ATI Technologies Radeon X300 User Manual
RADEON™ X300 Series
User’s Guide
P/N 137-40723-10
ATI
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Copyright © 2004, ATI Technologies Inc. All rights reserved.
ATI 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, pe rformance and s pecifications ar e subject to change
without notice. Product may not be exactly as shown in diagrams.
Reproduction of this manual, or part s thereof, in any for m, without the ex press written permiss ion of ATI
Technologies Inc. is strictly prohibited.
Disclaimer
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and documentation described herein, for any act or omission of ATI concerning such products or this
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herein.
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described herein to improve reliability, function or design. With respect to ATI products which this
document relates, ATI disclaims all express or implied warranties regarding such products, including
but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and noninfringement.
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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.
• Compatibility - This option card is for use only with IBM AT or
compatible UL Listed personal computers that have Installation
Instructions detailing user installation of card cage accessories.
• Grounding - For continued protection against risk of electric shock
and fire, this accessory should be installed only in products equipped
with a three-wire grounding plug, a plug having a third (grounding)
pin. This plug will only fit into a grounding-type power outlet. This is a
safety feature. If you are unable to insert the plug into the outlet,
contact your electrician to replace the obsolete outlet. Do not defeat
the safety purpose of the grounding-type plug.
• Secure Attachment
tightened as to provide continuous bonding between the option card
and the PC chassis.
• Lightning - For added protection for this product during a lightning
storm, or when it is left unattended and unused for long periods of
time, unplug it from the wall outlet, and disconnect the antenna or
cable system. This will prevent damage to the product due to
lightning and power-line surges.
• Power Lines - An outside antenna system should not be located in
the vicinity of overhead power lines or other light or power circuits, or
where it can fall into such power lines or circuits.
• Antenna Installation - When installing an outside antenna system,
extreme care should be taken to keep from touching such power lines
or circuits, as contact with them may be fatal.
- All card securement pins shall be completely
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Table of Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
RADEON™ X300 Series Features 1
Graphic Features 1
External Connections 1
Using Displays. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Connecting Your Monitors 3
Display Configurations 4
ATI’s CATALYST™ Software Suite . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Introduction 5
Features 5
Multiple Displays and 3D Gaming 5
HYDRAVISION™ 5
Accessing the CATALYST™ Software Suite 5
ATI Displays Tab 6
ATI Color Tab 8
Hotkeys 12
Color Hotkeys Settings 13
ATI Options Tab 15
Options Details Tab 16
ATI Rotation Tab 17
Rotation HotKeys 19
ATI Overlay Tab 20
Video Overlay 20
Clone Mode Settings 21
ATI 3D Tab 23
Custom Properties Dialog 25
Direct 3D® Compatibility Settings 28
OpenGL® Compatibility Settings 29
ATI VPU Recover Tab 30
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Using TV Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Using TV Out 33
View your PC’s display on a TV 33
Starting Windows® with TV Display Enabled 35
Using SCART Connectors for European TVs 35
How To Enable/Disable The TV Display 36
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Using and Adjusting TV Display Features 36
How TV Display Cannot Be Used 36
Using a Monitor vs. Using TV Display 36
Adjusting Monitor Display 36
Viewing Text on a TV 37
Reducing Edge Distortion 37
Using TV Display Alone 38
Using Games and Applications 38
Select your TV broadcast format 38
Adjust your TV screen size 39
Adjust your TV screen position 40
Adjust the composite sharpness of your TV display 40
Adjust the S-Video sharpness of your TV display 41
Adjust the composite dot crawl on your TV Display 41
Adjust the chroma flicker removal setting on your TV Display (if
available) 42
Adjust the luma flicker removal setting on your TV Display 42
Reset the advanced settings on your TV Display(if available) 43
Compliance Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
FCC Compliance Information 45
Industry Canada Compliance Statement 45
CE Compliance Information 46
L’Information de conformité de la CE 46
CE-Konformitätserklärung 46
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
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.
• Complete feature-set support for OpenGL® 1.5 and 2.0
extensions.
• SMOOTHVISION™
• Full-scene anti-aliasing method that smooths uneven edges and
improves blurred images.
• 2x/4x/6x Anti-aliasing modes with aloss-less compression up to a
ratio of 6:1 at all resolutions.
• 2x/4x//8x/16x Anisotropic Filtering modes with up to 128-tap
texture filtering.
• HYPER Z™
• Ensures optimal hardware performance by discarding irrelevant
object data that is not visible to the user.
• Conserves video memory bandwidth.
• Loss-less Z-buffer compression
• Z Cache optimized for real-time shadow rendering.
• VIDEOSHADER™
• Seamlessly integrates pixel shaders with video in real time.
• All format DTV/HDTV decoding.
• Adaptive Per-Pixel- De-interlacing and Frame Rate Conversion.
External Connections
• 15-pin D-shell (female) VGA output.
• DVI-I output.
2 RADEON™ X300 Series Features
• S-Video output or Video In/Video Out (VIVO) connection.
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.
3
Connections and Adapters for the RADEON™ X300 Series Card
X
Note: If you use multiple monitors, the RADEON™ X300 Series
card must be the primary graphics card. Normally, the system BIOS
determines which graphics card will be the primary.
Standard VGA Monitor Connector. To connect a VGA monitor
to the DVI-I connector, plug the supplied DVI-I-to-VGA adapter
into the DVI-I connector, then plug your monitor cable into the
adapter.
4 Display Configurations
To connect your monitor
1
Power off
2
Plug
3
Power on
your computer and monitor.
the monitor cable into the appropriate connector.
your monitor first, and then restart your computer so that
Windows® can detect the new hardware settings.
4
When the
New Hardware Found
Wizard appears, at the appropriate
prompt insert the ATI Installation CD to load the drivers for your
RADEON™ X300 Series card.
Display Configurations
Your RADEON™ X300 Series graphics card provides single display
functionality and TV Out. The following table lists the different ways you
can connect displays to your card.
Display
Configuration
Single CRT
display
Single TV S-Video Out The S-Video out can also support a
Single TV Composite Out
CRT display +
TV
CRT display +
TV
Connector(s)
Used
VGA connector CRT - cathode ray tube analog display.
VGA connector +
S-Video Out
VGA connector +
Composite Out
Comments
composite connection via the SVideo-to-Composite adapter.
Introduction 5
CHAPTER 5:
ATI’ s CATALYST ™ Sof tware 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-d isplay
functionality, and its advanced graphic features, such as
SMARTSHADER™ , provide the ultimate 3D gaming experience.
The CATALYST™ Software Suite also supports the latest versions of
Direct 3D® and OpenGL®. Many 3D game titles will virtually come to life
through the advanced Direct 3D® or OpenGL®
tune these settings for the ultimate experience in 3D image quality or 3D
gaming performance.
features. Gamers can fine-
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
PDF located on your ATI Installation CD.
HYDRAVISION™ User’s Guide
Accessing the CATALYST™ Software Suite
The CATALYST™ Software Suite installs the ATI display tabs into the
Windows®
Advanced
Display Properties
button located on the
dialog. They are accessed through the
Settings
tab.
To access the
navigate through Windows®
menu.
Display Properties
dialog, right-click on the desktop or
Control Panel
, which is located in the
Start
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.
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.
Save button Saves display-device configuration schemes.
Delete button Deletes display-device configuration schemes.
Display buttons Enables or disables a display device; they also indicate
whether a device is enabled or disabled.
Troubleshoot
button
Opens a Troubleshoot dialog to assist with possible
display problems.
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.
1
Click the enable/disable button for the display device you
want to enable/disable.
2
Click OK or
Note: Due to power restrictions, you can normally only have two
devices active at the same time; for example, two monitors or a
monitor and a TV.
To save a display-device scheme
Apply
to save the changes.
Display-device selections can be saved as a scheme for quick recall.
1
Click the enable/disable button for the display devices you
want to have active.
2
Type a name into the
3
Click
Save
to save the scheme.
Scheme
drop-down list field.
ATI Color Tab
The ATI Color tab allows you to configure Gamma, Brightness, and
Contrast color settings for both your desktop and full screen 3D
environments. You can also save settings to a color profile for easy recall.
In addition, you can assign unique hotkey combinations that allow you to
adjust Gamma, Brightness, and Contrast color settings within your full
screen 3D applications.
ATI Color Tab 9
ATI Color Tab: Desktop Settings
10 ATI Color Tab
ATI Color Tab: Full Screen 3D Settings
ATI Color Tab
Desktop radio
button
Full Screen 3D
radio button
Profiles for Indicates whether the profiles in the drop-down list are for
Profiles dropdown list
Select Desktop to configure your desktop color settings.
Select Full Screen 3D to configure the color settings for
your 3D application. Note that the configured settings will
only be apparent within a full screen 3D application
environment.
your Desktop or a Full Screen 3D environment.
Lists all of the Desktop or Full Screen 3D profiles that you
have saved. Selecting a profile from the list loads those
custom color settings for the relevant environment. To
create a new profile, simply type in a name and click Save.
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.
All Colors
checkbox
Red, Green, and
Blue radio
buttons
Gamma slider Increases or decreases the gamma correction of your
Brightness slider Increases or decreases the color brightness of your
Contrast slide Increases or decreases the color contrast of your Desktop
Reset buttons Restores an individual slider setting to its default value.
Adjusts the Gamma, Brightness or Contrast for Red,
Green, and Blue simultaneously. Note that any individual
color settings in effect are lost if All Colors is selected; the
color settings revert back to the last-known All Colors
settings.
Selects the active color component (Red, Green, or Blue)
whose values will be adjusted by the Gamma, Brightness,
and Contrast sliders. Note that any individual color settings
made are lost if you subsequently select All Colors.
Desktop or full screen 3D application. Changing the
gamma alters the curvature of the color curve.
Desktop or full screen 3D application. Changing the
brightness adjusts the vertical position of the color curve.
or full screen 3D application. Changing the contrast
adjusts the slope of the color curve.
Click Apply or OK to save.
Color preview
box
Hotkeys button Opens the Color Hotkeys Settings dialog. There you can
Defaults button Restores all of the color settings to the default values.
To create a Desktop or Full Screen 3D profile
1
Choose either the
desired.
The color image indicates visually how the Gamma,
Brightness and Contrast sliders affect the final color
settings of your display device. In Desktop mode, clicking
on this with your mouse pointer will change the image.
assign hotkeys for adjusting your color settings within a full
screen 3D application environment. T o activate this button,
you must select the Full Screen 3D radio button.
Click Apply or OK to save.
Desktop
or
Full Screen 3D
radio button, as
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