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I have a totally avarage looking VGA cable with totally average HD-15/DE-15 male D-sub connectors on both end, however the label on it states, that it is an "SVGA cable".

I know that VGA is also the name of the 640x480 resolution and SVGA is for 800x600, so I would assume that they named it for a reason, and if my logic is correct than in this case they try to tell me that this cable "supports" 800x600 resolution, but this sounds ridiculous. Every kind of "VGA" (SVGA, QGA, SXGA) works on a regular VGA cable, aren't them? Those are analog signals on the same pins on the same wire. Am I correct?

So, how does an SVGA cable differ from a VGA cable? Is it just a marketing term?

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Basic VGA cables are comprised of fifteen wires and support resolutions of 640x480 or less. If you use a cable like this on a modern computer with a higher resolution, it will probably display some kind of picture but with significant ghosting.

High-resolution VGA cables (sometimes called SVGA, Coax VGA, premium VGA, etc.) are comprised of three coaxial cables and nine wires (see picture below) and support resolutions up to 2048x1586. While basic VGA cables might have a foil shield, high-resolution VGA cables will often have a braided shield and ferrite cores.

enter image description here

Lastly, an example of one company's basic VGA cable and their high-resolution VGA cable.

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  • Thanks for the good description/image it makes it totally understandable but the things that convinced me were the examples.
    – totymedli
    Jan 11, 2015 at 12:58
  • @Jason Do you have a pin out describing which pins are connected to the coax cores and shields? I'd guess at 1,2, and 3 for the cores and 6,7,8, for the shields based on the pin out described at minitran.co.uk/pdf/SVGA_Pin_Out.pdf but it would be good to have confirmation. Also, do you have a picture of a standard VGA cables stripped back?
    – Fat Monk
    Mar 16, 2017 at 11:13
  • @FatMonk I don't think there's an official specification for high-resolution VGA cables like there is for network cables. Different manufacturers would be free to make them differently, but your guess sounds right to me. Here's a basic VGA cable.
    – Jason
    Mar 16, 2017 at 14:15
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There is no definition of SVGA or VGA cable. Technically it is just D-Sub and it handles are possible resolutions although it may cause problems like blurriness in case of big resolutions like fullHD. The cable may be more shielded (thicker) though and naming it SVGA may suggest that... Usually thicker cables are better and there is lesses risk of artifacts or image instability when using those ;) But using a DVI, HDMI or DisplayPort cable is best of course. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VGA_connector

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