Display Upgrade w/ Programmable LUT

[AndrewR69]

I have been looking at upgrades to my current display (Dell 2007WFP). I use the X-Rite i1 for calibration. It has been decent, but looking to dial it in a little closer.

So my question, on higher end displays many state they have programmable 10 or 12 bit look-up tables for color calibration. What does this mean? How is it used? Is this something that should be a requirement on better displays? I figure it must be good since it's only included on higher $$$ displays.

[jeffkohn]

It's a very good feature have. It means that instead of using the 8-bit LUT of the video card for calibrating grayscale, you use the higher-resolution internal LUT of the display.

This has two big advantages:

1) Less likelyhood of introducing banding when calibrating, since you don't sacrifice any of the video cards limited levels and the display itself can do LUT adjustments with more precision.

2) No need to hassle with LUT loader software, or having to worry about the LUT settings getting overwritten by rogue software or the OS itself.