ATI FIRE GL4 User Manual

Fire GL4

User's Guide

Version 1.0 P/N 137-50000-10 Rev. A

Features and specification are subject to change without notice. Trademarks and/or registered trademarks are the properties of their respective owners.

Adobe and Acrobat are trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated, which may be registered in certain jurisdictions. ATI is a registered trademark of ATI Technologies Inc. in Canada, the United States and/or other countries. Fire GL is a trademark of ATI Technologies Inc. in Canada, the United States, and/or other countries. MS-DOS, Windows, Windows NT, Windows 2000, DirectDraw and Direct3D are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Pentium is a registered trademark and AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) is a trademark of the Intel Corporation. IBM ® is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation. OpenGL is a registered trademark of Silicon Graphics, Inc. AutoCAD, AutoShade, 3D Studio and HEIDI are registered trademarks or trademarks of AutoDesk Inc.

Disclaimer

The manufacturer (MFR) reserves the right to make changes to this document and the products which it describes without notice. The MFR shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions made herein; not for incidental or consequential damages resulting from the furnishing, performance, or use of this material.

The MFR makes no representation that the interconnection of products in the manner described herein will not infringe on existing or future patent rights, nor do the descriptions contained herein imply the granting of license to make, use or sell equipment constructed in accordance with this description.

Introducing the Fire GL4 .......................................................1

About your Fire GL4................................................................................................1

Hardware Design...............................................................................................1

Operating Systems ............................................................................................2

Typical Application Environments ...................................................................3

System Requirements and Tools.......................................................................3

Performance Overview......................................................................................4

How to Use this User's Guide...................................................................................5

Manual Conventions .........................................................................................5

Viewing the User's Guide Online......................................................................6

Do you Need a Printout of the Online User's Guide?........................................6

Quick Installation..................................................................................................... 7

Installation Steps...............................................................................................7

Installing the Fire GL4 ...........................................................8

Installing the Hardware............................................................................................8

Preparing your Computer..................................................................................8

Installing the Card...........................................................................................12

Connecting the Cables and Completing the Installation .................................15

Installing the Software ........................................................................................... 19

Before you Start: Information, Tips, and Hints...............................................20

Software Installation for Windows NT4.0 ......................................................21

Software Installation for Windows 2000.........................................................22

Fire GL4 Software Utilities ..................................................24

Changing the Video Settings..................................................................................25

How to Switch to the Display Properties?.......................................................25

Setting Resolution and Refresh Rate...............................................................25

Setting a DualScreen Configuration................................................................27

Selecting your Monitor ...................................................................................30

Adjusting the Monitor Display........................................................................33

Using Application Profiles and Advanced Functions.............................................36

Configuring Application Profiles....................................................................36

Setting Advanced Functions............................................................................39

iii

Reference..............................................................................42

Removing the Fire GL4 Drivers.............................................................................42

Troubleshooting ..................................................................................................... 44

Technical Details....................................................................................................47

Features and Performance...............................................................................47

Pin Assignments..............................................................................................50

Video Modes...................................................................................................52

Block Diagram................................................................................................54

Compliance Information ........................................................................................ 55

CHAPTER 1

Introducing the Fire GL4

IN THIS CHAPTER

About your Fire GL4

!!!!

How to Use this User's Guide

!!!!

Quick Installation

!!!!

About your Fire GL4

Hardware Design

The Fire GL4 is an AGP/ATX card based upon the IBM RC 1000/ GT 1000 chipset. With the ability to support two monitors and 128 MB of on-board memory the Fire GL4 is ideal for digital content creation, high-end CAD and other sophisticated 3D applications.

The RC1000 256 bit graphics rasterizer provides the functionality of a VGA controller, a 2D/3D raster engine with geometry pipeline setup processor, and a 300 MHz RAMDAC. It also supports video streaming by providing color space conversion and a bilinear scaling unit.

The GT1000 hardware geometry engine is a complete transformation and lighting engine with hardware implementation of the full open OpenGL pipeline and most of the Direct3D geometry pipeline.

2 Introducing the Fire GL4

Operating Systems

The Fire GL4 supports the following operating systems:

• Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 6 (or higher)

• Microsoft Windows 2000

• Linux - 2.2.x kernels, C Library 1.2 (LibC 6.2)

Download Linux drivers and installation instructions from

www.ati.com/support

Service Pack Information for Windows NT 4.0

You must be running Windows NT 4.0, updated with Service Pack 6 (or higher) prior to installing the Fire GL4 drivers. The Service Pack is available from Microsoft's web page, www.microsoft.com. For most languages you can perform the Service Pack 6 update from the Fire GL CD when you run the Quick Start utility.

Introducing the Fire GL4 3

Typical Application Environments

Fire GL4 offers outstanding 2D/3D performance in Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Linux. Fire GL4 is optimized and certified for professional 3D graphics in the following business environments.

• Mechanical Engineering Analysis (MEA)

• Mechanical Computer Aided Design (MCAD)

• Electrical Design Automation (EDA)

• Computer Aided Software Engineering (CASE)

• Digital Content Creation (DCC)

• Business Economic Modeling

• 3D Game Development

System Requirements and Tools

What do you need to install and use your Fire GL4?

• Motherboard with free AGP slot. Note: The bracket of the Fire GL4 also covers the expansion slot next to the AGP slot.

Pentium II CPU or better

•

System interrupt (IRQ) which is free. This may have to be

•

reserved in the computer’s BIOS. For help with this subject, refer to the manual for your mainboard.

• Supported operating systems: Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 6 (or higher) Microsoft Windows 2000 Linux - 2.2.x kernels, C Library 1.2 (LibC 6.2)

• CD-ROM drive

• A screwdriver to remove and reinstall the PC cover screws and

card mounting screws. See your PC manual for specific requirements.

Fire GL CD-ROM for Fire GL4

•

4 Introducing the Fire GL4

Performance Overview

Note:

Hardware Performance

• 32-bit RGBα TrueColor 2D and 3D acceleration

•

Software Features

• Multiprocessor system support

• ThreadSafe OpenGL 1.2 ICD support for dual processors.

• Supports Streaming SIMD Extensions (SSE) in Intel Processors

• Supports AMD Athlon™ processor-based systems with 3DNow!

•

• Dual monitor support - with a single card

• DDC2B monitor support on all operating system platforms

For more detailed information on features and performance please refer to the section Technical Details

Note: The Fire GL4 does not support 8-bit or 16-bit video modes

Accelerated, double-buffered 32-bit TrueColor up to 1920 x 1200, at 75 Hz refresh rates

24-bit Z-buffer, 8-bit double-buffer, 8-bit single-buffer overlay

Video engine supports YUV conversion, point and bilinear scaling

technology

Customized application settings for individual ISV applications

How to Use this User's G uide

Introducing the Fire GL4 5

For your convenience, this online User’s Guide has been formatted as an Adobe when using this documentation.

Many hyperlinks provide easy access to any information you may want. To make it useful in a printed format, too, a - hyperlinked table of contents and page numbers are provided.

Because it was designed to be used online and printed, some of the images may not print clearly or appear very clearly on screen.

Acrobat® PDF file. This format gives you great flexibility

Manual Conventions

Your Fire GL4 User’s Guide is organized in a standard, familiar way. A few icons are used to point out important information:

This icon marks useful tips or important operational notes.

This icon is a warning about possible electrical/software hazards or problems

6 Introducing the Fire GL4

Viewing the User's Guide Online

You can also read the User's Guide online—important hypertext links, such as Table of Contents entries, World Wide Web, and email addresses are active.

Place your mouse cursor over Table of Contents entries or main headings. If the hand icon changes to a pointing index finger, simply click and you will move to that place in the document. Some email or World Wide Web addresses inside this manual may be active as well. Go directly to a Web, FTP site, or email program simply by clicking on an active link. Displaying the provided bookmark and thumbnail views may help you with the orientation and navigation in the User's Guide.

This manual might be displayed with slightly-reduced magnification in your Reader. If you experience any difficulty reading certain files online, use the Reader’s Zoom To feature from the View menu and increase the magnification to about 150%. To view some screenshot images perfectly clear you may need a larger magnification.

Do you Need a Printout of the Online User's Guide?

You can easily print this User's Guide to access it off-line. The manual then will look like any standard document with a table of contents and page numbers.

For printing the User’s Guide, a print resolution of 600 dpi -or higher

- is recommended.

Quick Installation

• Brief instructions on how to get to work with the Fire GL4 in the shortest possible time.

Recommended for experienced users and system administrators

•

only.

For more detailed information on installation and operation of

•

your graphics accelerator, please refer to the corresponding sections of the Fire GL4 User’s Guide.

Installation Steps

1 Un-install the drivers and software for your old graphics card.

2 Set the display driver to Standard VGA.

Disable any on-board graphics solution on the motherboard.

3 Shut down and disconnect your computer system.

4 Remove the installed (AGP, PCI, or ISA) VGA card.

5 Install the new Fire GL4 card.

6 Reassemble and connect your computer system.

7 Install the Fire GL4 drivers and configuration software from the

Fire GL CD:

•••• automatic Quick Start utility or

•••• Start > Run > X:\START EXE

where X is the drive letter of your CD-ROM drive

Introducing the Fire GL4 7

CHAPTER 2

Installing the Fire GL4

IN THIS CHAPTER

Installing the Hardware

!!!!

Installing the Software

!!!!

Installing the Hardware

The hardware installation includes the following steps:

• Preparing your Computer

• Installing the Card

• Connecting the Cables and Completing the Installation

Preparing your Computer

Turn off the power to your system and discharge your body’s static electric charge by touching a grounded surface—for example, the metal surface of the power supply—before performing any hardware procedure.

The manufacturer assumes no liability for any damage, caused directly or indirectly, by improper installation of any components by unauthorized service personnel. If you do not feel comfortable performing the installation, consult a qualified computer technician.

Damage to system components, the accelerator card, and injury to yourself may result if power is applied during installation.This icon is a warning about possible electrical/software hazards or problems

Installing the Fire GL4 9

What do you need to use your Fire GL4?

What type of monitors do you need?

Information Before you Start

System Requirements and Tools

•

Motherboard with free AGP 1.X slot. Note: The bracket of the Fire GL4 also covers the expansion slot next to the AGP slot.

•

System interrupt (IRQ) which is free. This may have to be reserved in the computer’s BIOS. For help with this subject, refer to the manual for your mainboard

•

Pentium II CPU or better

•

Supported operating system

- Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 6 (or higher)

- Windows 2000

•

A screwdriver to remove and reinstall the PC cover screws and card mounting screws. See your PC manual for specific requirements.

•

Fire GL CD-ROM for Fire GL4

Your Fire GL4 is optimally configured to be combined with digital flat-panel (DFP) TFT LCD displays and digital CRT displays. You can also connect the Fire GL4 to high-resolution MultiSync or multifrequency monitors or other VGA monitors. To connect VGA monitors you may use the provided VGA->DVI adapters.

Note: You can use the full power of the graphics card only if your monitor supports the horizontal (kHz) and vertical (Hz) refresh rates as required by the graphics card. Refer to your monitor's documentation for recommended refresh rates

10 Installing the Fire GL4

Where are the drivers?

Are you planning a multi-monitor system?

Are you installing your Fire GL4 in place of a card from another manufacturer?

Do you have an integrated graphics solution on the motherboard?

•

Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 drivers are provided on the Fire GL CD.

•

Linux drivers and installation instructions are available for downloading from www.ati.com/support.

•

You may connect two monitors to the Fire GL4.

•

If DDC support is available, the respective resolution and refresh rate for each monitor is automatically detected.

Before you shut down your computer and remove the installed graphics solution, we recommend that you uninstall the the driver for your current graphics card first:

•

Use the uninstall program for your existing card, if one is available. Consult the documentation for your old card if necessary.

•

If no uninstall program is available, install the standard VGA driver via the Display Properties applet. For more information refer to Setting the

Display Driver to Standard VGA

Please refer to the manual or contact your motherboard manufacturer to determine how to disable your on-board graphics.

Installing the Fire GL4 11

The card has been designed to take

Plug-n-Play?

The illustrations do not show your card?

advantage of 'plug–n-play' without requiring additional hardware installation or configuration.

The illustrations provided in this section are for instructional use only; the card shown may look different than the one you purchased.

Setting the Display Driver to Standard VGA

To avoid possible driver conflicts between your old and new graphics card, install the standard VGA driver for your operating system. Install the standard VGA driver before you shut down your computer and remove the installed (AGP, PCI, or ISA) VGA card. Note: Installing the standard VGA driver is not required for Windows 2000.

The applications for which you want to install drivers also have to be completely installed for Standard VGA - 640 x 480 on your system prior to using the new software. It is a good idea to do this before removing an existing graphics adapter as not every application may permit the configuration of its video mode from the operating system level.

Installing the Standard VGA Driver for Windows NT 4.0

1 From the Start menu, go to

Start > Settings > Control

Panel, then double-click on Display. The Display Properties

sheet appears.

2 Click the Settings tab; then click the Display Type button.

3 Under Adapter Type, click the Change button. The Change

Display window appears.

4 Under Manufacturers, select (Standard display types). Under

Display, choose VGA compatible display adapter.

5 Click OK. You may need to insert your Windows NT 4.0 CD-

ROM.

12 Installing the Fire GL4

6 Click Close and OK as often as necessary to accept the changes.

7 Windows asks you if you want to restart your computer. Click

No.

8 Shut down your computer. You are now ready to remove your

old graphics card and install your new Fire GL4 card.

Installing the Card

To install your graphics accelerator card, follow these steps:

Switch off your computer and all external options (printer, display, and others)

Unplug all power cables from the electrical source.

Note: If you are disconnecting a peripheral from the computer or are removing a component from the system board, wait 10 - 20 seconds after disconnecting the computer from the electrical outlet before disconnecting the peripheral or removing the component to avoid possible damage to the system board. To verify that all power has been removed from the system, make sure that the standby power light-emitting diode (LED) on the system board has gone out.

Remove the cover of the computer.

Refer to the instructions in your computer’s manual for more information.

Remember to discharge your body’s static electricity by

Note:

touching the metal surface of the computer chassis.

Remove any existing graphics card from your computer.

If the old graphics card sticks rock it gently from end to end. Remember to save the screw.

If your computer has any on-board graphics capability, you may need to disable it on the motherboard. Refer to your computer’s manual for more information.

Installing the Fire GL4 13

Insert the card into the AGP slot.

• Locate the AGP slot

• If necessary, remove the metal slot covers from the AGP slot and

the adjacent slot.

• Save the screws to secure the graphics card later

14 Installing the Fire GL4

• Align the Fire GL4 with the AGP slot and press it in firmly until the card is fully seated. Take care to press it evenly and snugly into its slot. Do not force.

AGP cards are designed to fit one way only. Be sure your card is properly aligned

Grasp the card by the top edge and carefully seat it into the AGP slot. Be sure the metal contacts are completely pushed into the seat.

1 Fire GL4 card 2 Card edge connector 3 AGP expansion slot

Replace the screws to fasten the card in place

Align the slots in the mounting bracket of the card with the screw

•

holes in the rear panel of the computer case.

Use the screws you removed from the expansion slot covers or a

•

previously installed graphics card to secure the card in place. Note: Always secure the card with two screws to prevent potential6EMI problems.

Reassemble your computer.

• Secure ribbon cables and gently push them down and out of the way before you replace the system cover.

• Replace the computer cover.

• Reconnect any peripheral equipment cables you may have

disconnected.

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