ATI Technologies X1550 User Manual

Radeon® X1550

Series

User’s Guide

P/N 137-71102-10

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.

Reproduction of this manual, or parts thereof, in any form, without the express written permission of ATI Technologies Inc. is strictly prohibited.

Disclaimer

While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this document, ATI Technologies Inc. assumes no liability with respect to the operation or use of ATI hardware, software or other products and documentation described herein, for any act or omission of ATI concerning such products or this documentation, for any interruption of service, loss or interruption of business, loss of anticipatory profits, or for punitive, incidental or consequential damages in connection with the furnishing, performance, or use of the 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 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.

Macrovision

Apparatus Claims of U.S. Patent Nos. 4,631,603; 4,819,098; 4,907,093; and 6,516,132 licensed for limited viewing uses only.

This product incorporates copyright protection technology that is protected by US patents and other intellectual property rights. Use of this copyright protection technology must be authorized by Macrovision, and is intended for home and other limited viewing uses only unless otherwise authorized by Macrovision. Reverse engineering or disassembly is prohibited.

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

iii

Note: This graphics card is for use only with compatible UL Listed personal computers that have Installation Instructions detailing user installation of card cage accessories.

Table of Contents

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Radeon® X1550 Series Features 1 System Requirements 4 Before You Begin 4

Installing Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Graphics Card Bus Types 7 Basic Graphics Card Installation 7 Advanced Installation: AGP 9 Advanced Installation: PCIe™ 11 Connecting Devices 14

Using Multiple Displays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Display Configurations 17

Installing Software and Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Installing Drivers and Software in Windows® 21 Monitor Configuration 22 To set up a multi-monitor display 23 Reinstalling Drivers 23 Installing the Catalyst™ Software Suite 24 Catalyst™ Control Center 27 Launching Catalyst™ Control Center 27 Catalyst™ Control Center Dashboard 30 Catalyst™ Control Center Views 31 Hotkeys Manager 32 Profiles Manager 33 Preferences 35 Help 38 Information Center 39 Displays Manager 40 Displays Manager Advanced View 41 Display Options 46 Monitor Properties 49 Avivo™ Color 54 HDTV Support 55 3D 58 Standard Settings 59 Anti-aliasing 61 Set the Anti-Aliasing preference manually 61 Adaptive Anti-aliasing 63 Anisotropic Filtering 63 Catalyst™ A.I. 65 Mipmap Detail Level 67 Adjust the Mipmap detail level 67 All Settings 68 API Specific 71 Color 73 Color Desktop 74 Color - FullScreen 3D 77 Avivo™ Video for Radeon® X1000 Series 78 Standard Settings 79 VPU Recover 88

Using TV Display and Capture Features . . . . . . . 93

Using TV Out 93 Connecting to HDTV 95

CrossFire™ FAQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Troubleshooting 103 Product Registration 105 Customer Care 105 Additional Accessories 107 Compliance Information 107

Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

vii

viii

Radeon® X1550 Series Features 1

CHAPTER 1:

Introduction

Congratulations on the purchase of your ATI Radeon® X1550 Series graphics card. We hope that you will enjoy countless hours of trouble-free computing.

Radeon® X1550 Series Features

Graphic Features

• Native PCI Express® X16 bus support.

• Four parallel rendering pipelines.

• 32/MB/64MB/128MB/256MB/512MB GDDR3 on-board memory.

• Full support for Microsoft® DirectX® Shader Model 3.x.

• High performance Ultra-Threaded shader engine.

• Two vertex shader processors.

• Four pixel shader processors.

• 128-bit 4-channel memory interface supporting DDR/DDR2/ GDDR3 memory devices.

• Native PCI Express® x16 bus interface.

SmoothVision™

• Full-scene anti-aliasing method that smooths uneven edges and improves blurred images.

• 2x/4x/6x Anti-aliasing modes with a loss-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.

HyperZ™

• Ensures optimal hardware performance by discarding irrelevant object data that is not visible to the user.

• Conserves video memory bandwidth.

2 Radeon® X1550 Series Features

• 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.

512-bit Ring Bus Memory Controller

• Programmable intelligent arbitration logic.

• New fully associative texture, color, and Z/stencil cache designs.

• Hierarchal Z-buffer with Early Z test.

• Lossless Z Compression (up to 48.1)

• Fast Z-Buffer Clear.

• Z Cache optimized for real-time shadow rendering.

• Optimized for performance at high display resolutions, including widescreen HDTV resolutions.

Ultra-Threaded Shader Engine

• Support for Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0 Shader Model 3.0 programmable vertex and pixel shaders in hardware.

• Full speed 128-bit floating point processing.

• Up to 512 simultaneous pixel threads.

• Dedicated branch execution units for high performance dynamic branching and flow control.

• Dedicated texture address units for improved efficiency.

• High resolution texture support (up to 4k x 4k).

• Up to 1,536 instructions per rendering pass.

• 3Dc+ texture compression

• High quality 4:1 compression for normal maps and luminance

maps.

• Works with any single-channel or two-channel data format.

• Multiple Render Target (MRT) support.

• Render-to-vertex buffer support.

• Complete feature set also supported in OpenGL® 2.0.

Radeon® X1550 Series Features 3

High Dynamic Range (HDR) Rendering

• 64-bit floating point HDR supported throughout the pipeline

• Includes support for blending and multi-sample anti-aliasing.

• High precision 10:10:10:2 integer format support.

• Includes support for blending and multi-sample anti-aliasing.

• 2x/4x/6x Anti-Aliasing modes

• Sparse multi-sample algorithm with gamma correction, programmable sample patterns, and centroid sampling.

• New Adaptive Anti-Aliasing modes.

• Temporal Anti-Aliasing mode.

• Lossless Color Compression (up to 6:1) at all resolutions, including widescreen HDTV resolutions.

• 2x/4x/8x/16x Anisotropic Filtering modes

• Up to 128-tap texture filtering.

• Adaptive algorithm with performance and quality options.

Note: Not all features apply to all Radeon® X1550 Series graphics cards.

CrossFire™ Ready

Your Radeon® X1550 Series is CrossFire™ Ready and can be used in conjunction with a graphics cards of the same brand-family to complete a CrossFire™ capable system. CrossFire™ provides the best performance, flexibility, and game compatibility using multiple graphics processors in a single system. For more information see ati.com/crossfire

4 System Requirements

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).

• Specialized PCI Express® 350 watt or greater power supply recommended. Consult your computer system manual to ensure the power supply is designed to accommodate a high-end graphics card with a peak dissipation above 75 watts.

Operating System

Monitor • High-resolution MultiSync or multi-frequency monitors

• Windows® XP with Service Pack 2 (SP2).

• Windows® XP Professional x64 Edition.

or any other type of VGA monitor.

• Digital flat-panel (DFP) displays or digital CRT display.

External Connections

• 15-pin D-shell (female) VGA output.

• DVI-I output.

• S-Video output.

Before You Begin

Before you begin installing your new graphics card, please do the following.

Record Your Serial and Part Numbers

The serial number and 102 part number printed on the graphics card are required for registration. They are located on a sticker on the back of the card.

Serial number (S/N)

Before You Begin 5

Write the numbers, shown in bold above, down before installing your new ATI product.

102 part number (P/N)

Uninstall Previous Graphics Card Drivers

To ensure the successful installation of your new Radeon® X1550 Series card, you must uninstall the drivers for the existing graphics card before removing it from your computer.

To uninstall previous drivers

With your current graphics card still in your computer:

1 Close all applications that are currently running.

2 Navigate to the Control Panel and select Add/Remove Programs.

3 Select your current graphics card drivers and select Add/Remove.

The wizard will help you remove your current display drivers.

Note: If the previously installed graphics card has any additional software installed, it should also be removed at this point.

4 Turn off your system and remove the old graphics card.

6 Before You Begin

Graphics Card Bus Types 7

CHAPTER 2:

Installing Hardware

This chapter will guide you through the physical installation of your new Radeon® graphics card.

Graphics Card Bus Types

There are three possible card bus types. See the illustration below to determine if you have an AGP, PCI, or PCI Express® (PCIe™) graphics card.

AGP, PCI, and PCIe™ Graphics Cards

Bus Types

AGP card and AGP expansion slot

PCI card and PCI expansion slot

PCIe™ card and PCIe™ expansion slot

Basic Graphics Card Installation

There are two types of installation. If your graphics card does not require a separate connection to the computer’s power supply, follow the Basic Install instructions below. If your graphics card requires a separate connection to the computer’s power supply, follow the Advanced Install instructions for either AGP or PCIe, as appropriate.

8 Basic Graphics Card Installation

Radeon® graphics cards that require a connection to the computer’s power supply will have a power cable connected to them.

Installing the graphics card

1 Turn off the computer, monitor, and other peripheral devices.

2 Unplug the computer’s power cord and disconnect all cables from the

back of your computer.

WARNING - Wait approximately 20 seconds after unplugging the

power cord before disconnecting a peripheral or removing a component from the motherboard to avoid possible damage to the motherboard.

3 Remove the computer cover.

If necessary, consult your computer’s manual for help in removing the cover.

WARNING - Remember to discharge your body’s static electricity by

touching the power supply or the metal surface of the computer chassis.

4 Unscrew or unfasten and remove any existing graphics card from

your computer.

Note: If your computer has an on-board graphics capability, you may need to disable it on the motherboard. For more information, see your computer documentation.

5 Locate the appropriate slot and, if necessary, remove the metal back-

plate cover.

6 Align your ATI graphics card with the slot and press it in firmly until

the card is fully seated.

7 Screw in or fasten the graphics card securely and replace the

computer cover.

8 Reconnect any cables you have disconnected and plug in the

computer’s power cord.

9 Turn on the monitor and then your computer.

Advanced Installation: AGP 9

Advanced Installation: AGP

There are two types of installation. If your graphics card does not require a separate connection to the computer’s power supply, follow the

Install

instructions. If your graphics card require a separate connection to

the computer’s power supply, follow the

Advanced Install instructions

for either AGP or PCIe™, as appropriate.

Graphics cards that require connection to the computer’s power supply will have a power cable connected in the upper-right corner of the card.

Consult your system builder or OEM to ensure that your system has an

adequate power supply. Generally, ATI recommends a 300 watt power supply or greater to ensure normal system operation where a number of other internal devices are installed.

Basic

Graphic Card Installation

Graphics Card

Power Supply

Hard Drive

10 Advanced Installation: AGP

Power Cable Connector

4-Pin Power Connection

Power Extension Cable: Power Connector to Graphics Card

Power Extension Cable: Power Connector to Hard Drive

Power Extension Cable: Power Connector to Power Supply

Hard Drive

Power Connector to Hard Drive

Installing the graphics card

1 Turn off the computer, monitor, and other peripheral devices.

2 Unplug the computer’s power cord and disconnect all cables from the

back of your computer.

WARNING - Wait approximately 20 seconds after unplugging the

power cord before disconnecting a peripheral or removing a component from the motherboard to avoid possible damage to the motherboard.

3 Remove the computer cover.

If necessary, consult your computer’s manual for help in removing the cover.

WARNING - Remember to discharge your body’s static electricity by

touching the power supply or the metal surface of the computer chassis.

4 Unscrew or unfasten and remove any existing graphics card from

your computer.

Note: If your computer has an on-board graphics capability, you may need to disable it on the motherboard. For more information, see your computer documentation.

5 Locate the appropriate slot and, if necessary, remove the metal back-

plate cover.

Advanced Installation: PCIe™ 11

6 Align your ATI graphics card with the slot and press it in firmly until

the card is fully seated.

7 Remove the power cable from the hard drive power connector.

8 Connect the power extension cable to the 4-pin power connection on

the graphics card.

9 Connect the power extension cable to the power supply.

10 Connect the power extension cable to the hard drive.

11 Screw in or fasten the graphics card securely. Make sure the cables

are not interfering with anything inside the computer (for example, a cooling fan) and replace the computer cover.

12 Reconnect any cables you have disconnected and plug in the

computer’s power cord.

13 Turn on the monitor, and then your computer.

Advanced Installation: PCIe™

There are two types of installation. If your graphics card does not require a separate connection to the computer’s power supply, follow the B

Install

instructions. If your graphics card require a separate connection to the computer’s power supply, follow the for either AGP or PCIe™, as appropriate.

Advanced Install instructions

asic

Graphics cards that require connection to the computer’s power supply will have a power cable connected to them.

Consult your system builder or OEM to ensure that your system has an

adequate power supply. A PCI Express® compatible system has a specialized 12V graphics card power connector. A 450 watt or greater power supply is recommended. Consult your computer system manual to ensure the power supply is designed to accommodate a high-end graphics card with a peak dissipation above 75 watts.

12 Advanced Installation: PCIe™

Graphics Card Installation

Graphics Card

Power Supply

6-pin Power Cable Connector

6-pin Power Connection

Power connector to Graphics Card

Power connector to Power Supply

Installing the Radeon® graphics card

1 Turn off the computer, monitor, and other peripheral devices.

2 Unplug the computer’s power cord and disconnect all cables from the

back of your computer.

WARNING - Wait approximately 20 seconds after unplugging the

power cord before disconnecting a peripheral or removing a component from the motherboard to avoid possible damage to the motherboard.

Advanced Installation: PCIe™ 13

3 Remove the computer cover.

If necessary, consult your computer’s manual for help in removing the cover.

WAR NING - Remember to discharge your body’s static electricity by

touching the power supply or the metal surface of the computer chassis.

4 Unscrew or unfasten and remove any existing graphics card from

your computer.

Note: If your computer has an on-board graphics capability, you may need to disable it on the motherboard. For more information, see your computer documentation.

5 Locate the appropriate slot and, if necessary, remove the metal back-

plate cover.

6 Align your ATI graphics card with the slot and press it in firmly until

the card is fully seated.

7 Screw in or fasten the graphics card securely. Make sure the cables

are not interfering with anything inside the computer (for example, a cooling fan) and replace the computer cover.

8 Reconnect any cables you have disconnected and plug in the

computer’s power cord.

9 Turn on the monitor, and then your computer.

Your computer will beep, possibly show a warning message on your

display, and the boot process will stop if the graphics card is not correctly connected to the power supply.

14 Connecting Devices

Connecting Devices

The following illustration shows typical connections found on ATI graphics cards:

Connector Types

VGA Supports an analog CRT monitor.

DVI-I Supports a digital monitor.

VGA-DVI-I Adapter Supports an analog monitor on a DVI-I connection.

S-Video In/Out Supports a TV, VCR, or Camcorder.

CATV Supports a TV antenna or cable service.

Composite Supports a TV, VCR, or Camcorder.

For more information about connecting to your All-in-Wonder® graphics card, see the AIW All-in-Wonder® Quick-Start Guide and the All-in-Wonder® User’s Guide located on the CD that came with your new All-in-Wonder® graphics card.

CHAPTER 3:

Using Multiple Displays

Connecting Your Monitors

Your Radeon® X1550 Series graphics card provides hardware support for the following display configurations:

• Single VGA.

• Single DVI.

• Dual VGA (DVI-I-to-VGA adapter use required).

The TV Out connection supports the following TV formats (cables not provided):

• Composite.

•S-video.

• Component.

The TV Out connection can be combined with DVI or VGA (DVI-I-toVGA adapter use required) for clone or extended display support.

Connections and Adapters for the Radeon® X1550 Series Card

1 Standard VGA Monitor Connector. To connect a VGA monitor to

2 DVI-I-to-VGA Adapter (optional, not included).

3 DVI-I Connection. To connect a digital display.

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.

Note: If you use multiple monitors, the Radeon® X1550 Series card must be the primary graphics card. Normally, the system BIOS determines which graphics card will be the primary.

To connect your monitors

1 Power off your computer and monitors.

2 Plug the monitor cables into their appropriate connectors.

Display Configurations 17

3 Power on your monitors 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® X1550 Series card.

To set up a multi-monitor display

1 From the Start butto n click Control Panel, then Display. Click the

Settings tab to access the basic multi-monitor configuration settings.

Note: ATI provides Catalyst™ Control Center software that

provides many additional configuration features. It can be accessed by clicking the Advanced button from the Display Properties > Settings tab.

2 Select the Monitor icon identified by the number 2.

3 Click Extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor.

4 Set the Screen Resolution and Color Quality as appropriate for the

second monitor. Click Apply or OK to apply these new values.

• Refer to your Windows® online help and documentation for further information on using the Settings tab.

Note: When you use multiple monitors with your card, one monitor will always be Primary. Any additional monitors will be designated as Secondary.

Display Configurations

Your Radeon® X1550 Series graphics card provides dual display functionality. The following table lists the different ways you can connect

displays to your card.

Display Configuration

Single CRT display

Single DFP display

Connector(s) Used

VGA connector OR DVI-I connector with DVI-I-to-VGA adapter

DVI-I connector DFP - digital flat panel display.

Comments

CRT- cathode ray tube analog display.

18 Display Configurations

Display Configuration

Single TV S-Video Out The S-Video out can also support a

Single HDTV display

CRT display + TVVGA connector +

CRT display + HDTV

DFP display + TVDVI-I connector +

DFP display + HDTV

CRT display + DFP display

Connector(s) Used

S-Video Out to HDTV (YPrPb) cable

S-Video Out

VGA connector + S-Video Out to HDTV (YPrPb) cable

S-Video out

DVI-I connector + S-Video Out to HDTV (YPrPb) cable

VGA connector + DVI-I connector

Comments

composite connection via the SVideo-to-Composite adapter.

HDTV - High Definition Television

UNSUPPORTED CONFIGURATION if the CRT display is attached to the DVI-I connector via the DVI-I-to-VGA adapter.

CRT display + CRT display

CRT display + DFP display + TV

CRT display + DFP display + HDTV

CRT display + CRT display + TV

VGA connector + DVI-I connector with DVI-I-to-VGA adapter

VGA connector + DVI-I connector + S-Video Out

VGA connector + DVI-I connector + S-Video Out to HDTV (YPrPb) cable

VGA connector + DVI-I connector with DVI-I-to-VGA adapter + S-Video Out

The DVI-I connector can support a CRT display using the DVI-I-to-VGA adapter

The TV display will “clone” the image of one of the other two displays

UNSUPPORTED CONFIGURATION

Display Configurations 19

Display Configuration

CRT display + CRT display + HDTV

Connector(s) Used

VGA connector + DVI-I connector with DVI-I-to-VGA adapter + S-Video Out to HDTV (YPrPb) cable

Comments

UNSUPPORTED CONFIGURATION

20 Display Configurations

Installing Drivers and Software in Windows® 21

CHAPTER 4:

Installing Software and Drivers

This chapter will guide you through the installation of the drivers and software associated with your Radeon® X1550 Series graphics card.

Installing Drivers and Software in Windows®

You will need to install the Radeon® X1550 Series drivers and software in the following cases:

• After you have installed the card in your system.

• After you have reinstalled or upgraded your operating system.

This procedure applies to Windows® XP.

Software Installation Prerequisites

To install or remove the drivers, you must have administrator rights or be logged on as a user with administrator rights.

Your operating system must be installed and running before you can install the Radeon® X1550 Series drivers. Also, make sure that you have installed Service Pack 2 for Windows® XP.

Make sure your monitor cable is properly attached before you begin.

Note: The installation dialog will display in English if your operating system’s language is not supported.

To install ATI drivers and software

Note: Optical drive refers to CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive.

1 Start your system. When the Found New Hardware Wizard

appears, click Cancel. When the System Settings Change window asks you to restart your computer, click No.

22 Monitor Configuration

2 Run the ATIS ETUP utility. The ATISETUP utility will start

automatically when you insert the ATI Installation CD-ROM into your optical drive after the operating system has started. If your CDROM auto-run is not enabled or the ATISET UP utility does not start automatically:

a) Click the Start button in the task bar. b) Click Run. c) Select ATISETUP.EXE from the root directory of the ATI

Installation CD-ROM.

d) Click OK.

3 Click Install under Software Install.

4 Click Next.

5 Click Ye s to the license agreement. ATI Easy Install will start the

Installation Wizard.

6 Follow the wizard’s on-screen instructions to complete the

installation.

The Express installation option is recommended. By selecting this option, the HydraVision™ multi-monitor and desktop management software will automatically be installed, along with the ATI driver. Not all software components are installed using the Express installation. Custom installation allows you to select individual software components for installation.

7 When the Setup Complete message appears, select Yes, I want to

restart my computer now and click Finish.

8 After the system reboots, the Found New Hardware message

displays Digital Signature Not Found. Click Yes or Continue to complete the driver installation.

Monitor Configuration

Once the drivers and software have been installed, you can configure your monitor.

Warning - Choosing a refresh rate unsupported by your monitor may

damage your monitor. Consult your monitor’s documentation if necessary.

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