The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) on Monday announced the DisplayPort 1.3 standard. The new standard, which will replace the existing 1.2a standard, will support 5K displays at a resolution of up to 5,120 x 2,880 (equivalent to 14.7-megapixels) across a single cable. 4K monitors, we hardly even knew you.
DisplayPort 1.3 will offer up to 32.4Gbps of single-link bandwidth split across four pipes (25.92Gbps when you factor in overhead). That is nearly twice as much as competitor HDMI 2.0 is capable of and 50 percent faster than the existing DisplayPort standard.
The HDMI competitor isn’t just for 5K monitors, however. VESA said it will also be able to drive multiple monitors through a single connection using DisplayPort's Multi-Stream feature. For example, one could run two 4K monitors – each with a resolution of 3,840 x 2,160 when using VESA Coordinated Video Timing.
As 9to5Mac points out, the timing of the announcement couldn’t be better as 4K monitors continue to come down in price. What’s more, multiple 5K monitors are just around the corner.
If you recall, Dell announced the UltraSharp 27 Ultra HD 5K monitor less than two weeks ago with a resolution of 5,120 x 2,880 and a pixel density of 218 pixels per inch. The screen will ship with a pair of 16W Harman Kardon speakers, a media card reader and six USB ports later this year with carrying a price tag of $2,500.
DisplayPort 1.3 is available as of writing to VESA members. We’re told to expect devices supporting the new standard to crop up sometime next year (Dell's UltraSharp 27 requires two DisplayPort 1.2 cables).