Diamond Multimedia 8500 manual

i RADEON ™ 8500 RADEON ™ 8500LE RADEON ™ 7500 User’ s Guide Ve r s i o n 5 . 0 P/N 137-40282 -50 Re v . D Copyright © 2 002, A TI T echnologies Inc. All righ ts reserved. A TI and all A TI product and product feature na mes are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of A TI T echnologies Inc. Al l other company and/or product names are tr[...]

ii Disclaimer While ev ery precaution has been taken in the preparat ion of this document, A TI T echnologies Inc. assumes no li ability with respect to the operation or use of A TI hardware, software or other products and documentation described herein, for any act or omission of A TI concerning such produc ts or this documentation, for any interr[...]

iii T ab le of Contents Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Features At A Glance .............. .............. .............. ........... .............. ............... 2 RADEON 7500 ............ ............ .. .............. ............ ... ........... ... .............. ... 2 RADEON 8500 and R ADEON[...]

iv Viewing Text on a TV ........ .............. .............. .............. ........... ............. 27 Reducing Edge Distortion ................... .............. .............. .............. ....... 28 Changing Display Confi gurations ....... ........... ........... .............. ............ . 29 Using Games and Applications ...............[...]

1 Intr oduction The RADEON family of graphic accelerators deli vers ground breaking 3D graphics performance. • Designed and b uilt by A TI T echnologies I n c . • Po wered by the RADEON V i sual Processing Unit (VPU). • A wesome 3D gaming performance. • Support for OpenGL ® applications. • S upport for Direct 3D ® applications. • H ig[...]

2 Features At A Glance RADEON 7500 The RADEON 7500 provides high performance acceleration for today's demanding 3D graphic applications. Its main features are: • V IDEO IMMERSION™ wh ich provides industry- leading D VD playback and digital TV decode capability • CHARISMA ENGINE™ which is the main VPU, providing the necessary po wer to [...]

3 A TI’ s CA T AL YST™ Software Suite Multiple Displays and 3D Gaming Experience A TI’ s CA T AL Y ST Software Suite pro vides multiple display functionality , and the adv anced graphic features, such as TR UFOR M, for the ultimate 3D gaming experience. F or help on installing the CA T AL YST Software Suite, refer to the Getting Started Guide[...]

4 Multiple Displa ys Connecting Y our Monitor(s) The RADEON 8500 provides hardw are support for one D VI-I monitor or two V GA monitors using the D VI-I-to-VGA adapter . A TV can also be used to expand your desktop b y using the S-V ideo out. The RADEON 7500 provides support for one V GA monitor and Composite output to a TV . Plug the monitor cable[...]

5 CA T AL YST Software Suite The follo wing section provides an e xplanation of each A TI tab av ailable after installing the CA T AL Y ST Software Suite. A TI Displays T ab The A TI Displays tab provides the multi monitor features. Here you can enab le/disable display de vices and swap the assignment of Primary and Secondary displays. F eatures pr[...]

6 Enabling/Disabling Secondary Displa ys 1 Access the W indo ws ® Contr ol Panel . Double- click Display . 2 Click on the Settings tab and then the Advanced... b utton. 3 Click on the A TI Displays tab . 4 Click the enable/disable button for the display de vice you want to enable/disable. 5 Click OK or A pply to save the changes. Enabling Extended[...]

7 T o enable Extended Desktop Mode, refer to the section Enabling Extended Desktop Mode . 1 Access the W indo ws ® Contr ol Panel . Double- click Display . 2 Click on the Settings tab and then the Advanced... b utton. 3 Click on the A TI Displays tab . The A TI Displays tab show s you the display(s) that are acti ve. The Primary display h as the b[...]

8 Virtually Repositioni ng Y our Displays 1 On the Settings tab, click and drag the appropriate monitor icon to the desired position. For e xample, the secondary display can be dragged to the left of the primary display , allo wing it to be virtually on the left, as shown belo w . 2 Click OK or A pply to save the changes. Ratiometric Expansion Y ou[...]

9 AT I C o l o r Ta b The A TI Color tab is used to adjust the color settings. Y ou can change the red, green and blue display colors. Desktop bright ness and Game Gamma (brightness) can also be changed. A TI Color T ab Desktop Brightness This increases or decreases the brightne ss of your desktop . The higher the gamma value, the higher the bright[...]

10 Clicking the Game Gamma b utton accesses the Game Gamma Properties. Game Gamma Properties Red Green Blue sliders These controls allow you to increase or decrease the color bri ghtness of Direct 3D and OpenGL games play ed in fullscre en mode. (NOTE: Game Gamma is NO T suppor ted in Windows NT4.0) RGB Lock Uncheck this to adjust the RGB sliders i[...]

11 AT I O p t i o n s Ta b The A TI Options tab provides detailed dri ver information and access to the card’ s specifications. Y ou can also enable or di sable the A TI taskbar icon. A TI Options T ab V ersion Information Provides the CA T AL YST version number , 2D version number and the driver b uild informatio n. Details button Provides acces[...]

12 A TI Overlay T ab The A TI Overlay tab allo ws you to configure the brightness, contrast, sat uration, hue and gamma properties of your video ov erlay . Video Overlay V ideo overlay allo ws for th e vie wing of full-motion video on your PC. Ho we ver , there is only one video ov erlay , which is only av ailable on the Primary display . The video[...]

13 A TI Overlay T ab Brightness Use this slider to adjust the br ightness 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 wa y to the left removes all color and produces a black and white picture. Hue Use this slider to adjust[...]

14 Direct 3D ® Contr ol P anel Using this tab, gamers can tweak the settings of their Direct 3D ® games. Main and Custom Settings In the Main Settings you can maximize o verall performance by mo ving the slider to the left, or you can enhance ov erall image quality by moving the slider to the right.[...]

15 Main Settin gs slider This allows you to emphasize what kind of application e x p erience you’ d like to hav e. Moving the slider to the left will maximize application performance, while moving the slider to the right will provide e xcellen t 3D imag e quality . Moving this slider from one position to the ne xt changes the indivi dual Custom S[...]

16 T exture Preference slider Selecting this decides whether your application should use high quality or high performance textures. Mo ving the slider to the right deli vers the highest quality e x p erience. Moving the slider to the left emphasizes a high performance solution while sti ll providing good visuals. Mipmap De tail Level slider This wi[...]

17 Direct 3D ® Compatibility Settings S up p o r t W-b u f f e r This will enable W- Buff er suppor t f or 3 D games. It is recommended to disable this for games that do not suppor t th is feature. Cer t ain applications re quire the increased precision of W -Buff ering and will e xhibit ar tifacts unless the W -Buffer is enab led. Support 32-bit [...]

18 Alpha dithering method When applications use both dither ing and alpha blending, visual artifacts can occur . This option allows you to select how the application should handle bo th f eatures at the same time . In most cases Error Diffusion will handle this situation quite well, but there are a f ew cases where selecting Or dered may be necessa[...]

19 OpenGL ® Contr ol P anel Using this tab, gamers can tweak the settings of their OpenGL ® games. Main and Custom Settings In the Main Settings you can maximize o verall performance by mo ving the slider to the left, or you can enhance ov erall image quality by moving the slider to the right.[...]

20 Main Settin gs slider This allows you to emphasize what kind of application e x p erience you’ d like to hav e. Moving the slider to the left will maximize application performance, while moving the slider to the right will provide e xcellen t 3D imag e quality . Moving this slider from one position to the ne xt changes the indivi dual Custom S[...]

21 T exture Preference slider Selecting this decides whether your application should use high quality or high performance textures. Mo ving the slider to the right deli vers the highest quality e x p erience. Moving the slider to the left emphasizes a high performance solution while sti ll providing good visuals. Mipmap De tail Level slider This wi[...]

22 OpenGL ® Compatibility Settings Force Z-b uffer depth This allows you to e xplicitly set the Z-Buff er depth. Most applications will work best wh en Disabled is selected Alpha dithering method When applications use both dither ing and alpha blending, visual artifacts can occur . This option allows you to select how the application should handle[...]

23 Using TV Out View y our PC’ s display on a TV Y our RADEON card has TV Out capability . Y ou can attach your 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, gi ving presentations, watching mo vies, and browsing the Internet. The follo win[...]

24 7500 to a TV or a VCR, use a Composite (RCA) cable. If your TV has cable input only , you can connect your card to your TV through your VCR or an RF modulator (av ailab le in most electronics stores). Connecting Y our Video Out to a TV or VCR 1 T urn of f your PC and your TV (or VCR). 2 Ensure your card was installed correctly as per the Getting[...]

25 Star ting Windows ® with TV Display Enab led The TV screen may become scrambled during the initial W indo ws ® logo display . This is only a temporary ef fect and your screen will be restored within a fe w seconds. During start up, your RADE ON card will go through a sequence of mode settings, during which your TV display will remain blank. Th[...]

26 3 Click on the A TI Displays tab . Click on the TV button. 4 Click the enable/disable button. 5 Click OK or A pply to save the changes. Using and Adjusting TV Out For information about ho w to use TV display , right click the A TI taskbar icon , point to Help , then point to A TI T elevision Display . How TV Displa y Can not Be Used A TV cannot [...]

27 Adjusting Monitor Displa y The size of the display on your monitor may be smaller and not perfectly centered when you hav e TV display enabled. These ef fects are caused by the changes required to provide a proper display on the TV . Use the controls a vaila ble on the Adjustments tab on the Monitor Pr operties page (accessible by clicking on th[...]

28 Reducing Edge Distor tion When using a TV for your PC’ s display , you may see some edge distortion on the le ft and right si de of your TV screen. This ef fect depends on your TV and the PC application you are running. T o reduce edge distorti on, you can increase the TV display’ s horizontal size. T o Increase the Horizontal Size 1 Access [...]

29 5 Drag the Contrast slider to the right to increase the contrast. 6 Click OK or A pply to save the changes you ha ve made. Changing Display Configurations If you mov e your PC to a place where you are using TV display only , make sure that you ha ve the TV display feature enabled. Y ou can set your displa y resolution as high as 1024x768. Ho we [...]