A quick update; things were stable on HDMI, but this issue kept in the back of my mind. I was suspicious of the DisplayPort cable supplied by Samsung with my new monitor so I ordered a quality replacement. It just arraived and all of my issues went away after swapping it out; the black screen boots, nvidia kernel modules hanging on unload or reboot, and the inability to run anything higher than 60hz.
However, is this still a bug or issue with the NVIDIA drivers that I should report upstream? It seems they are either failing to negotiate a stable DisplayPort connection with sub-par cables or not handling errors very well. I am not familiar with how any of that works so I don’t really know.
What you just reported is not normally considered either a software or GPU issue. Subpar cables cause instability in the signals going both directions over that cable and the best software around cannot compensate for unexpected and unpredictable changes in the signals.
I had been suffering for some time with only being able to run my 4k TV at 30Hz refresh. I finally broke down and purchased a DP to HDMI cable capable of DP 1.4 and HDMI 2.1. Now I have stable 60Hz refresh.
It turned out that the DP to HDMI adapter I was previously using was the cause of the restricted refresh on one PC even with an HDMI 2.1 cable, and the lower quality HDMI cable on the other PC gave similar issues.
I don’t think this had anything to do with the GPU or drivers, but was entirely triggered by the subpar cable. I may be wrong but that will be proven only if the issue returns with continued use of the newer high quality cable.
Cable performance varies with the radio-frequency environment and routing. I’ve spent time on research vessels where radar and communication radios were sources of interference. Some cables required ad-hoc aluminum foil shielding. Cables meant for consumer markets don’t get tested under the conditions that do get tested for use in environments with high exposure to radio-frequency interference.
Also DP to HDMI adapter isn’t just for the different plug shape; it also need to convert the DP signals to HDMI signals, perhaps using a tiny computer chip.
Not directly. HDMI and DisplayPort use different signaling technologies. To connect an HDMI device to a DisplayPort input (or vice versa), you’ll need an active adapter that converts the signal. For instance, connecting a laptop with HDMI output to a monitor with DisplayPort input requires an HDMI-to-DisplayPort adapter, which often needs external power via USB. Passive cables won’t work in this scenario.