Windows 7: Intel and AMD sign death warrant for VGA port

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Intel and AMD sign death warrant for VGA port

By Jon Stokes | Last updated 2 days ago
Rival processor makers Intel and AMD may not agree on much, but they are of one mind about the future of the venerable VGA graphics port: it doesn't have one. The two chipmakers are joined by Dell, Lenovo, Samsung, and LG in an industry-spanning agreement to phase out VGA entirely by 2015, and to standardize solely on HDMI and DisplayPort.
"DisplayPort and HDMI allow for slimmer laptop designs, and support higher resolutions with deeper color than VGA—a technology which is more than 20 years old," the companies wrote in a joint press release. "Additionally, as laptops get smaller and their embedded flat panel resolutions increase for more immersive experiences, the power advantages, bidirectional communications and design efficiency benefits of DisplayPort make it a superior choice over LVDS, the previous standard for LCD panel inputs."
LVDS will be gone from Intel's products by 2013, with VGA following in 2015. AMD is following a similar timetable in phasing out the two technologies.
"Newer standards such as DisplayPort and HDMI clearly provide the best connectivity options moving forward," said AMD's Eric Demers. "In our opinion, DisplayPort 1.2 is the future interface for PC monitors, along with HDMI 1.4a for TV connectivity."
Part of the impetus for the depreciation of VGA is the ongoing push for 3D displays in both TV and PC markets. On the TV front, the 3D panels require the latest HDMI spec, with its support for more bandwidth. And in PCs, GPU makers and monitor makers would both like to see gamers don shutter glasses and make the jump to true 3D gaming. Indeed, even in the handheld space, parallax barrier technology will bring 3D (sans glasses) to the smallest displays this coming year.
Of course, whether consumers care as much about 3D as device makers do is an open question. Sales of 3D panels have been disappointing so far, and all the major 3D TV makers are bracing for a lackluster holiday season. But if the public does decide to take the 3D plunge at some point, at least they won't have a legacy graphics port holding them back.



Been wondering how much longer the VGA port would last.

Can't say as I'll miss it. Kind of sounds like DVI might be on the hit list too.

Can't say I'll miss it either. But why take away DVI? That could be the new standard along side HDMI

So what about those of us who can't view 3D, those that don't have proper depth perception?

I really hope they do think of the little people, other wise that will hurt sales.

And on sales of 3D panels, if the makers of these panels looked at the bigger picture, there are quite a few countries woth money issues, the UK being one, at the moment (Don't hold me to this as these are guesstimates) a 3D panel would set you back £600 to probably £2000. Now how many britons ould be able to aford these, especially with next years 20% VAT hike.

These companies really need to do some more global makerting strategies.

Lucky

I can't quite remember where but i read a blog the other day and it seems that Display port is actually better than DVI.

I was reading about 120mhz Monitors at high res and it was saying that DVI just cannot re-produce the signal the graphics card is sending fast enough, even over dual-DVI.

I will try and find it today and post back.

Lucky

Looking at 3d tv all the time is bad for you're eyes

3D capable - not 3D permanent.

3D screens do 2D as well.

The problem is that, as they phase out the VGA and DVI ports which most monitors today are still using, when we upgrade our PC's and laptop's we won't be able to plug our older monitors into the new machines forcing us to upgrade a still perfectly good monitor with one that has HDMI or a DisplayPort.

It's good to move forward with technology but there is always some fallout that ends up costing us all more money.

Thanks for posting Lee.

Nice information Lee, looks like most people will need to stay away from the VGA only monitors that will be on sale.

you can still use DP to VGA adapters to drive a VGA only monitor.