Two identical external monitors, one through HDMI another VGA. Text on VGA looks blurry

external displayhdmilaptopvga

I've tried a lot of things but I can't seem to get it working correctly. Below is my setup.

Laptop is a Dell Latitude E6535, which has Video chip/card NVidia NVS 5200M.

I have two external AOC IPS i2367Fh 23-Inch Screen LED Monitor. One connected to the laptop through HDMI and another through VGA.

Problem is, the text and overall image looks perfect and sharp on whichever of the two I connect through HDMI, while the VGA one just does not seem right, text does not look crisp, and just blurry enough that you cannot tell it's blurry, but you feel there's something wrong about it. I asked the wife to look at both monitors without telling her there was an issue, and she said the same thing.

Now, I have made sure it is not the cable because like I said, if I connect the monitor that looks odd through HDMI instead of VGA (i switch which monitor uses which cable), then it looks fine and the other looks bad. I've also tried two VGA cables.

When I go to the NVDIA settings, only one of the monitors can use the NVS 5200M chip, while the other one takes the Intel HD Graphics 4000 adapter, and I think that depends on which one I make my main display, but making the VGA monitor my main display (even though it would use the NVS 5200M) does not fix the issue. It will still look bad.

The resolution that I'm using is the native one for the monitors, 1920 x 1080.

I already tried tuning ClearType but did not fix it either.

Any ideas are welcome. Thanks

EDIT:

Thank you everyone for the responses/suggestions. It seems in order to get it working I will need either a docking station or an adapter. I'm considering the following:

LAST UPDATE:

The USB to HDMI adapter did NOT work for me at all. I just went with the docking station and DP to HDMI adapter and it worked flawlessly. Crisp image and text on both external monitors.

Best Answer

Basically, HDMI is digital and VGA is analogue.

There are a few solutions:

1) Buy a docking station which provides access to 2x HDMI or 1x HDMI + 1x DVI.

2) Use an on-board DVI instead of the VGA.

3) Buy a HDMI -> VGA converter. The 1st VGA will no longer seem blurry in comparison with the HDMI.