Do you need an HDMI 2.1 cable for RTX 30-series GPUs?

Best answer: You don't absolutely need an HDMI 2.1 cable for NVIDIA's latest RTX 30-series GPUs. However, adding a cable using the latest HDMI standard to your setup will allow you to unlock the full potential of your hardware, especially at high resolutions and frame rates. The good news? HDMI 2.1 cables are a relatively inexpensive addition to your setup.


HDMI 2.1 (Ultra High Seed) cable: Zeskit 8K (From $17 at Amazon)
4K TV with HDMI 2.1 support: LG CX (From $1,497 at Amazon)
Most powerful GPU: NVIDIA RTX 3090 (See at Amazon)


What is HDMI 2.1?



As performance hardware scales up, the supporting accessories must be equipped to handle higher resolutions, refresh rates, and bandwidth. HDMI 2.1 is the latest standard put forth by the official HDMI forum. It's a rather large jump from HDMI 2.0, which was itself a jump (though less significant) over HDMI 1.4.

HDMI 2.1 prepares for the future by handling 8K resolution at a 60Hz refresh rate and 4K resolution at a 120Hz refresh rate...