Guide to Display Cables / Adapters (v2)

[mao_riku]

Nice to meet you 
This guide was very helpful! Thank you.

I'm interested in multi-display like the day traders use.
so I have one question now...
What is the Maximum Number of Monitor Screens that Windows 10 can Recognize?
16?
 

How many Graphics Cards can be used with ”1 slot / 4HDMI output Card" ?
Is it possible to have a 6*4=24 Monitors recognized when I can use 6 of those cards...?

I've also interested in "How to Connect these monitors".
because...
EIZO's EV2457 monitor has " DisplayPort Daisy-Chain" feature.
It's can daisy-chain up to 4 displays from one display port.
(and It seems that some monitors can be Daisy-Chain with USB Type C, in other products.)

I'm also concerned about the maximum number of "USB-HDMI conversion display adapters" that Windows can recognize.
(How many adapters can I connect when using a USB hub?)

How many monitors can Windows recognize when combined with these features...

Please don't suggest buying "4K or 8K display"...
This just connect bunch of cheap "Full HD monitors" to make it room I'll see in Movie!

Thank you

[Glenwing]

4 minutes ago, mao_riku said:

Nice to meet you 
This guide was very helpful! Thank you.

I'm interested in multi-display like the day traders use.
so I have one question now...
What is the Maximum Number of Monitor Screens that Windows 10 can Recognize?
16?
 

How many Graphics Cards can be used with ”1 slot / 4HDMI output Card" ?
Is it possible to have a 6*4=24 Monitors recognized when I can use 6 of those cards...?

I've also interested in "How to Connect these monitors".
because...
EIZO's EV2457 monitor has " DisplayPort Daisy-Chain" feature.
It's can daisy-chain up to 4 displays from one display port.
(and It seems that some monitors can be Daisy-Chain with USB Type C, in other products.)

I'm also concerned about the maximum number of "USB-HDMI conversion display adapters" that Windows can recognize.
(How many adapters can I connect when using a USB hub?)

How many monitors can Windows recognize when combined with these features...

Please don't suggest buying "4K or 8K display"...
This just connect bunch of cheap "Full HD monitors" to make it room I'll see in Movie!

Thank you

I'm not sure what the limit of Windows is, but it is at least 16.

NVIDIA GeForce cards support up to 4 monitors per graphics card, AMD Radeon cards support 6 monitors per graphics card. There aren't many graphics cards with 6 output ports so usually this limit will be reached by daisy-chaining displays or using DisplayPort MST hubs. However, daisy-chaining/hubs can be somewhat unreliable sometimes.

[Denis.S]

Hello guy's.

 

I have a question if someone can help me. Recently i bought a gaming laptop Asus Zephyrus S gx502gw. It has USB-C gen 2 with Display Port. I want to buy external monitor with 2560x1440 resolution, 144hz and G-sync.

 

I'm wondering if that usb-c port will support g-sync with 144hz?

 

Thank you!

[ahsan.a]

Thanks, you're still helping people 3 years on!

[Fasauceome]

Are those cable recommendations up to date? Snagged an amazing deal on a 5600 XT, did not remember his monitor only allowed 144Hz via displayport (neither did he unfortunately)

 

You listed that specific monitor as not compatible, the Acer GN236HL, but I'm awful tempted to just say screw it and try the cable as it's the only cheap active adapter I can even find. Do you perhaps know why that monitor and adapter are not compatible?

 

Also, why was it seen as an industry standard at one point to equip displays with HDMI ports only capable of 60Hz? I'm curious what the impetus was, it really seems that the cost saved is so tiny for such a lack of functionality.

[Glenwing]

58 minutes ago, Fasauceome said:

Are those cable recommendations up to date? Snagged an amazing deal on a 5600 XT, did not remember his monitor only allowed 144Hz via displayport (neither did he unfortunately)

Yes

58 minutes ago, Fasauceome said:

You listed that specific monitor as not compatible, the Acer GN236HL, but I'm awful tempted to just say screw it and try the cable as it's the only cheap active adapter I can even find. Do you perhaps know why that monitor and adapter are not compatible?

When using the VisionTek adapter, it may work at 144 Hz, but has a permanent message in the center of the screen that says "Please use the DVi cable that came with the monitor" which does not go away and there is no way to remove it. I also have had dozens of replies from people on my reviews which confirmed the same thing, and none saying "it worked for me". So I do not think it is very likely to work for you. I don't know exactly what causes the incompatibility.

58 minutes ago, Fasauceome said:

Also, why was it seen as an industry standard at one point to equip displays with HDMI ports only capable of 60Hz? I'm curious what the impetus was, it really seems that the cost saved is so tiny for such a lack of functionality.

Most likely just a result of what controller hardware was available in 2013–2014; monitor vendors don't roll their own silicon so they're limited to the capabilities of whatever chipsets are available from controller manufacturers.

[Fasauceome]

On 7/15/2020 at 12:44 AM, Glenwing said:

When using the VisionTek adapter, it may work at 144 Hz, but has a permanent message in the center of the screen that says "Please use the DVi cable that came with the monitor" which does not go away and there is no way to remove it. I also have had dozens of replies from people on my reviews which confirmed the same thing, and none saying "it worked for me". So I do not think it is very likely to work for you. I don't know exactly what causes the incompatibility.

 

well, chalk another one in the confirmation column for that. The message persists at any refresh rate over 60Hz.

[Neocortyx]

Hey...

 

I have a question...

 

I ordered the new Samsung Odyssey G9 and the new LG 38GN950. Both only equiped with DP1.4 .

 

When I check the numbers on the first page it seems that it is totally impossible for the Samsung to have 240Hz at max. resolution and the LG is limited to 144Hz.

 

Maybe I misundertand the list.

Would be nice if one of the experts can explain how to read those information.... cause I guess there must be something wrong if Samsung declares 240Hz 10bit HDR at 5120x1440...but maybe it is right what I see there and my mind will be blown up by this

Please light my brain ;)

Neo

[tarsius]

1 hour ago, Neocortyx said:

Hey...

 

I have a question...

 

I ordered the new Samsung Odyssey G9 and the new LG 38GN950. Both only equiped with DP1.4 .

 

When I check the numbers on the first page it seems that it is totally impossible for the Samsung to have 240Hz at max. resolution and the LG is limited to 144Hz.

 

Maybe I misundertand the list.

Would be nice if one of the experts can explain how to read those information.... cause I guess there must be something wrong if Samsung declares 240Hz 10bit HDR at 5120x1440...but maybe it is right what I see there and my mind will be blown up by this

Please light my brain

Neo

Samsung G9 uses display stream compression to achieve 240 Hz at the native resolution.

LG 38GN950's max refresh rate at the native resolution is 160 Hz (optimal settings: 8 bpc, full chroma).

[Neocortyx]

1 hour ago, tarsius said:

Samsung G9 uses display stream compression to achieve 240 Hz at the native resolution.

LG 38GN950's max refresh rate at the native resolution is 160 Hz (optimal settings: 8 bpc, full chroma).

THX for your answer...

So the G9 is able to achieve 144 in native resolution without compression in 8 bpc full chroma?

At the moment I would prefer the LG cause of the nice display ratio... cause even when a game is limited to 3840 on the G9 I will have no real benefit. I mean, it is technically a 27" in height...

What is your opinion..maybe I miss something important..

 

Or better, what is your recommendation for a gaming monitor in this price/size area...

[tarsius]

48 minutes ago, Neocortyx said:

THX for your answer...

So the G9 is able to achieve 144 in native resolution without compression in 8 bpc full chroma?

At the moment I would prefer the LG cause of the nice display ratio... cause even when a game is limited to 3840 on the G9 I will have no real benefit. I mean, it is technically a 27" in height...

What is your opinion..maybe I miss something important..

 

Or better, what is your recommendation for a gaming monitor in this price/size area...

I believe, it is possible to achieve 144 Hz with 5120x1440, 8 bpc, full chroma, no compression via DP 1.4. But you'll need to use a custom timing format to achieve that. I would suggest to use the monitor's full potential with DSC, which is designed to be visually lossless, if your graphics card supports it.

 

Yes, G9's screen height is somewhere between 13.2" and 13.3" - similar to the height of 16:9 monitor with a diagonal of 27".

 

Since you have ordered both monitors you'll be much better judge (than me) which of those suits you better.

 

G9 is definitely the best gaming monitor in super wide class and one of the fastest VA monitors on the market alongside G7 models.

While I haven't read any professional review of LG 38GN950 yet, I believe it to be the fastest and the most responsive ultrawide IPS monitor without G-Sync module (on par with 38WN95C at similar settings, at least).

[Schmidt89]

Hi there! What a fantastic guide. Must have taken ages with all the superb formatting. Thanks a lot! 

 

I've got a couple of questions that I hope somebody can help me with. The first has to do with getting the most out of a monitor by using all of the cable bandwidth: 

I’ve considered monitors like the LG 38GL950G-B where the max performance would push it past cable limitations, meaning you’d have to scale down refresh rate in order to get full RGB / 4:4:4. 
Normally I see articles saying that in order to stay within cable limitations at full RGB, you’d have to lower the refresh rate to something like 120/144/160hz or other standard refresh rates, but then some performance would be lost. 

Couldn’t you just set a custom resolution in nvidia control panel that maximizes cable bandwidth, and squeeze every possible refresh rate out of it? 
For this monitor, 8bit full RGB would maximize DP 1.4 at 159hz, and 10bit at 129hz according to the calculator. 

I’m not an expert though, so I don’t know if anything would get in the way of it, forcing you to use one of the standard refresh rates I always see mentioned. 

 

Would it work, and would anything need to be sacrificed with a custom resolution / refresh rate, like VRR?

 

I also wanted to ask about DSC: where does it need to be supported? Is it both GPU, cable, and monitor? And could a monitor be firmware updated to support it? 

 

I hope anyone knows. Thanks! 

[Glenwing]

2 hours ago, Schmidt89 said:

Hi there! What a fantastic guide. Must have taken ages with all the superb formatting. Thanks a lot! 

 

I've got a couple of questions that I hope somebody can help me with. The first has to do with getting the most out of a monitor by using all of the cable bandwidth: 

I’ve considered monitors like the LG 38GL950G-B where the max performance would push it past cable limitations, meaning you’d have to scale down refresh rate in order to get full RGB / 4:4:4. 
Normally I see articles saying that in order to stay within cable limitations at full RGB, you’d have to lower the refresh rate to something like 120/144/160hz or other standard refresh rates, but then some performance would be lost. 

Couldn’t you just set a custom resolution in nvidia control panel that maximizes cable bandwidth, and squeeze every possible refresh rate out of it? 
For this monitor, 8bit full RGB would maximize DP 1.4 at 159hz, and 10bit at 129hz according to the calculator. 

I’m not an expert though, so I don’t know if anything would get in the way of it, forcing you to use one of the standard refresh rates I always see mentioned. 

In theory yes, but many monitors are programmed to reject formats beyond their maximum rating and just display an "out of range" message or something like that.

 

2 hours ago, Schmidt89 said:

I also wanted to ask about DSC: where does it need to be supported? Is it both GPU, cable, and monitor? And could a monitor be firmware updated to support it?

It requires support from the GPU and monitor. Cable doesn't matter. It requires hardware on both sides, can't be added with firmware.

[Schmidt89]

On 9/9/2020 at 5:30 PM, Glenwing said:

In theory yes, but many monitors are programmed to reject formats beyond their maximum rating and just display an "out of range" message or something like that.

 

It requires support from the GPU and monitor. Cable doesn't matter. It requires hardware on both sides, can't be added with firmware.

Oh alright, I actually just tried it on my current monitor, an LG 27GL850-B. 
It's a 2560x1440 144hz monitor, so I set it to 139hz and everything seemed to be fine. I guess it should be supported on other LG gaming monitors too, then. 

[CoolMarquis97]

Just to be clear, there is no such thing as an HDMI 2.1 cable right? Or do I need to upgrade my HDMI cables to get the most out of a LG CX?

[thepwrtank18]

if you set the output to DisplayPort and the input to DVI, the 3rd recommendation for Dual-Link is a total scam

[Glenwing]

1 hour ago, thepwrtank18 said:

if you set the output to DisplayPort and the input to DVI, the 3rd recommendation for Dual-Link is a total scam

I already bought the adapter and tested it, it worked fine in my testing.

[KlemencicUrbanaOnReddit]

Hi,

I have a zephyrus g 14 and AOC Q27G2WG4 144op 144hz monitor.

Can I run the monitor at 144 or 120 hz at 1440p while the laptop internal screen at 1080p 120hz in extended mode?

Curently conected via HDMI on a HDMI 1.4 cable, runing the monitor at 60 hz. 

Will everything work as I want it to if i get a HDMI 2.0 cable?

thx

Edited January 6, 2021 by KlemencicUrbanaOnReddit

[InputLag]

What are the odds of a DP 1.4 to HDMI 2.1 adapter coming out that has all the bells and whistles? I'm excited to update my TV but I don't want to hunt down a 30 series GPU just to make the most of it.

[Netherquark]

hey @Glenwing could you please update the guide to include the colour depth factor?
im going to get this monitor (hdmi 1.4)

my current rig is this. (hdmi 2.0b via integ)

i wanted to know if i will be able to maintain the maximum colour depth on an overclock as my current tv / monitor (this) refuses 12 bit at 62 hz accepting only 10 bit (idk if its bandwidth problem or sony mucking around with the tv firmware)

any other recommendations or advice is welcome. i would also like to overclock my current display if possible (currently it drops to 10 bit on 61hz at 1080p, stays at 10 bit for 1080p 62hz, and gives signal unsupported error beyond that)

[Glenwing]

47 minutes ago, Netherquark said:

hey @Glenwing could you please update the guide to include the colour depth factor?
im going to get this monitor (hdmi 1.4)

my current rig is this. (hdmi 2.0b via integ)

i wanted to know if i will be able to maintain the maximum colour depth on an overclock as my current tv / monitor (this) refuses 12 bit at 62 hz accepting only 10 bit (idk if its bandwidth problem or sony mucking around with the tv firmware)

any other recommendations or advice is welcome. i would also like to overclock my current display if possible (currently it drops to 10 bit on 61hz at 1080p, stays at 10 bit for 1080p 62hz, and gives signal unsupported error beyond that)

You can use the calculator at the bottom which allows you to change the color depth. Individual products may also have their own limits below what the maximum allowed by the standards are.

[fogfog]

Really nice work on the guide and calculator! 

 

I think I understand the numbers, and I'm looking to get a high refresh rate (> 144), 1440p HDR (10-bit colour depth) display. There is quite a bit of choice, and a selection of them even offer DisplayHDR 600 nowadays. What I don't get is that I see so many with DP 1.2 on them (even something like the fairly recent ROG Swift PG329Q), since that will not allow you to utilize those screens to their full potential by my calculations.

Do manufacturers expect you to not use HDR and high refresh rate at the same time, or that you use chroma-subsampling - sacrificing colours - to get both? If I'm correct, only DP 1.4 and up support compression (DSC) to squeeze a bit more out of them.

[Glenwing]

20 hours ago, fogfog said:

Really nice work on the guide and calculator! 

 

I think I understand the numbers, and I'm looking to get a high refresh rate (> 144), 1440p HDR (10-bit colour depth) display. There is quite a bit of choice, and a selection of them even offer DisplayHDR 600 nowadays. What I don't get is that I see so many with DP 1.2 on them (even something like the fairly recent ROG Swift PG329Q), since that will not allow you to utilize those screens to their full potential by my calculations.

It is possible to run 2560×1440 @ 144 Hz 10 bpc RGB over DisplayPort HBR2 using non-standard timings.

[fogfog]

On 4/2/2021 at 5:10 PM, Glenwing said:

It is possible to run 2560×1440 @ 144 Hz 10 bpc RGB over DisplayPort HBR2 using non-standard timings.

True, which is why I meant specifically above 144, like 160-180 Hz, which I don't think timings can fix anymore, or can they?

[Glenwing]

11 hours ago, fogfog said:

True, which is why I meant specifically above 144, like 160-180 Hz, which I don't think timings can fix anymore, or can they?

Yes, for the 1440p 165 Hz HDR monitors with HBR2/DP 1.2, you have to choose between 165 Hz 8 bpc/SDR or 144 Hz 10 bpc/HDR (or 120 Hz, depending on the monitor).

 

This is for cost saving reasons, so for example you can get the Gigabyte FI27Q at a cheaper price, or the FI27Q-P which has the upgraded HBR3 controller and can do 165 Hz and 10 bpc at the same time, but there's a higher price for it.