Question AW2725Q 4k240hz display won't link at 48Gb/s on HDMI with 9070XT

[Hail The Brain Slug]

This is driving me a little nuts. I picked up an AW2725Q 4k240hz QD-OLED on the cheap, which is in part because it doesn't have displayport 2.1, only 1.4. It does, however, have HDMI 2.1 48Gb/s, so I figured I would just run it on HDMI to get more bandwidth and less DSC, especially when HDR is enabled.

As far as I can tell, the 9070XT allegedly supports HDMI 2.1 48Gb/s but I haven't found a definitive official source on that yet.

I've tried the included HDMI cable with the monitor and a third party cable I have verified is certified for HDMI 48Gb/s. In both cases, no matter what I do the monitor only reports being linked at 4 x 8Gb/s (32Gb/s). If I set a mode that exceeds the bandwidth capability of 32Gb/s, such as 12 bit + HDR, it simply reduces the refresh rate instead of increasing the link width to 4 x 12Gb/s.

I confirmed with CRU that the display's EDID reports HDMI 48Gb/s capability. I have tried both HDMI ports on the monitor, both of which are rated for 48Gb/s.

My 9070XT is an XFX Mercury MagAir with only one HDMI port (and I have no other displays connected), so there's no chance it's bandwidth sharing and limiting the port.

Is there something I'm missing? There are no settings related to this I can find in either the Radeon control panel or the display's OSD. The link negotiation appears to be fully automatic.

 

[Shmee]

The only thing I can think of really is to try additional cables. Sometimes they can be quite finicky.

 

[Hail The Brain Slug]

At this point I've tried three confirmed certified cables and no change to behavior.

 

[Hail The Brain Slug]

Well, I moved another box over to the desk and plugged it in (RTX 3080) and the display links at FRL6 (4x12Gb/s) immediately.

It must be a driver or bios issue on the 9070XT. Time to file a bug report.

 

[Shmee]

Ah in that case it is probably drivers I am thinking. When I first got the 7900XTX on this monitor, it had issues detecting the 270Hz overdrive mode for my monitor, (up from 240Hz) but that had since been fixed long ago in an update.

 

[Hail The Brain Slug]

I checked all 3 driver versions since RDNA4 release, 24.3.1, 24.3.2, and 24.4.1 and they all do it so its not a regression. Seems like it may have never worked. Hope it can be fixed relatively easily

 

[Hail The Brain Slug]

Turns out it's working perfectly fine. The driver is smarter than I am and only links at the minimum FRL necessary for the demand.

After reading DSC whitepapers, doing research, and empirically testing, my 9070XT + AW2725Q combo appears to target the 12bpp DSC compression, which at 4k240hz puts it below the 28.44Gbit/s bandwidth available at FRL4(32Gbit).

If I set it to 4k144Hz 10 bit, it links at FRL6 48Gbit/s without DSC.

A bit disappointing that it won't run the higher bitrate 15bpp DSC given there's plenty of bandwidth if it links at FRL5 or FRL6. Oh well, VESA says you're allowed to do that, no requirement to scale or use more than one fixed DSC compression rate.

 

[coercitiv]

circa 2015:
"AMD driver so bad"

2025:

The driver is smarter than I am

we've come a long way.

PS: enjoy the monitor, I'm having a hard time resisting the urge to go OLED as they become more affordable, alas I display text and static interfaces a lot more than I game or watch movies, so every attempt to convince myself of upgrading ends in failure.

 

[eek2121]

circa 2015:
"AMD driver so bad"

2025:


we've come a long way.

PS: enjoy the monitor, I'm having a hard time resisting the urge to go OLED as they become more affordable, alas I display text and static interfaces a lot more than I game or watch movies, so every attempt to convince myself of upgrading ends in failure.

FWIW I do software dev on mine. No burn in yet.

Monitors have all sorts of tricks to prevent it from happening. Pixel shifting, refreshes, etc.

 

[Hail The Brain Slug]

PS: enjoy the monitor, I'm having a hard time resisting the urge to go OLED as they become more affordable, alas I display text and static interfaces a lot more than I game or watch movies, so every attempt to convince myself of upgrading ends in failure.

I use it for work 8-10 hours a day. The price was low enough for me to take the risk because Alienware has the best warranty service and a 3 year burn-in warranty. Plus I used a Visa card that adds an additional year of warranty with the same terms as factory.

My plan is to use it like normal with some minimal effort to avoid burn-in, and RMA it if it does eventually happen.

The monitor has been so fantastic, well beyond my expectations and I don't regret it at all.

 

[eek2121]

I use it for work 8-10 hours a day. The price was low enough for me to take the risk because Alienware has the best warranty service and a 3 year burn-in warranty. Plus I used a Visa card that adds an additional year of warranty with the same terms as factory.

My plan is to use it like normal with some minimal effort to avoid burn-in, and RMA it if it does eventually happen.

The monitor has been so fantastic, well beyond my expectations and I don't regret it at all.

I have the alienware one as well. I have made only 1 change to my setup. Screen sleep timer in windows changed from 3 minutes to one minute. All that means is the monitor turns off quicker when not in use.

 

[Hail The Brain Slug]

I have the alienware one as well. I have made only 1 change to my setup. Screen sleep timer in windows changed from 3 minutes to one minute. All that means is the monitor turns off quicker when not in use.

I changed mine from 10 to 3 minutes, I often spend time reading code or looking at something longer than 1 minute without performing any input. 3 minutes hasn't been intrusive and works for me.

I normally dont use any applications fullscreen, since I prefer 100% scaling I have plenty of room for multiple apps windowed so I started rearranging where I put my windows each day to avoid the same window/colors/menus from being in a fixed position. I also fullscreen videos more frequently instead of watching them in a window if I am not doing anything on the side.

The last thing I do is try to take a mid-day break for 15+ minutes so there's enough time for the display to go to sleep and perform the pixel refresh.

All in all it's minimal effort IMO and it should do the most to help.