Question : Problem: DVI or D-Sub ! Which one I should go for my new LCD?

Hello Experts,

I'm going to buy a new LCD for my desktop. Now, while looking at so many LCDs at Newegg, I see some of the LCD have only D-Sub ports but no DVI. And some of them have DVI ports +  D-Sub ports in it.

What I notice LCDs with DVI ports are slightly higher priced. Now, my question is,

1. Will DVI make some noticeable difference from D-Sub? FYI, I will use the monitor for reading/writing purpose for like 6-7 hours a day .. and 2-3 hours for entertainment purpose like watching movies. I also do work in Photoshop.

2. I'm currently using Samsung monitor, and I'm interested to buy my next one of Samsung T200 or T220 model. Here, the question is, from many online messageboard I found 1680 x 1050 is native resolution for 22" LCDs usually. and that resolution is perfect for document or web text and other things. The thing is, 22" will be bigger for my desk and I actually don't need a 22" .. So, I would rather get a 20" .. But what I've found online that, 1680 x 1050 resolution will make the fonts much smaller thus reading will be harder. As, most 20" LCDs' native resolution is 1680 x 1050 ... I'm wondering if anyone can confirm me this. If so, I might better get a 19" LCD which has native resolution of 1,440 x 900 so I can read without any problem.
(got some info here => http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=5663276&postcount=3 )

3. How much difference it can make while watching movies or playing games? I mean the 1,440 x 900  and 1680 x 1050 resolution...

Some explanation on these and honest advises will be appreciated.

Btw, I'm using Geforce 9800GTX AGP.

Thanks a lot.
-WarFaze

Answer : Problem: DVI or D-Sub ! Which one I should go for my new LCD?

First, r.e. VGA vs. DVI ==> at the resolutions you're considering, it will make no noticeable difference. DVI is "better" from a technical perspective, but you will not be able to tell the difference. So if there's a cost difference, save your $$ and go with a VGA input. [24" monitors with 1920 x 1080 resolution are about the smallest monitors where the DVI input has a noticeable quality improvement over VGA]

Second, r.e. the size of the display: A 22" display has 21% more area than a 20" display ... this absolutely makes a BIG difference in the readability of the display. If you don't want to (or can't) buy a 22" display, I'd go with a 19" with the 1440 x 900 resolution. This will have almost exactly the same pixel density as a 22" display [A 22" display is 34% larger than a 19" monitor and has 36% more pixels ... so the pixel density is almost exactly the same].

For watching movies, you'll not notice any difference (other than the screen size) between the two displays. For gaming, it depends on how the game scales to larger displays -- if it uses the additional pixels to show more details, then the larger display would be nicer; but if it simply scales the same landscape to the display, you'll likely not notice any difference. By the way, as I suspect you know, your 9800GTX has plenty of horsepower to run most games at either resolution.

Bottom line: I'd get the 1440 x 900 19" display unless you can spring for a 22" monitor. The interface (VGA vs DVI) doesn't matter.