new standard expected at CES 2025

The HDMI 2.1 version is starting to be a little dated, but remains relevant for both videos and games. However, for a few days now, there has been a certain excitement in these two sectors following the rumor of a rumor. Indeed, the German site Computerbase recently published a quote from the HDMI licensing administrator regarding a new format for this connector.

“The HDMI Forum will announce a new version of the HDMI specification. This new specification, featuring next-generation HDMI technology and higher bandwidth, will enable a variety of resolutions and higher refresh rates and will be supported by a new HDMI cable. New technologies provide higher quality options for content producers, such as television, film and video game studios, now and in the future, while enabling multiple distribution platforms. » [Propos traduits]

However, if you look closely, there is no mention of the month of January and even less of CES 2025. So why is everyone panicking? Already because the HDMI 2.1 version is seriously starting to date and the technology doesn't like to stagnate too much. But above all because, despite the fact that no product is currently marketed meeting the HDMI 2.2 standard, several informed analysts believe that the next Nvidia RTX 50 graphics cards “ Blackwell » will support it. Nvidia recently teased an announcement on January 6, at the opening of CES 2025. If the American company does indeed formalize HDMI 2.2 compatibility for its GPUs, the existence of this version will therefore be confirmed.

HDMI 2.2 for what?

Concretely, this improvement will support higher resolutions and higher refresh rates to meet the growing needs of content creators, whether they are in the television, cinema or video game industry. The bandwidth of this connection will be higher than HDMI 2.1b which currently supports up to 48 Gbits/s, allowing Ultra HD definitions at 120 frames per second or 8K at 60 frames per second. Also remember that the DisplayPort 2.1 standard can go up to 80 Gbits/s. At the moment we have no information on the technical details of the HDMI 2.2 standard.

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Be careful, however, to fully exploit the capabilities of this new standard, a new type of HDMI cable will be necessary.

Come to CES 2025 to find out more

To date, this rumor should be taken with a grain of salt. We will see in a few days now if CES 2025 is indeed the place for the unveiling of Nvidia's RTX50 cards supporting HDMI 2.2 and we will then know more about the technical specifications of this standard.