RADEON® X1900 G5 MAC EDITION User’s Guide P/N 137-41055-10 ATI
ii Copyright © 2006, ATI Technologies Inc. All rights reserved. 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.
iii Table of Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 System Requirements External Connections Related Documentation Multimedia Features Viewing 3D Graphics TV Out Support 1 1 2 2 2 3 ATI Displays Control Panel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
iv Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1 CHAPTER 1: Introduction The RADEON® X1900 G5 MAC EDITION represents the next generation in 3D and video acceleration for your Power Macintosh® computer. It includes flexible dual-display support for multiple combinations of CRT and Digital Flat Panel monitors. Your new graphics accelerator provides: • Flexible dual-display support enabling many combinations utilizing 2 DVI connectors and 1 TV-Out connector, with or without VGA adapters, for analog and digital displays.
2 Related Documentation Related Documentation The README file summarizes the latest product revisions. Click the README icon on the installation disk to open this file. Detailed help and feature descriptions are available directly in ATI Displays. Multimedia Features Your RADEON® X1900 G5 MAC EDITION turns your Mac computer into a 3D and 2D graphics powerhouse. Use your new graphics accelerator card to: • Enjoy true-color 32-bit 2D or 3D graphics up to 2560 x 1600.
TV Out Support 3 SMOOTHVISION™ HD is an antialiasing solution that raises the bar for image quality using programmable multi-sampling methods to postprocess graphics before they are displayed. SMARTSHADER™ HD is a technology that allows specialized high precision graphic programs to be run on the RADEON® X1900 G5 MAC EDITION VPU rather than the system processor. Developers can easily create amazing new graphics effects while maintaining a high level of performance.
4 TV Out Support
Introduction 5 CHAPTER 2: ATI Displays Control Panel Introduction The ATI Displays control panel provides access to the advanced features that the RADEON® X1900 G5 MAC EDITION has to offer. Open the ATI Displays control panel 1 Open the Apple® System Preferences. 2 Click the ATI Displays icon. or 1 Click the Hard Disk icon. 2 Open Applications folder. 3 Open Utilities folder. 4 Open ATI Utilities folder. 5 Open ATI Displays.
6 ATI Displays Control Panel ATI Displays Control Panel Display Info dialog shows the current display settings for the display. Detect Displays button detects all connected displays. This feature is useful when a second VGA monitor is connected to your graphics adapter. Detect Displays removes the need to restart your computer. Note: Your display will momentarily go blank when all devices are being detected.
ATI Displays Preferences 7 ATI Displays Preferences From the ATI Displays drop down menu you can set the Preferences for the ATI Displays control panel. Here you can configure how the ATI Displays control panel starts and exits.
8 Advanced Display Options Advanced Display Options Advanced Display Options adds even more functionality, giving you complete control over your display. To access the Advanced features open the ATI Displays control panel and click the ADVANCED button. VersaVision™ Tab Use the VersaVision™ tab to rotate your display while maintaining the full feature set of other ATI 2D and 3D technologies.
Advanced Display Options 9 Display Scaling Use this option to control the display output size without affecting the desktop resolution of your display. If the computer desktop, toolbar or dock exceeds the physical size of your display select Standard Underscan (87%) in the Desktop Size drop down menu. You can also create a unique desktop size by selecting Custom and adjusting the slider to the desired setting.
10 Advanced Display Options Display Control Tab Force Single Display Operation, when using a dual display video card, causes all display modes to appear as a single list of supported resolutions in the Apple® Displays Properties. Only one display is on when this feature is enabled. The default setting is Disabled. Enable GTF Modes for CRT provides a list of all available modes for your monitor based on the Generalized Timing Formula standard. This feature is enabled by default.
3D OpenGL® Overrides 11 Advanced DFP Tab The features on this tab are intended to support Digital Flat Panels (DFP) only. Enable ATI Hardware Scaler on non-Apple panels can be used with flat panels with fixed resolutions. Use this feature to change video modes using the ATI Scaler. Enable frequency reduction on high resolution displays may correct problems concerning jitter or dot crawl (This option is always enabled and cannot be disabled).
12 3D OpenGL® Overrides Add an Application Profile To add an application to the Application Profile list: 1 Click the 3D icon in ATI Displays. 2 Click Add. 3 Browse to the desired application. 4 Click Choose. Select or Create a Preset ATI Displays includes a number of predefined OpenGL® presets that can be applied to any application. You can also create your own unique preset. To select a Preset: 1 Click the 3D icon in ATI Displays. 2 Select the desired preset from the Preset drop-down menu.
ATI Displays Help 13 4 Configure the preset by making adjustments to the Performance, FSAA, Anisotropic Filtering, and Vertical Sync sliders. Note: The preset selections and adjustments are saved automatically as they are made. ATI Displays Help ATI Displays Help is an additional source of information when you are using the ATI Displays control panel. Simply click on the ATI Displays control panel.
14 Using Digital Flat Panel (DVI) To output your computer’s display to a DVI digital flat panel 1 Looking at the back of your Mac, locate your ATI Graphics Accelerator. 2 Attach one end of your DVI cable to the DVI connector on your RADEON® X1900 G5 MAC EDITION and the other end to the DVI connector on your DVI flat panel. 3 1 Dual Link DVI Monitor Port (supports TV-OUT using an Apple dongle) 2 Video Out Connector 3 Dual Link DVI monitor port Turn on your DVI flat panel and your Mac.
Video Mode Table 15 CHAPTER 3: Specifications Video Mode Table The video mode table below lists the refresh rates capabilities for the supported resolutions on your RADEON® X1900 G5 MAC EDITION. Please consult your monitor’s specifications to determine which resolutions are available with your display.
16 Video Mode Table Supported Modes Display Resolution Maximum Refresh 1920 X 1200 100 1920 X 1440 90 2048 X 1152 100 2048 X 1280 100 2048 X 1536 85 The minimum refresh rate for the above modes is 60Hz.
Compliance Information 17 Compliance Information This section details the compliance information for this product. 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. • This device must accept any interference received, including interference that may cause undesired operation.
18 Compliance Information Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive Compliance This product was manufactured by ATI Technologies Inc.
19 Glossary 2D Acronym for “two dimensional,” a term applied to computer graphics that are “flat.” Typical desktop applications such as word processors, spreadsheet programs, or other programs that manipulate print or simple graphics (such as pictures or line art) are generally considered to be operating within a 2D environment, even when they include simple three dimensional elements, such as buttons. 3D Acronym for “three dimensional,” referring to computer graphics that appear to have volume and depth.
20 AGP The Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) is a slot on the computer motherboard designed specifically for 3D graphics cards. AGP runs 3D images much more smoothly and quickly than was previously possible with PCI video cards; AGP runs at several times the bus speed of PCI and employs sideband addressing, so multiple data transfers between the graphics processor and the computer can take place concurrently. AGP is currently being phased out in favor of PCI Express® (PCIe™).
21 Back Buffer A type of offscreen memory used to provide smooth video and 2D graphics acceleration. This technique uses two frame buffers, so the process is often referred to as “double-buffering.” While the contents of one buffer are displayed, a second buffer, called the “back” buffer, holds the frame being worked on. In this way, users will only see complete, smooth frames displayed onscreen.
22 not be confused with luminosity, which measures the actual light level emitted from the computer display. Buffer A name referring to portions of on-board video memory. One large buffer is always used to display images to the screen; this is the “display buffer.” The rest of offscreen memory is typically used by applications as back buffers, z-buffers, and texture buffers.
23 Component Video Typically used on DVD players and HDTV systems, component video is a standard Red/Green/Blue (RGB) color signal for televisions. The signal is split and compressed into separate luminance and color values—luminance (“Y”), red minus luminance (R-Y), and blue minus luminance (B-Y). The value for green is not transmitted. The display device automatically “fills in” the color values that are not red or blue.
24 Dot pitch Dot pitch specifies the sharpness of a monitor’s display. It is measured in millimeters (mm) and is the distance between the individual phosphor subpixels in a CRT display or cells of the same color within an LCD display. The smaller the number, the sharper the image. The most common dot pitches for monitors range from .24 mm to .31 mm. Also, if a monitor with a .24 mm dot pitch is set to its highest possible resolution, the pixel size will equal the dot pitch.
25 Frames Per Second In terms of 3D graphics, refers to the rate at which the graphic processor can render new screens per second. Higher rates equals better, more naturalistic performance for such things as games set in a 3D environment. Sometimes abbreviated to “fps.” FullStream™ FullStream™ delivers smooth, high-quality video when viewing real-time streaming video files over the Internet.
26 resolutions and full-screen 3D acceleration in true color. It uses a Hierarchical Z-buffer visibility algorithm to eliminate blocks of pixels that are hidden behind displayed triangles, Z Compression to compress and speed the resulting visual data and Fast Z-Clear, which updates only those pixels whose values have changed. HyperZ™ II HyperZ™ II technology improves memory bandwidth efficiency by ensuring that only those pixels contained within a 3D polygon that are visible are the ones that are rendered.
27 between the two keyframes in order that “morphs” (transforms) the image so that there is a smooth transition between the key frames. KTX Buffer Region Extension This OpenGL® programming term refers to a feature that rapidly updates portions of the display of 3D modelling applications that change very quickly, or have been moved or occluded. It does this by optimizing the storage of buffer regions in the graphics card’s memory buffer.
28 Offscreen Memory An area of memory used to preload images so that they can be quickly drawn to the screen. Offscreen memory refers to all of the remaining video memory not taken up by the front buffer, which holds the contents of the display screen currently visible. OpenGL® Short for “Open Graphics Library,” this is an industry standard for crossplatform 3D graphics development.
29 Pipeline In relation to computer graphic processors, refers to the number of separate arithmetic units available for rendering the output on a display. In general, more pipelines available on a graphical processor means there are more 3D rendering capabilities available, increasing overall 3D performance. Pixel Tapestry™ Pixel Tapestry™ is a graphics architecture that includes multiple independent texture units for each rendering pipeline.
30 resolution of current displays is set to higher values, such as 1024x768 (XGA), 1280x1024 (SXGA), or 1600x1200 (UXGA). Saturation Refers to the intensity of a specific hue (color). A highly saturated hue is vivid and intense, whereas a less saturated hue appears more grey. A completely unsaturated color is grey. In terms of the RGB color model, a fully saturated color exists when you have 100% brightness in one of the three channels (say, red) and 0% in the two others (green and blue).
31 SmartShader™ SmartShader™ is ATI’s patented shader technology, providing custom transform and lighting effects for vertex shaders, allowing for finer control over the shape and position of 3D objects, as well as pixel shader effects that produce more accurate simulations of natural properties such as hair, metal, glass, and water in a real-time rendering environment.
32 SmoothVision™ 2.1 SmoothVision™ 2.1 uses an advanced multi-sampling anti-aliasing technique that takes up to six samples per pixel, coupled with lossless compression technology to provide maximum efficiency and performance. It employs an adaptive algorithm that takes from 1 to 16 filtered samples per pixel, as required, without wasting effort on the parts of an image that would not actually be visible in the display, making the process as a whole more efficient.
33 Texture Mapping In computer graphics, two-dimensional textured surfaces are referred to as texture maps. Texture mapping is the process by which a two-dimensional surface gets wrapped around a three-dimensional object so that the 3D object takes on the same texture qualities. For example, if you take a 2D textured surface that looks like cloth and wrap it around a 3D sphere, the sphere will now appear to have a cloth-like surface.
34 VGA Connector A type of graphics connector, sometimes also called an analog connector. It is the most common type of video connector available, consisting of 15pins set in three rows. The “VGA” is an acronym for “Video Graphics Array,” which is also the name for the video resolution mode of 640x480 pixels, the lowest standard resolution supported by virtually all video cards.
35 Index Numerics 16:9 (aspect ratio) 20 2D 8, 19 3D 8, 11, 12, 13, 19, 26, 29, 31 3D Graphics 2 3D OpenGL Overrides 11 3Dc 19, 32 4:3 (aspect ratio) 20, 30 480i 30 480p 30 5:4 (aspect ratio) 20 A Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) 20, Add an Application Profile 12 Advanced Display Options 8 Alpha blending 20 Anisotropic Filtering 13 Anisotropic filtering 20, 31, 32 Anti-aliasing 20, 31, 32 Apple Display Connector 19 Apple Displays Properties 10 Apple System Preferences 5 Apple System Profiler Report 6 Aspect
36 C Charisma Engine II 22 chrominance 32, 34 Color component 22 Color correction 22 Color curve 22 Compliance Information 17 Composite Video 23, 32, 34 Control Panel 5 CPU 28 Create Apple System Profiler Report CRT 23, 24, 30 D Depth Buffer 26 Detect Displays 6 Digital Video Interface 24 Display Control Tab 10 Display Info 6 Display Scaling 9 Dithering 23 Dock 9 Dot pitch 24, 30 DVD 23, 32 DVI 19 DVI-A 24 DVI-D 24 DVI-I 24 E Enable ATI “Valid” and “Safe” 10 Enable GTF Modes for CRT 10 Enable Hot Plug Dete
37 Gouraud Shading Graphic Card features 24, 25 2 Graphical Processor Unit (GPU) 31 H Hierarchical Z-buffer 26 High Definition Television (HDTV) 30 Hue 25, 30 HYPER Z™ 3 HyperZ 25 HyperZ HD 26 HyperZ II 26 HyperZ III 26 I Industry Canada Compliance 17 K Keyframe interpolation 26 KTX Buffer Region Extension 27 L Lighting 19 Linux 28 Luminance 32, 34 M Mac OS X 28 Mipmapping 27 Monitor Resolution 2D video mode table 15 Motherboard 20 Multimedia Features 2 N NTSC 27, 29 O Offscreen Memory 28 Open the ATI
38 Profile dialog 6 Q QuickTime 13 R Radeon 6 RCA connection 23 Red Green Blue (RGB) 23, 25, 30, 34 Refresh Rate 29 Related Documentation 2 Relative Rotation 8 Rendering 29 Resolution 29 RGB 23 Rotation 8, 33 S Saturation 25, 30 Scaling 33 SECAM 30 Select or Create a Preset 12 Separate Video 32 Shader 31 Shader effects 31 Shader technology 31 Shadow mask 30 SmartShader 31 SmartShader HD 31 SMARTSHADER™ 3 SmoothVision 31 SmoothVision 2.0 31 SmoothVision 2.
39 Texture mapping 33 Texture Preference 33 Trilinear filtering 33 U Using DVD and QuickTime Playback 13 UXGA 30 V VCR 23, 32 VersaVision 8, 33 Vertex shader 31, 33 Vertical refresh rate 29 Vertical Sync 13 VGA 29 VGA connector 34 Video 19 Video Card features 2 Video Graphics Array 34 Video Memory 22 Viewing 3D Graphics 2 W Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Compliance 18 Windows 28 X XGA 30 Y Y/C 32 Y/C video 32 YCbCr 34 YPbPr 23, 34 Z Z Compression 26 Z-buffer 22, 26, 34
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