Which is the best video port – DisplayPort or HDMI

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Video port – After completing the purchase of a monitor and a graphics card, most of you will always be “stuck” with the question: which video port to use to take full advantage of the hardware? Most of you will decide between DisplayPort and HDMI.

In general, up to now in the world, there have been many image transmission ports: from the last century, such as VGA, EGA, CGA, S-Video, composite video, to DVI-D in 1999, HDMI in 2002, and most recently DisplayPort in 2006.

However, with the arrival of many new technologies such as NVIDIA G-SYNC, AMD FreeSync, VRR (Variable Refresh Rate), or ALLM (Auto Low Latency Mode) on new hardware and game consoles such as Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5, more and more old video transmission ports are less and less used.

That gradually makes HDMI and DisplayPort become the two image transmission ports that are considered to be the most used today, with DVI-D and VGA remaining only a few old hardware supports very few people capital use.

TV PORT – HDMI

HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) was first introduced in 2002 by six major consumer electronics giants: Hitachi, Panasonic, Philips, Silicon Image, Sony, and Toshiba. Silicon Image currently controls HDMI Licensing LLC, and any manufacturer who wants to use the HDMI port must pay a fee.

Considered the most popular image transmission port, HDMI appears almost everywhere: laptops and computer monitors to TVs and projectors. Along with being born earlier, HDMI now has quite a few advantages over DisplayPort.

Since 2002, HDMI has been divided into several versions, including:

– HDMI 1.0-1.2a: Supports up to 1080p at 60Hz.

– HDMI 1.3-1.4b: Supports up to 4K at 30Hz, 4K 4:2:0 at 60Hz or 1080p at 144Hz.

– HDMI 2.0: Supports up to 8K 4:2:0 at 30Hz, 4K at 60Hz, or 1080p at 240Hz, and later versions (including HDMI 2.0a and 2.0b) support HDR content

HDMI 2.1: Supports up to 8K at 30Hz (120Hz with DSC), 4K at 144Hz (240Hz with DSC), and better HDR content rendering with dynamic data and enhanced Audio Return Channel – eARC) to support sending Dolby Atmos and DTS:X audio from the monitor to the receiver.

Although in version 2.1, HDMI supports content up to 8K at 30Hz and 4K at 144Hz, most display screens and graphics cards are still not equipped with this connection standard, while current TV models have started equipped with HDMI 2.1.

Accordingly, the length of the wire is also one of the

great advantages of HDMI. Specifically, HDMI cables can reach lengths of up to

15 meters – more than five times that of DisplayPort, and are divided into

three groups (as of HDMI 2.1 version):

Standard HDMI Cable: Provides enough

bandwidth for 720p or 1080i video and a 100Mbps internet connection.

– High-Speed ​​HDMI Cable: Provides enough bandwidth for

2160p video (4K or 4K UHD) but only with a 24Hz refresh rate and only 100Mbps

internet connection.

– Ultra High-Speed ​​HDMI Cable: Provides enough

bandwidth for 8K, 8K UHD, or up to 10K compressed video, with 100Mbps internet

connection.

In addition to video transmission, HDMI can also transmit audio up to 192kHz/24-bit and internet up to 100Mbps.

But to transmit audio from a TV or a device attached to the TV to an A/V receiver, HDMI 1.4 and 2.0 use ARC (Audio Return Channel), but are limited to two channels of 44.1Hz/16- uncompressed audio bits. In addition, ARC also supports compressed 5.1 audio.

With HDMI 2.1, it was possible to transmit 5.1 and 7.1 audio using eARC (enhanced ARC), with up to 192Hz/24-bit sampling.

Not only that, but HDMI also supports HDR10 from version 2.0, HDR10+, and several other formats from version 2.1, along with VRR support (to use AMD FreeSync) partially from HDMI 2.0b, and officially supports VRR from HDMI 2.1.

 

In short, HDMI also has certain limitations: It does not support NVIDIA G-SYNC, HDMI 2.1 is not yet available on many devices, and it has some functions that are not necessary for use on computers, such as internet transmission.

DISPLAYPORT

Born after HDMI, DisplayPort was first designed and launched in 2006 by VESA (Video Electronics Standards Association) – an organization formed with AMD, Apple, Google, NVIDIA, Intel, and many other companies.

In particular, DisplayPort is a completely free image transmission port, meaning that manufacturers do not need to pay royalties like HDMI to use.

Similar to HDMI, DisplayPort is also divided into several versions:

DisplayPort 1.0-1.1a: Supports up to 4K at 30Hz or 1080p at 144Hz.

DisplayPort 1.2-1.2a: Supports up to 4K at 75Hz or 1080p at 240Hz, with VRR and AMD FreeSync.

DisplayPort 1.3: Supports up to 8K 4:2:0 at 30Hz, 4K at 120Hz, or 1080p at 360Hz.

– DisplayPort 1.4-1.4a: Supports up to 8K at 60Hz and HDR content

DisplayPort 2.0: Supports up to 8K at 85Hz, 4K at 240Hz.

Since version 1.2a, VRR has become a common DisplayPort standard – that is, it fully supports both AMD FreeSync and NVIDIA G-SYNC tear-resistant technologies.

Accordingly, DisplayPort also supports MST (Multi-Stream Transport) to connect to multiple monitors through only one port, and DisplayPort’s signal can be completely sent through the USB Type-C port. As a result, most Thunderbolt 2 and 3 connectors use DisplayPort signals to transfer images (for example, Apple uses Thunderbolt 3 wires to connect Mac Pro to Pro Display XDR using DisplayPort 1.4).

Although it does not support long wires like HDMI, officially, DisplayPort cables are only 3m long and divided into three groups:

– DisplayPort RBR (Reduced Bit Rate): Provides bandwidth up to 6.48Gbps (DisplayPort 1.0)

– Standard DisplayPort cable: Supports HBR (High Bit Rate) with 10.80Gbps bandwidth and HBR2 (High Bit Rate 2) with 21.60Gbps bandwidth

– DP8K Wire: Supports HBR3 (High Bit Rate 3) with 32.40Gbps bandwidth (DisplayPort 1.3) and UHBR 10 (Ultra High Bit Rate 10) with 40Gbps bandwidth (DisplayPort 2.0)

With DisplayPort 2.0, VESA also introduces three new transmission modes: UBHR 10 (Ultra High Bit Rate), UHBR 13.5, and UHBR 20. In detail, UHBR 10 will provide bandwidth up to 40Gbps, UHBR 13.5 provides bandwidth up to 54 Gbps, and UHBR 20 provides up to 80 Gbps of bandwidth. Accordingly, all three modes above are compatible with DP8K wires thanks to 128b/132b encryption.

In addition, since version 1.4a/2.0, DisplayPort has officially supported HDR10+ and many other HDR formats. Accordingly, DisplayPort 1.4 can also transmit audio up to 192Hz/24-bit with uncompressed 7.1 audio.

SUMMARY

So, which video port should you choose? If you use an NVIDIA graphics card and have a monitor that supports G-SYNC, you should use a DisplayPort cable to get the most out of it. If you use an AMD graphics card, you can completely use an HDMI cable to connect to a monitor that supports FreeSync, although it may have some limitations such as low resolution, low refresh rate, or gamut color is not wide.

In the future, NVIDIA Ampere or AMD RDNA 2 graphics cards will likely support HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 2.0. However, in detail, DisplayPort 2.0 is still somewhat more than HDMI 2.1 in terms of configuration, especially when it is a free standard.

However, if you want to connect a computer or other devices to the TV, HDMI is the only option when most TVs do not have a DisplayPort port.

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