Interesting resolution problem

[Golden Ape]

So I've just bought myself a lovely new monitor, it's a Dell something or other but is built round the same 2048x1152 panel as this Samsung (actually now I can't find it but it was 23" samsung that OCUK used to sell).

Anyway I've got quite an old graphics card Radeon 2400 but then I don't play games or do anything particularly graphics intensive. Still I was quite surprised to find that that the card could not drive the monitor at 2048 x 1152 over DVI-D but could over the old fashioned VGA analogue cable. A bit of googling seems to show that this is indeed the case and that the card's maximum resolution is lower over DVI-D than it is for analogue. Doesn't that seem odd or is it just me especially because the card can drive two monitors with a total resolution higher than 2048 x 1152. Does anyone know why?

 

[Cycrow]

a single DVI cable can only do upto a resolution of 1900x1200.

if you need it higher, u need a dual link dvi cable instead

 

[Golden Ape]

Ah thanks I hadn't realised that. Do dual link DVI cables look different? How would I know if I've got one already or not?

Actually, here's a question. Considering I can run the monitor over an old VGA cable what advantage is there of actually using DVI. The picture looks pretty good to me already.


edit: Actually a bit of googling has told me that I do in fact have a single channel DVI cable. That's pretty poor selling a monitor with a cable that can't drive it at full resolution. So if I were to get a dual link DVI cable would I be able to drive this monitor from my old Radeon 2400?