Does the iMac Pro have an 8-bit or 10-bit display?

The tech-specs do not go into explicit detail about the display's bit depth. It does though mention "One billion colors" and "Supports 10-bit spatial and temporal dithering."


I do know how dithering works; was extremely useful back in the days of displays with just 256 colors. Dithering would be used to mimic more colors. That was even a trick on older products such as the Apple IIgs (e.g. put a blue pixel next to a red one to get purple).


But with the iMac Pro's display, is it an 8-bit display and will always use dithering to mimic (as close as it can) a true 10-bit display? Or, is it a true 10-bit display and the notes on dithering are for when feeding the panel 8-bit images?


Note: All bit quantities mentioned above are for a single component (red, green, blue). Thus, the total bits would be 24 bits/pixel for an 8-bit panel and 30 bits/pixel for a 10-bit panel.

iMac Pro

Posted on Dec 20, 2017 5:28 AM

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3 replies

Dec 20, 2017 5:54 AM in response to JimmyCMPIT

Thanks, Jimmy.


The quotes above are from Apple's own site (Tech Specs section of the iMac Pro product pages).


At the end of the day, it doesn't matter much as I don't believe anyone will be able to perceive dithering artifacts (especially with the temporal flavor). Back in the days of 256-color displays, dithering artifacts were very obvious.


Still, I'm curious as to what Apple actually built.

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Does the iMac Pro have an 8-bit or 10-bit display?

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