Monitor power connector type. All types of connectors for computer monitors

For more than a year, nVidia remained invariably the leading company in the computer graphics market, and the leadership was so strong and stable that no one even thought about a possible change in leader.

Remembering the old days, we came to the conclusion that the most competitive model of recent times was the Radeon HD 2900XT, which, however, still could not surpass the GeForce 8800 GTX. But last year the Radeon HD 3870 appeared, which, unfortunately, again hardly has a serious chance of getting “gold” compared to its competitors, although it completely coped with its mission - raising the price benchmark for most similar products.

The year 2008 has begun, and nVidia has not yet presented to the public a real next-generation product that could really move forward compared to all the company's previous products. At the same time, we hoped that AMD/ATI would keep their promises of developing a dual-GPU based on the Radeon HD 3800, which, unlike traditional multi-GPUs, would not need to function properly. platforms for two compatible video cards (crossfire technology) and which can become a solid competitor in the high-quality graphics market.

The developers of the Radeon HD 3870 X2 placed two graphics processors (GPU) on one board

Frankly speaking, we were quite skeptical about the Radeon HD 3870 X2, having first become acquainted with the then purely theoretical idea of its creation. The introduction of one card for Crossfire technology - originally a technology about the cross-function of two video cards - could lead to huge delays in product releases and a complete decrease in the attractiveness of devices for consumers. In fact, as practice has shown, AMD was able to confirm all statements about the functionality of its new product, because The developers quite successfully launched production of the Radeon HD 3870 X2 and, what is much more important, managed to immediately make it available for retail sale.

As you probably already guessed, the ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 is essentially two Radeon HD 3870 graphics processors located on one printed circuit board (PCB). The processors use the PCI Express 1.1 bridge to organize their work together, which is very reminiscent of the cross-functionality of ATI video cards. However, even though the X2 is clearly designed as a single-card device, you will still be able to run two graphics cards cross-functionally. This means that with an appropriately selected driver, the operation of a two-bit system in crossover mode has become a reality.

Long before we actually tested the X2, we believed that dual Radeon 3870 GPUs would perform quite well, but we also expected that, as with standard dual SLI cards and crossfire, the X2 would experience some jitter during gameplay. This is how it turned out, in principle - for more details, see the description of our benchmark tests.

A huge advantage of the Radeon design is that it allows the user to not depend on the characteristics of drivers and chipsets (after all, both GPUs are located on the same board). It is worth noting that modern drivers (Catalyst 8.1 and 8.45) seem to us somewhat “immature”. While the system generally worked reliably during testing, sometimes there were various glitches that are not typical when playing a particular computer game. Whether this is a consequence of using Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit or not is not yet clear.

Pay
Now, more than ever before, many manufacturers around the world are creating video cards that fully follow the designs of ATI and nVidia; and the Radeon HD 3870 X2 is no exception, since most of the cards it uses are identical to ATI cards. And yet, during the short period of time that this product was available, we were able to find completely different cards made by ASUS. Their differences were an improved cooling system, the presence of four DVI ports and a slightly changed frequency of the memory and microprocessor core. In all other respects the cards are exactly the same.

In terms of dimensions, the ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 is simply huge: 26.5 cm in length, which is much larger than the size of an entire ATX motherboard. However, the dimensions of the X2 are very close to the dimensions of the GeForce 8800 GTX/Ultra, so these numbers will not cause a huge surprise to anyone. As for the design itself, the ASUS version has several obvious differences, and we think that this is a definite plus for this product.

Instead of using a standard plastic shell to protect against overheating, ASUS created a black aluminum case for this purpose, on which there are two ventilation holes (each 65 cm in diameter) to cool the two graphics processors built into the board. If you remove this housing, two rows of small mesh aluminum plates become visible, with the second row of plates having significantly more. Each of these plates is connected to a copper board via two heat pipes. In fact, this cooling system is more radical than its standard variants, and, as we felt, it sometimes simply lacks power.

In addition to the new approach to the cooling system, you will also notice a large steel plate with the inscription “DUAL” located on the front of the graphics card. If you carefully examine the back plate, you will also find that there are not two DVI ports, but four, which is typical for devices using crossfire technology. Those who are very interested in the possibility of connecting LCD monitors will be intrigued by this discovery, since when using two video cards, the number of DVI ports will increase to 8!

The memory capacity of the ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 is 1 GB (512 MB for each GPU). The default technical requirement for this amount of memory is 1800 MHz, although ASUS has increased the frequency to 1910 MHz on the most advanced versions of its devices. Moreover, each processor is designed to operate at 825 MHz, while ASUS has made its top versions possible to run at 850 MHz. This is a 3% increase in the frequency level for each GPU, but we can well imagine how much the attitude of manufacturers towards standard board design solutions has changed.

Ideally, devices from ASUS can use 1 GB GDDR3 .8ns memory from Hynix “HY5RS123235B FP-08”, which makes the board work quite quickly. We managed to reach a frequency of 2122 MHz before the system began to fail. For microprocessors, the limitation on the above parameter turned out to be 861 MHz, which is only 11 MHz more than before.

Benchmarks: Specifications and Test for Crysis

Technical characteristics: hardware (hardware)
- Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 (3.00GHz) LGA775
- x2 OCZ DDR3 PC3-12800 FlexXLC Edition Module(s)
- x2 OCZ DDR2 PC2-6400 CL4 FlexXLC Edition Module(s)
- ASUS P5N-T Deluxe (nVidia nForce 780i SLI)
- ASUS P5E3 Deluxe (Intel X38)
- OCZ GameXStream (700 watt)
- Seagate 500GB 7200RPM (Serial ATA II)
- ASUS Radeon HD 3870 X2 (1GB) - ATI Catalyst 8.4
- ASUS GeForce 8800 GTX (768MB)
- ASUS GeForce 8800 GT (512MB) SLI
- ASUS GeForce 8800 GT (512MB)
- ASUS Radeon HD 3870 (512MB) Crossfire - ATI Catalyst 8.1
- ASUS Radeon HD 3870 (512MB) - ATI Catalyst 8.1

Software:
- Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate (64-bit)
- nForce 9.46
- Intel System Driver 8.4.0.1016
- nVidia Forceware 169.28
-ATI Catalyst 8.4
- ATI Catalyst 8.1

As you can see, the Radeon HD 3870 X2 is only slightly faster than the Radeon HD 3870 Crossfire setup, rendering on average 2-3 more fps per expansion. However, this makes the Radeon HD 3870 X2 the fastest graphics card, ahead of the GeForce 8800 GTX. However, for all Crysis fans, the GeForce 8800 GTX card is still the best card for this game.

Benchmark: Company of Heroes

Again we find that the Radeon HD 3870 X2 only achieves a few frames more per second than the Radeon HD 3870 Crossfire rig, which we can classify as a small CPU overclocker. While the Radeon HD 3870 X2 performs better than a single GeForce 8800 GTX, it is still not better than SLI GeForce 8800 GT graphics cards.

Benchmark: F.E.A.R

For the first time, we found that the Radeon HD 3870 X2 showed significant advantages when running two Crossfire cards. With an extension of 1920 by 1200 and having 4 on AA/16xAF, the 3870 X2 was 27% faster than Crossfire, with a slight increase of 1 fps over the GeForce 8800 GT SLI. Consistent performance in FEAR, no doubt!

Benchmark: PREY

Prey's benchmark results are very interesting, and even though the game is a bit dated, we wanted to make sense of our research here. Without AA/AF, the Radeon HD 3870 X2 outperforms the Radeon HD 3870 Crossfire setting on all three expansions tested, outperforming the GeForce 8800 GT SLI card by 1920 by 1200. However, when set to 4xAA/16xAF, it outperforms the 3879 X2, shifting the Radeon HD The 3870 Crossfire card is behind the others in two out of three tests.

Benchmark: Supreme Commander

Like most games tested here, Supreme Commander shows the Radeon HD 3870 X2 to be just slightly superior to the Radeon HD 3870 Crossfire setup.

Since the Radeon HD 3870 does a good job of smoothing edges in Supreme Commander, it was no surprise to us that the X2 outperformed both cards: the single GeForce 8800 GTX and the SLI GeForce 8800 GT.

Benchmark: UT3, World in Conflict

The Radeon HD 3870 X2 was able to outperform the 3870 Crossfire setup by 6-7 fps. however, it was outpaced by the GeForce at 1440 by 900 and 1680 by 1050, keeping the resolution at a maximum of 1920 by 1200.

World Conflict shows mixed (different) results, although all cards performed similarly. The Radeon HD 3870 X2 was the fastest solution at the 1440 by 900 test resolution, however, the GeForce 8800 GTX graphics were slightly better.

Power and temperature absorption

When using a single card, the Radeon HD 3870 X2 consumes slightly less power than the GeForce 8800 GTX when idling, while requiring much more power under load. In fact, when used in Crysis, the 3870 X2 consumes 23% more power than the GeForce 8800 GTX.

When compared to Crossfire Radeon HD 3870 technology, we find that the 3870 X2 uses 9% less power. This isn't like other results we've seen online, but we can convince you that we triple checked our measurements.

We're very pleased to see ASUS' improved cooling solution perform so well, as the Extreme AH3870X2 ran slightly cooler than the Radeon HD 3870 card alone. However, 80 degrees is still too much for our tastes, so to speak, with all that hot air circulating around the body. I guess we need to wait for Arctic-Cooling to make Accelero Xtreme for the Radeon HD 3870 X2 before we see better temperatures.

Final Thoughts
Better late than never, AMD/ATI did it! There's no question that the Radeon HD 3870 X2 is the fastest single card available today.

We were impressed by the capabilities of the new Radeon card. Especially because, once installed, it’s easy to forget that we were working with two GPUs. The 3870 X2 ran smoothly with every game we used it for. There was no red tape that usually comes with Crossfire. We could just sit back and relax while playing.

The Radeon HD 3870 X2 turned out to be more stable than we initially expected, because... it performed very similarly to the Radeon HD 3870 Crossfire. Another advantage is that the Radeon HD 3870 X2 costs a little less than a pair of Radeon HD 3870s, priced at $450, and it will work with almost any motherboard with a PCI Express x16 slot.

Apart from the odd popping noise here and there, which we believe was purely driver related, the ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 card performed perfectly. Of course, we hope that these minor stability issues will be addressed in the next Catalyst driver release. Next, another downside is that the card gets hotter than we'd like, leaving a lot of hot air in the case. Although this is not surprising, since the new generation cards and X2 cards produce almost the same amount of heat (hot air).

We're pleased with ATI's achievements, although it's somewhat ironic that they got here using an existing product, which makes their win less impressive. As things stand now, Nvidia might find a way to turn things around and create a dual card based on the G92, which would put Nvidia back on top.

But speaking strictly of the present, in terms of material valuation, we recently bought two ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 cards for approximately $460. And by providing a list of advantages that the SLI setup had over the Radeon HD 3870 X2 in some tests, we have to think about what is the better buy. Moreover, GeForce 8800 GT 256MB cards cost just over $400, which will make our choice even more difficult.

The Radeon HD 3870 X2 is currently the fastest card (using a single card) and is a convenient alternative to both Crossfire and SLI, which require two suitable cards and a specific supporting motherboard. Let's see what nVidia shows us in a few months.

The 4800 series video cards are outdated by today's standards. At the time of their release, they were quite an interesting solution, but today they are only suitable for outdated computers, the main task of which involves surfing the Internet and working with multimedia programs. The characteristics of the ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series do not allow cards in this series to provide performance in games, especially modern ones.

HD 4850

This is the very first video card in the ATI Series line, the characteristics of which were quite good at the time of announcement. Core operating frequencies are 625/1986 MHz. The card has GDDR3 memory (obsolete today) with a capacity of 512 MB and a 256-bit bus.

It also uses a good RV770PRO graphics processor with 956 million transistors. This is much more than the previous generation processor - RV770PRO (there were 666 million transistors). So we can say with confidence that ATI (now AMD) has made quite a big leap in terms of increasing performance. The chip itself is made according to 55 nm standards. This was not bad at the time, but now modern cards are made using a 16nm process technology, which allows for many more transistors to be placed in the core.

Graphics support DirectX version 10.1, but not DX11. The characteristics of the ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series are close to those of the 9800 GTX model from Nvidia. This particular video card is a contender. When testing both models in the game Crysis, they showed approximately equal results. And at the same time, the HD 4850 from AMD is a cheaper solution compared to its competitor, which is why it wins this debate.

Let's not forget that the HD 4850 card is not the only one in this series, there are others.

HD 4870 Review

The characteristics of the ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series, in particular the HD 4870 card, are better, because this model itself is an accelerated and more expensive version. It has no architectural or processor changes, but its operating frequency is higher.

The only more or less serious change in favor of the HD 4870 graphics is the memory of the new GDDR5 standard. It made it possible, without improving the bus parameters (the bus remained at 256 bits), to increase the throughput of the video card, and much more. If the HD 4850's throughput was 63.6 Gb/s, then in the HD 4870 card this value increased to 115.2 Gb/s. The price for this is the higher price of the video card itself and increased power consumption to 160 W. This is where the characteristics of the ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series (HD 4870 models) end. But there is one more video card in the line.

ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series Review: HD 4890 Specifications

After the release of two solutions created using the 55nm process, people started talking about ATI's possible release of new graphics based on the improved Super RV770 processor. And indeed, very soon the manufacturer announced a new card based on the improved RV790 GPU chip.

The new solution is expectedly called HD 4890, and it already uses an updated video chip. As a result, the card has become faster due to the fact that it operates at higher frequencies compared to the previous model in the line. The main competitor of the video card is the Geforce GTX 275, which was released on the same day.

And although the manufacturer himself says that the main goal was to create a new GPU that would become a leader in the upper price segment, the improved RV790 chip is only an improved version of the RV770. There are no other changes to the video card. Even the manufacturing technology and capabilities remain the same, and there are no architectural changes either. Most likely, AMD tried to show in this way that they are not lagging behind their competitor, who is releasing new and advanced solutions.

ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series (HD 4890) specifications:

Yarn frequency 0 850 MHz.
Number of transistors - 959 million.
256-bit bus.
10 SIMD cores.

Partner developer versions

After the release of the reference sample, many partner manufacturers created their solutions based on this chip. However, they all turned out to be approximately the same and were reference products created to order from AMD. That is, the partners simply bought ready-made cards from AMD, stuck on their own stickers and put them on the market as products of their own production. In reality, there is practically no difference between cards from Sapphire, HIS or Powercolor, so the choice here is only a matter of price.

Moreover, all these products are equipped with the same cooler and have a similar cooling system.

Conclusion

With the release of this card, AMD managed to strengthen its 4xxx series product line and come almost close to the flagship from Nvidia (we are talking about the Geforce GTX 285 card). However, Nvidia also did not lag behind and created an improved version of the Geforce GTX 285 card, which had a 448-bit bus. This made it possible to reduce the memory from 1 GB to 896 MB, but at the same time the bandwidth increased. The new graphics from Nvidia were slightly better, but this product had a limited edition, and the video card from AMD was supplied to the market in large volumes.

Note that at the time of release, the memory characteristics of the ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series were quite serious. But now these cards are no longer sold, and they can only be used in old computers. By modern standards, the graphics are even outdated and cannot satisfy the needs of users, not to mention gamers. Nevertheless, at one time the card was popular and even today is actively used in computers for everyday use and surfing the Internet.

Good afternoon.

One of the most common questions when connecting a monitor to a computer is understanding the variety of connectors and making the right choice of cable so that everything works (especially difficult if the monitor has several interfaces at once). Whether it was before, there is one VGA everywhere: everything is simple and clear. But over time (after the advent of high-resolution monitors), its capabilities became insufficient, and new interfaces began to come out...

In general, now you can most often find DVI, Display Port or HDMI interfaces on monitors. Moreover, they are all, in turn, divided into several more types (so to speak). The situation is even more complicated if the monitor has some interfaces and the PC has completely different ones. No wonder you get confused...

In this article I will try to sort out this whole tangle and answer typical and most common questions about this problem.

And so, closer to the point...

HDMI

One of the most popular and popular interfaces today. Found on the vast majority of laptops and computers (can also often be found on tablets). Suitable for connecting monitors, TV (and TV set-top boxes), projectors and other video equipment.

Peculiarities:

transmits both audio and video signals (simultaneously). In this regard, this is a big plus for the interface: no extra cables are needed to transmit the audio signal;
Full support for FullHD (1920x1080) resolution, with 3D effects. Maximum supported resolution up to 3840×2160 (4K);
the cable length can reach 10 meters, which is sufficient in most cases (with the use of repeater amplifiers - the cable length can be increased to 30 meters!);
has a throughput from 4.9 (HDMI 1.0) to 48 (HDMI 2.1) Gbit/s;
adapters from HDMI to DVI and vice versa are available for sale (very important for compatibility of old and new devices with each other);
HDMI has several types of connectors: HDMI (Type A), mini-HDMI (Type C), micro-HDMI (Type D) (see photo above). On laptops/PCs, the classic size type is most often used - HDMI (Type A). Micro and Mini are found in portable technology (tablets, for example).

If you have HDMI on your monitor and system unit (laptop), then the entire connection will boil down to purchasing an “HDMI-HDMI” cable (which can be bought at any computer store).

Please note that before connecting via HDMI, be sure to turn off both devices (PC and monitor). , if this is not done.

Display Port

A new interface that is quickly gaining popularity (a competitor to HDMI). Allows you to connect several monitors at once, supports 4K resolution, 3D image. There are two standard sizes: classic and Mini Display Port (the first option is found on regular laptops and monitors, see photo above).

Peculiarities:

both audio and video signals are transmitted simultaneously;
The maximum length of the Display Port cable can reach 15 meters;
data transfer speed up to 21.6 Gbit/s;
allows you to get a resolution of up to 3840 x 2400 at 60 Hz; or 2560 x 1600 pixels at 165 Hz; or you can connect two monitors at once with a resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels and a frequency of 60 Hz.
Please note that in addition to the classic Display Port, there is another form factor: Mini Display Port.
By the way, the size of the Mini Display Port connector is about 10 times smaller than that of the DVI connector (about him later in the article)!
the interface has a small “latch” that securely fixes the cable when connected to the port.

DVI

This interface is almost 20 years old and still enjoys wide popularity (it was released in 1999). At one time, I seriously improved the quality of the image on the screen.

The maximum resolution is 1920 x 1080 pixels (however, some expensive video cards can transmit data in dual link mode and the resolution can reach 2560 x 1600 pixels).

Peculiarities:

Only the image* is transmitted through the DVI connector (the audio signal will have to be transmitted via other channels);
resolution up to 1920×1200 pixels with cable length up to 10.5 m; resolution 1280×1024 pixels with cable length up to 18 m; in dual-channel data transfer mode - up to 2560 x 1600 pixels.
There are three types of DVI: DVI-A Single Link - analog transmission; DVI-I - analog and digital transmissions; DVI-D - digital transmission.
Various connectors and their configuration (DVI-A, DVI-D, DVI-I) are compatible with each other.
Please note that this standard is more likely to experience interference: for example, if there are other devices near the cable that emit an electromagnetic signal (telephone, printer, etc.). This can also happen due to poor cable shielding;
There are many adapters on sale from VGA to DVI and reverse;
The DVI connector is quite large, ~10 times larger than the Mini Display Port (Apple even released Mini DVI, but it was not very popular...).

* Audio transmission is possible if both your video card, cable (adapter), and the monitor itself support the DVI-D digital standard.

VGA (D-Sub)

This standard was developed back in 1987. Despite this, it is still very popular and is used mainly for simple projectors, video set-top boxes, and small office monitors (where high resolution and very high-quality images are not required). Officially, resolutions of up to 1280×1024 pixels are supported, and therefore many are “prophesying” an imminent eclipse for this interface...

My personal opinion: many people “bury” this interface early, because thanks to hundreds of millions of devices that have been released over these 30 years, VGA will “outlive” some modern ones.

Peculiarities:

transmits only video signal (for audio it is necessary to use other channels);
maximum resolution up to 1280×1024 pixels, with a frame refresh rate of 75 Hz (in some cases it is possible to work at a higher resolution, but this is not officially guaranteed, and the image quality may also deteriorate);
there are many VGA to HDMI, VGA to Display Port, VGA to DVI and reverse adapters;
Despite its “moral” obsolescence, the interface is supported by a variety of audio and video equipment, and is still in wide demand.

Monitor power connector type. All types of connectors for computer monitors

HD 4850

HD 4870 Review

ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series Review: HD 4890 Specifications

Partner developer versions

Conclusion

HDMI

Display Port

DVI

VGA (D-Sub)

Popular questions about connecting and choosing a cable

Option 1: The monitor and computer have the same interface (HDMI or Display Port)

Option 2: devices have different interfaces. For example, on a laptop HDMI, on a VGA monitor.

What if I take different versions of the HDMI connector?

Does cable length matter? Which interface should you prefer?