system
A chat on subreddit /r/pcmasterrace
human
I don't know of all the technical differences, but I believe an active will let you have a longer cord length if you need it
gpt
Yep. The longer the cable is, the more boost is needed. I have a 10ft dp cable to my 2k monitor and I can only run it at 120hz. If I try 144 I get a lot of static.