HDMI 2.2 New Standard Promises Higher Bandwidth?

It doesn’t seem that long ago that we did a deep dive into the features and capabilities of HDMI 2.1, but that standard was actually introduced seven years ago. HDMI 2.1 has received a few revisions and upgrades along the way, but the time has come for the next generation of HDMI technology to make its mark on the consumer electronics landscape. And yes, it looks like that will mean new cables. The HDMI Forum organization has announced that it will reveal a new HDMI standard at a press conference planned for the day before CES 2025 officially begins in January. Although the HDMI Forum has not actually mentioned the name “HDMI 2.2,” it’s very likely that this update will be more significant than the changes brought about by the HDMI 2.1a and HDMI 2.1b specs, thus justifying the HDMI 2.2 moniker. At the press conference, scheduled for January 6th, 2025 in Las Vegas, the HDMI Forum is expected to outline the technical details of the new standard, which will undoubtedly have a lasting ripple effect on the consumer electronics industry. We don’t know much as of yet, but the HDMI Forum did send out a press invitation that teased some of the new capabilities we can expect, including increased bandwidth with the ability to accommodate both higher resolutions and higher refresh rates.

The HDMI Forum will be announcing a new HDMI Specification release. The new specification, with next-gen HDMI Technology and higher bandwidth, enables a wide range of higher resolutions and refresh rates and will be supported with a new HDMI Cable. New technology enables higher quality options now and in the future.

— The HDMI Forum

While it may be some time before content producers such as television, film, and game studios take full advantage of these new capabilities, it’s likely that next-gen gaming will be the first sector in which the new features offered by HDMI 2.2 will be relevant. (Serious gamers are excessively fond of very high frame rates, and high-end gaming monitors are often at the forefront of certain aspects of video reproduction.) Currently, HDMI 2.1b supports bandwidths up to 48 Gbps — enough to accommodate 4K video at 120Hz, or 8K at 60Hz. I wouldn’t be surprised if HDMI 2.2 promises 8K or 10K video at 120Hz and beyond. Even the best of today’s TVs max out at about 144Hz, but gaming monitors are faster. For example, Sony’s 27-inch INZONE M10S OLED gaming monitor has a refresh rate of 480Hz, albeit at a relatively low resolution of 2560 x 1440. Compared to the 48 Gbps of bandwidth offered by HDMI 2.1b, the DisplayPort 2.1 standard is miles ahead, with support for up to 80 Gbps. The Thunderbolt 5 ports on the newest Apple computers offer a maximum data transfer rate of 120 Gbps.

For now we can only speculate about the technical details of HDMI 2.2, but there’s a good chance that this next-generation technology will be compatible with the latest high-end graphics cards for gaming PCs, including the upcoming Nvidia GeForce RTX 50-series and AMD Radeon RX 8000 series. According to the computer hardware site Tom’s Hardware, both Nvidia and AMD have scheduled CES press events on January 6th. It seems very possible that their announcements will include a tie-in with the HDMI 2.2 event.

HDMI 2.2 Cables

We know that the HDMI Forum will be announcing a new cable for HDMI 2.2, but the organization has not provided additional details. Chances are fairly good that the new cable will carry over the current HDMI connector, as the HDMI Forum has always been in favor of backwards compatibility. On the other hand, the connector design is more than two decades old now, and is showing its age. I think some folks would appreciate new features like a reversible design (as seen on USB-C), or a locking mechanism to ensure a secure connection (as you’d find on a good XLR cable). Others would surely bemoan the complications required by physical adaptors and cable upgrades. The transition to USB-C has hardly been a painless one, after all. Whether or not the new cable sees physical changes, we can assume that HDMI 2.2 cables will be able to handle bandwidths significantly higher than the 48 Gbps offered by today’s Ultra High Speed HDMI cables.

Watch this space for further information on HDMI 2.2 as it becomes available in early 2025.