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hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 ii Copyright © 2006, ATI Technologies Inc. All rights reserved. ATI, the ATI logo, and ATI product and product-feature names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of ATI Technologies Inc. All other company and/or product names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners. Features, performance and specifications are subject to change without notice. Product may not be exactly as shown in diagrams.
hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 iii L IMPORTANT SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS • • • • • • • • • Read Instructions - All the safety and operating instructions should be read before the product is operated. Retain Instructions - The safety and operating instructions should be retained for future reference. Heed Warnings - All warnings on the product and the operating instructions should be adhered to.
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hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 v Table of Contents Getting Started. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Installing Your Graphics Cards 2 Using Multiple Displays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Display Configurations 3 Using TV Display and Capture Features . . . . . . . . 7 Using TV Out Connecting to HDTV Using Your ATI HDTV Video Cable Using SCART Connectors for European TVs 7 9 11 11 Capturing Video . . . . . . . . . . . . .
hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 vi Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 1 Getting Started Congratulations on the purchase of your ATI Radeon® X1950 Pro graphics card. We hope that you will enjoy countless hours of trouble-free computing. System Requirements Hardware • • • Intel® Pentium® 4 or AMD Athlon®. 512MB of system memory; 1GB or more for best performance. Optical drive for installation software (CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive). Operating System • • • • Windows® XP with Service Pack 2 (SP2).
hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 2 Installing Your Graphics Cards Installing Your Graphics Cards The instructions that follow assume that the Radeon®X1900 family CrossFire™-ready graphics card has already been successfully installed. If you have not already done so, see the Getting Started Guide that came with the graphics card for installation instructions. L Consult your system builder or OEM to ensure that your system has an adequate power supply.
hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 Display Configurations 3 Using Multiple Displays Display Configurations To ensure the highest possible performance, only one display device is supported when CrossFire™ is active. When CrossFire™ is active other display devices connected to the other DVI connections on both graphics cards are rendered inactive.
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hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 Display Configurations 5 Connecting Your Monitors Connections and Adapters for the Radeon® X1950 Pro Card 1 Standard VGA Monitor Connector. To connect a VGA monitor to the DVI-I connection plug the supplied DVI-I-to-VGA adapter into the DVI-I connector, then plug your monitor cable into the adapter. 2 DVI-I-to-VGA Adapter. 3 DVI-I Connection. To connect a digital display.
hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 6 Display Configurations Note: Some Radeon®X1900 graphics cards have one DVI-I connector and one VGA connector. To connect your monitors 1 Power off your computer and monitors. 2 Plug the monitor cables into their appropriate connectors. 3 Power on your monitors first, and then restart your computer so that Windows® can detect the new hardware settings.
hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 Using TV Out 7 Using TV Display and Capture Features This chapter describes how to use the TV display and video capture features of your Radeon® X1950 Pro card. Using TV Out Your Radeon® X1950 Pro has TV Out capability. Viewing Your PC Display on a TV You can attach your Radeon® X1950 Pro to a TV and a monitor at the same time. You can also connect it to your VCR and record your monitor’s display.
hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 8 Using TV Out To connect S-video Out 1 Power off your computer and your TV (or VCR). 2 Determine if your TV (or VCR) supports either an S-video or composite video connection. 3 Looking at the back of your PC, locate your S-video out. Using an Svideo cable or the supplied adapter cable, attach one end of the cable to your graphics card and the other to your TV (or VCR). Refer to the illustration.
hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 Connecting to HDTV 9 Some single-frequency monitors may not work with TV display enabled. If you experience problems when TV display is enabled, disable TV display to restore your monitor’s display. Viewing Text on a TV A TV is designed primarily to show moving images. The large dot pitch of a TV will yield poor quality static images. The small text sizes commonly used for PC desktops can appear blurred or unclear on a TV.
hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 10 Connecting to HDTV The HDTV Component Video Adapter can be used in place of the standard A/ V Output cable to connect to an HDTV or other component input device, using component video cables. L You must have a monitor attached to your computer before installing the ATI HDTV. For proper operation of your ATI Component Video Adapter, ATI display drivers must be correctly installed.
hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 Using Your ATI HDTV Video Cable 11 Installing your ATI HDTV video cable 1 Turn on your component input device, and set it to YPbPr input. Note: See your HDTV or component input device manual for configuration information specific to your device. 2 Turn on your computer. Note: Your TV will not display anything until Windows starts. This can take several minutes.
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hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 15 Capturing Video The Radeon® X1950 Pro can capture video from your camcorder, VCR, or TV. Use your favorite video editing application to add effects, make changes, or stream your video on the Internet. The audio and video output connectors on your TV, camcorder, or VCR will be similar to those depicted in the illustration. Use composite video out or S-video out. S-video out will provide better results.
hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 16 Y Video in/video out cable. Z Typical video in of TV, VCR, or camcorder connections. [ Typical video out of TV, VCR, or camcorder connections. Connecting your media device for video capture Use a video in/video out cable to connect the S-video connection on your Radeon® X1950 Pro graphics card to the S-video connection a TV, VCR, or camcorder.
hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 17 If the volume icon is not in your Taskbar, do the following: • Click Start then click Control Panel. • Double-click Sounds and Audio Devices. • In the Volume tab, check Place volume icon in the taskbar. 2 Click Open Volume Controls. 3 If the Line-In volume slider is not visible, click Options then click Properties. 4 Click the Line-In volume control checkbox then click OK.
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hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 Launching Catalyst® Control Center 19 Catalyst® Control Center The Catalyst® Control Center is a graphical user application providing access to the display features contained within the installed ATI hardware and software. Use the Catalyst® Control Center to fine-tune your graphics settings, enable or disable connected display devices, and change the orientation of your desktop.
hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 20 Launching Catalyst® Control Center Other Quick Launch Access Points Launching Catalyst® Control Center Using the System Tray 1 Right-click the ATI icon in the Windows® System Tray. 2 Select Catalyst® Control Center from the popup menu.
hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 Help 21 Help Use the Catalyst® Control Center Help feature to access the comprehensive online help system, generate a Problem Report, and get the installed Catalyst® Control Center version information. To access Help • Click the Help button in the Catalyst® Control Center Dashboard. or • Press the F1 key at any time to get specific help on the feature or aspect you are using.
hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 22 CrossFire™ CrossFire™ The CrossFire™ aspect requires the following components to be available in order to appear as an option within Catalyst® Control Center: • A CrossFire™-ready motherboard with at least two PCI Express® x16 slots. • Two Radeon® X1950 Pro CrossFire™ graphics cards, one of which must be installed in the primary PCIe™ or BIOS boot slot. • Two internal CrossFire™ bridge interconnects. Enable Catalyst® A.I.
hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 23 CrossFire™ FAQ The following are frequently asked questions about CrossFire™. For the latest information, including lists of CrossFire™ certified motherboards and power supplies, and the latest CrossFire™ configurations, please consult the CrossFire™ Web site at: ati.
hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 24 Are there specific CMOS motherboard settings for CrossFire™? On some motherboards, the CMOS may be set by default to support only a single PCI Express® x16 slot. Ensure that both PCIe™ x16 slots are enabled in the CMOS.
hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 25 CrossFire™ bridge interconnect To install the CrossFire™ bridge interconnects, see the Radeon® X1950 Pro CrossFire™ Getting Started Guide. Which games/applications work with CrossFire™? CrossFire™ works with all 3D games and applications. If Catalyst® A.I. is enabled in the Catalyst® Control Center software, the optimal rendering mode available for the application is automatically selected.
hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 26 • Super Anti-aliasing - improves image quality by combining the results of full-screen anti-aliasing across two graphics cards in a CrossFire™ configuration. The two graphics cards work on different anti-aliasing patterns within each frame.
hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 CrossFire™ Overview 27 Welcome to CrossFire™ ATI CrossFire™ is the ultimate multi-GPU performance gaming platform, using ATI CrossFire™ ready motherboards and ATI graphics cards. CrossFire™ Overview This section provides an overview of the main features and configurations for CrossFire™. These topics are covered in more detail in other chapters of this manual.
hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 28 CrossFire™ Rendering Modes The ATI Catalyst® display driver automatically selects the best of the three performance modes when a 3D application is started, without requiring user intervention. You can also choose to improve image quality by selecting the new Super Anti-aliasing mode in the Catalyst® Control Center.
hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 CrossFire™ Rendering Modes 29 Scissor Mode In this mode, each frame is split into two horizontal or vertical sections,with each section being processed by one GPU. The ideal configuration is determined automatically for each application.
hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 30 CrossFire™ Rendering Modes Alternate Frame Rendering (AFR) Mode In this mode, all even frames are rendered on one GPU, while all odd frames are rendered on the other. The completed frames from both GPUs are sent to the display. By allowing both GPUs to work independently, AFR provides the greatest potential performance improvements of all the available modes.
hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 CrossFire™ Rendering Modes 31 3D images. Rather than simply determining the color of each pixel on the screen by sampling a single location at the pixel’s center, anti-aliasing works by sampling multiple locations within each pixel and blending the results together to determine the final color. The latest generation of ATI’s Radeon® GPUs with SmoothVision™ HD technology uses a method known as Multi-sample Anti-aliasing (MSAA).
hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 32 CrossFire™ Rendering Modes 1 Radeon® X1950 Pro Graphics Card 2 Radeon® X1950 Pro Graphics Card 3 Partial Frame Rendered on Radeon® X1950 Pro Graphics Card 4 Partial Frame Rendered on Radeon® X1950 Pro Graphics Card 5 Final Rendered Frame on Display Some types of textures, especially those with transparent portions, can exhibit aliasing that is not removed by MSAA techniques.
hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 CrossFire™ Rendering Modes 33 pattern that does a better job of anti-aliasing near-horizontal and near-vertical edges, resulting in better overall image quality. Two of the new Super Anti-aliasing modes use a combination of MSAA and SSAA to achieve the ultimate in image quality. They work by not only using different multi-sample locations on each GPU, but also by offsetting the pixel centers slightly.
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hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 Troubleshooting 35 Reference This chapter provides information on troubleshooting, where to get additional accessories, and how to register your product, plus warranty and compliance information. Troubleshooting The following troubleshooting tips may help if you experience problems. ATI’s documentation contains helpful installation/configuration tips and other valuable feature information.
hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 36 Troubleshooting General Troubleshooting Problem Possible Solution No Display • • • • Screen Defects Appear • • Check that the card is seated properly in its expansion slot. Ensure that the monitor cable is securely fastened to the card. Make sure that the monitor and computer are plugged in and receiving power. Make sure that you selected the appropriate monitor when you installed your enhanced driver.
hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 Troubleshooting 37 CrossFire™-Specific Troubleshooting Problem Possible Solution CrossFire™ is Not Functioning In order for CrossFire™ to function, the CrossFire™ bridge interconnects must correctly connect the CrossFire™ graphics cards. 1. Connect one end of the CrossFire™ bridge interconnect to the internal VMO connection on one of the cards. 2.
hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 38 Troubleshooting CrossFire™-Specific Troubleshooting Problem Possible Solution Screen Rotation Function Does Not Work or is Unavailable Screen rotation is not an available feature on CrossFire™ systems. Video displays flicker during system startup This is normal as CrossFire™ starts up.
hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 Product Registration 39 Product Registration To activate your warranty and obtain product support through ATI Customer Care, register your product at: ati.com/online/registration Customer Care For detailed instructions on how to use your ATI product, refer to the User’s Guide included on your ATI installation CD-ROM.
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hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 Compliance Information 41 Compliance Information This section details the compliance information for this product. FCC Compliance Information This Radeon®X1900 product complies with FCC Rules part 15. Operation is subject to the following two conditions • This device may not cause harmful interference. • This device must accept any interference received, including interference that may cause undesired operation.
hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 42 Compliance Information CE Compliance Information EMC Directive 89/336/EEC and amendments 91/263/EEC, 92/31/EEC and 93/68/EEC, Class B Digital Device EN 55022:2003/CISPR 22 Class B, Limits and Methods of Measurement of Radio Interference Characteristics Information Technology Equipment.
hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 Compliance Information 43 Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive Compliance This product was manufactured by ATI Technologies Inc.
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hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 45 Glossary 2D Acronym for “two dimensional,” a term applied to computer graphics that are “flat.” Typical desktop applications such as word processors, spreadsheet programs, or other programs that manipulate print or simple graphics (such as pictures or line art) are generally considered to be operating within a 2D environment, even when they include simple three dimensional elements, such as buttons.
hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 46 Alpha Blending Alpha blending is used in 3D graphics to create transparent or opaque effects for surfaces such as glass and water. Alpha is a transparency value, so the lower the value, the more transparent the image looks. It is also used in animations to produce such things as fading effects, where one image gradually fades into another.
hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 47 Aspect A group of related features in ATI’s Catalyst® Control Center software. For example, the Color aspect clusters together controls that handles gamma, brightness, contrast, and other features relating directly to the display of color. Similarly, the 3D aspect provides a set of related controls dealing with such features as anti-aliasing, anisotropic filtering, mipmap details levels, and more.
hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 48 Bit Depth Refers to the number of data bits required to store color information about a pixel. Larger bit depth means a greater range of color information is capable of being encoded into each pixel. For example, 1 binary bit of memory can only encode to either “0” or “1.” So a graphical bit depth of 1 means that the display can only show two colors, the black and white of a monochrome display.
hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 49 Color Component Three color components—Red, Green, and Blue—combine in various intensities to determine the color of each pixel on the screen. The values of each color component are graphically represented by a corresponding color curve. Color Correction Correct discrepancies between the real color value and the way a screen displays it.
hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 50 Composite Video Composite video is a type of analog video signal that combines both brightness and color information into a single signal. It typically uses a single RCA connection for the video channel, and separate RCA connections for the left and right audio channels. The quality of the video signal is reduced by the process of mixing the brightness and multiple color channels together into a single channel.
hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 51 Dithering A computer graphics technique that takes advantage of the human eye’s tendency to mix two colors that are adjacent to each other to produce smooth boundary transitions. Dithering adds intermediate color values between two or more boundaries, producing smoother, more natural look to 2D images or 3D objects. Dot pitch Dot pitch specifies the sharpness of a monitor’s display.
hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 52 Flat Shading A lighting technique that shades each polygon of a 3D object based on where the source of the light is and the angle of the polygon in relation to it. It enables relatively fast rendering of 3D objects, although it can make those objects appear “faceted” as each visible polygon is set to a particular color value, and consequently does not produce as realistic an effect as obtained when using Gouraud shading.
hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 53 Gouraud Shading A shading method used to produce a smooth lighting effect across a 3D object. A specific color is used at each vertex of a triangle or polygon and interpolated across the entire face. HDTV Acronym for “High Definition Television,” a format that produces much greater picture quality than a standard television, and in a wide-screen format that matches that of a movie theater screen.
hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 54 Keyframe Interpolation This feature is also known as “morphing.” In an animation, a start and end point are picked as the key frames. In a 3D rendering, the start point could have a character with a neutral expression, and the end point could have that same character smiling.
hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 55 NTSC The name for the type of analog television signal used throughout the Americas (except Brazil) and in Japan. It draws a total of 525 vertical interlaced frames of video at a refresh rate of 60 Hz, making it relatively flicker-free. The acronym refers to the National Television Systems Committee, which devised this color video standard in 1953.
hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 56 PCI Express® (PCIe™) The successor standard to the PCI and AGP bus standards, with a significantly faster serial communications system, further opening up bandwidth for more communications between such peripherals as graphics cards and the computer’s CPU.
hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 57 Resolution The resolution of any display is the number of pixels that can be depicted on screen as specified by the number of horizontal rows against the number of vertical columns. The default VGA resolution of many video cards is capable of displaying 640 rows of pixels by 480 columns. The typical resolution of current displays is set to higher values, such as 1024x768 (XGA), 1280x1024 (SXGA), or 1600x1200 (UXGA).
hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 58 SDTV SDTV is an acronym for “Standard Definition Television” that identifies lower resolution systems when compared to High Definition Television (HDTV) systems. SDTV systems use the same 4:3 aspect ratio and 480 scan lines to produce a picture as regular analog television sets, but digital decoding enhanced of the signal, displaying a sharper and crisper picture.
hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 59 SmoothVision™ HD SmoothVision™ HD incorporates improved anti-aliasing, anisotropic filtering and 3Dc™ compression features designed to further enhance image quality. Anti-aliasing performance is improved, providing better overall detail and image quality.
hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 60 S-Video Short for “Separate Video,” S-Video is a type of analog video interface that produces a higher-quality signal compared to composite video. The signal is split into two separate channels— luminance (Y) and chrominance (C).
hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 61 10-bit signal, which is then converted back to its original 8-bit form at the display device. The signal is also DC-balanced, allowing for the option of transmitting the signal over fibre-optic cable. DVI connectors can incorporate up to two TMDS links, with each “link” comprised of the number of signals required for standard RGB output.
hightech_maib -- HIGHTECH -- 202.82.32.137 -- Monday, October 30, 2006 62 VPU Recover A feature designed to significantly reduce the number of system crashes caused by problems occurring with the graphics hardware. If the display driver detects that the graphics processor has hung, VPU Recover will attempt to reset the graphics processor, eliminating the need for a system reboot and allowing users to continue using the computer without interrupting or losing their work.
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