Which option for best picture?

meths · 24 Nov 2007 at 15:01

1280x1024 or 1080i?

I currently have my X1900XT hooked up to a tft monitor and an LCD Toshiba 32" HDTV @ 1280x1024. The picture on the tft is fine at this resolution and on the TV it's fine for gaming but is a strain on the eyes when surfing the web or typing.

Through a DVI to VGA lead the TV supports either 800x600 (SVGA), 1024x800 (XGA) and 1280x1024 (SXGA but not to VESA standard). I have no idea what the differnce is between SVGA, XGA and SXGA but would I get a better picture from using a DVI to HDMI cable and running the PC at 1080i?

Baddass · 25 Nov 2007 at 00:14

SVGA, XGA and SXGA are just names for the different resolutions, that's all. What is the max (native) resolution of your LCD TV? If the VGA interface can't support the full res, you may find the DVI > HDMI is an option. However, this can often lead to "overscan" and if you scale the res down to fit the screen properly, you can lose some clarity

Teaf · 25 Nov 2007 at 20:15

Just some extra info:

VGA - 640 x 480
SVGA - 800 x 600
XGA - 1024 x 768
SXGA - 1280 x 1024
SXGAW - 1600 x 1024
UXGA - 1600 x 1200
QXGA - 2048 x 1536

2 others would be:

HDTV - 1920 x 1080 (1080p/i)
HDTV - 1280 x 720 (720p)

As Baddass says, they are just names for different resolutions although sometimes they do get kinda confusing but the popular ones (SVGA, VGA) are easy to remember.

meths · 25 Nov 2007 at 22:05

From the manual the max native resolution through the VGA connection is 1280x1024 but it does state that this is not to VESA standard which kinda makes me think that's why it strains my eyes when reading text.

I've ordered an DVI to HDMI lead to test out what it's like at 1080i in comparison and at the very least this will allow me to fill the whole screen without horizontally stretching pixels.