Here Comes HDMI 2.2 And The Ultra96 Cable

Batten Down The Hatches, Here Comes CES!

To kick of the random coverage of CES 2025 we have news from the HDMI Forum about the next generation of HDMI standards, both the bandwidth and the cable.  It is just an announcement, they did not show off any actual hardware, nor give a time frame in which to expect HDMI 2.2 or Ultra96 cables will arrive.  The new HDMI 2.2 standard will support up to 96Gbps, which will allow up to 480Hz refresh at 4K, 240Hz at 8K, and 120Hz at 10K.  Seeing as how there aren’t many displays capable of handling those resolutions and refresh rates simultaneously, nor GPUs powerful enough to push those signals the delay in release isn’t going to have any effect on consumers for a while. 

The new standard will need a better cable than the current Ultra High Speed HDMI cable, which tops out at a theoretical 80Gbps.  They will be called Ultra96 and sport branding which should hopefully make it easier for consumers to pick the right cable once the new standard becomes available.  The branding should be a little more obvious than the current generation, and may help quash fake cables with random labels claiming HDMI 2.2 support. 

The best news of all, the connector itself remains unchanged and will be backwards compatible with previous generations.  For at least a little while we will have predictable graphics connections thanks to DP2.1/USB 4 and HDMI.