Hooking a brand new PC as much as my monitor’s HDMI 2.1 port was a nightmare

I just lately acquired my palms on a ridiculously highly effective Asus ROG G700 (2025) gaming rig geared up with Intel’s Core Extremely 7 Processor 265F and Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 5090. I am effectively conscious that that is overkill for Halo Infinite and Age of Empires IV — the 2 video games I play most regularly — however when an organization reaches out and affords you the prospect to check out a PC this highly effective, it is troublesome to say no.

My basement workplace setup is considerably sophisticated. I’ve a Change OLED mannequin, a PlayStation 5 Slim, a Xbox Collection X, and a M3 Professional Max MacBook Professional, all hooked as much as a 27-inch LG UltraGear 27GP950-B, a comparatively well-reviewed, however now discontinued monitor that dropped again in 2021. On the time, it was one of many few displays on the market that featured full bandwidth HDMI 2.1, opening the 4K 120Hz floodgates for the few supported video games on the PS5 and Xbox Collection X (truthfully, it was principally only for Halo Infinite on the Xbox Collection X). Help for NVIDIA and FreeSync Premium Professional is an added bonus, too.

To set the stage relating to my difficulty, it is necessary to say that this monitor has a really normal variety of ports. There’s DisplayPort 1.4 — which I exploit with my MacBook and a USB-C-to-DisplayPort 1.4 cable to get 120Hz output to the monitor — and two HDMI 2.1 ports. For years, I’ve used one HDMI 2.1 port for my Xbox Collection X and the opposite for an HDMI 2.1-capable switcher that my Change OLED Mannequin and PS5 Slim are plugged into. I’ve no clue what model this HDMI switcher is, however again after I purchased it in 2020, it was one of many first obtainable on Amazon (it appears to have been discontinued since I can not discover it anymore).

Although this setup is considerably sophisticated, it is labored fairly flawlessly — at the very least till now.

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I rapidly decided that plugging the Asus ROG G700 (2025) into my HDMI 2.1 switcher could be the best resolution to my downside. Nonetheless, no matter what I attempted, I could not determine a approach to get my 144Hz-capable (160Hz in the event you overclock it and use show stream compression) monitor to push previous 120Hz over HDMI 2.1, regardless of the port format supporting the 48Gbps bandwidth switch. I would navigate to Superior below Show Settings and 120Hz remained the one choice.

This is the place I attempted a couple of issues. I hooked the Asus ROG G700 (2025) up by Show Port 1.4 to see if the 144Hz choice appeared in Home windows 11’s Superior Show Settings. Fortunately, it did. I then tried a distinct HDMI cable after noticing the one I used to be utilizing did not say “Extremely Excessive Velocity” on it and as an alternative was labelled “Excessive Velocity.” HDMI 2.0 10.2Gbps Excessive Velocity cables can hit 4K/30Hz (there’s additionally HDMI 2.0a and HDMI 2.0b that help 18Gbps — these are typically referred to as Premium Excessive Velocity HDMI cables), whereas 48Gbps Extremely Excessive Velocity cables can attain a most of 8K/60Hz and 4K/120Hz/144Hz. I additionally ensured the HDMI cable working out of the switcher was Extremely Excessive Velocity suitable. Confused but? I don’t blame you.

Sadly, this nonetheless did not resolve the difficulty. At this level, my subsequent guess was that the HDMI switcher was in some way the supply of my woes, so I grabbed the HDMI 2.1 switcher I’ve been using in my living room. Whereas this one labored, 144Hz nonetheless did not present up as an choice. My guess is that almost all switchers can solely deal with 120Hz and never 144Hz, regardless of technically being able to supporting the bandwidth. This is smart given HDMI 2.1 144Hz is comparatively new within the PC area, and the ROG Astral RTX 5090 is among the first graphics playing cards to characteristic two HDMI 2.1 ports.

The subsequent step was to skip the switcher and plug the ROG G700 (2025) immediately into my monitor’s HDMI 2.1 port. Sadly, the 144Hz choice nonetheless did not seem in Home windows 11. Does HDMI 2.1 simply not help 144Hz? Are all of the Reddit threads I learn over the previous a number of hours simply fully improper?

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It seems that I wanted to replace my monitor by way of a USB-B cable by LG’s OnScreen app so as to add 144Hz HDMI 2.1 compatibility. Subsequent, I navigated to the UltraGear 27GP950-B’s Settings and chosen Normal. Then I scrolled previous the primary row of choices to get to HDMI Extremely HD Deep Colour and chosen the 144Hz choice. Like magic, the flexibility to set the monitor to 144Hz appeared in Home windows 11’s Superior Show Settings. Why is that this setting listed as being associated to paint and never refresh fee? I’ve no clue. My

55-inch Hisense U8H
has an analogous setting for its one HDMI 2.1/120Hz port.

So what have I discovered from this expertise? First, I am at all times going to ensure my monitor is updated with the most recent firmware. On prime of that, after I’m coping with high-bandwidth resolutions and refresh charges like 144Hz/4K, I now know it is necessary to double-check what sort of HDMI cable I am utilizing and to solely stick to Extremely Excessive Velocity cables. You may often determine these cables by the Extremely Excessive Velocity label on them alongside the 8K (they’re sometimes braided, too).

Hopefully, this convoluted journey by the world of HDMI and excessive refresh charges helped you out not directly. Within the coming weeks, I am going to have extra on Pocket-lint about my return to PC gaming and the Asus ROG G700 (2025).

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