Is 19 vs 20 pins Displayport still a thing?

[MarvelK]

I will be buying Acer Predator X34 soon to use with my 1080 ti. I was doing some research on display ports and saw a lot of old posts of people warning about getting a 20 pin display port as it can damage the GPU or something. Is it still a thing or new GPUs block power on that 20th pin? I did a search on 19pin display ports but can only find 20. Can someone provide an inside and maybe suggest a good quality.

It is so confusing as some people say buy only VESA complaint but I seen manufacturer says on sale page it is VESA complaint but many people say it is not.

 

[Eximo]

Official DP specs show all twenty pins actively used, even though many are just grounds. Pin Twenty itself is designed to carry 3.3V at 500mA with pin 19 being a dedicated return for it.

Do you have any specific references to what you are talking about?

 

[MarvelK]

Here are some threads:

https://hardforum.com/threads/displayport-cables-must-not-use-pin-20-warning.1803684/
https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/3kwcs6/discussion_whats_the_deal_with_displayport_how/
https://forums.evga.com/How-to-select-a-DisplayPort-cable-that-WON39T-damage-a-900-series-card-m2249691.aspx
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=405014

 

[Eximo]

I would say that may just be a perpetual re-telling of an old problem.

Certainly buying no-name cables can lead to odd behavior, but I'm just not seeing how this is the cable's fault. Obviously without that physical link it would be impossible to transmit power, but the better question is why manufacturers of the Display or Graphics card would bother connecting them if they served no purpose. Some devices probably do rely on that 3.3v source to operate.

For your concerns, just use the cable the monitor comes with and not worry about it.

 

[MarvelK]

I was planning on switching my second existing monitor from DVI to DP. I do not see any reason now to switch now that buying DP is not as easy as I thought.