VESA says all DisplayPort 2.0 products are now DisplayPort 2.1

VESA released the DisplayPort 2.1 specification today. Typically when an industry group announces a new standard, it takes months or even years for products that support the specifications to be available to consumers. But DisplayPort 2.1 products are already available; In fact, you may already have some. VESA also announced today that any product that already achieved DisplayPort 2.0 certification prior to today’s announcement is now DisplayPort 2.1 certified as well.

“VESA works closely with member companies to ensure that DisplayPort 2.0-enabled products will in fact meet the newest and most demanding DisplayPort 2.1 specifications,” VESA announced, which also makes DisplayHDR, AdaptiveSync / MediaSyncAnd the scanmounting specifications for the screen.

“Due to this effort, all previously certified DisplayPort 2.0 products including those that support UHBR (Ultra High Bit Rate)—whether GPUs, docking station chips, standard benchmark chips, or PHY repeater chips, such as remasters. timekeeping, or DP40/DP80 cables… (including both passive and active and using full-size DisplayPort, Mini DisplayPort, or USB Type-C connectors)—already have been certified to the more stringent DisplayPort 2.1 specification,” VESA said.

Just like that, DisplayPort 2.0 products have been greatly elevated. However, there aren’t many DisplayPort 2.0 products to talk about right now. DisplayPort 2.0 products were initially expected in 2019 but, due to COVID-19 The pandemic is hurting testing capabilities, it didn’t start until this year.

AMD Ryzen 6000 Certified DisplayPort 2.0such as some MediaTek and RealTek chipsets, DisplayPort cables, and ports, but that’s about it. We don’t know which DisplayPort 2.0 displays are readily available for purchase in the United States. Intel Arc graphics cards, including Intel Arc A770 and A750 processorDisplayPort 2.0 support, but the latest Nvidia GPUs, and RTX 4090 and 4080, and the latest AMD cards, and Radeon RX 6000 . Seriesdon’t.

DisplayPort 2.1 vs. DisplayPort 2.0

This leads us to the obvious question: What is the difference between DisplayPort 2.0 and DisplayPort 2.1?

The new DisplayPort 2.1 confirms the use of the same physical layer (PHY) specification as USB4.0 . port. According to VESA, this change will create a more efficient DisplayPort tunneling over the latest generation of USB-C. as such USB-C is becoming more and more ubiquitousit makes sense that DisplayPort plays well with the connector.

“Achieving greater alignment between DisplayPort and USB on a shared PHY has been a particularly important effort within VESA given the significant overlap in use-case models between DisplayPort and USB4 systems,” said Alan Kobayashi, VESA Board Chairman and Head of the DisplayPort Task Group. a permit.

Furthermore, DisplayPort 2.1 introduces an updated bandwidth management feature that VESA claims will allow DisplayPort tunneling over USB4 to coexist with other I/O traffic “more efficiently” than before.

The next version of DisplayPort also requires support for VESA display stream compression (DSC) codec and board reboot to reduce the amount of bandwidth required to transmit DisplayPort tunneling packets.

Finally, the DisplayPort 2.1 specification provides more stringent requirements for DisplayPort cables, including the mini ones. DisplayPort 2.1 cables operating at up to 40 Gbps, which VESA describes for DP40 cables, are specified to support lengths “exceeding” 6.6 feet (2 m) while maintaining performance.

Today, VESA announced that DisplayPort 2.1 cables, operating at a maximum capacity of 80 Gbps, are designed to operate at full performance over distances “exceeding” 3.3 feet (1 m).

As many have likely noted, DisplayPort 2.1 does not increase the maximum throughput over DisplayPort 2.0 and will not bring more advanced capabilities around things like maximum resolution and refresh rate. VESA has discussed using DisplayPort 2.0 with displays with up to 16K resolutions (15,360 x 8640 pixels), including 60Hz with HDR and DSC. DisplayPort 2.0 has also been associated with fast, high-resolution displays, such as 4K screens, 240Hz that does not depend on pressure.