Before HDMI was a standard for all-things-video, VGA and DVI were the standards for many PC’s to connect to a monitor when needed, It would connect to an LCD display with a resolution of 1024 x 768, and you would be good to go.
But ever since the rise of HDMI in the mid-2000’s, it’s become something of a ‘band-aid’ to a connector, similar to what USB-C is now becoming. With higher-resolutions and higher refresh rates, there’s been demand for another input to rise and only focus on displays.
This is where ‘DisplayPort’ has come in. It’s actually been around for as long as HDMI, but it’s only recently that it’s come into prominence, due to Gaming PC’s having two or more monitors as standard now.
With that, here’s a brief overview into DisplayPort, and the benefits it can give to your Gaming PC.
A DisplayPort Standard
When you think about connecting a console to a monitor, the first aspect that comes into your mind is the ‘HDMI’ port. But DisplayPort is a dedicated standard that only focus on video, and nothing else.
Introduced in 2006, it defines a standard of connecting laptops, PC’s, tablets and other devices to monitors that output video in many resolutions. You will find the port on recent graphics cards as well, with even more than one port than HDMI found on other products.
This is because that the standard is able to output a bigger bandwidth for video, and in-turn, results in a better throughput for data to be displayed on more monitors at higher resolutions. For example, DisplayPort 2.0 is a standard that’s about to be introduced to monitors and GPU’s, with it being able to output 4K at 240Hz, at a bandwidth of 80 Gbps. When you compare that with HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 2.0 is essentially double to every part of what HDMI can currently achieve.
When you also take into account that DisplayPort is a royalty-free standard compared to HDMI, that’s why features such as G-Sync and FreeSync were introduced to DisplayPort first. It didn’t need to jump the hoops of licensing, it just launched, and the higher bandwidth only helped these features shine on many Gaming PC’s.
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A DisplayPort Future
Regardless of you having a GPU from NVIDIA or AMD, and you’re thinking of upgrading to the soon-to-be-announced NVIDIA 3080 for example, using DisplayPort will be a great choice for your PC.
The higher the resolution, the better DisplayPort handles this, while HDMI does struggle. Gaming from 1440P upwards is now becoming the standard, and even though you could use HDMI for this, DisplayPort’s whole function is to be used with computers, and in-turn, gaming.
With variable refresh-rates on DisplayPort since its beginnings, the features of the connection only gets better, and if you’re looking to future-proof your PC further, then this will be a great choice in that.
With NVIDIA announcing their 30-Series of GPU’s very soon, with AMD rumoured to be showing their hand in November, it’s best to look at every aspect of your PC now, just to see what else you can prepare for the coming upgrades. DisplayPort can be one factor where you can easily change from HDMI to DisplayPort, as long as your current monitor has the port in question.
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