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™
RADEON 8500
™
8500LE
RADEON
™
RADEON 7500
User’s Guide
Version 5.0
P/N 137-40282-50 Rev. D
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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 with t
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Table of Contents Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Features At A Glance .................................................................................. 2 RADEON 7500 ...................................................................................... 2 RADEON 8500 and RADEON 8500LE ................................................ 2 ATI’s CATALYST™ Software Suite ........................................................ 3 Multiple Displays and
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Viewing Text on a TV.......................................................................... 27 Reducing Edge Distortion .................................................................... 28 Changing Display Configurations ........................................................ 29 Using Games and Applications ............................................................ 29 iv
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1 Introduction The RADEON family of graphic accelerators delivers ground breaking 3D graphics performance. Designed and built by ATI Technologies Inc. Powered by the RADEON Visual Processing Unit (VPU). Awesome 3D gaming performance. ® Support for OpenGL applications. ® Support for Direct 3D applications. High resolution in 3D up to 2048x1536. Best performance for today’s and tomorrow’s applications. Supports TV-out to connect your PC to your TV or VCR.
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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: VIDEO IMMERSION™ wh ich provides industry- leading DVD playback and digital TV decode capability CHARISMA ENGINE™ which is the main VPU, providing the necessary power to accelerate today’s 3D games and applications PIXEL TAPESTRY™ which can apply 3 textures at once to a complex 3D gaming scene TV output support RADEON 8500 a
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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 TRUFORM, for the ultimate 3D gaming experience. For help on installing the CATALYST Software Suite, refer to the Getting Started Guide. The CATALYST Software Suite installs the ATI display tabs. These tabs are accessed through the ® Windows Display Control Panel, through the Advanced... button located
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4 Multiple Displays Connecting Your Monitor(s) The RADEON 8500 provides hardware support for one DVI-I monitor or two VGA monitors using the DVI-I-to-VGA adapter. A TV can also be used to expand your desktop by using the S-Video out. The RADEON 7500 provides support for one VGA monitor and Composite output to a TV. Plug the monitor cable into your card (if you are running multiple monitors, connect their cables to the appropriate connectors), then turn on the PC and monitor(s). To connec
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5 CATALYST Software Suite The following section provides an explanation of each ATI tab available after installing the CATALYST Software Suite. Features presented in the following pages may not be supported in all operating systems and/or may i appear differently. ATI Displays Tab The ATI Displays tab provides the multi monitor features. Here you can enable/disable display devices and swap the assignment of Primary and Secondary displays.
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6 Enabling/Disabling Secondary Displays ® 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 the enable/disable button for the display device you want to enable/disable. 5 Click OK or Apply to save the changes. Enabling Extended Desktop Mode ® 1 Access the Windows Control Panel. Double- click Display. 2 Click on the Settings tab. 3 Click the monitor icon for the display onto which yo
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7 To enable Extended Desktop Mode, refer to the section Enabling Extended Desktop Mode. ® 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. The ATI Displays tab shows you the display(s) that are active. The Primary display has the button depressed. To change the display assignment, you can click the Primary display’s button or you can click the button of the other display device. ® ®
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8 Virtually Repositioning Your Displays 1 On the Settings tab, click and drag the appropriate monitor icon to the desired position. For example, the secondary display can be dragged to the left of the primary display, allowing it to be virtually on the left, as shown below. 2 Click OK or Apply to save the changes. Ratiometric Expansion Your RADEON card offers ratiometric expansion (or digital panel scaling as it is commonly known). This expands a low resolution image to fill a higher res
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9 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. ATI Color Tab This increases or decreases the brightness of your Desktop desktop. The higher the gamma value, the higher the Brightness brightness of your display. This adjusts the selected color (red, green or blue check Color Curve button) by moving the color curve with your mouse. Game Gamma T
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10 Clicking the Game Gamma button accesses the Game Gamma Properties. Game Gamma Properties These controls allow you to increase or decrease the Red Green color brightness of Direct 3D and OpenGL games Blue sliders played in fullscreen mode. (NOTE: Game Gamma is NOT supported in Windows NT4.0) Uncheck this to adjust the RGB sliders individually. RGB Lock Check this to adjust all three sliders at the same time. Defaults This allows you to reset the Game Gamma settings to button default valu
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11 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. ATI Options Tab Provides the CATALYST version number, 2D Version Information version number and the driver build information. Provides access to the Details tab which lists the Details button card’s hardware details and driver information. Reactivate all This allows you to reactivate any disabled warning messages graphics w
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12 Unchecking this allows you to remove the ATI icon Show ATI icon on from your system tray without disabling the ATI taskbar icon applications. Quick resolution feature is accessible by left- Disable quick clicking the ATI icon in the system tray. Checking resolution feature this option disables the feature. 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 f
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13 ATI Overlay Tab Use this slider to adjust the brightness of the video Brightness image. Contrast Use this slider to adjust the contrast in the video image. Use this slider to adjust the vividness of the color. Saturation Sliding it all the way to the left removes all color and produces a black and white picture. Use this slider to adjust the pureness or tint of the red, Hue green and blue components of the color. Use this slider to adjust the overall intensity of the video Gamma image. D
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14 ® Direct 3D Control Panel Using this tab, gamers can tweak the settings of their ® Direct 3D games. 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.
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15 This allows you to emphasize what kind of application experience you’d like to have. Moving the slider to the left will maximize application performance, while moving Main Settings the slider to the right will provide excellent 3D image slider quality. Moving this slider from one position to the next changes the individual Custom Settings sliders found below. When Custom Settings is checked, the Main Settings slider is disabled, allowing you to move each individual Custom slider in
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16 Selecting this decides whether your application should use high quality or high performance textures. Moving Texture the slider to the right delivers the highest quality Preference experience. Moving the slider to the left emphasizes a slider high performance solution while still providing good visuals. 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 c
