New information regarding HDMI Forum’s latest display specifications has come to light this week, with a CES 2025 press conference set to reveal details on bandwidth, capabilities, and maybe even release dates.
The display specification in question is assumed to be HDMI 2.2 (although no naming has been confirmed), the successor to HDMI 2.1 – offering a “wide range of higher resolutions and refresh rates”, says The Verge.
The current HDMI 2.1 standard – which is now widely used by all modern monitors, GPUs, laptops, and TVs – supports a bandwidth of 48 Gbps and resolutions of 10240 x 4320 @ 120Hz, a number that is expected to rise with the upcoming standard. According to a press release reported by VideoCardz, the new display standard will require a “new cable” to unlock its increased bandwidth – which, in our opinion, could be groundbreaking for 8K (and above) resolutions in 2025.
At the time of writing this, we don’t have anything concrete regarding the bandwidth or specifications of the suspected HDMI 2.2 standard. That said, industry experts are already speculating what it may bring to the table, with many expecting even higher refresh rates and resolutions, without the use of DSC (Display Stream Compression).
In this article, we’ll be keeping you bang up to date with all the latest HDMI 2.2 news, announcements, release dates, and specifications.
HDMI 2.2 release date is expected to land at CES 2025
According to the latest rumors from sources in contact with HDMI Forum, HDMI 2.2 is set to be unveiled at CES 2025. This would put the launch directly in line with both NVIDIA’s 50 series and AMD’s 8000 series.
While this is the case, it’s unclear when the display standard will be fully utilized in mainstream products; such as TVs, monitors, and laptops. If we take HDMI 2.1’s launch back in 2017 as a key indicator, we could be waiting at least 18 months before we see some of the first products (outside of GPUs) come to fruition.
That being said, CES is one of the biggest tech conventions on the calendar and often showcases the latest tech innovations – meaning, there’s no reason to suggest that HDMI 2.2 monitors wouldn’t be a thing of 2025.
Latest HDMI 2.2 specifications aren’t yet public
Right now, we don’t have much to go off in terms of specifications. In fact, all we really know at the time of writing is; the expectation that HDMI 2.2 will offer better resolutions and refresh rates than HDMI 2.1, and speculation around the new standard not needing to use DSC.
We also know that DisplayPort 2.1 is being widely supported in 2025, with AMD already adopting the technology that offers nearly double the bandwidth of HDMI 2.1 (48Gbps vs 80Gbps). If HDMI wants to continue offering cutting-edge technology, it’d have to produce a standard that does at least 80Gbps.
Will the RTX 50-series support HDMI 2.2?
NVIDIA’s upcoming 50 series is set to launch at this year’s CES, with the official keynote happening on the 6th of January, 2025. At that conference, we’ll find out all the latest specifications of the upcoming GPU lineup, including display standard support. If NVIDIA is to continue offering hardware that is both future-proof and at the forefront of the latest innovations, you’d have to expect it will come with HDMI 2.2 certification. That said, it may be a little too late for NVIDIA to start implementing new standards this close to launch.
The new GPUs will also likely offer DisplayPort 2.1 as well.
Will the AMD 8000-series support HDMI 2.2
AMD has already adopted the DisplayPort 2.1 certification and has done so for some time now. That being said, as the unveiling of its own 8000 series GPU lineup is set to coincide with HDMI’s 2.2 announcement, we’d be surprised if the new GPUs didn’t offer the latest standard from HDMI. Again, this is all on the basic assumption that HDMI Forum is in constant communication with AMD, letting them know months in advance that the technology would be unveiling.
When will the first HDMI 2.2 monitors be available
It’s hard to know when the first HDMI 2.2 monitors will be available – mainly because we don’t fully understand when HDMI 2.2 will be officially released. That being said, if 2.2 is unveiled at this year’s CES (as a ready-to-use technology), then there’s really nothing stopping leading monitor manufacturers from adding the certification right now.
That being said, we’ll likely have to wait some time for the HDMI 2.2 standard to become widespread in monitors and TVs – a similar time period to that of the HDMI 2.1 standard.
