Samsung literally has 5K QD-OLED monitors incoming and modern display standards have 5K, 6K, 8K, and 16K explicitly in mind instead of 4K which loses its high PPI status after 24”
While our focus is on computer displays, I suspect the industry has considerable 'cross pollination' with the t.v. industry. I was curious as to why it seemed like the t.v. industry looked to jump from 4K to 8K without passing through a 6K phase, and how Internet streaming bandwidth supply practical limitations would impair the adoption of 8K streaming video content. And then there's the more demanding hardware content creators need to generate that content, and users need to fully experience it.
Then Tom's Hardware put out a relevant article:
News
By
Ryan Epps last updated February 22, 2025
The next big thing that never was
From that article:
"
Sony and
LG stopped selling or majorly advertising 8K TVs back in 2023 and while both
TCL and
Hisense have 8K TVs on the market, they're a few years old at this point. As of right now, Samsung is one of the only TV makers still launching new 8K models in its
2025 TV lineup."
And here's an article that, on the face of it, didn't seem to be about 8K, but kinda was:
The biggest thing I didn’t see at CES: Thunderbolt 5. Insiders explain why
Where are all the Thunderbolt 5 laptops? Dock makers say they won't arrive until 8K hardware becomes a thing.
Senior Editor, PCWorld | JAN 14, 2025 5:38 PM PST
From that article:
"Hardware makers describe it as a chicken-and-egg problem: Without 8K broadcast content, there isn’t a market for 8K displays. And without 8K displays, hardware capable of rendering 8K content just isn’t as valuable."
"The hoped-for transition to 8K content is verging on its fifth year. And while there is a vociferous segment of the gaming audience who wants to push to higher refresh rates, a substantial chunk of the market — business users — don’t care about anything beyond standard 60Hz displays, he said." (He = Bernie Thompson of Pluggable).
"However, Abdul Ismail, the chief technical officer of the USB Implementor’s Forum (and a senior principal engineer for Intel), said his estimate was widespread USB 80Gbps / Thunderbolt 5 adoption was not until 2027 or so. He, too, used the chicken-and-egg metaphor."
"According to Lukanc, display makers are not going to invest in making 8K displays smaller. “So if the 8K is going to be a four-foot display, and it’s not going to fit on your desk, 8K is not happening,” he said. “What is happening is refresh rate.”
From what his business customers have told him, Lukanc said, “I’ve been told to plan on 165Hz for the next five years” with 4K displays."
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The interplay between 8K content and Thunderbolt 5 adoption suggests to me that what's going on in the t.v. and streaming video industries may well have a big impact on our display options.
videocardz.com
