VGA vs DVI port for CRT Emudriver

[pacboy]

I read that it is preferred to use a Radeon card with a VGA port as opposed to one with a DVI-I + DVI to RGB adapter with CRT Emudriver.  Is the signal quality better with the VGA port?

[haynor666]

DVI is usually seen on PC as first port. This should matter only on XP. Many cards have VGA port connected through ribbon cable, such connection reduces picture quality.

[pacboy]

I'm not sure what you mean.  I'd like to use Windows 7 with CRT Emudriver 1.2b (Catalyst 13.1).  They say it supports up to the Radeon HD 4xxx cards.  Every HD 4xxx card that I look at only have DVI-I ports.  I'd like to use the HD 4xxx series because they are the fastest supported cards.  Aren't the VGA signals coming through a DVI-I to VGA adapter the same quality as signals coming from a card with a native VGA port, or am I missing something?

[haynor666]

Look:

VGA straight from PCB - very good picture quality


VGA through ribbon cable - not so good picture quality

In both cases DVI-I will output the same quality picture as VGA (on PCB) on picture 1.

[Calamity]

I have the exact second one, I never noticed any issues with picture quality (don't mean there aren't). Of course I couldn't compare with the other.

Pacboy, the HD 4xxx series are not the fastest cards supported any more, check this: http://geedorah.com/eiusdemmodi/forum/viewtopic.php?id=295

[haynor666]

It's hard to spot difference on lowe res TV/arcade monitor but very easy on typical PC CRT monitor. It's harder to see this problem on LCD because (I think) most LCD have some kind of picture correction.

[pacboy]

Awesome, thanks!  So the fastest cards that'll work at this point in time would be the HD 7xxx series with Win 7 or 8, correct?  Do you have any plans to make even more recent cards compatible or is this it for a while (I'm about to buy a card)?

Regarding the VGA vs DVI-I port, I think I'll need to use a DVI-I to VGA adapter because they stopped putting VGA ports on the Radeon cards a long time ago, definitely not on the HD 7xxx series, correct?

[haynor666]

The are still graphics cards even modern ones with VGA but mostly economical or OEM.

BTW. Why You need very fast card?

[pacboy]

I'm not sure that I do, but I'm building a new custom PC so I want to use the fastest parts that are available.

[haynor666]

In case of mame or any other 2D system emulator is pointless.

[Jollywest]

DVI is usually seen on PC as first port. This should matter only on XP. Many cards have VGA port connected through ribbon cable, such connection reduces picture quality.

Thanks for this, just tried it on my 4350 with Ribbon cable and the DVI port (with VGA adapter) is quite noticeably better on a Hantarex Polo 25" 15khz arcade monitor... It's a lot brighter and sharper too, cheers 👍

[xga]

Can anyone recommend any quality DVI to VGA adaptors?  I purchased a few off eBay for a friend, but the quality was terrible (wavy lines and noise) so I gave him the one that came with one of my ATI cards.  The difference was very noticeable.

[Jollywest]

I'm using one that came with my ASUS P5Q motherboard, I would of thought it's ASUS branded but has nothing written on it and it works great.