Question Getting my first 34" Ultra wide OLED monitor, which connection should I use ?

[ern88]

Well, I'm waiting to receive my Alienware AW3425DW monitor Wednesday. Im wondering if I should connect my PC and monitor with HDMI 2.1 or DP 1.4. it'll be paired to my RTX 3080. Thanks

 

[Lutfij]

Im wondering if I should connect my PC and monitor with HDMI 2.1 or DP 1.4.
Either one but Display Port would give you better colors.

 

[dingo07]

HDMI is for residential television
DisplayPort is for computer monitors

 

[thestryker]

You should definitely use HDMI with that monitor as Display Port 1.4 doesn't have enough bandwidth to operate the display without DSC.

 

[ern88]

You should definitely use HDMI with that monitor as Display Port 1.4 doesn't have enough bandwidth to operate the display without DSC.

I ended up using DP. Have no issues with setting colour to 10 bit and 240hz. Picture looks great.

 

[thestryker]

I ended up using DP. Have no issues with setting colour to 10 bit and 240hz. Picture looks great.

I didn't say it wouldn't run just that it'll use DSC which can have its own set of problems which you can read about here: https://tftcentral.co.uk/articles/loads-of-displayport-2-1-testing-and-updates

I chose to avoid it on mine and would never suggest someone use a connection that requires DSC when there's an alternative.

 

[ern88]

I didn't say it wouldn't run just that it'll use DSC which can have its own set of problems which you can read about here: https://tftcentral.co.uk/articles/loads-of-displayport-2-1-testing-and-updates

I chose to avoid it on mine and would never suggest someone use a connection that requires DSC when there's an alternative.

I'll try HDMI 2.1 when I go on next time

 

[Gururu]

HDMI is technically better but I use DP simply because I cant notice any differences and I use HDMI for my TV connect.

 

[thestryker]

HDMI is technically better but I use DP simply because I cant notice any differences and I use HDMI for my TV connect.

The connector type doesn't really matter just whether or not the protocol features are supported and whether or not there is enough bandwidth.

Multi-monitor gets somewhat annoying (this is one place Win11 is better than 10) with the way that Windows behaves when you turn displays off. Using DP on Win10 would make the monitor disconnect when turned off so it would rescale the windows. Win11 still does this, but it puts things back when you turn it back on.

My old setup was 1440p/144Hz UW on DP, 1440p/120Hz on DP to HDMI adapter (this was to prevent Windows from rearranging things on Win 10) and 4k/120Hz TV through HDMI (I almost never use this display so it's disabled most of the time). Now because of the 1440p/240Hz UW I've got it on HDMI native and the other two displays on DP to HDMI adapters (on Win11 this still prevents my 1440p/120Hz from disconnecting so I left it in place).

 

[Sixstringmonk]

As TheStryker said, HDMI is slightly better in this case because you can get 240hz / 10 bit color with DSC switched off in the OSD. You need to have DSC on to do this with the display port connection. DSC is supposed to compress the signal without any noticeable loss in visual fidelity. This may be true, but NVIDIA has had some long standing bugs related to DSC. They aren't deal breakers, but they are annoying. A long pause after alt tabbing out of fullscreen games is one that comes to mind. It's definitely ok to use DP with DSC, but your life might just be slightly easier with the HDMI connection.