Rant: DVI - Old, or Still Relevant?

Qrash

Cable-Tie Ninja
Aug 10, 2015
198
152
I have a Dell monitor that is connected to 3 computers using its DisplayPort, HDMI, and DVI ports. Often when troubleshooting old computers the VGA and DVI ports are the ones I have to use, so for many users I would say these old ports are still relevant. If they ever replace their computers with models that lack those ports they will need to buy a new monitor too.


Now on a completely different direction, I love the photo at the top of the article! What have we got there? I think it's: Parallel port > Serial DB25 > Serial DB9 > PS2 > USB

Would that USB drive really be accessible?
 

LjSpike

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Mar 20, 2017
140
72
If they ever replace their computers with models that lack those ports they will need to buy a new monitor too.

Or stop using beige-box era screens with cutting edge PC's? I personally hate DVI, purely because those knobs can be the most fiddly things to use in a place with bad access, a USB however, so easy to insert (and I don't suffer this mysterious proble that other people seem to have where they keep inserting the USB the wrong way around). HDMI is fine though.
 
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Mar 6, 2017
501
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Now on a completely different direction, I love the photo at the top of the article! What have we got there? I think it's: Parallel port > Serial DB25 > Serial DB9 > PS2 > USB

Would that USB drive really be accessible?

No, at least not without some crazy complicated driver software.

Or stop using beige-box era screens with cutting edge PC's? I personally hate DVI, purely because those knobs can be the most fiddly things to use in a place with bad access, a USB however, so easy to insert (and I don't suffer this mysterious proble that other people seem to have where they keep inserting the USB the wrong way around). HDMI is fine though.

75Hz refresh rate on the cheap? :p

I too don't have the USB problem, it seems to me I am the only one I know that knows how to look at the damn connector before plugging it in.
 
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BirdofPrey

Standards Guru
Sep 3, 2015
797
493
I can still agree that there is a use case for DVI on motherboards, laptops and low end video cards (though modern iGPUs greatly diminish the usefulness of low end dGPUs), but I don't see DVI being useful at all anymore on modern graphics cards. DVI just doesn't have the bandwidth to push high resolutions and framerates, and VGA is even worse in that regard, so the ability to easily convert DVI to VGA isn't of much use either. If you got a high end graphics card to drive multiple monitors, DVI again hampers this since each link needs a discrete clock, so you're going to end up having to use DP anyways.

Where dongles are concerned, I don't see where the issue is. Video cards have been coming with DVI to VGA adapters for years now, so it's already something people are used to, and I don't see how changing it to now be a DP/HDMI to DVI adapter will change much.

DVI should remain on motherboards for a while longer till DVI really is a truly dead standard, but it should have been removed from mid to high-end graphics cards some time ago, and the second slot should be all vent.


Regarding HDMI, though. It's actually a little sad that seems to be the main standard for monitors now, since it being designed for home theater use limits it's practicality for PCs. As with DVI, the discrete clock requirement limits the number of minotirs that can be hooked up, and with power users demanding higher resolutions and framerates, and HDR looking to get started on the PC platform as well, HDMI has always been behind the curve on bandwidth having to resort for chroma subsampling while users desperately wait for the next revision. Meanwhile DP has always had more bandwidth than is seemingly necessary, and has supported daisy chaining and hubs for some time now which is something only Dell seems to take advantage of.
 
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EdZ

Virtual Realist
May 11, 2015
1,578
2,107
Especially for 'low-end' gear, DVI has no place. Single-link DVI can be replaced with HDMI (standard is a superset), and the physical HDMI port can be replaced with a DP++ port (there's no reason to build any new video output device today without DP support. It's even royalty-free!),

There is no reason to have a physical DVI port without dual-link capability, and there are very few sink devices require dual-link DVI but do not support a newer standard also. For end users, about the only device that might apply to are the crop of cheap 'overclockable' 2560x1440 B-grade panel monitors that were popular a few years ago.
 
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Smallform Gaming

Cable-Tie Ninja
Aug 10, 2016
154
163
*There is one critical area where DVI-D is king.
Those who want to play FPS games at the highest refresh rates.

I'm running a 144hz 1080p monitor and wouldn't use anything but a DVI-D cable for my application.
I built my entire budget system around running the games I enjoy at 100+ FPS and this requires a 120 or 144hz monitor with an adequate paired system and graphics card that has a viable DVI-D port.
 
Mar 6, 2017
501
454
*There is one critical area where DVI-D is king.
Those who want to play FPS games at the highest refresh rates.

I'm running a 144hz 1080p monitor and wouldn't use anything but a DVI-D cable for my application.
I built my entire budget system around running the games I enjoy at 100+ FPS and this requires a 120 or 144hz monitor with an adequate paired system and graphics card that has a viable DVI-D port.
DisplayPort 1.2 can do this too.