HDMI 2.1 will support 8K @ 120Hz resolutions and up to 64Gbps data transfer

Robert Sole 16 June, 2019

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Updated to the HDMI 2.1 standard, which now supports up to 8K @ 120Hz resolutions and 64Gbps data transfers over four data lines.

It's funny how the HDMI standard, being much inferior in quality and performance to DisplayPort, still there. The functionalities offered by HDMI are very limited and far from the capability of DisplayPort. It has long been sold as a great video port, but the reality is that it is a chestnut. Despite this, they continue to develop the standard that gives life to this connector.

We must go to January 2017 when the HDMI 2.1 standard was introduced. Supposedly that new standard would be a great innovation and would be widely implemented in the industry. The reality is that few televisions and monitors support it. What's more, the HDMI port has been relegated in graphics cards, with most graphics with 1x HDMI and 2x or more DisplayPort. Well now the HDMI 2.1 version receives an 'update'

HDMI 2.1 with support for 8K @ 120Hz resolutions

There are many cable developers under this standard that are manufacturing under this new standard. This offers us a 48Gbps transfer and would support 8K @ 60Hz resolutions. They are labeled Ultra High Speed HDMI and manufacturers would already be implementing this standard on Ultra-HD televisions.

The new cables use four 12Gbps data lines, thus offering 48Gbps bandwidth. This is slightly more than three times the current bandwidth of these cables, which is 18Gbps.

An update to the HDMI standard has been developed for new Ultra-HD televisions with high refresh rates. Support is included for 4K @ 120FPS, 8K @ 100 / 120FPS, and 10K @ 100 / 120FPS. But it is also that support is offered for new color standards such as BT.2020 for 10bits, 12bits and 16bits of color.

But to be realistic, all of this does not matter to us, because from now until 8K televisions are a standard, years will pass. Nor is there 8K content that makes it necessary to make the leap. In addition to the DisplayPort standard already supporting 8K @ 60Hz, it is compatible with Thunderbolt 3 and allows data transfer via USB 3.1.