I have just ordered a Viewsonic 19" LCD monitor and I know it comes with both the standard analog cable and a DVI cable. I have read that DVI gives a better display. My current video card is a ATI 9800 Pro which I am satisfied with, however, it does not have a DVI connector on it. My question is would it be worth it to buy another card in order to use DVI or would the improvement not be worth the extra expenditure. Anyone have any experience with comparing the two methods of connecting the monitor to the video card?Thanks for any guidence. Jim

Well now I feel foolish because I just looked at my video card and surprise surprise - it looks like I have a DVI connector after all. Sometimes I are smart.Jim

Basically DVI ( sometimes called Panelink) was developed for driving flat panels when they first came out. Most of the early flat panels did not have any scaling capability, so the video card would have to be set to the exact resolution of the panel , so the pixel mapping was 1 to 1 which is the best way to go. Now both the panels and graphics cards have something called DDC, so when you hook up your DDC capable graphics card to a DDC capable display device using a DVI cable, your graphics card will actually interrogate the display and ask the display " what resolution are you?" The Display will respond back what it's native reaolution is ( i.e. 1400 x 1050) , and the Graphics card will produce that exact resolution so you have the 1 to 1 mapping automatically. Some Graphics cards ( like the Nividia 6800 GTO) have both digital and analog capability, so if you don't have a DVI input on your monitor, you can use a dongle or adaptor connected ( DVI to D-15) to the DVI output in order to use the RGB signal that also comes out of the card, In that way you can connect it to the VGA input on your monitor via a D-15 connector. I would just stay with the video card you have, and just set the resolution to the same as the display you are getting, in the settings menu of your card.

Thanks for the info. Very informative.Jim