Where are all the 4k 120+Hz monitors?

[nimbulan]

Since GPUs are finally getting powerful enough to run games at 4k at high framerates without sacrificing visual quality, I've found myself looking into upgrading my monitor (I'm still using the Asus VG248QE with the G-Sync upgrade kit I won from the giveaway here years ago!) 1440p seems like it would be a waste at this point since 4k is coming up so quickly, but as far as I've been able to tell there's only about 3 models being produced, none of which have full HDR support. The two high end models that do are essentially only available used for double their retail price, which was already very expensive.

So why are there so few 4k gaming monitors, and when can we expect more on the market? Is it something that's going to take so long I might as well just go for 1440p or forget about HDR?

[coldroads]

The first 4K 144hz monitors required chroma subsampling which degraded image quality.

Displayport 1.4 + DSC (display stream compression) solved the image quality problem of 4K 144hz but only the latest GPU's and monitors feature it.

On top of that full HDR on PC is very expensive, so there few products given the hefty price tags from $1500-2000.

https://displayhdr.org/certified-products/

A new addition to Vesa's HDR list is the LG 27GN950 that gets you
* 4K 144hz with DSC
* Vesa HDR 600 class (not 1000 but at least its not 400 class)
* Freesync Premium Pro & G-Sync compatible

And that's $800, you can buy HDMI 2.1 50" TV's for that price with 4K 120hz & G-Sync support like LG NANO85.

As to why HDMI 2.1 is not present on PC monitors, most likely lack of cheap chipsets with support for it, only high end TV's support HDMI 2.1 at the moment.

[nimbulan]

DP 1.4 can still manage 4k at 120Hz without DSC or chroma subsampling, and that's been in GPUs for at least 4 years. Still strikes me as strange how few displays are available after this much time. That LG model looks basically the same as the Viotek model I found and the Eve Spectrum, both of which are cheaper at ~$650 which is still a lot for a monitor.

HDMI 2.1 is brand new so it doesn't surprise me at all that it's not really available yet. The RTX 3080 is the first GPU to support it and it's only been out a week and a half.