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DisplayPort cable

VESA has announced its new DisplayPort 1.4 standard, and the specification is stuffed with forward-looking goodies. VESA maintains ii versions of the DisplayPort standard — embedded DisplayPort (eDP), which was updated to version 1.4(a) a little more a year agone, and DisplayPort, which was last updated in September 2014. The organization has been working on the 1.4 standard for over a year, and the update promises some significant capability improvements.

DisplayPort 1.4 is the offset version of the protocol to include support for VESA's Display Stream Compression (DSC) technology. VESA guarantees that DSC is visually lossless, while achieving upwards to a 3:ane compression ratio. DisplayPort 1.4 is also compatible with Intel Thunderbolt and USB Type-C interfaces, which ways next-generation monitors could connect to your arrangement with a single, tiny cable.

DSC PR drawing

Image by Anandtech

DSC debuted in the embedded display port standard get-go considering the cablevision lengths are much shorter in a mobile arrangement than in a desktop. As Anandtech explains, in order for the compression algorithm VESA uses to function, it has to know that the data stream is authentic. Corruption errors in the encoded information will wreck the decoded output in a mode that users will immediately notice. That's why DisplayPort 1.four also adds forward fault correction, to make sure the data stream is corrected and encoded properly.

The new DP 1.4 spec will support 5120×2880 (5K)@60Hz with high dynamic range, and 8K (7680×4320)@60Hz in both high dynamic range and standard modes. Gamers who adopt high refresh rates and high resolutions aren't forgotten; DP 1.4 can also drive "deep color" 120Hz 4K panels. If y'all have a demand for high-definition, 32-channel sound, DP 1.four has you lot covered there, too.

As for when we'll run into supporting hardware in market place, it could take a while. AMD will support DisplayPort 1.3 in 2016 with its new Polaris architecture, which implies an xviii-month to ii-year gap between standard finalization and ship dates. That'due south really an improvement over past standards — HDMI one.0 was ratified in 2002, but the standard doesn't appear to have been picked upwardly on video cards until 2006. Every bit I've said in the past, I don't expect the industry to go charging after 8K panels — not when costs are loftier and 4K is nevertheless working its way into mass adoption. It takes years for high resolutions to become formally supported across ecosystems (4K still causes trouble in some programs and games), and higher resolution displays require more than sophisticated scaling to ensure legibility. The smallest monitor I'd desire to use with 4K without resorting to a scalar is probably a 32-inch console.

DisplayPort 1.iv carries far more bandwidth than even HDMI 2.0, which tops out at 4K@60Hz. AMD and Nvidia have historically divide on interfaces, with AMD aggressively positioning DisplayPort, and NV pushing HDMI. Whether that'll modify in coming generations is still unclear, only AMD will innovate both the HDMI 2.0b and DisplayPort 1.three standards with Polaris when it debuts on 14nm.

One last note: It isn't clear if the VESA AdaptiveSync standard, which AMD calls FreeSync, is mandatory in DP ane.4 or not. We know it'southward part of the embedded DisplayPort 1.4 standard, only VESA didn't mention AdaptiveSync in its 1.4 announcement.