[wingnut]

Hey, I really appreciated all the information on flat panel monitors I received yesterday, THANKS! I have another question concerning my video card. I am pretty sure that my current nvidia geforce2 mx/mx 400 is analog, it has 2 connections only, one is s-video and the other one is connected to my old analog monitor. How degraded would my flat panel image be if I went analog and a lower resolution, or should I just pop for the digital card and be done with it? I really would like to sock all the money into the monitor and not cut back to accommodate the price of a card. As usual with computers nothing is ever a simple as it seems. :confused: Does anybody know how much a decent digital card would be. I have looked them up online and I find a dizzying array of prices and specs which mean nothing to me. SHEESH!:(

[Curlyben]

What sort of resolution do you have in mind.
I run my 17" tft happily at 1280x1024 with no problems from a standard blue analog output.
The only thing I did run into was a bit of video noise, but that's mainly because its running on an Intel extreme graphics adapter and not a dedicated video card.

[wingnut]

I had asked earlier about the size of Icon's, graphics, text, etc. using the native resolution. I am used to larger text and Icons on my crt. I understand that I can change the resolution to get larger text and Icon's but in doing so sacrifice some sharpness. This is why I was worried about the combination of lower resolution and analog connection. There is no way to go test specific monitors to see how it looks at different settings. I am looking at Samsung 940b, Dell 1905fp, Sony hs95b, maybe a Viewsonic. I have yet to see any of these on display. I am about ready to wait until my crt crashes then buy.

[phillysteakandcheese]

You are correct, your Geoforce is analog. Basically, your video card converts the video to an analog signal and it goes to your monitor. With a DVI connection to an LCD monitor, there is no analog conversion of the signal. It's digital all the way.

In my own opinion, an LCD connected via analog is fine for most people. DVI does technically improve video performance, and if you can use it - great, but I don't really think it's an essential right now.

Here's another good CNET link about Analog vs. Digital display options:
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-3174_7-5136369-1.html

[Tommyp!972]

stay with the CRT for now.. LCD's are great if you have the $$ to get the 8ms or less versions.. anything else is in my opinion is not a good investment.. if you decide to buy a LCD I wouldn't drop the resolution.. they are made to run correctly at their given native resoultion.. 15" lcd's usually do well at 1024x768 and 17" I think is 1280 and 19" can do 1600x1200 but there is a major price to pay.. smaller fonts and icons.. even if you go and change them in you display settings ,webpages, unless you're using netscape or mozilla ,might not show up correctly... DVI is the way to go if you do buy an LCD just look for video cards that have DVI outputs... I think I've seen a few that cost as little as $40 that offer DVI output and are the GeForce 5 series
good luck

[dmatos]

I have a 17" LCD panel at work, and when using an analog signal, the monitor was unable to run at full resolution. That was a real bummer. Changed to the digital input, and I was roaring at full speed. I would say that digital inputs to a digital monitor are definitely worth it.