In June 2019, VESA announced the DisplayPort 2.0 standard. This new standard offers three times more bandwidth than DisplayPort 1.4a , allowing resolutions of 8K to 60Hz to be reached without compression and 16K to 60Hz with compression. Now, they have announced Display Port Alt Mode 2.0 , bringing all of these enhancements to the USB port ecosystem.
The Alt Mode of DisplayPort is that USB Type C connectors can double as video output with this open standard, and for this reason they have decided to make the version compatible with USB4 , which is basically Thunderbolt 3 but free to implement by any manufacturer. , and that it is one of the most versatile connectors in history.
DisplayPort Alt Mode 2.0: up to 16K @ 60Hz via USB
The new Alt Mode 2.0 has some improvements to adapt it to the USB standard to ensure proper integration, such as power management. To do this, VESA has been collaborating with USB-IF for the past few years to ensure that connectivity can be seamlessly accomplished, either through a native DisplayPort or a USB-C connector.
Many devices will benefit from this new advantage, as is the case with light notebooks. For example, a lightweight laptop with a USB4 connector with a USB C interface will be able to connect to displays up to 16K at 60Hz with a bandwidth of up to 77.4 Gbps, making it ideal even for displaying HDR images, for gaming, or for reality. virtual. In comparison, HDMI 2.1 only offers 48 Gbps of bandwidth, although it is more widespread on many devices; especially on televisions.
With DisplayPort 2.0 we say goodbye to having to use two cables
USB4 is basically Thunderbolt 3 after Intel released the full specification to make it easier to expand and integrate on as many devices as possible. Intel has also contributed for the integration of DisplayPort 2.0 in USB4. DisplayPort 1.4 was released in January 2016, but soon monitors for which it already fell short were launched on the market. For example, 4K 144Hz monitors need dual cable to reach those figures, as the previous standard limit was 4K at 120Hz if you wanted to get the full 4: 4: 4 color ratio for realistic color.
With DisplayPort 2.0 we can use the following screen configurations:
- A monitor
- A 16K (15360 x 8460) monitor at 60 Hz at 10 bits with 4: 4: 4 and HDR (with DSC)
- A 10K (10240 x 4320) monitor at 60Hz 8 bit with 4: 4: 4 (without DSC)
- Two monitors
- Two 8K (7680 x 4320) 120Hz 10-bit monitors with 4: 4: 4 and HDR (with DSC)
- Two 4K (3840 x 2160) monitors at 144 Hz and 8 bits with 4: 4: 4 (without DSC)
- Three monitors
- Three 10K (10240 x 4320) monitors at 60Hz 10-bit with 4: 4: 4 and HDR (with DSC)
- Three 4K (3840 x 2160) monitors at 90Hz 10-bit with 4: 4: 4 and HDR (without DSC)
The first monitors with DisplayPort 2.0 are expected to arrive later this year, although the coronavirus could delay some of these plans. As for USB4, the first compatible motherboards would arrive in 2022 according to AMD‘s latest leaked roadmap, where those motherboards would also be the first to incorporate DDR5.