New DisplayPort 1.3 standard supports 5K monitors

Monitors and TVs supporting 4K resolution are just arriving, but the new DisplayPort 1.3 is already looking forward to 5K resolution.

The new DisplayPort standard, announced by Video Electronics Standards Association, will replace the existing 1.2a standard. The new standard will connect computers to 5K monitors that display images at a resolution of 5120 x 2880 pixels.

DisplayPort is widely used in businesses to connect PCs to external monitors, and competes with HDMI (high-definition multimedia interface connector). Seiki has already announced monitors that support DisplayPort 1.3 and the emerging HDMI 2.0 standard, which also supports 4K.

DisplayPort 1.3 is 50 percent faster than its predecessor, and has the speed to support higher-resolution displays beyond 4K. It will also support multiple 4K monitors at 60 frames per second, VESA said in a statement.

The standard can transfer data at 32.4Gbps (bits per second) compared to 25.92Gbps for DisplayPort 1.2a. The total data transfer speed is broken up over four pipes, which each have a maximum speed of 8.1Gbps.

The DisplayPort standard is also used in the Thunderbolt and DockPort standards and supports additional protocols for data transfers between computers and peripherals like external storage. DisplayPort 1.3 supports both standards.

Thunderbolt—which uses PCI-Express for data transfers—is used in Apple’s Mac computers, and DisplayPort 1.3 support could be around the corner.