You would think that HDMI 2.1 would be standard in the gaming world including on the coming new Valve Steam Machine hardware.
HDMI 2.1 supports bandwidth of up to 48 Gps enabling resolutions of 4K at 120Hz and 8K at 60Hz. That’s an increase from18Gps for HDMI2.0. Further HDMI2.1 isn’t rocket science; it was released back in2017.
Indeed, it’s an essential piece of hardware for gamers with PS5, Xbox Series X/5 or a PC with a display capable of 4k at 120Hz.
But HDMI 2.1 is missing in action when it comes to Valve’s Steam Machine due to launch early next year.
It seems ridiculous that the Steam Machine will take on much older consoles with inferior support for displays. So, what’s the deal here?
That’s a question that Ars Technica has been getting to the bottom of.
It all seems to be the fault of Linux open source drivers which are “still a work in progress on the software side”, says Ars Technica. The hardware itself will support HDMI 2.1 if you have the correct drivers.
“That means the open source AMD drivers used by SteamOS can’t fully implement certain features that are specific to the updated output standard,” Ars Technica says.
The publication quotes an AMD engineer who says an open source HDMI 2.1 implementation is not possible at this time without running afoul of the HDMI Forum requirements.
This in turn has created manufacturing issues for Valve which says it has resorted to validating hardware using Windows. And it has had to unblock HDMI 2.0’s resolution of just 60Hz at 4k and frame rate limits.
So how will this be resolved? Ars Technica reports that Valve has resorted to a workaround called “chroma sub-sampling” to increase the limit to 4K, 120Hz.
