Why DVI and not HDMI

[phenom-opteron]

what the heck why are all video cards not just HDMI why are they not dual HDMI what roll does DVI play here this is the new age of tech and i am still seeing cards like the 590 with dual DVI that card should have been made with a dual GF114 chipset in quad HDMI it woud have run cooler and it should have supported four monitors and it should have an even 4 GB of DDR5 this is a bunch of Bravo Sierra i feel so purposely held back.

 

[leon2006]

Its all about money.... Every HDMI Port installed on any product require a fee to HDMI group. DVI don't require additional fee for GPU board maker.

HDTV/Blue-Ray Player maker pay a fee to the HDMI group for every HDMI port installed on its product.

GPU maker is not excused. It is required to pay that fee for the HDMI port for the GPU board.

 

[phenom-opteron]

i know that there is not much of a difference between the two and that most setups stream audio in a different manner most monitors don't have speakers in them. the only advantage to DVI is that it screws in place nice and tight but HDMI is smaller and cleaner i like universal cables it just seems silly to tax something like that it prevents forward progress.

 

[wolfram23]

What would the point be? Are you such an enthusiast that you run your audio through your monitor or what? Or is it that you'd like to use an HDTV with terribly low pixel density?

HDMI is the useless one for PC gaming, at least. Costs more, cables cost more, and it has less compatibility with monitors.

Plus, DisplayPort is the next big thing for displays.

 

[jay2tall]

What would the point be? Are you such an enthusiast that you run your audio through your monitor or what? Or is it that you'd like to use an HDTV with terribly low pixel density?

HDMI is the useless one for PC gaming, at least. Costs more, cables cost more, and it has less compatibility with monitors.

Plus, DisplayPort is the next big thing for displays.

100% agree. Display Port will be our next big thing. It is already starting on the professional avenue. Plus the DVI ports on video cards are usually dual link DVI so they support a higher resolution than HDMI, which I believe is single link DVI but includes audio. If you use a 120Hz monitor you need a dual link DVI connection to support the bandwidth. I think we will eventually start to see more 120Hz displays come out. I mean TRUE 120Hz displays, not motioned enhanced TV's that still only input 60hz.

 

[gracefully]

I'm in the DisplayPort-is-the-future camp. Current-gen DP has enough bandwidth for 3 25x16 panels, as well as support for bitstreaming.

 

[jay2tall]

^ and you can daisy chain them together in DP, can't you? With audio and USB build in? I think I got that right.

HDMI is more home and home theater AV stuff to make it easy for Joe Blow to hook up his stuff easily.

 

[gracefully]

^Yes, but right now, daisy chain-compatible monitors are rare and usually expensive. They talk about dedicated DP splitter boxes which gives you 3 DP ports from 1 port, but I haven't seen one yet.

DP as the major standard would be nice. Or, even better, Thunderbolt. High-bandwidth, multipurpose connector that accepts displays, audio devices, and flash disks? Sign me up.

 

[phenom-opteron]

OK I did not know that you could pull better resolution with DVI i had not read that any ware yet so allow me to take my foot out of my mouth and restate i still think that the 590 should have been made with dual gf114 and quad display ports and 4 GB of ram i think the 3 GB was enough but i would have liked to see more for me the real purpose behind wanting HDMI is that the cords are clean and easier to work with and the ports are flush mount and you can use them in tighter spaces but OK i like the display port also it is flush mount on the card and virtually the same cord.

 

[leon2006]

The display port is the next thing for GPU and PC hardware. Its royalty free unlike HDMI. So board and display makers don't have to pay for its usage. Unlike HDMI board , display, and tv makers are to pay royalty to HDMI-Group for its usage.

Its good for us PC user as these royalty fees are pass on to us (the end user).

So for every GPU we purchase with HDMI, some of that money goes to the HDMI-Group headed by Sony.

Physical format (electrical) is the same with HDMI:
The physical implementation in terms of electrical characterisitcs i.e Differential Signaling LVDS format. TMDS encoding/decoding is similar to HDMI as well. DRM or HDCP is also supported in Display Port


Display Port Info
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Display_port

HDMI info
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hdmi

Phasing out of DVI will take a while to support existing LCD Display. It will take years. But it can be accelerated by providing Converter. DVI is a big connector and adds more PCB space which can be use for other needs.

Display Port and HDMI cord is a much cleaner setup. One cable carry both Video/Audio. Less clutter at the back.

 

[phenom-opteron]

wow ok so after learning that DVI could carry better resolution i took one of my monitors and switched it to DVI from HDMI and the picture was way different it lost this white hew it is very clear black if that makes sense i think it is just plain better i should show a picture because the difference is like night and day.

 

[BlueCat57]

You can wish for whatever you want but you aren't going to get it.

Does any card mfg put three of the same video outs on any card?

What is the use of Eyefinity if you have to use three different cables to hook up your monitors?

If Dual-Link DVI is superior to HDMI, and FREE, why do card and monitor mfgers still put HDMI on their units?

If Display Port is so great why don't I see it more often?

The real discussion should be how do I get the best display and sound with what I can buy.

Someone somewhere thinks HDMI is a better solution than either DVI or Display Port even though it costs more and produces inferior image quality.

Or maybe users just don't know how to adjust HDMI to provide better image quality.

 

[jc10376]

They also use DVI because with an adapter you can turn it into VGA. Not the case with HDMI. I know VGA is old, but I use 2 monitors: One is HDMI and the older one is VGA and without the DVI output I would not have been able to use the VGA monitor.

Most people with high-end cards don't use VGA, but I guess is not a bad idea to have the option. I'm glad my 5850 came with DP, DVI and HDMI.

 

[jrichards]

You can wish for whatever you want but you aren't going to get it.

Does any card mfg put three of the same video outs on any card?

What is the use of Eyefinity if you have to use three different cables to hook up your monitors?

If Dual-Link DVI is superior to HDMI, and FREE, why do card and monitor mfgers still put HDMI on their units?

If Display Port is so great why don't I see it more often?

The real discussion should be how do I get the best display and sound with what I can buy.

Someone somewhere thinks HDMI is a better solution than either DVI or Display Port even though it costs more and produces inferior image quality.

Or maybe users just don't know how to adjust HDMI to provide better image quality.

Eyefinity 6 edition cards have 6 mini display port outs. You get 2 mini to dvi, 2 mini to hdmi, and 2 mini to display port adapters. You can buy additional mini display cables as your setup requires. That 6 monitors, 1 card. I never use audio through monitor anyways so HDMI is useless for me, other than for home theater, but still doesn't carry my audio, use fiber for that.

 

[BlueCat57]

Eyefinity 6 edition cards have 6 mini display port outs. You get 2 mini to dvi, 2 mini to hdmi, and 2 mini to display port adapters. You can buy additional mini display cables as your setup requires. That 6 monitors, 1 card. I never use audio through monitor anyways so HDMI is useless for me, other than for home theater, but still doesn't carry my audio, use fiber for that.

You're right, but it looks like there is a very limited selection of very expensive Eyefinity 6 cards out there. A quick check at Newegg turned up only 5870's. Maybe there are more available and the 6000 series version is still to come.

Any way you slice it multiple monitors and multiple video cards are a very small portion of the market and manufacturers are going to concentrate on where they can sell lots of cards for lots of profit.

It would be great if you could customize your video cards they way you can customize a system. How hard could it be to make the video card output modular so you could buy the card and then put on whatever outputs you want. Want 6 mini display ports - do it. Want only one HDMI output do it. Maybe they could have three plugs on high-end cards, two on mid-range and one on low-end, and charge $10 an output module.

 

[jrichards]

That sounds easy enough, the display port seems to be easily adapted to what ever you need. Most cards come with some sort of adapter anyways. While they are at it since the cards are almost as big as a small motherboard (atom) anyways, can we get the ability to add our own memory? Got a 2gb 5850 then poof it was gone and could only find 1gb versions.... lame.