Its the DVI cable. They have limited bandwidth and can support only up to 60 or 120 z refresh rates depending on the screen rez. You need to upgrade that shit
Yeah, since that post, I've done some research. Another friend suggested DVI couldn't even do above 60hz, but a google suggests 120hz at 1080p should be possible over DVI, and I can't do anything over 60. The truth of the matter is, I don't know how old the DVI cable I'm using is. It might be as old as my other monitor (as in, between 11-14 years old), but it may be even older than that.
The monitor came with a Display Port cable, but it's only about four feet, which is about the length of my current DVI cable, and I'm not super comfortable with that.
Part of the reason I wanted a new monitor wasn't just because my old monitor is from 2011 and was getting very, very, very dim. Over the last year or two I've also encountered this strange problem where for a few seconds, the entire screen would look like this:
Specifically that kind of crawling, multi-colored static. After 2-3 seconds, the image would return as if nothing had happened.
I was never sure what the cause was. The monitor itself? It was definitely old enough. But a more tech-savvy friend suggested I should try tightening the cable connected to the back of the display, which I did -- it's hard to say if it did anything, because it'd only happen maybe once or twice a year.
But what I do know is that the DVI cable I'm using is pretty taut. The way I have my desktop oriented there's not a lot of room for slack on that cable. I say this because the monitor obviously came with a display port cable, and my graphics card has three display port outputs, but it's only about a 3-4 foot cable... which is about the same length as this prehistoric DVI cable I'm using.
So one way or another, I need a new cable to really get the most out of this new monitor, be it a new DVI cable or a new display port cable, so I ordered this about four hours ago on Amazon. A six foot, braided display port cable. A friend has said that even though this is a no-name content farm brand, he's bought cables from them before and it's fine.
(I asked around my friends because I've heard Monoprice isn't what it used to be as far as being the nexus for high quality A/V cables)
Anyway it'll be here by Friday, so fingers crossed. In the meantime I remain a 60hz boy
