Requirements:
- A colorimeter (I used an X-Rite i1 Display Pro Plus)
- DisplayCAL calibration software (free)
- Some familiarity with DisplayCAL (the official website has a detailed guide and forum support. In any case, here I’ll share all the settings I used, ready to go)
Coming from an excellent LG CX OLED TV, like many of you I was disappointed by the evident issues of banding (posterization), black crush, and oversaturation.
However, I managed to solve these problems enough that they’re no longer distracting (at least for me), and I ultimately decided not to return the monitor. You can jump at the end of this post to see results.
In short, this monitor does not perform as it should out of the box.
Causes
1. Banding (partially fixable)
- This is the only issue I attribute to the panel itself and it cannot be fully eliminated. However, it can be reduced to the same levels as a good OLED TV (banding affects all OLEDs).
- As measured by RTINGS, gradient rendering is not the best, though not terrible overall.
- What puzzled me: my 2021 LG CX scored nearly the same in gradient tests, yet it looks far less problematic than the ASUS.
- The key: on the ASUS the issue is worsened by oversaturation.
- Oversaturation is inevitable on any wide-gamut panel when viewing reduced-gamut content, i.e. sRGB/Rec.709 (basically all SDR games). In my LG CX this is not an issue because it is hw calibrated and it doesn’t need a color managed environment
- Fixing this automatically reduces perceived banding.
2. Black crush (100% fixable)
- Old firmware: fixed with update to firmware MCM104.
- sRGB preset: even with the new firmware, black crush occurs mostly in this preset. Using User mode reduces it.
- A full fix is possible by properly calibrating and profiling the User preset with DisplayCAL. The panel can achieve an ideal gamma of 2.4, but factory settings make it too dark and black crushing.
3. Oversaturation (100% fixable)
As mentioned, oversaturation is inevitable on wide-gamut panels when viewing sRGB/Rec.709 SDR content. But we can fix it. After calibration and profiling, we create a 3D LUT to use with ReShade, which clamps the native gamut to sRGB. The result: accurate, non oversaturated faithful colors.
Solution
1. OSD monitor settings
- VRR: Off
- Preset: User Mode
- Shadow Boost: Off
- Brightness: to taste (I set 32 = 110 nits on my unit, for evening gaming with dim lights)
- Uniform Brightness: On
- Contrast: 80
- Clear Pixel Edge: Off
- Vivid Pixel: 50 (default)
- Color Space: Wide Gamut
- Color Temp (User): R 99 / G 100 / B 99 (your unit may vary)
- Saturation & Six-axis Saturation: 50 (default)
- Gamma: 2.2 (based on DisplayCAL measurements this matches most closely an absolute 2.4 target)
- 2.4 OSD ≈ 2.50 measured
- 2.2 OSD ≈ 2.32 measured
- 2.6 OSD ≈ 2.71 measured
- Screen Dimming Control: Off (for calibration only; you may re-enable later)
- Outer Dimming Control: I suggest keeping it Off also during gaming
- Screen Move: Off (for calibration only; you may re-enable later)
- Auto Logo Brightness: I suggest keeping it Off also during gaming
- Remember to re-enable OLED care features when not gaming.
2. GPU control panel settings
Set full range RGB 0-255
3. DisplayCAL settings
• Preset: 3D LUT for ReShade
• Mode: Refresh
• White level drift compensation: Yes
• Black level drift compensation: Yes
• Output: Auto
• Correction: WOLED
• Observer: CIE 1931 2°
• Whitepoint: Color temperature → 6504K
• White level: Custom (personal preference; I chose 110 cd/m²)
• Black level: As measured (OLED = true black)
• Tone curve: Custom → Gamma 2.4 → Absolute
• Black output offset: 0%
• Ambient light level adjustment: 10–18 lux if gaming in dim light; increase if brighter (can measure with the meter)
• Black point correction: 0%
• Calibration speed: Medium
• Calibration quality: High
• Testchart: Auto-optimized (173 patches)
• Profile type: XYZ LUT + Matrix
• Black point compensation: No
• Create 3D LUT after profiling: Yes
• Source color space: Rec.709
• Tone curve: Custom → Gamma 2.4 → Absolute
• Black output offset: 0%
• Rendering intent: Absolute colorimetric
• Gamut mapping mode: Inverse to PCS
• Input & Output Encoding: 16–235
4. After profiling
• Save the 3D LUT in a folder of your choice
• Install the ICC profile system-wide with DisplayCAL.
5. Before gaming
• IMPORTANT: Reset calibration curves (disable ICC profile) → Right-click DisplayCAL Profile Loader in the system tray → Reset video card gamma table (if not, you will Apply the calibration twice)
• Install ReShade in the game folder
• Copy the exported 3D LUT “shaders” and “textures” files into the corresponding ReShade directories in the game directory
• Launch the game, launch ReShade and enable the Color Lookup Table shader.
Conclusion
By doing this, we are essentially emulating hardware calibration — as if the monitor had built-in LUT calibration.
Not only will you enjoy accurate, creator-intended colors, but you will also completely fix black crush and oversaturation, while reducing banding to acceptable levels.
Hope can help some of you 🙂
Results
