HDMI 2.2 is here, and it brings a massive jump in performance from what HDMI 2.1 offers. HDMI 2.1 caps out at 48 Gbps, which is nothing to scoff at, but HDMI 2.2 doubles that bandwidth up to 96. No matter how you slice it, that’s a big leap in performance, and on paper, it’s well worth upgrading your cables.

The only problem is that HDMI cables aren’t magical things that add performance to your devices. Using a 2.1 cable with your PS3 isn’t going to give it VRR, so you shouldn’t expect a 2.2 cable to do that either. As it stands right now, HDMI 2.2 represents a massive upgrade over what HDMI 2.1 can do, but it doesn’t really matter. I can’t think of much right now or in the near future that’ll utilize that increased speed, and it’s difficult to justify going out and purchasing the latest cable format. That’s a bit of a bummer since I like to adopt new technology as soon as I can, but I don’t see any reason to do it here.

Length(s)

6ft/2m

Brand

Belkin

HDMI 2.2 doesn’t feel quite ready for primetime

An unfortunate truth

In some ways, it feels like technology has become a little stagnant in recent years. Some of that might come down to the RAM crisis — I mean just look at the fact that AMD is releasing a GPU with just 4 GB of RAM in 2026 as proof of that. It seems like we’re hanging on to older devices and electronics longer than we’ve done in the past. There are still new games releasing for both the Xbox One and PS4. with EA Sports FC 27 being one of the more recent examples.

With that in consideration, it’s clear that tech is being held back in some areas while it’s pushing forward in others. This console generation takes advantage of some HDMI 2.1 features such as VRR and 120 FPS gaming, but those are the only examples I can come up with that make a notable difference over HDMI 2.0. The reality is that many things — your Apple TV 4K, your 4K Blu-ray player, your audio receiver, etc. — all get by just fine with a 2.0 cable. It’s the sad truth, and it’s a major factor in why I’m not as excited about HDMI 2.2 as I should be.

How can I get excited when things are barely utilizing what HDMI 2.1 can do? How many things are coming close to using the 48 Gbps bandwidth provided by HDMI 2.1? What could possibly use the 96 Gbps speeds with HDMI 2.2? These are the questions I have about the new cables, and it’s what’s holding me back.

I have no doubt that HDMI 2.2 will be a good format. It’s not like the HDMI format is bad by any means. It does exactly what I ask of it, but it feels like we’ve moved well beyond what current technology is capable of. Now we’re either in a situation where HDMI remains stagnant and waits for things to catch up, or it keeps on evolving as it is.

It’s not all bad news

HDMI is backwards compatible

If you go out and get an HDMI 2.2 cable only to find out nothing needs that power, it’s not like it’d go to waste. You can plug it in the same way as you would with any other cable. The nice thing about the HDMI format is that it’s fully backwards compatible, so you can use HDMI 2.2 cables with everything if you’d like. Yes, that’d be a big waste of money, but it’s a way to ensure that you can still use your cables if you buy them.

It’s for this reason that there’s no reason to even buy HDMI 2.0 cables anymore. If I was in the market for a new cable, I’d always go for the newest format. There’s a negligible price difference between 2.1 and 2.0, and when more 2.2 cables hit store shelves, I’m sure things will be the same there as well. As long as that’s the case, it’s not entirely bad that a new format is coming out, even if nothing takes advantage of it.

What’s funny is that a platform that could use these speeds doesn’t really use HDMI at all. When you look at PCs, it feels a lot like DisplayPort is the defacto king there, and it’s hard for HDMI to make up any ground. My RTX 3070 Ti has just a single HDMI port while it has several DisplayPort ones. It doesn’t make a lot of sense for me to use an HDMI cable, so even if I could use the 8K 60 FPS performance, I’d do it with a DisplayPort cable instead of an HDMI cable. Maybe TVs will get there at some point, but it doesn’t feel like it’ll be any time soon.