Diamond Multimedia 9800 Series - Manuals

2 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:...

3 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...

4 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...

5 M u l t i p l e D i s p l ay s 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. Plug the monitor cable into your car...

6 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 Configuration Connector(s) Used Comments One CRT display VGA connector OR DVI- I conn...

7 C ATA LY S T S o f t w a r e S u i t e 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 a...

9 To enable a Secondary display see Enabling/Disabling Secondary Displays on page 8 . To enable Extended Desktop Mode see Enabling Extended Desktop Mode on page 8 . 1 Access the Windows ® Control Panel . Double-click Display . 2 Click the Settings tab and then the Advanced... button. 3 Click the ATI...

10 2 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 t...

12 Clicking the Game Gamma button accesses the Game Gamma Properties. Game Gamma Properties Red Green Blue sliders These controls allow you to increase or decrease the color brightness of Direct 3D and OpenGL games played in fullscreen mode. RGB Lock Uncheck this to adjust the RGB sliders individual...

14 Clicking the Details button provides graphics card, graphics driver and system information. Enable ATI taskbar icon application Unchecking this allows you to disable the ATI taskbar applications and removes the ATI icon from your system tray. Show ATI icon on taskbar Unchecking this allows you to...

15 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 ...

16 Clone Mode Settings ATI Overlay Tab Brightness Use this slider to adjust the brightness of the video image. Contrast Use this slider to adjust the contrast in the video image. Saturation Use this slider to adjust the vividness of the color. Sliding it all the way to the left removes all color and...

18 D i r e c t 3 D C o n t ro l Pa n e l Using this tab, you can fine-tune the settings for Direct 3D applications. Main and Custom Settings The Main Settings allows you to optimize for performance by moving the slider to the left, or improve overall image quality by moving the slider to the right. ...

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

22 O p e n G L C o n t ro l Pa n e l Using this tab, you can fine-tune the settings for OpenGL applications. Main and Custom Settings In the Main Settings you can maximize overall performance by moving the slider to the left, or you can enhance overall image quality by moving the slider to the right...

2 5 OpenGL Compatibility Settings Force Z-buffer depth This allows you to explicitly set the Z-Buffer depth. Most applications will work best when Disabled is selected Support KTX buffer region extension Enabling this feature allows rapid updates of those portions of your screen that have changed. N...

26 S M A RT G A RT ™ 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 do...

27 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 ...

28 U s i n g T V O u t 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. TV display is ideal for playing games, giving presentation...

29 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. If your TV has cable input only, you can connect your g...

30 Starting Windows ® with TV Display Enabled The TV screen may become scrambled during the initial Windows ® logo display. 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, dur...

31 To Enable/Disable The TV Display 1 Access the Windows ® Control Panel . Double-click Display . 2 Click the Settings tab and then the Advanced... button. 3 Click the ATI Displays tab. Click the TV button. 4 Click the enable/disable button. 5 Click OK or Apply to save the changes. Using and Adjusti...

32 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 dimensi...

33 To Use Larger Display Fonts 1 Access the Windows ® Control Panel . Double-click Display . 2 For Windows ® XP, click the Appearance tab. For Windows ® Me, Windows ® 2000, click the Settings tab, the Advanced... button, then the General tab. 3 In the Font Size box, select the size you want your dis...

34 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. To In...

35 To Increase the TV Contrast 1 Access the Windows ® Control Panel . Double-click Display . 2 Click on the Settings tab and then the Advanced... button. 3 Click on the ATI Displays tab. 4 Click on the TV button. 5 Drag the Contrast slider to the right to increase the contrast. 6 Click OK or Apply t...