Because longer cables definitely don’t hurt.
The Video Electronics Standards Association announced at CES 2024 that its DisplayPort 2.1a protocol will allow the use of longer passive cables to connect to monitors, although Mac users won’t benefit from the change just yet.
The change to the specification specification, once complete, will allow users to potentially use cables that are up to two meters long (6.5 feet) in their computing setup.
Specifically, the change applies to the DP40 UHBR cable specification, which is replaced by a new DP54 UHBR version. Under the new version, it enables up to four-lane UHBR13.5 link rate support, allowing a maximum throughput of 54Gbps over a two-meter passive cable.
The change would effectively double the passive cable length for UHBR13.5 GPU to display connections, specification from a DisplayPort connection to an external display. UHBR13.5 was available only with DP80 UHBR cables up to 1 meter in length. This would also allow end users to place their displays further away from a video source, as well as offer more room to properly route the cable for a clearer workspace.
Monitors connected via UHBR13.5 can offer resolution and refresh rate combinations as high as 8K2K at 240Hz or 8K4K at 120Hz using the four lanes.
The change won’t offer much of a difference for current-gen models. The Thunderbolt 5 protocol, which offers 80Gbps of bandwidth and support for DisplayPort 2.1, will probably allow for support for DisplayPort 2.1a, which future Mac releases should be able to take advantage of.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.
Via AppleInsider and vesa.org