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®
Radeon X1950 XTX
User’s Guide
P/N 137-41074-10
ATI
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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. Reproduction of this manual, or parts thereof, in any form, wi
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iii IMPORTANT SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS • Read Instructions - All the safety and operating instructions should be read before the product is operated. • Retain Instructions - The safety and operating instructions should be retained for future reference. • Heed Warnings - All warnings on the product and the operating instructions should be adhered to. • Compatibility - This option card is for use only with IBM AT or compatible UL Listed personal computers that have Installation Instructions deta
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v Table of Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 ® Radeon X1950 XTX Features 1 Before You Begin 4 Installing Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Connecting Devices 9 Using Multiple Displays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Connecting Your Monitors 11 Display Configurations 13 Installing Software and Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 ® Installing Drivers and Software in Windows 15 Monitor Configuration 16 To
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vi Using TV Display and Capture Features . . . . . . . 29 Using TV Out 29 Connecting to HDTV 31 ® Using the Radeon X1950 XTX ™ with CrossFire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 ™ CrossFire Overview 35 ™ CrossFire Rendering Modes 35 Super Anti-aliasing Mode 39 ™ CrossFire FAQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Troubleshooting 49 Product Registration 53 Customer Care 53 Addi
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® Radeon X1950 XTX Features 1 CHAPTER 1: Introduction ® Congratulations on the purchase of your ATI Radeon X1950 XTX graphics card. We hope that you will enjoy countless hours of trouble-free computing. ® Radeon X1950 XTX Features Graphic Features ® • Native PCI Express X16 bus support. • 256MB or 512 MB GDDR4\GDDR3 on-board memory. ® • Full support for Microsoft ® DirectX Shader Model 3.0. • High performance Ultra-Threaded shader engine. • Eight vertex shader processors. • Forty-eight pi
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® 2 Radeon X1950 XTX Features • Conserves video memory bandwidth. • Loss-less Z-buffer compression • Z Cache optimized for real-time shadow rendering. ™ VideoShader • Seamlessly integrates pixel shaders with video in real time. • All format DTV/HDTV decoding. • Adaptive Per-Pixel- De-interlacing and Frame Rate Conversion. 512-bit Ring Bus Memory Controller • Programmable intelligent arbitration logic. • New fully associative texture, color, and Z/stencil cache designs. • Hierarchal Z-buffer w
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® Radeon X1950 XTX Features 3 • Render-to-vertex buffer support. ® • Complete feature set also supported in OpenGL 2.0 High Dynamic Range (HDR) Rendering • 64-bit floating point HDR supported throughout the pipeline • Includes support for blending and multi-sample anti-aliasing. • High precision 10:10:10:2 integer format support. • Includes support for blending and multi-sample anti-aliasing. • 2x/4x/6x Anti-Aliasing modes • Sparse multi-sample algorithm with gamma correction, programmable sam
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4 Before You Begin System Requirements Hardware • Intel® Pentium® 4 or AMD Athlon®. • 512MB of system memory; 1GB or more for best performance. • Optical drive for installation software (CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive). • Specialized PCI Express® 550 watt or greater power supply recommended. Consult your computer system manual to ensure the power supply is designed to accommodate a high-end graphics card with a peak dissipation above 75 watts. Operating • Windows® XP with Service Pack 2 (SP2).
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Before You Begin 5 Record Your Serial and Part Numbers The serial number and 102 part number printed on the graphics card are required for registration. They are located on a sticker on the back of the card. Serial number (S/N) 102 part number (P/N) Write the numbers, shown in bold above, down before installing your new ATI product. Uninstall Previous Graphics Card Drivers ® To ensure the successful installation of your new Radeon X1950 XTX card, you must uninstall the drivers for the ex
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6 Before You Begin
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7 CHAPTER 2: Installing Hardware This chapter will guide you through the physical installation of your new Radeon graphics card. Consult your system builder or OEM to ensure that your system has an ® adequate power supply. A PCI Express compatible system has a specialized 12V graphics card power connector. A 450 watt or greater power supply is recommended. Consult your computer system manual to ensure the power supply is designed to accommodate a high-end graphics card with a peak dissi
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8 6-pin Power Cable Connector 3 6-pin Power Connection 4 Power connector to Graphics Card 5 Power connector to Power Supply 6 Installing the graphics card 1 Turn off the computer, monitor, and other peripheral devices. 2 Unplug the computer’s power cord and disconnect all cables from the back of your computer. WARNING - Wait approximately 20 seconds after unplugging the power cord before disconnecting a peripheral or removing a component from the motherboard to avoid possible damage to the
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Connecting Devices 9 7 Connect the power cable to the 6-pin power connection on the graphics card. 8 Screw in or fasten the graphics card securely. Make sure the cables are not interfering with anything inside the computer (for example, a cooling fan) and replace the computer cover. 9 Reconnect any cables you have disconnected and plug in the computer’s power cord. 10 Turn on the monitor, and then your computer. Your computer will beep, possibly show a warning message on your display, and
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10 Connecting Devices DVI-I Supports a digital monitor. VGA-DVI-I Adapter Supports an analog monitor on a DVI-I connection. S-Video In/Out Supports a TV, VCR, or camcorder. CATV Supports a TV antenna or cable service. Composite Supports a TV, VCR, or camcorder.
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Connecting Your Monitors 11 CHAPTER 3: Using Multiple Displays Connecting Your Monitors ® Your Radeon X1950 XTX graphics card provides hardware support for two DVI-I monitors and a VGA monitor using the supplied DVI-I-to-VGA adapter. It also provides TV output via an S-Video Out connector. ® Connections and Adapters for the Radeon X1950 XTX Card 1 Standard VGA Monitor Connector. To connect a VGA monitor to the DVI-I connector, plug the supplied DVI-I-to-VGA adapter into the DVI-I connecto
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12 Connecting Your Monitors ® Note: If you use multiple monitors, the Radeon X1950 XTX card must be the primary graphics card. Normally, the system BIOS determines which graphics card will be the primary. To connect your monitors 1 Power off your computer and monitors. 2 Plug the monitor cables into their appropriate connectors. 3 Power on your monitors first, and then restart your computer so that ® Windows can detect the new hardware settings. 4 When the New Hardware Found Wizard appears,
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Display Configurations 13 Display Configurations ® Your Radeon X1950 XTX graphics card provides dual display functionality. The following table lists the different ways you can connect displays to your card. Display Connector(s) Comments Configuration Used Single DFP DVI-I connector DFP - digital flat panel display. display DFP Display* + DVI-I connectors DFP Display DFP Display + DVI-I connector + Using supplied S-Video to Component HDTV S-Video-to- adapter. Component adapter Single CRT D
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14 Display Configurations
