What exactly does "maximum supported resolution" mean?

[Terry Chang]

If a mother board has a HDMI 2.0 port, and claims it supports "a maximum resolution of 4096x2160@60Hz", does that mean it also support anything below 4096x2160, at a refresh rate of 60Hz or higher? For example, 3440x1440@60Hz? Or something weird, like 3800x1900@60Hz, if such thing exists?

 

[MCID47]

Yes, it will support lower resolutiuon, but not exceed the maximum resolution. For example, your monitar has a maximum resolution of QHD (3840x2160), your monitor will work fine without any problem in desired resolution. But it can't support higher resolution, as if you have a UHD Monitor/TV with higher resolution than your HDMI port can handle, such a 4520x2540 resolution, your HDMI port will only display 4096x2160, lower than the monitor's maximum resolution. And for refresh rate, higher refresh rate will perform better to reduce display or visual lag, but it won't be a big problem. Your refresh rate depends on the monitor capability support, for example, you have 2K Monitor with refresh rate of 60Hz and you have HDMI port with same resolution, it will be just fine without any problem. And also, i never heard of someones who complaining about refresh rate on their display port (DVI,VGA,HDMI) because one of those probably not using a refresh rate as those ports are the output to another component within transmitting analog/digital data. And the refresh rate only matter for monitor as they are more likely visual processing device for user, the more refresh rate your monitor have, the better response time your monitor can handle.