Preliminary reports indicate an imminent launch in mere weeks, fueled by a recent leak suggesting significant upgrades to its standard settings, which will facilitate improved bandwidth, enabling users to enjoy higher resolutions and faster refresh rates. Could advanced graphics cards and gaming monitors potentially surpass the current limitations of 4K at 240Hz without relying on image compression?
As the LG UltraGear 32GS95UE debuts, bringing 4K at 240Hz gaming to the table, it’s unlikely that HDMI 2.2 will trigger a wave of ultra-fast gaming monitors vying for supremacy anytime soon? If this rumor proves accurate, it won’t be long before we’re clamoring for even higher and more precise displays.
According to Italian tech website Digital Day, a press release allegedly surfaced on the HDMI forum, indicating the imminent introduction of a new standard.
The announcement claims that the new specification, which incorporates cutting-edge HDMI know-how and enhanced bandwidth, will facilitate support for a range of higher resolutions and refresh rates through the introduction of a new HDMI cable.
The highly anticipated announcement of HDMI v2.2 is poised to take centre stage at the CES 2025 technology conference in Las Vegas, just three weeks away.
Despite the declared intention of releasing a comprehensive press statement regarding the announcement, the location refrains from providing any further details about the matter. Given that we’re unaware of the latest bandwidth and corresponding refresh rate combinations available on these cables?
The HDMI 2.1 specification enables resolutions up to 10,240 x 4,320 pixels (10K) at 120Hz when Show Stream Compression (DSC) is utilized, but it is limited to 7,680 x 4,320 pixels (8K) at 60Hz without compression. In the meantime, HDMI 2.1 supports 4K resolutions with a higher level of familiarity, capable of rendering 240Hz with Display Stream Compression (DSC) or 4K at 120Hz without DSC, thanks to its increased 48Gbit/s bandwidth.
As a result, it’s possible that this novel standard could increase bandwidth by up to 50%, potentially enabling 4K at 240Hz without DSC or 4K at 360Hz with DSC. The potential for a brand-new standard is staggering, with the possibility of doubling bandwidth and unlocking 480Hz 4K gaming or enabling seamless 8K performance at 120Hz.
Here’s what we currently understand about this product release: the introduction highlights the innovative application of a novel cable. In line with prior HDMI upgrades, HDMI 2.1 necessitates a compliant cable to realize its peak performance capabilities. Might this new speed range suggest that the faster bandwidth is only feasible with shorter cables, potentially capping out at a maximum length of 50 feet?
Compared to DisplayPort, the newest standard is DisplayPort 2.1, boasting an impressive maximum bandwidth of 80 Gbps. While this principle theoretically allows for 4K refresh rates exceeding 300Hz, our current reality is limited to only seeing 4K at 240Hz displays.
In fact, numerous programs that successfully strike a balance between refresh rates and backbone strength rarely take advantage of DisplayPort 2.1’s capabilities. Here is the rewritten text:
The LG 32GS95UE exemplifies impressive technology by utilizing DSC over DisplayPort to seamlessly deliver a 4K resolution at an incredible 240Hz refresh rate. While presented in a satirical tone, the statement still conveys a sense of frustration; however, to improve it, we can rephrase it to focus on the specific benefit: “Thanks to its advanced HDMI ports (2.1), this device has the capability to seamlessly transmit high-quality content without the need for compression.” The team lead has consistently emphasized that meeting show requirements has become increasingly complicated due to unforeseen changes in the project scope.
What’s more, without NVIDIA graphics cards, the system supports DisplayPort 2.1, while RTX 40 series sticks to DisplayPort 2.0 as an option. While only AMD’s Radeon RX 7000 graphics cards currently support DisplayPort 2.1, we anticipate that both NVIDIA’s forthcoming RTX 5000 series and AMD’s upcoming RX 8000 series GPUs will also support this technology when they are launched at CES.
HDMI 2.2 won’t suddenly become an overnight sensation, despite its significant leap forward in graphics processing capabilities. While some may focus solely on the decision and body price combinations, which could potentially exceed players’ interests, it’s also likely that new products based on the standard won’t be widely available until well into next year, if not beyond.
What to expect from CES 2025 can be gleaned by reviewing our in-depth guides to the forthcoming Nvidia RTX 5090 and AMD RX 8800 XT graphics processing units, both of which are poised to debut at this year’s event.
