Today, most new computers with DisplayPort or USB Type-C connectors support the DisplayPort 1.2 standard, which provides enough bandwidth to drive a 4K display at 60Hz over a single cable. In late 2014, VESA published the DisplayPort 1.3 standard, which increased the available bandwidth enough to drive 60Hz 5K displays or 30Hz 8K displays over a single cable. And today, VESA has finalized and released the DisplayPort 1.4 spec , which can drive 60Hz 8K displays and supports HDR color modes at 5K and 8K.

The physical interface used to carry DisplayPort data—High Bit Rate 3 (HBR3), which provides 8.1Gbps of bandwidth per lane—is still the same as it was in DisplayPort 1.3. The new standard drives higher-resolution displays with better color support using Display Stream Compression (DSC), a "visually lossless" form of compression that VESA says "enables up to [a] 3:1 compression ratio." This data compression, among other things, allows DisplayPort 1.4 to drive 60Hz 8K displays and 120Hz 4K displays with HDR "deep color" over both DisplayPort and USB Type-C cables (note that DisplayPort 1.4 doesn't add USB Type-C support; the two have been compatible from the beginning thanks to the USB Alternate Mode spec). USB Type-C cables can provide a USB 3.0 data connection, too.

The standard includes a few other features, most of which are targeted at home theater buffs:

Forward Error Correction: FEC, which overlays the DSC 1.2 transport, addresses the transport error resiliency needed for compressed video transport to external displays.

HDR meta transport : HDR meta transport uses the “secondary data packet” transport inherent in the DisplayPort standard to provide support for the current CTA 861.3 standard, which is useful for DP to HDMI 2.0a protocol conversion, among other examples. It also offers a flexible metadata packet transport to support future dynamic HDR standards.

Expanded audio transport: This spec extension covers capabilities such as 32 audio channels, 1536kHz sample rate, and inclusion of all known audio formats.

VESA announced version 1.4a of the Embedded DisplayPort (eDP) spec about a year ago, which supports 8K displays and the DSC feature. eDP is intended for internal displays in laptops, tablets, and phones, though; DisplayPort 1.4 is what you'll need for external 8K displays.