learned from my experience and see what others have run into:
First thing I learned was that if the box simply says DVI connections, look closer to see exactly what kind of "DVI" connections it has. If your Monitor is not "Digital Compliant" then when you get home and open the box to find that you actually have one DVI-I and one DVI-D connection. . .too bad. The DVI-D connection is "digital" and in order to convert the digital signal to analog(VGA) it requires a converter that can run you more than most mid-range cards. . .hardly worth the trouble.
Another thing I found out just from reading a lot of info online this past week is that eventually VGA will go away and cards (and Monitors) will be all digital. Probably a necessary transition considering the strides in computer technology and gaming in particular, but that also means that those really nice wide screen monitors you just bought that won't accept digital input. . . .mmmmm, yea. So if you plan to build or purchase in the future. . .keep that in mind.
Finally, I had purchased an NVidia GTX650 card to replace the 630 I bought just weeks ago, the 630 had one VGA output and one DVI-I output (converts easily using the adapter that comes with the card). The 650 however had one DVI-I and one DVI-D (no VGA) and therein was the problem. On a two monitor setup I could only use one monitor. . .or pay an additional $150-$185 for the converter (the card only cost $147). I have never seen this posted on the forums here in the past, so my guess is I've led a very sheltered life, as it seems either no one has run into this problem with their cards or they knew all this stuff a long time ago. . .unlike me, lol.
I took the 650 back to Fry's this morning and there was not one card produced by NVidia that had what I needed and so I went (reluctantly) with the Radeon HD7770, which, by the reviews I could find is slightly better than the 650 and has the VGA setup I need to get both monitors up and running.
And that's all I've got for now, lol!!:salute:
First thing I learned was that if the box simply says DVI connections, look closer to see exactly what kind of "DVI" connections it has. If your Monitor is not "Digital Compliant" then when you get home and open the box to find that you actually have one DVI-I and one DVI-D connection. . .too bad. The DVI-D connection is "digital" and in order to convert the digital signal to analog(VGA) it requires a converter that can run you more than most mid-range cards. . .hardly worth the trouble.
Another thing I found out just from reading a lot of info online this past week is that eventually VGA will go away and cards (and Monitors) will be all digital. Probably a necessary transition considering the strides in computer technology and gaming in particular, but that also means that those really nice wide screen monitors you just bought that won't accept digital input. . . .mmmmm, yea. So if you plan to build or purchase in the future. . .keep that in mind.
Finally, I had purchased an NVidia GTX650 card to replace the 630 I bought just weeks ago, the 630 had one VGA output and one DVI-I output (converts easily using the adapter that comes with the card). The 650 however had one DVI-I and one DVI-D (no VGA) and therein was the problem. On a two monitor setup I could only use one monitor. . .or pay an additional $150-$185 for the converter (the card only cost $147). I have never seen this posted on the forums here in the past, so my guess is I've led a very sheltered life, as it seems either no one has run into this problem with their cards or they knew all this stuff a long time ago. . .unlike me, lol.
I took the 650 back to Fry's this morning and there was not one card produced by NVidia that had what I needed and so I went (reluctantly) with the Radeon HD7770, which, by the reviews I could find is slightly better than the 650 and has the VGA setup I need to get both monitors up and running.
And that's all I've got for now, lol!!:salute: