New DisplayPort 2 Standard Supports Insane 16K Resolution

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The new standard has 77.4 Gbps bandwidth and supports ultra-high end virtual reality applications.

The Video Electronics Standards Association have published its new DisplayPort 2 standard and it is absolutely insane.

This thing can support a 16K video stream without blinking thanks to its new 77.4 Gbps bandwidth, tripling the current DisplayPort 1.4’s 25.92 Gbps standard.

Credit: Belkin/CC

(Image credit: Belkin/CC)

These numbers are mindblogging and perhaps don’t make any sense for most, but a 16K video stream has a resolution of 15,360 x 8,460 pixels. At that resolution, a standard film will be over 100 terabytes and so sharp that it will slice your retinas just by looking at it.

Not only is the resolution is insane, but the 16K standard does it at 60 frames per second with 30-bit-per-pixel color definition — 4:4:4 High Dynamic Range with HDR-10 support. The 16K stream runs with Display Stream Compression, which is virtually lossless. At 10K, the new standard runs uncompressed, which will be a dream for film editors.

Credit: VESA

(Image credit: VESA)

The new DisplayPort 2 can use its native connector but also the standard USB-C Thunderbolt 3 physical interface.

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How is this useful now?

Of course, nobody is going to start streaming Netflix at 16K anytime soon. Outside of Japan, the rest of the world is just getting their feet wet in the 4K waters. And while in some Asian contries they are already testing 8K video streams, 16K is still far far away on the horizon.

That doesn’t mean that DisplayPort 2 is useless for practical applications now. It can simultaneously support two 8K video streams at 120 frames per second or two uncompressed 4K video streams running at 144 frames per second. 

Through USB-C it can support two 4K x 4K (4,096 x 4,096 pixels) simultaneous video streams running at 120 frames per second and with 30-bit color. That means that DisplayPort 2 is perfect for the next generation of virtual reality headsets and augmented reality displays.

And you thought your ultra-fast DisplayPort-powered 4K gaming monitor was good enough.

Jesus Diaz
Jesus Diaz

Jesus Diaz founded the new Sploid for Gawker Media after seven years working at Gizmodo, where he helmed the lost-in-a-bar iPhone 4 story and wrote old angry man rants, among other things. He's a creative director, screenwriter, and producer at The Magic Sauce, and currently writes for Fast Company and Tom's Guide.