ATI Technologies Radeon X550 Series User Manual
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ATI Technologies Radeon X550 Series User Manual

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Radeon ® X550
Series
User's Guide
P/N 137-40892-10

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Summary of Contents for ATI Technologies Radeon X550 Series

  • Page 1 Radeon ® X550 Series User’s Guide P/N 137-40892-10...
  • 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 System Requirements External Connections Using Multiple Displays .
  • Page 6 Adjusting Monitor Display Viewing Text on a TV Reducing Edge Distortion Using a TV as the Only Display Using Games and Applications Troubleshooting ......37 Uninstall Old Graphics Card Software Windows®...

  • Page 7: Introduction

    CHAPTER 1: Introduction System Requirements Hardware • Intel® Pentium® 4. • 128 MB of system memory; 256 MB or more for best performance. • Motherboard with free PCI Express® slot and correct PCIe™ chipset-driver. • CD-ROM drive (for installation software). •...

  • Page 9: Using Multiple Displays

    CHAPTER 2: Using Multiple Displays Connecting Your Monitors Your Radeon ® X550 Series provides hardware support for one DVI-I monitor or two VGA monitors using the supplied DVI-I-to-VGA adapter. It also provides TV output via a S-Video Out or Composite Out connector. Connections and Adapters for the Radeon ®...
  • Page 10 Connections and Adapters for the Radeon ® X550 Series Card DVI-I Backplate Connection. To connect a flat panel, plug the monitors DVI-I connector into the DVI-I connection. Note: If you use multiple monitors, the card Radeon ® X550 Series must be the primary graphics card. Normally, the system BIOS determines which graphics card will be the primary.

  • Page 11: Display Configurations

    Display Configurations 5 Power on your monitors 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 card.
  • Page 12 6 Display Configurations Display Connector(s) Comments Configuration Used Single TV S-Video Out The S-Video out can also support a composite connection via the S- Video-to-Composite adapter. CRT display + VGA connector + UNSUPPORTED CONFIGURATION S-Video Out if the CRT display is attached to the DVI-I connector via the DVI-I-to-VGA adapter.

  • Page 13: Ati's Catalyst™ Software Suite

    Introduction 7 CHAPTER 3: 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™, provide the ultimate 3D gaming experience.

  • Page 14: Ati Displays Tab

    8 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 15 ATI Displays Tab 9 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 16: Dynamic Display Reassignment

    10 ATI Displays Tab device is not an option. For example, if there is only one monitor connected, all buttons will be grey. Click the enable/disable button for the display device you want to enable/disable. Click OK or Apply to save the changes. Note: Due to power restrictions, you can normally only have two devices active at the same time;...

  • Page 17: Ati Color Tab

    ATI Color Tab 11 • Clicking the button will reassign the Primary and Secondary monitors. Clicking the button creates a clone or mirror image of the Primary display onto the Secondary display. Clicking the button extends your desktop to a Secondary display located to the right of the Primary display.
  • Page 18 12 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 19 ATI Color Tab 13 ATI Color Tab All Colors Adjusts the Gamma, Brightness or Contrast for Red, checkbox 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.

  • Page 20: Color Hotkeys Settings

    14 ATI Color Tab Color Hotkeys Settings Some full screen 3D applications automatically load their own color settings rather than those set through the ATI Color tab. If you want to force the application to use your custom settings, you can preconfigure hotkey combinations to either adjust the individual color properties or apply profiles you have created from within the 3D application.
  • Page 21 ATI Color Tab 15 Color Hotkey Settings Hotkey action Specifies the action that the assigned hotkey combinations will control within a full screen 3D application environment. You can only assign one hotkey combination to each action. Assigned Lists the assigned hotkey combinations and the actions hotkeys that each one controls.

  • Page 22: Ati Options Tab

    16 ATI Options Tab 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” action through the Hotkeys dialog, make sure that the profile you prefer is selected from the drop-down list box, and click OK.

  • Page 23: Ati Rotation Tab

    ATI Rotation Tab 17 ATI Options Tab Details button Gives access to the Details tab, which lists the card’s hardware details and driver information. Enables hardware acceleration for Windows® Media Acceleration Video (WMV) files. Reactivate all Reactivates any disabled graphics warning messages. warning messages Enable ATI...
  • 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 VPU Recover 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 VPU Recover 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 VPU Recover Tab...

  • Page 39: Using Tv Display And Capture Features

    Using TV Out 33 CHAPTER 4: Using TV Display and Capture Features Using TV Out Your Radeon ® X550 Series has TV Out capability. Viewing Your PC’s Display on a TV You can attach your Radeon ® X550 Series to a TV and a monitor at the same time.

  • Page 40: Starting Windows® With Tv Display Enabled

    34 Using TV Out Power on your TV first, then your computer. Connecting Your S-Video Out to a TV or VCR S-Video Connection on graphics card S-Video Cable Computer Starting Windows® with TV Display Enabled The TV screen may become scrambled during the initial Windows® logo display.

  • Page 41: Using And Adjusting Tv Display Features

    Using TV Out 35 During start up, your Radeon ® X550 Series will go through a sequence of mode settings, during which your TV display will remain blank. This process takes only a few seconds and programs the TV display. To enable or disable the TV display Access the Windows®...

  • Page 42: Viewing Text On A Tv

    36 Using TV Out caused by the changes your Radeon ® X550 Series makes in order to render your desktop display on a TV screen. 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.

  • Page 43: Troubleshooting

    Uninstall Old Graphics Card Software 37 CHAPTER 5: Troubleshooting The following troubleshooting tips may help if you experience problems. ATI’s documentation contains helpful installation/configuration tips and other valuable feature information. Please contact your dealer for more advanced troubleshooting information. More troubleshooting information can be found on the ATI Web site at ati.com/support.

  • Page 44: Installing The Catalyst™ Software Suite

    38 Installing the Catalyst™ Software Suite To install and detect your new hardware Click Next to allow Windows® to search for the Standard VGA or Standard PCI Graphics Adapter. If prompted for the Windows® CD-ROM, insert it into your CD-ROM drive.

  • Page 45: Solution Selector

    Solution Selector 39 Follow the Wizard’s on-screen instructions then choose either Express or Custom Install. Not all software components are installed using the Express installation. Custom installation allows you to select individual software components for installation. Solution Selector General Troubleshooting Problem Possible Solution Computer Does...
  • Page 46 40 Solution Selector General Troubleshooting Problem Possible Solution Screen Defects • Check if your monitor supports the resolution, Appear horizontal (kHz) and vertical (Hz) refresh rates as required by the graphics card. • Check your current resolution, refresh rate, and color depth settings in the Settings and Monitor tabs in your Display Properties dialog.

  • Page 47: 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 49: Index

    Index Numerics custom settings performance profiles quality 3D applications settings adjusting overlays application profiles creating ATI Overlay tab ATI taskbar applications 16, 17 disabling 16, 17 enabling 13, 40 brightness color settings video overlay card specification information Catalyst version number Catalyst Control Center Clone Mode overlay settings...
  • Page 50 color settings brightness color preview contrast desktop gamma profiles 13, 36, 40 contrast color settings TV display video overlay 35, 37 Control Panel custom settings Customer Care desktop color settings Digital Digital Flat Panel (DFP) display corruption high resolution displays Hotkey primary scheme...
  • Page 51 gamma color settings video overlay gamma correction graphics card resetting through VPU Recover 35, 37 Help horizontal size TV display video overlay HydraVision Industry Canada Compliance multiple displays rotate old graphics drivers uninstall Options tab overlay adjustments overlay settings Clone Mode performance primary display clone mode...
  • Page 52 rotate multiple displays single display Rotation HotKeys Safe Mode safety instructions saturation video overlay secondary display secondary displays clone mode settings 3D applications Clone Mode single display rotate SurroundView system requirements Overlay Theater Mode Triple Buffering 34, 35, 36 33, 36 TV display contrast games...
  • Page 53 VPU Recover Windows Windows Advanced Options Menu Windows XP Z-Buffer depth explicitly setting...

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