There have been some rumors about graphics cards supporting DisplayPort, but until now we haven't been able to see any functional prototype. Zotac has fixed the "glitch" and announced today their GeForce 8800 GT equipped with the new interconnect.

This was a real challenge, as the GPU does not have native support for the new technology and Zotac representatives refused to disclose further details about their approach. The DisplayPort technology is a new display interface that tends to replace the DVI, VGA and LVDS specifications and aims at unifying the three PC analog and digital video standards into a single digital one.

"Zotac is ready to manufacture and ship DisplayPort equipped products such as those based on Nvidia's GeForce 8800 GT. We will release the DisplayPort equipped products into the channel next year when DisplayPort monitors are released and consumers are ready to embrace the new standard", said Carsten Berger, marketing director at Zotac.

The company states that all the products that come with the new interface standard will maintain backwards compatibility with the current DVI and VGA standards, since DisplayPort enabled monitors are still rare and expensive. The producers have included complementary DisplayPort-to-DVI and DisplayPort-to-HDMI converters.

The DisplayPort technology is based on a micro-packet architecture and is alleged to offer higher bandwidth that will play a crucial role in multi-monitor implementation over a single data cable. It is the result of a collaboration between AMD, Intel, NVIDIA, Samsung and Dell and aims at competing with the rival HDMI standard in the desktop and notebook environment.

The DisplayPort-enabled video card is likely to be presented at the Consumer Electronics Show that will take place in Las Vegas in January next year. At the moment, the Zotac GeForce 8800 GT is shipping for sampling purposes only and it is expected to hit the retailers' shelves in the first quarter of 2008. Estimated retail prices have not been disclosed yet.