Methods and apparatus for calibration of interface operation of a display device. In one exemplary embodiment of the invention, an embedded DisplayPort (eDP) source element (such as a graphics processing unit (GPU)) configures itself to support the minimum requirements necessary to support a sink element (such as a screen display). Unlike prior art solutions, minimum sink requirements are identified during a calibration process, and the source is configured accordingly. By tailoring the source to the specific requirements of the sink, the device can initialize faster, consume less power, etc. Moreover, in another aspect of the present invention, if a device does not initialize to an expected configuration based on prior calibration settings, the device can be flagged as having faulty or failing components.