Modern monitors are about more than just plugging in your graphics card so you can see what’s going on in computer land. The typical modern monitor is packed with ports of all sorts, and you might be missing out if you’re not using it to its full potential.
So I thought it would be a good time to go over every port you might find on your monitor, and offer a rundown of how each one is useful in its own way. By the end, you’ll know pretty much what every port on your monitor does, and how to make the most of it.
HDMI
HDMI is the most common port on modern monitors and TVs, in fact, it’s just about universal. HDMI has been around so long, that there are multiple versions of it, with the latest as of this writing being 2.1b, shown off at Computex 2024.
In order to get the best out of your monitor, you should use a graphics card and HDMI cable that at least matches the HDMI version of the monitor. If you don’t, then you could be limited in the resolution or refresh rate that’s possible. It can also determine whether you have enough bandwidth for advanced features such as one or another form of variable refresher rate technology, or HDR. HDMI also carries audio, so if your monitor has speakers or a speaker output, you can cut down on your mess of wiring.
Unless your graphics card (or console) supports the latest HDMI versions, however, there’s probably a better connection you can use.
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DisplayPort
Displayport almost looks like HDMI at first glance, but only one side of the connector is beveled, so it’s impossible to accidentally plug one into the other. Well, I guess someone has managed it with enough applied force, but it’s not supposed to work.
Most mid- to high-end monitors and graphic cards have DisplayPort connectors, and for the most part this is what you’ll want to use when you have the option since DisplayPort usually supports higher resolutions, color depths, and refresh rates than HDMI.
Another cool trick you can do with DisplayPort is MST or Multi-Stream Transport, which is where you can daisy-chain multiple monitors together with DP cables using only a single port on your GPU. However, the monitor has to support this feature. If your monitors don’t, you’ll have to buy an MST hub. Like HDMI, DP carries audio as well, so you can then connect speakers or headphones to your monitor if it supports it, or use its built-in speakers if it has them.
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USB Upstream Ports (Connecting the Monitor to the PC)
This is the port that you use to connect the monitor to your computer, and this again allows special features of the monitor that can be controlled from the PC or things like firmware updates to happen. This is usually a USB Type B port, and this lets the monitor act as a hub device. If the monitor has a built-in webcam, or a card reader, then this connection is what makes those peripherals work.
On more modern monitors, this job can be done by a USB Type C port, but either way, some functions on fancier monitors need a data connection to your computer to work.
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USB-A
The classic USB connector that most people think of when you say “USB” to them, it’s not that uncommon to find at least one of these ports on a modern monitor. However, what you can do with it depends on what else the monitor offers. If there’s an upstream port like the one I just mentioned, then the monitor can act as a USB hub, which makes these USB-A ports the perfect place to connect things like a mouse and keyboard, effectively turning your screen into a docking station for a laptop, or just a neat way to reduce the number of things plugged directly into your computer.
This is a handy way to connect a webcam or mic, and, of course, you can simply use it as a way to charge USB devices, even if you don’t connect the monitor to your computer via USB. It may also be a way to update your monitor’s firmware in models that offer this as a possibility.
USB-C
USB-C is rapidly becoming the standard for newer devices and so if you have a fairly recent mid- to high-end monitor there’s a good chance it has a USB-C connector.
Satechi 8-in-1 USB-C Multiport Adapter V3
Because USB-C allows for the transmission of DisplayPort signals using what’s known as DP “alternate” mode, it allows compatible computers to connect using just one cable that can also carry power and act as a USB hub connection at the same time. This is great for people who use thin and light laptops that can charge over USB-C, because it means your “docking” connection is just a single USB-C connection instead of multiple separate cables.
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Thunderbolt
Thunderbolt connectors are physically identical externally to USB-C, but there will be a small lightning bolt icon next to the port letting you know that you aren’t looking at just plain USB-C. Thunderbolt ports work with USB-C devices, but a port that’s only USB-C won’t work with a Thunderbolt-only device.
Thunderbolt generally offers much more bandwidth than USB, although it depends on the specific version of Thunderbolt and USB we’re comparing, but much like USB-C you can use Thunderbolt to daisy-chain monitors together, charge a laptop, and connect all sorts of peripherals.
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3.5mm Stereo
Known simply as the “headphone jack”, which is now missing from smartphones, much to the disappointment of many, this jack is quite common on modern monitors. While few monitors have built-in speakers, since both HDMI and DisplayPort carry audio, the 3.5mm audio port is quite useful. Connecting wired headphones is the obvious use, but you can also connect a set of speakers to the monitor.
This is actually what I do with my ultrawide Dell monitor, since I have three computers connected to it, it also means that all three computer share the same set of speakers.
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DVI
DVI is an older connection standard that’s rare to nonexistent on new monitors, but you’ll still encounter it fairly frequently on monitors out in the world. Older GPUs, especially those that predate HDMI on GPUs, are likely to have at least one DVI port.
There are different types of DVI ports: the analog-only DVI-A, the digital-only DVI-D, and the digital and analog DVI-I. Furthermore, DVI can come in “dual-link” variants, which double the bandwidth and allows higher resolutions and refresh rates.
VGA
VGA is only a year younger than I am, and was a long-lived connection standard that survived right up to the age of LCD flat-panel screens. Since VGA can easily handle a 1080p signal, there are plenty of 1080p screens out there that have a VGA port, and might only have a VGA port.
The only thing you can do with this port is connect a video signal to your monitor, but you might find that a challenge, because modern computers and graphics cards don’t have analogue outputs and haven’t for years. So you’ll need a VGA adapter to connect a modern computer to a monitor that only has VGA. However, it’s well worth it since many CRT and flat-panel displays are still perfectly usable today.
A monitor with a VGA port can also be an excellent way to use certain consoles that either offer native VGA output, or can be modded to output a crisp RGB signal which can be converted to VGA.
Ethernet
It might seem a little odd to have a network connection for a monitor, but when you consider that most laptops these days only have Wi-Fi, then it makes perfect sense to include a network interface as part of the ports that higher-end or business monitors offer. Ethernet is faster, more secure, and more reliable than Wi-Fi, so providing a wired connection as part of the laptop docking experience.
It’s especially useful when you want to share one desk with multiple people, or have multiple computers you want to rotate on a single screen.
Related
Monitors these days are more than just a single-port device meant to show pictures from a graphics card. Now, they’re made with the idea that you’ll have more than one computer, or want more than one monitor. That you’ll want to come and go with your laptop, or have peripherals that you don’t want cluttering up your desk. Who knows what ports monitor will have in the future?
