Nowadays, though, our old buddy can do much more than that, especially once you factor in the HDMI 2.1 specification. This latest HDMI spec has been bandied around for a couple of years now (hit the link for our earlier primer on it), but the latest consumer electronics are only now starting to support the new standard. And 2.1 brings with it some exciting "today" improvements—plus some future-looking potential—over existing HDMI specifications. Major devices that support it include the big two new gaming consoles (the Microsoft Xbox Series X and the Sony PlayStation 5), leading-edge gaming graphics cards (including the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 and the AMD Radeon RX 6800XT), and a wide range of TVs. That said, HDMI 2.1 isn't a front-line feature that gets advertised, or explained, with most PC and consumer-electronics gear. Indeed, you may not see the term at all in a store or when shopping online, even when looking at gear or cabling that supports it. (More about that in a bit.) Let's get into how HDMI 2.1 works, and help you decide whether your next big tech purchase should include it.