HDMI has been the go-to standard for wired TV and computer monitor connections for a long time now, but that doesn’t mean your cables will last forever.
Practically everyone with technology in their house has a reason to use HDMI cables. While there are reasons to weigh the differences between DisplayPort and HDMI, a big part of the appeal of the latter is just how common it is. Unfortunately, that level of ubiquity can make it easy to lose track of for your different cables’ age and condition. It’s possible that some people are using obsolete connections for their modern devices without even realizing it.
This isn’t to say you should immediately swap your HDMI connections for DisplayPort ones, but you might think about replacing the cables at least, depending on the circumstances. It’s not always obvious when it needs to be replaced, and you might mistake its errors for problems with the display or graphics processor instead. But even something like an Amazon Basics HDMI cable is cheap enough to be the first thing you should look at when encountering these issues in the first place. As long as you know what problems to watch out for, there’s no harm in seeing if a better cable will help resolve them.Lack of proper resolution or refresh rate
High-end devices might can demand more power than what older cables can provide. A monitor like the Asus PG27UCDM is able to support 4K resolution alongside a refresh rate of 240hz. Its HDMI port isn’t exactly discerning, which means even some of the oldest cables should plug in and display an image just fine. But if you never paid much attention to how to choose the right HDMI cable, you may not be able to make use of its full capabilities.
HDMI cables come in different versions, and only more recent ones are able to handle higher refresh rates at 4K. Even if both your computer and monitor can handle that resolution and speed together, the cable won’t let you reach both at once if it’s older than version 2.0. If you haven’t bought any new cables in a while, or you have some old ones mixed in with your current setup, it’s worth giving them another look.
