CES 2026 is currently taking place in Las Vegas, as it does in every January as a new year means new technology. While there is no flash with this announcement, this is a rather big announcement pertaining to gaming technology. The HDMI Forum has officially announced the latest version of the technology with 2.2.Currently, consoles offer HDMI 2.1 which has allowed refresh rates at 120hz combined with 4K resolution.Of course, there is more information that goes over HDMI technology as it is an all-in-one standard for the most part, however more bandwidth is needed to improve technology capabilities.
“The HDMI Forum’s continuing mission is to develop specifications to meet the HDMI eco-system’s growing demand for high-performance capabilities and features,” said Chandlee Harrell, president of the HDMI Forum. “This new specification supports the fast-evolving landscape for amazing new technologies and products entering the markets now and in the future.”
HDMI 2.2 Ups the Bandwidth
Adopters of the HDMI 2.2 technology will get access to a bandwidth speed of 96Gbps, which is double the bandwidth of 2.1b at 48Gbps. The new Ultra96 HDMI Cable will support that bandwidth and enable all HDMI 2.2 Specification features.This specification will be available in the first half of 2025 for companies looking to adopt it first.Devices have to support this technologies at both ends as displays will need to support along with the physical device.This increase will help with augmented reality, virtual reality and mixed reality headsets, as well. Latency Inidication Protocol will be used for improving audio and video synchronization. The most important part is is the focus on higher resolutions and refresh rates, allowing for higher frame rates for gaming and the door to open up gaming hardware that can support this.
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Having double the bandwidth should mean 8K 120Hz and 4K 244Hz are possible with HDMI 2.2
New graphics cards will be announced at CES 2025 and it will be interesting to see if these cards will support HDMI 2.2. Again, the displays will need to offer inputs for HDMI 2.2, but having double the bandwidth should mean 8K 120Hz and 4K 244Hz are possible with HDMI 2.2, but that is just mathematically looking at it. Unless these companies have had access to the technology already to announce new devices at CES, it will probably be at least another year to see even the beginnings of this rollout. The alternative connection, which is DisplayPort, received a new standard last year with 2.1a. This standard offers a maximum bandwidth of 80Gbps, which HDMI 2.2 would supercede and allow for audio and ethernet to come over the same cable.
