HDMI 2.2 specs have been finalized: do they pave the way for 4K 360Hz monitors?
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The final specs for HDMI 2.2 have finally been unveiled. The new audio-visual connectivity technology was first shown off at CES 2025, many moons ago, but the HDMI Forum has only just agreed on the definitive standard. Built around an ‘Ultra96’ cable, as the name suggests, it can support a data bandwidth up to 96 GB/s – double that of HDMI 2.1 and greater even than the 80 Gbps capable with DisplayPort 2.1.
The real-world impact may take a year or two to emerge, but this sets a clear roadmap for where high-end home cinema, gaming, and visual applications are heading. In particular, the new tech will be able to support 240Hz 4K / 120Hz 5K / 60Hz 8K connections completely uncompressed, or 480Hz 4K / 240Hz 8K / 120Hz 12K connections with DSC (Display Stream Compression) 1.2a signal compression. Exciting possibilities for future gaming monitors.
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What about 4K 360Hz monitors?
Although the HDMI Licensing table skips out on 4K 360Hz monitors, going straight to 480Hz at 4K, this seems like a fairly enormous jump from the existing 240Hz 4K monitors in terms of what a PC will be capable of outputting when gaming. 360Hz would be a much more realistic uplift for HDMI 2.2 monitors.
In any case, yes, the HDMI 2.2 connection is capable of supporting a 360Hz 4K video feed, but possibly only if the monitor and the device producing the data (e.g. the PC) both support DSC 1.2a signal compression. As we can see in the table, 240Hz 4K is supported by an uncompressed Ultra96 cable (i.e. HDMI 2.2), but 480Hz requires DSC, as marked in blue. Although 360Hz 4K is not listed in the table, it should also require DSC, much like current-gen 4K 240Hz displays using HDMI 2.1.
When will HDMI 2.2 come out?
There is currently no release date for HDMI 2.2, which essentially means we don’t know when we’ll see devices that come with HDMI 2.2-compatible ports or capabilities. The latest word on the street is that AMD’s next generation of RDNA 5 Radeon graphics cards will support HDMI 2.2, with bandwidth going up to 80Gbits/s, which means they still won’t take full advantage of the 96Gbits/s on offer by the new connection (assuming all this is true of course). It’s possible that the full bandwidth will instead be made available for the high-end workstation graphics cards produced by the company.
Given these GPUs aren’t likely to hit the shelves until early 2026, it will probably also be next year before we see any HDMI 2.2 supporting monitors: CES 2026 is a likely bet for when we’ll see these first unveiled.
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