4K/60Hz connection SHOWDOWN: DisplayPort 1.3 vs Thunderbolt 3 vs HDMI 2.0 vs USB 3.1

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• published: 23 Jul 2015
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Which connection type is best for Ultra HD, 4K PC monitors? I'll compare the bandwidth, maximum resolution and maximum frame rate (60FPS/60Hz/30Hz/30FPS) of various cables and standards, including DisplayPort 1.3, Thunderbolt 3, HDMI 2 and USB 3.1, and you'll find out which one comes out on top. -- Hey, if you enjoyed this video, please SUBSCRIBE to HandyAndy Tech Tips for more informative tech videos. -- PARTIAL VIDEO TRANSCRIPT: Hi, it's HandyAndy Tech Tips here, and this is your ultimate 4K connection guide. So if you want to hook up your 4K PC monitor, then which connection type do you choose? I'm going to show you four of the best. #1 DISPLAYPORT - In first place would have to be DisplayPort 1.3. Introduced in September 2014, it supports 32.4Gbit/s of bandwidth: that's a bit over 4 gigabytes per second! It supports 5K displays: that's 5120 x 2880 pixels at 120Hz in full uncompressed RGB, so amazing vibrant colours and lightning fast response times. In fact DisplayPort 1.3 is so advanced that its specs are beyond most graphics cards of today: I mean let's face it, what mainstream card could support 5K gaming at 120Hz? DisplayPort even supports 8K displays (yes, that's almost 8000 pixels across) using something called chroma subsampling, which subtly reduces the colour in the blue and green channels so that, hopefuly, you don't notice the difference. Now due to the chroma subsampling, the 8K mode of DisplayPort is really only suitable for TVs, so in other words monitors that you're going to be mainly viewing images on, not text. But the support for 4K and 5K monitors is nothing short of outstanding, and, if you want to future proof your next PC, make sure to get one with a DisplayPort 1.3 port. #2 THUNDERBOLT 3 - Even though it hasn't even been released yet, Thunderbolt 3 is looking like an exciting new standard. It will double the bandwidth of Thunderbolt 2, and provide 40Gbit/s of pure speed - that's 5 gigabytes per second. It will include support for many protocols, including PCI Express 3, and features the ability to link two 4K displays, both running at 60Hz, to a single port. This is not really related to displays, but Thunderbolt 3 can even provide up to 100W of power through a single cable. There's only one problem though: vendor support. Even though Thunderbolt was developed by Intel, it's generally associated with Apple, and, sure enough, Apple provides Thunderbolt in most of their desktops and laptops. But if you're looking for a Windows laptop with Thunderbolt, then you're pretty much out of luck. Of course, if you have a desktop PC, then you can easily install a PCI Express add-in card and start using Thunderbolt. #3 HDMI What discussion on connection standards would be complete without mentioning HDMI? This has been a mainstay of home theatres since 2003, and it's also very useful for connecting PC displays. The latest HDMI 2 version provides a maximum of 6Gbit/s per second per channel, which, with all channels functioning, gives you about 18Gbit/s of total bandwidth, or about 2.25 gigabytes per second. It supports a single 4K display at 60Hz. Now even though HDMI 2 was released way back in September 2013, there's still a lot of PCs which don't have it. Instead, they have the version 1.4 standard, which only supports 4K at 30Hz. This is fine for movies, but nowhere near good enough for working on a PC. So before buying a computer with HDMI, make sure to check the specs and only buy one with HDMI 2. #4 USB 3.1 - The last connection standard that I'll be discussing is USB 3.1. So USB is generally associated with connecting peripherals to your PC, but did you know it can be used for connecting monitors as well? The version 3.1 standard supports SuperSpeed 10Gbit/s, or 1.25 gigabytes per second. This doesn't sound too impressive, but it could theoretically support 4K monitors at 60Hz. Using a video bitrate calculator, I found that a video with a resolution of 3840 x 2160 and a framerate of 60FPS, would have an uncompressed bitrate of 1.49 gigabytes per second, which is only 24 megabytes per second more than the quoted speed of USB 3.1. I'm sure that, with a bit of lossless compression and other techniques, you could fit a single 4K stream down a USB 3.1 link. But it's obviously inferior to DisplayPort, Thunderbolt and HDMI when it comes to monitor connections. Hey, please subscribe if you enjoyed this video, it'd really help me out a lot. I'm HandyAndy and thanks for watching! -- 4K connection SHOWDOWN: DisplayPort 1.3 vs Thunderbolt 3 vs HDMI 2 vs USB 3.1