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GTX 1080 and 1070 Displayport not compatible with HTC Vive

If you want to run the HTC Vive on a GTX 1080 or 1070 graphics card, you better be planning to use the HDMI connection, as it looks like the optional mini-Displayport for the Vive just doesn't work with either card's respective connector. Nvidia said it was looking into the issue, but it's been weeks with no response.

Although people have been complaining to Nvidia about this in small numbers – the venn diagram of GTX 1080 and Vive owners is not huge – it's been known about for a while now. Toms Hardware dug up some forum threads from early June with people complaining about this issue.

The reason this has a lot of people frustrated – even more than not being able to use their preferred port – is that this wasn't a problem on the previous generation cards. Those running GTX 970, 980 and 980Ti cards had no issue using Displayport connectors on those cards before they moved over, so what's the problem?

1080ports

Although a Nvidia representative did respond in the afore-linked Nvidia forum thread, stating that the issue was being investigated, no word has been released since. It may well be that Nvidia fixes up this problem in a future driver update, but we haven't had any indication that that will be the case just yet.

For those stuck in this situation for now, remember that the HDMI port on both Nvidia cards works perfectly well with the HTC Vive, so that's an option. There is also a specific 1080, the ASUS STRIX variant, that comes with twin HDMI ports, so that card would offer you the ability to use the Vive and another HDMI powered display as well.

Though of course if you're already having this issue, buying another card is unlikely to be a welcome solution.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Have you guys run into any Displayport problems with Nvidia's new graphics cards? Or is it just Vive users struggling along?

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8 comments

  1. When the DisplayPort 1.4 specification is too strong to handle

  2. why is the display port so important since hdmi works?

  3. Between DisplayPort 1.3/4 and HDMI 2.0(b), not a whole lot. The main difference between the two is that DisplayPort 1.3/4 can do 4K @ 120Hz as opposed to HDMI 2.0’s 60Hz. DP 1.3/4 is also better for 8K, not that that really matters all that much.

    In terms of data throughput DP does twice as much as HDMI too, and can handle multiple displays at once which is nice.

    So yeah, DP is better than HDMI, but for a bunch of reasons that don’t really matter all that much.

  4. Because most of the cards only have 1 HDMI port and you need another connection for your screen. and most TV’s don’t have Displayport.

  5. because some people own both the vive and the rift and would like to plug both into their expensive new graphics cards, not have to keep swapping leads over, its ridiculous really the gtx 1080 is advertised as being a VR killer and they cant even have it working properly at launch

  6. simultaneously? wow, on a 1080 gtx…I would like to know how that would perform. Thank you for the feedback. I wonder if they were biased. My alienware laptop from 2012 has a display port. 🙁

  7. I thought the minimum recommended performance for the VIVE and RIFT is 90Hz. Not possible to achieve that with the HDMI port from this card.
    So, isn’t that a good enough reason to use the Displayport of the card for VR purposes?

  8. I own a vive and have a 1080..its not becouse people have both its because I can’t even use my vive on this card as my HDMI is taken up with my TV and the display port is not working so the so called vr ready cards are not vr ready and I have a few thousand dollars worth of paper weights as that’s all its good for for me atm ?