RADEON™ 9600 SERIES User’s Guide P/N 137-40510-10 Copyright © 2003, ATI Technologies Inc. All rights reserved. ATI and all 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 the diagrams.
Disclaimer While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this document, ATI Technologies Inc.
Table of Contents Disclaimer ............................................................................................... i Product Notice......................................................................................... i MACROVISION..................................................................................... i Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Features At A Glance ............................................................................
Using TV Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 View your PC’s display on a TV.......................................................... 29 Connecting to a TV or a VCR .................................................................. 30 Starting Windows® with TV Display Enabled .................................... 31 Using SCART Connectors for European TVs ..................................... 32 How To Enable/Disable The TV Display ...........................................
1 Introduction The RADEON 9600 Series graphic accelerators delivers ground breaking 3D graphics performance. • Designed and built by ATI Technologies Inc. • Powered by the RADEON 9600 Series Visual Processing Unit (VPU). • 128-bit DDR memory interface. • Awesome 3D gaming performance. • Support for OpenGL® applications. • Support for Direct 3D® applications. • High resolution in 3D up to 2048x1536. • Best performance for today’s and tomorrow’s applications.
2 Features At A Glance RADEON 9600 Series The RADEON 9600 Series provides high performance acceleration for today's demanding 3D graphic applications.
3 ATI’s Catalyst™ Software Suite Multiple Displays and 3D Gaming Experience ATI’s Catalyst Software Suite provides multiple display functionality, and the advanced graphic features, such as SMARTSHADER, for the ultimate 3D gaming experience. For help on installing the Catalyst Software Suite, refer to the Getting Started Guide. The Catalyst Software Suite installs the ATI display tabs. These tabs are accessed through the Windows® Display Control Panel, through the Advanced...
4 HydraVision™ In addition to the multiple display functionality available with ATI’s Catalyst Software Suite, you can also use HydraVision for advanced multi-monitor management. For more information on HydraVision, please refer to the HydraVision User’s Guide PDF located on your ATI Installation CD.
5 Connecting your monitor(s) The RADEON 9600 Series, depending on the graphic card configuration, provides hardware support for one VGA monitor and one flat panel monitor, or two VGA monitors using a DVI-I-toVGA adapter*, or only one VGA monitor. It also provides TV Output via a S-Video out connector. Plug the monitor cable into your card (if you are running multiple monitors, connect their cables to the appropriate connectors), then turn on the PC and monitor(s).
6 S-VIDEO OUT VGA CONNECTOR FROM MONITOR Display Configurations The following table lists the different ways you can connect displays to your RADEON 9600 Series with multimonitor configuration Display Configuration Connector(s) Used Comments One CRT display VGA connector OR DVI-I connector with DVI-I-to-VGA adapter* CRT- cathode ray tube analog display One DFP display DVI-I connector DFP - digital flat panel display One TV TV Output Cards with S-Video out also support Composite out via a S-Vid
7 DFP display + TV DVI-I connector + TV Output CRT display + DFP display VGA connector + DVI-I connector CRT display + CRT display VGA connector + DVI-I connector with DVI-I-to-VGA adapter* The DVI-I connector can support a CRT display using a DVI-I-to-VGA adapter* CRT display + DFP display + TV VGA connector + DVI-I connector + TV Output The TV display will “clone” the image of one of the other two displays.
8 Catalyst™ Software Suite The following section provides an explanation of each ATI tab available after installing the Catalyst™ Software Suite. i Features presented in the following pages may not be supported in all operating systems and/or may appear differently. ATI Displays Tab The ATI Displays tab provides the multi monitor features. Here you can enable/disable display devices and swap the assignment of Primary and Secondary displays.
9 Enabling/Disabling Secondary Displays 1 Access the Windows® Control Panel. Doubleclick Display. 2 Click on the Settings tab and then the Advanced... button. 3 Click on the ATI Displays tab. 4 Click the enable/disable button for the display device you want to enable/disable. 5 Click OK or Apply to save the changes. Enabling Extended Desktop Mode 1 Access the Windows® Control Panel. Doubleclick Display. 2 Click on the Settings tab.
10 To enable Extended Desktop Mode, refer to the section Enabling Extended Desktop Mode. 1 Access the Windows® Control Panel. Doubleclick Display. 2 Click on the Settings tab and then the Advanced... button. 3 Click on the ATI Displays tab. Windows® XP, Windows® Me The ATI Displays tab shows you the display(s) that are active. The Primary display has the button depressed.
11 2 Click OK or Apply to save the changes. Ratiometric Expansion Your RADEON 9600 Series offers ratiometric expansion (or digital panel scaling as it is commonly known). This expands a low resolution image to fill a higher resolution panel. However, ratiometric expansion is only available on the Primary display. Therefore, if a flat panel display (FPD) is set as Secondary, the Extended Desktop mode is disabled and the resolution is less than the FPD’s native resolution.
12 ATI Color Tab The ATI Color tab is used to adjust the color settings. You can change the red, green and blue display colors. Desktop brightness and Game Gamma (brightness) can also be changed. ATI Color Tab Desktop Brightness This increases or decreases the brightness of your desktop. The higher the gamma value, the higher the brightness of your display. Color Curve This adjusts the selected color (red, green or blue check button) by moving the color curve with your mouse.
13 Clicking the Game Gamma button accesses the Game Gamma Properties. Game Gamma Properties Red Green Blue sliders These controls allow you to increase or decrease the color brightness of Direct 3D® and OpenGL® games played in fullscreen mode. RGB Lock Uncheck this to adjust the RGB sliders individually. Check this to adjust all three sliders at the same time. Defaults button This allows you to reset the Game Gamma settings to default values.
14 ATI Options Tab The ATI Options tab provides detailed driver information and access to the card’s specifications. You can also enable or disable the ATI taskbar icon. ATI Options Tab Version Information Provides the Catalyst version number, 2D version number and the driver build information. Details button Provides access to the Details tab which lists the card’s hardware details and driver information.
15 Show ATI icon on taskbar Unchecking this allows you to remove the ATI icon from your system tray without disabling the ATI icon applications. Disable quick resolution feature Quick resolution feature is accessible by leftclicking the ATI icon in the system tray. Checking this option disables the feature. Reduce DVI frequency on highresolution Resolves display corruption or no image at high resolutions (for example 1280x1024 @75Hz) using a digital DVI display.
16 ATI Overlay Tab Brightness Use this slider to adjust the brightness of the video image. Contrast Use this slider to adjust the contrast in the video image. Saturation Use this slider to adjust the vividness of the color. Sliding it all the way to the left removes all color and produces a black and white picture. Hue Use this slider to adjust the pureness or tint of the red, green and blue components of the color. Gamma Use this slider to adjust the overall intensity of the video image.
17 Clone Mode Settings Clone Mode Options Standard Video content is displayed on your Primary display only. Theater Mode Video content is displayed on your Primary and Secondary displays. Video content is displayed on your Secondary display(s) is always in full screen mode.Note: your computer must be set for 16-bit color depth or higher to use this mode. Same on all Video content is displayed on your Primary and Secondary display is exactly the same manner.
18 Direct 3D® Control Panel Using this tab, gamers can fine-tune the settings for Direct 3D® games. Main and Custom Settings In the Main Settings you can maximize overall performance by moving the slider to the left, or you can enhance overall image quality by moving the slider to the right.
19 Main Settings slider This allows you to emphasize what kind of application experience you’d like to have. Moving the slider to the left will maximize application performance, while moving the slider to the right will provide excellent 3D image quality. Moving this slider from one position to the next changes the individual Custom Settings sliders found below.
20 Texture Preference slider Selecting this decides whether your application should use high quality or high performance textures. Moving the slider to the right delivers the highest quality experience. Moving the slider to the left emphasizes a high performance solution while still providing good visuals. Mipmap Detail Level slider This will allow you to choose the texture quality of the mipmaps the application will use. Mipmaps are a collection of different sized textures of the same image.
21 Direct 3D® Compatibility Settings Support DXT texture formats Enabling this allows applications to use this kind of texture format. There are a few applications that can only support a limited number of texture formats. By selecting Disabled, the driver will not support DXT texture formats, thus reducing the number of texture formats supported.
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23 OpenGL® Control Panel Using this tab, gamers can fine-tune the settings for OpenGL® games. Main and Custom Settings In the Main Settings you can maximize overall performance by moving the slider to the left, or you can enhance overall image quality by moving the slider to the right.
24 Main Settings slider This allows you to emphasize what kind of application experience you’d like to have. Moving the slider to the left will maximize application performance, while moving the slider to the right will provide excellent 3D image quality. Moving this slider from one position to the next changes the individual Custom Settings sliders found below.
25 Texture Preference slider Selecting this decides whether your application should use high quality or high performance textures. Moving the slider to the right delivers the highest quality experience. Moving the slider to the left emphasizes a high performance solution while still providing good visuals. Mipmap Detail Level slider This will allow you to choose the texture quality of the mipmaps the application will use. Mipmaps are a collection of different sized textures of the same image.
26 OpenGL® Compatibility Settings Force Z-buffer depth This allows you to explicitly set the Z-Buffer depth. Most applications will work best when Disabled is selected Alpha dithering method When applications use both dithering and alpha blending, visual artifacts can occur. This option allows you to select how the application should handle both features at the same time.
27 SMARTGART™ SMARTGART is a suite of testing and diagnostics tools that perform a variety of bus tests to determine the optimal settings for your ATI graphics accelerator installed in your computer. SMARTGART automatically configures your graphics device to the optimal settings. SMARTGART does not actually disable any AGP functionality in your computer’s hardware.
28 This setting is disabled for many computers because the motherboard is not capable of supporting this feature. Retest All Click this button to retest all graphic bus capabilities. All tests and diagnostics are initiated immediately following a system restart. Any settings that have previously been set to Off will be turned on, providing the test passes. i Problems can arise if the user enables a secondary graphics accelerator (in a multiple monitor environment) after the operating system has loaded.
29 Using TV Out View your PC’s display on a TV Your RADEON 9600 Series has TV Out capability. You can attach your card to a TV and monitor at the same time. Or you can connect it to your VCR and record your monitor’s display. TV display is ideal for playing games, giving presentations, watching movies, and browsing the Internet. The following tips will help you get the most out of your TV Out feature.
30 Connecting to a TV or a VCR To connect your RADEON 9600 Series to a TV or a VCR, use the available TV Output connector. Your card will support either a S-video connector or a Composite connector. If your TV has cable input only, you can connect your card to your TV through your VCR or an RF modulator (available in most electronics stores). The RADEON 9600 Series with the Composite out connector DOES NOT support connection to TVs with S-Video In.
31 4 Turn on your PC and your TV (or VCR). S-Video Out S-Video In OR Composite In PC TV or VCR NOTE: Newer TVs may have the Video Input on the front panel S-Video Cable or Composite Cable OR S-Video-to-Composite Adapter* Starting Windows® with TV Display Enabled The TV screen may become scrambled during the initial Windows® logo display. This is only a temporary effect and your screen will be restored within a few seconds.
32 Using SCART Connectors for European TVs Audio In Connect to TV or VCR (Right = red) (Left = white) Audio Cable Connect to PC Audio Out Composite Cable or SCART CONNECTOR S-Video-to-Composite Adapter Cable Connect to PC TV Output Composite Video-In (yellow) The above illustration shows how to connect your PC to a European TV using the SCART.
33 Using and Adjusting TV Out For information about how to use TV display, right click the ATI taskbar icon, point to Help, then point to ATI Television Display. How TV Display Cannot Be Used A TV cannot be left connected to the RADEON 9600 Series if two analog monitors are connected, even if the TV is off and not enabled in the software. An analog monitor connected to the DVI-I connector cannot be left connected to your RADEON 9600 Series when TV out is enabled.
34 Use the controls available on the Adjustments tab on the Monitor Properties page (accessible by clicking on the Monitor button on the ATI Displays tab) to adjust the display on your monitor only. Click on the TV button to adjust the TV display only. Viewing Text on a TV A TV is designed primarily to show moving, rather than static, images. The large dot pitch of a TV (which is fine for moving video) will yield poor quality static images such as text.
35 To Increase the Horizontal Size 1 Access the Windows® Control Panel. Doubleclick Display. 2 Click on the Settings tab and then the Advanced... button. 3 Click on the ATI Displays tab. 4 Click on the TV button. 5 Click the Adjustments tab. 6 In the Screen Size section, click on the plus (+) button beside the horizontal arrowheads to increase the horizontal size of the TV display. 7 Click OK or Apply to save the changes you have made.
36 Changing Display Configurations If you move your PC to a place where you are using TV display only, make sure that you have the TV display feature enabled. You can set your display resolution as high as 1024x768. However, higher resolutions will result in a virtual desktop. If a TV is your only display device and a higher mode is selected, the display on your TV will disappear.