Is It Better to Use DisplayPort or HDMI?

By Carrie Tsai,  Last Updated: November 04, 2019

When we use electronic devices, we must be curious about the interface design of the device. We are curious about the functional differences between these differently shaped interfaces. Check this article, we will explain to you what you are interested in.

There are many kinds of interfaces in the history of our computer development. Take the video interfaces as an example. We got VGA, DVI, HDMI and DP interfaces. Even so far, there are still many devices that support the old-fashioned VGA and DVI interfaces. Aside from the two VGA and DVI interfaces that have been eliminated. Today, we mainly look at the differences between the HDMI and DP interfaces currently occupying home computers (including the commercial office computer interface market) and which are more popular.

PART1 What exactly is HDMI and DP interface

HDMI（High-Definition Multimedia Interface）is a proprietary video\audio interface for transmitting uncompressed video data and digital audio from an HDMI-compliant source device to a compatible video projector, digital television or digital audio device. HDMI is a digital replacement for analog video standards.

DP（DisplayPort）is a digital display interface developed by a consortium of PC and chip manufacturers and standardized by the VESA. The interface is primarily used to connect a video source to a display device, and it can also carry audio, USB and other forms of data. At the same time, DisplayPort is highly scalable, allowing you to add more new content in the future.

PART2  What is the difference between HDMI and DP interfaces for us

In short, in the normal 2K resolution video or TV program we usually watch, when the display is the same 2K screen, the DP interface is clearer than the HDMI interface. However, if we change the 1080P screen and watch normal video, it is difficult to visually distinguish the difference between the quality of the DP interface and the HDMI interface. The DP interface is more practical than the HDMI interface when the interface display device is matched and there is a corresponding high resolution video as the source.

From the brief introduction above, I believe that you will have a preliminary understanding of these two interfaces, and you should be able to estimate the following important differences in the use of these two interfaces.

PAER3 Advantages of the HDMI interface

There are many types of devices supporting HDMI interface

From a popular point of view, it can be said that the HDMI interface has an absolute advantage, because the HDMI interface in daily life is obviously more than the DP interface, and the DP interface dominates most commonly used display devices, such as televisions and projectors, including routers are also popularize the HDMI interface. Therefore, the HDMI interface is no stranger to us because we have been in contact with it more or less in life. In addition, the popular PlayStation and the Xbox are both use the HDMI interface to transfer data. But the DP interface only appears in the high-end display field of the PC.

Gamers'favorite quick connection method

For young gamers, the HDMI interface is also onge of their most focused configurations, as the current console interface uses the HDMI interface as a signal output. The large bandwidth of the HDMI interface is sufficient to support 1080P resolution video and audio signals. Compared with game consoles that used to r

PART4 Advantage of the DP interface.

AMD's (Advanced Micro Device) multi-screen splicing technology only requires a DP interface

AMD supports multi-screen splicing technology in graphics card desigh, and its graphics card design only supports DP interface. Users need to connect to a device that supports this interface to use the multi-screen feature, and it can’t pass any form of conversion in the middle. Therefore, for users who like display devices, the demand for DP interfaces is growing.

Free (this perhaps is the most important)

The DP interface does not require a certain annual fee like HDMI interface, nor does it have to charge all device that use the HDMI interface. DP is completely free in the true sense, so the DP interface has also been supported by many international big-name hardware manufacturers.

After understanding the advantages and disadvantages of the two mainstream interfaces, we will mainly discuss why the DP interface is not as popular as the HDMI interface.

I Think The Reason is As Follows

Reason1: Graphics card manufacturers and display manufacturers need to use new interfaces together to facilitate the DP interface use. From the current market, there are already many graphics devices that support the DP interface, but the number of display devices available is not enough.

Reason2: The display device manufacturers are not sufficiently active to facilitate the use of the DP interface. Since the HDMI interface has also been widely promoted in recent years, the manufacturers believes that it is not necessary to invest in the development of other interfaces in the case where the effect is not much different.

Reason3: Standard update of HDMI interface is fast. From 1.3 to 1.4, 2.0, etc. The latest standard has been supported by 8K display devices, even 10K. The HDMI interface and the old-fashioned audio interface can also be converted very well, while the DP interface cannot do this so well.

Reason4: Finally, in terms of cost. The cost of the HDMI interface is about $0.11, while the cost of the DP interface is as high as $0.5 to $1.0. Therefore, for profit-oriented manufacturers, the use of the HDMI interface is undoubtedly more cost-effective.

Lastly, let’s make a note that some users we’ve talked to have had screen tearing issues when using HDMI cables. Screen tearing usually happens when your frame rate doesn’t match up to your screen’s refresh rate. These users only experienced this issue when using HDMI cables, and not others like DisplayPort.

This is interesting because the color spaces for HDMI are different than that for DisplayPort can use YCbCr while the others use RGB. Some TV’s will not support RGB, so that’s a possible reason why most TVs have HDMI and not DisplayPort. Our recommendation is to use DisplayPort for connecting to a monitor, and HDMI when connecting to a TV.