The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) has officially released DisplayPort 2.0, representing the first major update to the audio/video standard since the entrance of DisplayPort 1.4 back in March 2016.

DisplayPort 2.0 is said to provide up to a 3× increase in data bandwidth performance compared to the previous version. Some of the features include support for greater-than-8K resolutions on standard monitors, higher refresh rates and high dynamic range (HDR) support at higher resolutions, improved support for multiple display configurations, and support for “4K-and-beyond” VR resolutions.

The association maintains in a press statement that the advantages of DP 2.0 will be available across both the native DP connector (backwards compatible) as well as the USB Type-C connector, which carries the DP audio/video signal through DisplayPort Alt Mode.

Image courtesy NVIDIA

VESA mentions that through the DisplayPort Alt Mode, DP 2.0 has the ability to provide data transmission for two 4,096 × 4,096 VR/AR displays running at 120Hz—30 bits per pixel (bpp) and 4:4:4 HDR with Display Steam Compression.

VESA says the first products incorporating DP 2.0 are projected to appear on the market by late 2020.

The VirtualLink connector, a VR standard created by a consortium of industry players, was released last year, and includes everything you need to connect the next generation of VR headsets to your GPU with a single, thin cable—support for four lanes of HBR3 DisplayPort for high-resolution displays, USB 3.1 Gen2 (SuperSpeed USB 10Gbps) for headset cameras and sensors, and up to 27 Watts of power delivery.

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NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX cards include hardware support for the VirtualLink connector, although it’s yet to become a universal feature on the newest headsets currently available, including Valve Index, Oculus Rift S, and the HTC Vive Cosmos. Adapter dongles are available, but we’ve yet to see a VR headset that directly makes use of the connector.

Since VirtualLink is based on DP 1.4, it’s possible we’ll hear about a commensurate ‘2.0 bump’ in ability soon from the consortium themselves; you might hazard a guess at what a VirtualLink 2.0 may provide from the DP 2.0 usecases stated by VESA below:

USB-C connector via DP Alt Mode (two lanes):

  • Three 4K (3840×2160) displays @144Hz and 30 bpp 4:4:4 HDR (with DSC)
  • Two 4Kx4K (4096×4096) displays (for AR/VR headsets) @120Hz and 30 bpp 4:4:4 HDR (with DSC)
  • Three QHD (2560×1440) @120Hz and 24 bpp 4:4:4 (no compression)
  • One 8K (7680×4320) display @30Hz and 30 bpp 4:4:4 HDR (no compression)

Single display resolutions

  • One 16K (15360×8460) display @60Hz and 30 bpp 4:4:4 HDR (with DSC)
  • One 10K (10240×4320) display @60Hz and 24 bpp 4:4:4 (no compression)

Dual display resolutions

  • Two 8K (7680×4320) displays @120Hz and 30 bpp 4:4:4 HDR (with DSC)
  • Two 4K (3840×2160) displays @144Hz and 24 bpp 4:4:4 (no compression)

Triple display resolutions

  • Three 10K (10240×4320) displays @60Hz and 30 bpp 4:4:4 HDR (with DSC)
  • Three 4K (3840×2160) displays @90Hz and 30 bpp 4:4:4 HDR (no compression)
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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • Xron

    Any ideas if next gen Nvidia cards will support it?

  • Simple O’Rourke

    About FN time

  • Lars Skinhøj

    Any idea if THIS gen. Nvidia cards will support the next generation of VR headsets? … Now, that they so boldly clame that Virtual Link: “includes everything you need to connect the next generation of VR headsets to your GPU”? – a GTX 2080 might have the power, but will the existing VirtualLink based on DP 1.4 be up to the task, or perhaps upgradeable?? … Sure hope it is!!

    • The Bard

      This is the question, but think about it. DP 2.0 offers for example 4k x 4k. This is far far away I guess and 2080 nor 2080 Ti would be able to display it. For what we have (2080) a 2k by 2k per eye would be very nice to have like HP Reveb or 3k by 2k, but with OLED.

  • Downvote King

    But also:

    “Two 8K (7680×4320) displays @120Hz and 30 bpp 4:4:4 HDR (with DSC)”

    ?

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  • Aliah

    The high bandwidth in DP 2.0 seems to only be an adoption of Thunderbolt, aka USB4. If anything, I think this is more certainty of the death of Virtual Link, not a stepping stone for its future (Fast Center mode used the traditional USB and DP phys, Thunderbolt was then a proprietary Intel solution, and couldn’t be deployed by Nvda)…But now, the Thunderbolt phy has been donated to both USB4 and DP as an open standard. The future is about USB4.

    • GordoSan

      The death out VirtualLink? Um, how? I cannot see that, since it’s a consortium from nearly EVERY single big VR player, including Oculus, Valve, Microsoft, VIVE (HTC), NVidia, and AMD. It states right in this article that DP 1.4 over USB-C is the basis of VirtualLink. Perhaps the whole reason that every company except NVidia has not released anything yet, is they were waiting for the DP 2.0 finalization first. That seems most logical, and I would expect to see the technology finally move forward now.

      • Aliah

        …and how many of those companies have VirtualLink products? No, the definition of Thunderbolt (aka USB-4) is already more than VirtualLink, will have standard cables and support (and have pretty much nothing in common with VirtualLink 1.0). Whether DP2.0 thrives on a DP connector will also be interesting, getting 2 meter cables at Thunderbolt data rates means active cables and a whole industry ecosystem yet to form…

  • Jarilo

    8 fps