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

I just lately received my fingers 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 properly conscious that that is overkill for Halo Infinite and Age of Empires IV — the 2 video games I play most continuously — however when an organization reaches out and affords you the possibility to check out a PC this highly effective, it is tough to say no.

My basement workplace setup is considerably sophisticated. I’ve a Swap 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 (actually, it was largely 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 concerning my situation, it is essential 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 Swap 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 accessible on Amazon (it appears to have been discontinued since I am unable to discover it anymore).

Although this setup is considerably sophisticated, it is labored fairly flawlessly — a minimum of till now.

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I rapidly decided that plugging the Asus ROG G700 (2025) into my HDMI 2.1 switcher can be the simplest resolution to my drawback. Nonetheless, no matter what I attempted, I could not work out a method to get my 144Hz-capable (160Hz in case 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 might navigate to Superior below Show Settings and 120Hz remained the one possibility.

This is the place I attempted a number of issues. I hooked the Asus ROG G700 (2025) up by way of Show Port 1.4 to see if the 144Hz possibility appeared in Home windows 11’s Superior Show Settings. Fortunately, it did. I then tried a special 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 operating out of the switcher was Extremely Excessive Velocity suitable. Confused but? I don’t blame you.

Sadly, this nonetheless did not clear up the difficulty. At this level, my subsequent guess was that the HDMI switcher was by some means 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 possibility. My guess is that the majority switchers can solely deal with 120Hz and never 144Hz, regardless of technically being able to supporting the bandwidth. This is sensible given HDMI 2.1 144Hz is comparatively new within the PC house, and the ROG Astral RTX 5090 is likely one of the first graphics playing cards to function two HDMI 2.1 ports.

The following step was to skip the switcher and plug the ROG G700 (2025) straight into my monitor’s HDMI 2.1 port. Sadly, the 144Hz possibility 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 solely flawed?

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It seems that I wanted to replace my monitor by way of a USB-B cable by way of 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 Basic. Then I scrolled previous the primary row of choices to get to HDMI Extremely HD Deep Coloration and chosen the 144Hz possibility. Like magic, the power 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 price? I’ve no clue. My

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

So what have I realized from this expertise? First, I am all the time 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 essential to double-check what sort of HDMI cable I am utilizing and to solely keep on with Extremely Excessive Velocity cables. You’ll be able to often determine these cables by the Extremely Excessive Velocity label on them alongside the 8K (they’re usually braided, too).

Hopefully, this convoluted journey by way of the world of HDMI and excessive refresh charges helped you out indirectly. Within the coming weeks, I will have extra on Pocket-lint about my return to PC gaming and the Asus ROG G700 (2025).

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