New video card: what cable/adapter do I need?

Factual Questions
1

I recently acquired a new video card secondhand. As it was secondhand, I don’t have the manual or the cables that came with it, and I’ve had trouble finding the name of the cable or adapter that I need to connect the video card to my monitor. Hopefully someone here can tell me what I’m looking for, and perhaps can link me to a place I can purchase the necessary item online.

Currently I’m using what I would consider a “standard” monitor cable, here. The outlet on the video card looks like this.

So, what do I need and where can I get it? Thanks in advance.

2

Your monitor cable is VGA, and the output on the video card is DVI.

If the monitor cable is attached to your monitor permanently, or your monitor doesn’t have a DVI port you’ll need a DVI to VGA adapter (something like this)

If your monitor does have a DVI port, you can get a DVI cable (like this). Or you could use the adapter if you want.

ETA: I’ve never actually bought from Monoprice, but I’ve heard good things about them, and they offer just about the best prices you can find online for cables, adapters, and the like.

3

Excellent, thank you very much.

4

You’ll need to check to see what kind of DVI connector is on the card before you try to use an adapter. Here is a link that will show the various types.

The DVI-I (dvi-integrated, i.e., digital and analog) and DVI-a (analog) will support a dvi to vga adapter. DVI-D (digital) I believe will not - which makes sense since the vga connection is analog.

The main thing to look for is whether or not there are 4 places on the video card’s connector for the 4 pins shown on the left side of those diagrams. You’ll see that in the DVI-D version, that is the main thing that is missing.

Honestly though, I don’t think you will run into that problem, but it’s worth checking.

5

OK, nevermind. I see from the pic you posted that’s not an issue.

6

Hmmm, one more set of questions.

  1. Is it worth it to connect the video card to my monitor via an HDMI cable? This is my monitor. The video card is an NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT.

  2. If it is worth it, how would I go about setting it up? Is it as simple as just getting a different adapter?

7

in theory a digital connection would be clearer due to removing the D-to-A and A-to-D conversions, but in practice with decent modern cards and monitors it’s not usually that striking.* That said, it should be as simple as using a DVI-D to HDMI cable to connect the card to your monitor. HDMI is electrically the same as DVI, with the added ability to encode audio into the bitstream.

either a DVI-to-HDMI adapter along with an HDMI cable, or just get a cable with a DVI-D connector on one end and an HDMI connector on the other end. Either should work.

  • some really cheap graphics cards skimp on the analog side, and using the VGA output results in noticeable ghosting/doubling.
8

HDMI is the same thing as DVI plus an audio signal - it wouldn’t make any difference in picture quality.

9

Except his monitor doesn’t have a DVI in, so his options are DVI > VGA, or DVI > HDMI. Given that you need to buy some kind of hardware anyway, I would say go ahead and do HDMI; VGA is pretty much obsolete at this point. This adapter with this cable should work, and will set you up with the latest hardware so it is less likely you will need to buy new cables again in the future. It should also cost you less than 10 bucks including shipping.

10

I probably missed something, but how likely is it that a monitor would have an HDMI-in port but no DVI port? That would make sense if it were an HDTV, but not for a monitor.

11

I guess it does seem odd, but it happens to be the case.

Thanks much for the info, everyone.

12

It’d be worth doing HDMI then, since the signal will be slightly better. Odd choice for monitor design.

13

very likely, since both SenorBeef and I have already stated that HDMI and DVI are electrically compatible. A PC monitor with an HDMI input will have no problems accepting a signal from a DVI graphics card.