If you have just bought (or intend to) a 4K resolution monitor , you will surely wonder if it is better to connect it through the usual HDMI connector, or in the case of having other video inputs, if instead using DisplayPort or USB-C it will give you some additional advantage. In this article we are going to tell you about the advantages and disadvantages of connecting your 4K monitor via HDMI or using any of its other video inputs.
Obviously, not all 4K monitors have the same video inputs: there are those that have only one or two HDMI 2.0 connectors and do not give you another possibility, but there are also those that have a wide range of video inputs that will allow you to choose the that interests you the most for each case. Let’s assume that the monitor has the most common video inputs today: HDMI, DisplayPort and the new USB-C.
Connecting your 4K monitor via HDMI is always a success
Like it or not, HDMI connectivity has become the modern standard for video connections, and it would be very strange to see a 4K monitor that lacks one or more inputs with this standard.
HDMI 2.1 is the latest version of the standard adopted by manufacturers, and supports a bandwidth of up to 48 Gbps, more than enough not only for 4K resolution but for up to 10K at 60 FPS with 10-bit color depth. Since in this article we talk about 4K monitors, HDMI 2.1 and even the 2.0 that is more frequent is still more than adequate.
HDMI 2.1 also allows daisy-chanining: connect a PC to a monitor and that monitor to another additional monitor, instead of connecting both to the PC in different video outputs of the graphics card. Although the monitors that support this technology are quite scarce, the possibility still exists, although you should know that currently the standard only allows two monitors to be connected using this method, you could not add a third.
HDMI 2.1 provides many benefits, but as we mentioned before, the most common is that 4K monitors have HDMI 2.0 video inputs instead. This means that the connector is limited to 4K resolution at 60 FPS with 8-bit color depth. Also, if you are a gamer, you should know that HDMI 2.0 does not support FreeSync, HDR content is limited to static metadata (the HDR 10 standard) and is not compatible with Dolby Vision.
In other words, if you intend to use HDMI with your 4K monitor, we advise you to make sure that the monitor supports the 2.1 standard, since although the 2.0 standard is sufficient for a TV, it is not for a PC and less if it is for use. gaming.
DisplayPort: faster, stronger, better
DisplayPort has long been the preferred choice of PC enthusiasts, and it’s not hard to understand why. The DisplayPort 2.0 standard is capable of providing a bandwidth of up to 80 Gbps, although there are no devices that support it yet and the available 4K monitors all have version 1.4 of the standard.
Still, DisplayPort 1.4 is capable of supporting 8K resolution at 60 FPS with 10-bit color depth, but only with image compression (no compression is the same as HDMI 2.0 in this regard). It is also compatible with daisy chain.
The good part of DisplayPort 1.4 is that it does support dynamic metadata in HDR, which means that you can use Dolby Vision and HDR10 + with greater color depth (here the limitation will be the monitor, not the interface). DisplayPort does offer some nice advantages over HDMI 2.0, but this will essentially be the case when the first products that support DisplayPort 2.0 hit the market.
USB-C, ideal for laptop users
Although the USB-C standard has a wide range of possible uses, one of them is that of the video connector using the USB-C Alt mode, which is essentially DisplayPort through the USB-C connector. This means that the limitations of this connector coincide with those of DisplayPort, in this case with its version 1.4, and you will simply have the same characteristics but with another type of connector.
Of course, one of the reasons why you should choose USB-C over HDMI or DisplayPort on your 4K monitor is simply because of the ease and versatility that this connection provides, being especially useful if you have a monitor connected to your laptop. It will not give you more advantages than DisplayPort, because as we have explained it is essentially the same but with another connector, so in your hand you have to use the connector that suits you best.
