Gpu connectivity and conversion cables

[Mynight]

Hi all my mates in a bit of a pickle.

He has a msi 7850 twin frozer which has 2 mini dp, hdmi and a dvi

He has two VGA only monitors which he wants to use. Now dvi to VGA done and dusted (that was easy).

Can mini DP be converted to VGA? (I've seen apple do mini do to VGA but is that only for macs?)

I've read hdmi cannot be converted due to being a digital interface which can't be converted to analogue.

So other than the above question could anyone explain to me why dvi being digital can be converted to VGA so easily?

He doesn't have the money for new monitors

 

[BlackBat]

AFAIK you can get converters for HDMI to VGA and mini-DP to VGA, either of them a lot cheaper than a new monitor.

 

[Confused Stu]

MiniDP to VGA adapters work fine. The Apple one will work provided you're only using 2 screens. If you're looking to hook up a third then you'll need an Active adapter (the Apple one is Passive) such as Startech's MDP2VGA adapter. I've used one of these to hook up a VGA screen alongside my others so know it works.

 

[Confused Stu]

Sorry, missed the second part of your question. DVI on a graphics card is often DVI-I, which outputs both a digital signal and an analogue one, so a simple cable can be used to carry just the analogue part through for VGA to work. If the port was a DVI-D then it would only output a digital signal, so couldn't be easily converted to VGA. HDMI is only a digital output, so works just like DVI-D but with sound carried too.

Wikipedia has a great section on DVI and shows the difference between the DVI-A, DVI-D, and DVI-I connections.

 

[Mynight]

Perfect thank you

Arrgh so that's the difference between dvi-d dvi-i. I better scratch up on some knowledge