ATI Technologies Radeon X300 Series User Manual
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ATI Technologies Radeon X300 Series User Manual

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RADEON™ X300 Series
User's Guide
P/N 137-40723-10
ATI

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  • Page 1 RADEON™ X300 Series User’s Guide P/N 137-40723-10...
  • Page 2 ATI hardware, software, or other products and documentation provided herein. ATI Technologies Inc. reserves the right to make changes without further notice to a product or system described herein to improve reliability, function or design. With respect to ATI products which this...
  • Page 3 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.

  • Page 5: Table Of Contents

    Table of Contents Introduction ....... 1 RADEON™ X300 Series Features Graphic Features External Connections Using Displays .
  • Page 6 Using and Adjusting TV Display Features How TV Display Cannot Be Used Using a Monitor vs. Using TV Display Adjusting Monitor Display Viewing Text on a TV Reducing Edge Distortion Using TV Display Alone Using Games and Applications Select your TV broadcast format Adjust your TV screen size Adjust your TV screen position Adjust the composite sharpness of your TV display...

  • Page 7: Introduction

    RADEON™ X300 Series Features 1 CHAPTER 3: Introduction RADEON™ X300 Series Features Graphic Features • Four parallel rendering pipelines. • SMARTSHADER™ • Full hardware-based support for Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0/9.1 programmable vertex and pixel shaders in hardware. • Shadow volume rendering acceleration. •...
  • Page 8 2 RADEON™ X300 Series Features • S-Video output or Video In/Video Out (VIVO) connection.

  • Page 9: Using Displays

    CHAPTER 4: Using Displays Connecting Your Monitors Your RADEON™ X300 Series provides hardware support for one VGA monitor as well as TV output via a S-Video Out or Composite Out connector. Connections and Adapters for the RADEON™ X300 Series Card Standard VGA Monitor Connector.

  • Page 10: Display Configurations

    4 Display Configurations To connect your monitor Power off your computer and monitor. Plug the monitor cable into the appropriate connector. Power on your monitor first, and then restart your computer so that Windows® can detect the new hardware settings. When the New Hardware Found Wizard appears, at the appropriate prompt insert the ATI Installation CD to load the drivers for your RADEON™...

  • Page 11: Introduction

    Introduction 5 CHAPTER 5: ATI’s CATALYST™ Software Suite Introduction This chapter describes using the advanced multiple-monitor and 3D graphics features in ATI’s CATALYST™ Software Suite. Features Multiple Displays and 3D Gaming ATI’s CATALYST™ Software Suite provides multiple-display functionality, and its advanced graphic features, such as SMARTSHADER™...

  • Page 12: Ati Displays Tab

    6 ATI Displays Tab Windows® Display Properties Settings Tab ATI Displays Tab The ATI Displays tab provides control over multiple-monitor features. Here you can enable/disable display devices and swap the assignment of Primary and Secondary displays.
  • Page 13 ATI Displays Tab 7 ATI Displays Tab ATI Displays Tab Scheme Displays the drop-down list of available display-device configurations that have previously been created. New configurations can be entered here and then saved using the Save button. Hotkey Associates a hotkey with a scheme. To input the hotkey, highlight the field and press the appropriate key combination on your keyboard.

  • Page 14: Ati Color Tab

    8 ATI Color Tab To enable or disable a display If the enable/disable button is green, it indicates the device is enabled. If it is red, it indicates the device is disabled. If the button is greyed out, the device is not an option. For example, if there is only one monitor connected, all buttons will be grey.
  • Page 15 ATI Color Tab 9 ATI Color Tab: Desktop Settings...
  • Page 16 10 ATI Color Tab ATI Color Tab: Full Screen 3D Settings ATI Color Tab Desktop radio Select Desktop to configure your desktop color settings. button Full Screen 3D Select Full Screen 3D to configure the color settings for radio button your 3D application.
  • Page 17 ATI Color Tab 11 ATI Color Tab Save button Saves your current color settings to a Desktop or Full Screen 3D profile, using the name you specified in the list box. To restore these settings later, simply select the Profile name from the list and click Apply or OK. Delete button Deletes the profile that is selected in the Profiles list box.

  • Page 18: Hotkeys

    12 ATI Color Tab Adjust the Gamma , Brightness , and Contrast sliders to the desired settings, either individually or using the All Colors checkbox. Type a profile name in the Profile list box. Click Save . To apply the settings for a specific Desktop profile Choose the Desktop radio button.

  • Page 19: Color Hotkeys Settings

    ATI Color Tab 13 Some 3D applications allow you to switch easily between full-screen mode and windowed mode, and do not load their own color settings. In windowed mode, you can make slider adjustments or select a different profile on the Color tab, then switch back to full-screen mode to see the effects immediately.
  • Page 20 14 ATI Color Tab Color Hotkey Settings Hotkey In combination with the Modifier key, specifies the hotkey combination that triggers an action. Hotkey can be any key listed. To avoid conflicts, be aware of any hotkeys or keyboard controls that may already be assigned to your applications and 3D games.

  • Page 21: Ati Options Tab

    ATI Color Tab 15 To disable hotkeys (so that you do not accidentally activate them, for example), click the Disable Hotkeys checkbox. If you plan to use hotkeys, make sure this box is unchecked. The easiest way to apply your own color settings from within a full screen 3D application is to create a Full Screen 3D profile and save it, assign hotkeys for the “Load Current Profile”...

  • Page 22: Options Details Tab

    16 ATI Color Tab ATI Options Tab Details button Gives access to the Details tab, which lists the card’s hardware details and driver information. When enabled, improves the performance of .WMV format Acceleration video files. Reactivate all Reactivates any disabled graphics warning messages. warning messages Enable ATI...

  • Page 23: Ati Rotation Tab

    ATI Rotation Tab 17 ATI Options Details Tab ATI Rotation Tab Use the Rotation tab to rotate the image on your display up to 180 degrees. This feature is useful when using a flat panel display that can be physically rotated to different positions.
  • Page 24 18 ATI Rotation Tab ATI Rotation Tab ATI Rotation Tab Rotation buttons Rotates the display by the preset amount. Configure Lists the rotation actions with which you can associate a Hotkeys drop- hotkey. down list Hotkey field Associates a hotkey with a rotation. To input the hotkey, click on the field and press the appropriate key combination on your keyboard.

  • Page 25: Rotation Hotkeys

    ATI Rotation Tab 19 To rotate a single display Select one of the four rotation settings by clicking the appropriate button. Optionally, check the Mouse Track Rotation checkbox to have the mouse pointer match the display image. Click OK or Apply . To rotate multiple displays Select the Settings tab in the Windows®...

  • Page 26: Ati Overlay Tab

    20 ATI Overlay Tab ATI Overlay Tab The ATI Overlay tab allows you to configure the brightness, contrast, saturation, hue, and gamma properties of your video overlay. Video Overlay Video overlay allows for the viewing of streaming video on your PC. However, there is only one video overlay, which is only available on the Primary display.

  • Page 27: Clone Mode Settings

    ATI Overlay Tab 21 ATI Overlay Tab Brightness Adjusts the brightness of the video image. Contrast Adjusts the contrast in the video image. Saturation Adjusts the vividness of the color. Sliding it all the way to the left removes all color and produces a black and white picture.
  • Page 28 22 ATI Overlay Tab Clone Mode Options tab 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.

  • Page 29: Ati 3D Tab

    ATI 3D Tab 23 Clone Mode Options Full Screen Video The source video is scaled so that your display is showing full screen. Note: if the source video contains horizontal black bars, as do some DVD movies, the full screen video will also contain black bars.
  • Page 30 24 ATI 3D Tab ATI 3D Tab 3D Settings for Selects either Direct 3D® or OpenGL® as the radio buttons format to be altered in the workspace. Performance/Quality Controls the overall performance/image quality of slider your graphic application. Moving the slider to the left will maximize application performance, while moving the slider to the right will maximize image quality.

  • Page 31: Custom Properties Dialog

    ATI 3D Tab 25 Custom Properties Dialog Custom Properties Dialog Custom Properties Dialog: OpenGL® or Direct 3D® SMOOTHVISION™ SMOOTHVISION™ (Anti-Aliasing) improves image Anti-Aliasing slider quality by removing jagged edges from 3D images, resulting in smoother, more natural-looking objects. Anti- Aliasing can be applied using different sample patterns and sample points such as 2X or 4X.
  • Page 32 26 ATI 3D Tab Custom Properties Dialog: OpenGL® or Direct 3D® SMOOTHVISION™ Anisotropic filtering uses a texture filtering technique Anisotropic that blends multiple texture samples together. The Filtering slider number of samples taken when anisotropic filtering is performed can vary. By moving this slider to the right, as the number of samples taken increases, the quality of the final image increases significantly.
  • Page 33 ATI 3D Tab 27 Custom Properties Dialog: SMARTSHADER™ Effects SMARTSHADER™ SMARTSHADER™ applies preset pixel effects on Effects drop-down OpenGL® or Direct 3D® applications. Choose the list desired effect and click OK. Defaults button Restores the default settings.

  • Page 34: Direct 3D® Compatibility Settings

    28 ATI 3D Tab Direct 3D® Compatibility Settings Direct 3D® Compatibility Settings Dialog Direct 3D® Compatibility Settings Support DXT There are a few applications that can only support a texture formats limited number of texture formats. By selecting Disabled, the driver will not support DXT texture formats, thus reducing the number of texture formats supported.

  • Page 35: Opengl® Compatibility Settings

    ATI 3D Tab 29 OpenGL® Compatibility Settings OpenGL® Compatibility Settings Dialog OpenGL® Compatibility Settings Force Z-buffer Explicitly set the Z-Buffer depth. Most applications will depth work best when Disabled is selected Triple Buffering Improves the frame rate of games when Wait for Vertical Sync is enabled in Custom Settings.

  • Page 36: Ati Vpu Recover Tab

    30 ATI 3D Tab ATI VPU Recover Tab Hardware crashes may occur when a hardware device and the corresponding software device driver are no longer able to communicate with each other. VPU Recover enables the ATI display driver to detect when the graphics card is no longer able to respond to display driver commands.
  • Page 37 ATI 3D Tab 31 ATI VPU Recover Tab Prepare an Error Report When VPU Recover is activated a dialog will checkbox prompt you to submit an automatically generated error report to ATI. This error report will help ATI to determine the cause of the problem and help create more stable drivers.
  • Page 38 32 ATI 3D Tab...

  • Page 39: Using Tv Display

    Using TV Out 33 CHAPTER 6: Using TV Display Using TV Out View your PC’s display on a TV The RADEON™ X300 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.
  • Page 40 34 View your PC’s display on a TV RADEON™ X300 Series: S-Video Cable RADEON™ X300 Series: Composite Cable RADEON™ X300 Series: S-Video-to-composite Adapter Cable Composite Cable...

  • Page 41: Starting Windows® With Tv Display Enabled

    Using SCART Connectors for European TVs 35 Starting Windows® with TV Display Enabled The TV screen may become scrambled during the initial Windows® logo display. This distortion is only a temporary effect, and your screen will be restored within a few seconds. During start up, your RADEON™...

  • Page 42: How To Enable/Disable The Tv Display

    36 How To Enable/Disable The TV Display How To Enable/Disable The TV Display ® Access the Windows Control Panel. Double-click Display. Click on the Settings tab and then the Advanced... button. Click on the ATI Displays tab. Click on the TV button. Click the enable/disable button.

  • Page 43: Viewing Text On A Tv

    How TV Display Cannot Be Used 37 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 the TV button to adjust the TV display only.

  • Page 44: Using Tv Display Alone

    38 How TV Display Cannot Be Used Click OK or Apply to save the changes you have made. You can also reduce edge distortion by increasing the TV’s contrast. Increasing the contrast of a TV display Access the Display Properties dialog by right-clicking on the desktop or navigating through Windows®...

  • Page 45: Adjust Your Tv Screen Size

    How TV Display Cannot Be Used 39 Click the TV button. Your TV must be enabled before you can change its display properties. Click the Format tab. In the Format box, select a country (for example, Germany) from the list. Select the Format (for example, PAL).

  • Page 46: Adjust Your Tv Screen Position

    40 How TV Display Cannot Be Used Overscan increases the size of the display, magnifying it and clipping elements on all sides. Place a check here to expand your television display to the outermost edges of the television screen, leaving no black border around the edges. Note: This will disable your controls for Screen Position and Screen Size.

  • Page 47: Adjust The S-Video Sharpness Of Your Tv Display

    How TV Display Cannot Be Used 41 Your TV must be enabled before you can change its display properties. Click the Advanced tab. In the Composite Sharpness box, select a value from the list. Click OK or Apply to save the changes you have made. Note: Composite Sharpness is not available if your TV is connected via an S-Video input.

  • Page 48: Adjust The Chroma Flicker Removal Setting On Your Tv Display (If Available)

    42 How TV Display Cannot Be Used Click the Advanced button. Click the Displays tab. Click the TV button. Your TV must be enabled before you can change its display properties. Click the Advanced tab. In the Composite Dot Crawl box, select a value from the list. Click OK or Apply to save the changes you have made.

  • Page 49: Reset The Advanced Settings On Your Tv Display(If Available)

    How TV Display Cannot Be Used 43 If your Control Panel is in Category View: Select Appearance and Themes, then click Display icon If your Control Panel is in Classic View: Double-click Display. Click the Advanced button. Click the Displays tab. Click the TV button.
  • Page 50 44 How TV Display Cannot Be Used...

  • Page 51: Compliance Information

    Compliance Information FCC Compliance Information This RADEON™ product complies with FCC Rules part 15. Operation is subject to the following two conditions • This device may not cause harmful interference, and • This device must accept any interference received, including interference that may cause undesired operation.

  • Page 52: Ce Compliance Information

    CE Compliance Information EMC Directive 89/336/EEC and Amendments 92/31/EEC and 93/68/EEC, for Class B Digital Device. EN 55022:1998/CISPR 22:1997, - Class B - Limits and Methods of Measurement of Radio Disturbance Characteristics of Information Technology Equipment. EN55024:1998/CISPR 22:1997, - Information Technology Equipment - Immunity Characteristics - Limits and Methods of Measurement.

  • Page 53: Index

    Index Numerics custom settings performance profiles quality 3D applications settings adjusting overlays application profiles creating ATI Overlay tab ATI taskbar applications disabling enabling 11, 12 brightness color settings video overlay card specification information Catalyst version number Clone Mode overlay settings settings clone mode primary display...
  • Page 54 color preview contrast desktop gamma Hotkeys profiles Compliance information Low Voltage Directive for TV-tuner-equipped products 11, 12 contrast color settings TV display video overlay custom settings desktop color settings display corruption high resolution displays Hotkey primary scheme secondary dot pitch driver information DVI operational mode DXT texture formats...
  • Page 55 horizontal size TV display Hotkeys color settings video overlay multiple displays rotate Options Tab overlay adjustments overlay settings Clone Mode performance primary display clone mode profiles color color settings quality resetting graphics card rotate multiple displays single display Rotation HotKeys safety instructions saturation video overlay...
  • Page 56 Overlay Theater Mode Triple Buffering 37, 38 TV display contrast games horizontal size Video overlay definition video overlay brightness contrast gamma saturation VPU Recover Z-Buffer depth explicitly setting...

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