New Flat Panel - Stay with Analog - upgrade to Digital video card?

My view to the Internet since 1993 has been displayed via CRT/analog. Today I upgraded to a 19 inch flat panel. Very pleased with my aged MSI - nVidia G4Ti4200-TD64 (analog connection / 64MB ) running my new panel at native resolution 1280/1024. Does it pay to buy a digital card (I'm not a gamer)? My general thoughts to when do I upgrade my computer ... when Vista releases SP1, so I'm looking close to 2 years down the road. IF you recommend a digital card, could you suggest a few choices.
Thanks
Dennis

 

Hi Dennis,
Two years down the road is a long way away given the constant progress in graphics cards. I have just been down this road, and it is complicated at the moment because of Vista's imminent release and its included performance ratings for the machine. In two years time it will be very difficult to find a mobo with AGP for instance because they will probably all be PCI Express x16 at least.
I opted to stick with my AGP x8 card, a nVidia GeForce 7300GT which does enable Vista to run Aero Ok on my 19" flat panel, but if I have a major problem I shall probably change to a PCI Express capable mobo, but in any case the video card must be able to run at least Active X9, provide 3D shading, and SLI will probably be necessary in two years time.
As a matter of interest, I run Vista RC1 on two different CPU's, one an Athlon 64 XP+3500 and the other a Sempron 2.2 GH. The same video card produced performance ratings of 5.3 on the Athlon, and 5.9 on the Sempron. The total performance rating of both machines is limited to 4.1 by the processors, which I find odd.

Roger

 

Thanks for your response r.leale.
With all of the uncertainty with Vista / hardware, I would rather wait before replacing my computer. My current computer works fine..... and it even got better. Forgot my nVidia G4Ti4200-TD64 is a dual monitor card... one analog and one DVI. I did not go to the back of my computer to plug in the new flat panel because I use an extension cable for the monitor connection. Moved the monitor, switch cables/connection to DVI and fired up computer. Monitor recognized DVI connection and fired up with no resetting.
And the answer to my original question .... "Does it pay to buy a digital card?" ..... YES and YES again. Looking at my digital pictures seem much sharper with digital connection. Best part about it, I did not have to buy a new card.

Oh, a question or explantion ...
My flat panel says it uses a 24 pin DVI connection.
Why are the provide DVI cables have 18 pins plus one blade type pin?

 

Digital Visual Interface (DVI) - 5 types of plug configurations

HOW TO RECOGNIZE A DVI CABLE - DVI Connector Guide - Pictures with explanation

 

I have two rigs using flat panels, one DVI and one analog. And honestly, I can't tell the difference between them in terms of IQ. As it turns out, I use the "analog" LCD for all my photo editing - no way around that as I use a KVM and its analog only.

To answer your question in the most absolute of terms... "is it worth it to buy a new video card for digital output? "...I'd have to vote "no" on that. I think you need a better reason.

These days, it's actually kind of hard to find a new video card that even has an analog output.