ATI Technologies Radeon 9800 Series User Manual
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ATI Technologies Radeon 9800 Series User Manual

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RADEON
™
9800 SERIES
User's Guide
P/N 137-40462-10
Copyright © 2003, ATI Technologies Inc. All rights reserved.
ATI and all 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 the diagrams.
Reproduction of this manual, or parts thereof, in any form, without the express written
permission of ATI Technologies Inc. is strictly prohibited.

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  • Page 1 RADEON ™ 9800 SERIES User’s Guide P/N 137-40462-10 Copyright © 2003, ATI Technologies Inc. All rights reserved. ATI and all 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.

  • Page 2: Disclaimer

    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...

  • Page 3: Table Of Contents

    Table of Contents Disclaimer... i Product Notice... i Introduction........1 Features At A Glance ...
  • Page 4 How TV Display Cannot Be Used ... 31 Using a Monitor vs. Using the TV Display... 32 Reducing Edge Distortion ... 34 Changing Display Configurations ... 35 Using Games and Applications ... 35 NSTC/PAL Support for RADEON 9800 Series... 36...

  • Page 5: Introduction

    Introduction The RADEON™ 9800 Series graphics accelerator delivers ground breaking 3D graphics performance. • Powered by the RADEON 9800 Series Visual Processing Unit (VPU). • Second generation to Support Microsoft 9.0. • 256-bit DDR memory interface. • Support for AGP 8X specification.

  • Page 6: Features At A Glance

    The RADEON 9800 Series includes: • CINEMATIC RENDERING: With its highly programmable shader engines, the RADEON 9800 Series of visual processors are designed to bring the most detailed worlds to life with cinema-quality lighting, textures, and effects. • MAXIMUM 3D PERFORMACE:...

  • Page 7: Ati's Catalyst™ Software Suite

    ATI’s CATALYST™ Software Suite Multiple Displays and 3D Gaming Experience ATI’s CATALYST Software Suite provides multiple display functionality, and the advanced graphic features, such as SMARTSHADER 2.1, for the ultimate 3D gaming experience. For help installing the CATALYST Software Suite, refer to the Getting Started Guide. The CATALYST Software Suite installs the ATI display tabs.

  • Page 8: Hydravision

    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 HydraVision User’s Guide PDF located on your ATI Installation CD.

  • Page 9: Multiple Displays

    Multiple Displays Connecting Your Monitor(s) Your RADEON 9800 Series provides hardware support for one DVI-I monitor or two VGA monitors using the supplied DVI-I-to-VGA adapter. A TV can also be used to expand your desktop by using the S-Video out.

  • Page 10: Display Configurations

    Display Configurations Your RADEON 9800 Series graphics accelerator card provides dual display functionality and TV Out. The following table lists the different ways you can connect displays to your card. Display Connector(s) Used Configuration VGA connector OR DVI- One CRT...

  • Page 11: Catalyst Software Suite

    CATALYST Software Suite The following section provides an explanation of each ATI tab added to the Display Properties after installing the Catalyst Software Suite. ATI Displays Tab The ATI Displays tab provides multiple monitor features. Here you can enable/disable display devices and swap the assignment of Primary and Secondary displays.

  • Page 12: Enabling/Disabling Secondary Displays

    Enabling/Disabling Secondary Displays Access the Windows Display. Click the Settings tab and then the Advanced... button. Click the ATI Displays tab. Click the enable/disable button device you want to enable/disable. Click OK or Apply to save the changes. Enabling Extended Desktop Mode Access the Windows Display.

  • Page 13: Virtually Repositioning Your Displays

    To enable a Secondary display see Secondary Displays on page To enable Extended Desktop Mode see Extended Desktop Mode on page Access the Windows Display. Click the Settings tab and then the Advanced... button. Click the ATI Displays tab. The ATI Displays tab shows you the display(s) that are active.

  • Page 14: Ratiometric Expansion

    Click OK or Apply to save the changes. Ratiometric Expansion Your RADEON 9800 Series card offers ratiometric expansion (or digital panel scaling as it is commonly known). This expands a low resolution image to fill a higher resolution panel. However, ratiometric expansion is only available on the Primary display.

  • Page 15: Ati Color Tab

    ATI Color Tab The ATI Color tab is used to adjust the color settings. You can change the red, green and blue display colors. Desktop brightness and Game Gamma (brightness) can also be changed. This increases or decreases the brightness of your Desktop desktop.
  • Page 16 Clicking the Game Gamma button accesses the Game Gamma Properties. These controls allow you to increase or decrease Red Green the color brightness of Direct 3D and OpenGL Blue sliders games played in fullscreen mode. Uncheck this to adjust the RGB sliders individually.

  • Page 17: Ati Options Tab

    ATI Options Tab The ATI Options tab provides detailed driver information and access to the card’s specifications. You can also enable or disable the ATI taskbar icon. Version Information Details button Reactivate all warning messages ATI Options Tab Provides the Catalyst version number, 2D version number and the driver build information.
  • Page 18 Enable ATI taskbar icon application Show ATI icon on taskbar Disable quick resolution feature Reduce DVI frequency on high- resolution Alternate DVI operational mode Clicking the Details button provides graphics card, graphics driver and system information. Unchecking this allows you to disable the ATI taskbar applications and removes the ATI icon from your system tray.

  • Page 19: 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 20: Clone Mode Settings

    Use this slider to adjust the brightness of the video Brightness image. Use this slider to adjust the contrast in the video Contrast image. Use this slider to adjust the vividness of the color. Sliding it all the way to the left removes all color Saturation and produces a black and white picture.
  • Page 21 Video content is displayed on your Primary and Secondary display is exactly the same manner. Same on all For example, all displays will show video output in full screen mode. These settings are available when Theater Mode Theater Mode is selected. Settings The aspect ratio of the source video is maintained for full screen display.

  • Page 22: Direct 3D Control Panel

    Selecting Custom Settings disables the Main Settings slider and allows you to fine-tune the Direct3D settings of your RADEON 9800 Series.
  • Page 23 This allows you to select the kind of application experience you’d like to have. Moving the slider to the left will maximize application performance, Main Settings while moving the slider to the right will optimize 3D slider image quality. Moving this slider from one position to the next changes the individual Custom Settings sliders found below.
  • Page 24 Selecting this decides whether your application should use high quality or high performance Texture textures. Moving the slider to the right delivers the Preference highest quality experience. Moving the slider to slider the left emphasizes a high performance solution while still providing good visuals. This will allow you to choose the texture quality of the mipmaps the application will use.

  • Page 25: Direct 3D Compatibility Settings

    Direct 3D Compatibility Settings May eliminate problems with certain Direct 3D games that display vertical and horizontal lines Support DXT around textures or display text incorrectly. This texture setting should only be Enabled if you are formats experiencing these issues, as it may cause problems with other games.

  • Page 26: Opengl Control Panel

    Selecting Custom Settings disables the Main Settings slider allowing you to fine-tune the OpenGL settings of your RADEON 9800 Series.
  • Page 27 This allows you to select the kind of application experience you’d like to have. Moving the slider to the left will maximize application performance, Main Settings while moving the slider to the right will optimize 3D slider image quality. Moving this slider from one position to the next changes the individual Custom Settings sliders found below.
  • Page 28 This will allow you to choose the texture quality of the mipmaps the application will use. Mipmaps are a collection of different sized textures of the same image. As the user moves closer to a 3D object the image quality should increase, requiring a Mipmap Detail higher quality texture of the same image.

  • Page 29: Opengl Compatibility Settings

    OpenGL Compatibility Settings This allows you to explicitly set the Z-Buffer depth. Force Z-buffer Most applications will work best when Disabled is depth selected Enabling this feature allows rapid updates of those Support KTX portions of your screen that have changed. Note buffer region that most applications will not be affected by extension...

  • Page 30: Smartgart

    SMARTGART™ SMARTGART is a suite of testing and diagnostics tools that perform a variety of bus tests to determine the optimal settings for your ATI graphics accelerator installed in your computer. SMARTGART automatically configures your graphics device to the optimal settings. SMARTGART does not actually disable any AGP functionality in your computer’s hardware.

  • Page 31: Retest All

    Some motherboard specifications may claim chipset support for Fast Writes but may not be compatible with many different graphics accelerators. This setting is disabled for many computers because the motherboard is not capable of supporting this feature. Retest All Click this button to retest all graphic bus capabilities. All tests and diagnostics are initiated immediately following a system restart.

  • Page 32: Using Tv Out

    Using TV Out View your PC’s display on a TV Your RADEON 9800 Series has TV Out capability. You can attach your graphics 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 33: Connecting To A Tv Or A Vcr

    Connecting to a TV or a VCR To connect your RADEON 9800 Series card to a TV or a VCR, use an S-Video cable. However, most TVs (and VCRs) have a Composite video input, in which case you can use the supplied S-Video-to-Composite video adapter.

  • Page 34: Starting Windows® With Tv Display Enabled

    This is only a temporary effect and your screen will be restored within a few seconds. During start up, your RADEON 9800 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 helps program the TV display.

  • Page 35: To Enable/Disable The Tv Display

    Series, even if the TV is off and not enabled in the software. An analog monitor connected to the DVI-I connector cannot be left connected to your RADEON 9800 Series card when TV out is enabled. In both cases, your RADEON 9800 Series will become overloaded, resulting in a dim image on all devices.

  • Page 36: Using A Monitor Vs. Using The Tv Display

    Using a Monitor vs. Using the TV Display Using your TV for your PC’s display is ideal for playing games, giving presentations, watching movies, and browsing the Internet. However, the display on your monitor may change or looked squashed. This occurs because the display adjusts to fit the dimensions of your TV.
  • Page 37 To Use Larger Display Fonts Access the Windows Display. ® For Windows ® Windows Me, Windows tab, the Advanced... button, then the General tab. In the Font Size box, select the size you want your displayed fonts to be. Click Apply. If prompted, click Yes to restart your PC. ®...

  • Page 38: Reducing Edge Distortion

    Reducing Edge Distortion When using a TV for your PC’s display, you may see some edge distortion on the left and right side of your TV screen. This effect depends on your TV and the PC application you are running. To reduce edge distortion, you can increase the TV display’s horizontal size.

  • Page 39: Changing Display Configurations

    TV will disappear. Using Games and Applications Some older games and applications may program your RADEON 9800 Series card directly, to run under a specific display mode. This may cause your TV display to turn off automatically or become scrambled (the PC monitor will not be affected).

  • Page 40: Nstc/Pal Support For Radeon 9800 Series

    NSTC/PAL Support for RADEON 9800 Series The RADEON 9800 Series can support both NTSC and PAL TV standards. The default setting is NTSC. To change to PAL requires configuring a switch on the video graphics accelerator card. For complete information on changing this switch see the Getting Started Guide that came with your RADEON 9800 Series video card.

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