ATI Technologies RADEONX1900 - G5 Mac Edition ROHS/256MB Pcie User manual

ATI
RADEON® X1900 G5 MAC
EDITION
User’s Guide
P/N 137-41055-10

ii
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to change without notice. Product may not be exactly as shown in diagrams.
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While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this document, ATI Technologies Inc.
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and documentation described herein, for any act or omission of ATI concerning such products or this
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herein.
ATI TechnologiesInc. reservesthe right to make changes without further notice to a product or system
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infringement.

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Table of Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
System Requirements 1
External Connections 1
Related Documentation 2
Multimedia Features 2
Viewing 3D Graphics 2
TV Out Support 3
ATI Displays Control Panel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Introduction 5
Open the ATI Displays control panel 5
ATI Displays Control Panel 6
ATI Displays Preferences 7
Advanced Display Options 8
VersaVision™ Tab 8
Display Scaling 9
Display Control Tab 10
Advanced DFP Tab 11
3D OpenGL® Overrides 11
Add an Application Profile 12
Select or Create a Preset 12
ATI Displays Help 13
Using QuickTime® Playback 13
Using Digital Flat Panel (DVI) 13
Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Video Mode Table 15
Digital Flat Panel 16
Compliance Information 17
FCC Compliance Information 17
Industry Canada Compliance Statement 17
Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment
(WEEE) Directive Compliance 18
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Brightness 21
Buffer 22
Gamma 25

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Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

1
CHAPTER 1:
Introduction
TheRADEON®X1900 G5 MAC EDITION representsthe nextgeneration
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.
• OpenGL® accelerator providing superior 3D rendering
performance and advanced imaging and filtering techniques.
• Industry leading DVD acceleration for High Bitrate, low CPU
usage, playback of the latest movies at any resolution.
• QuickTime® playback accelerator for full screen, full motion,
DVD quality video.
System Requirements
External Connections
• Two Dual Link DVI-I outputs.
• One TV output.
Note: Future references to Mac OS® X in this manual are intended
to be generic and inclusive of their respective versions of the
Macintosh® operating systems.
Hardware • A Power Macintosh® G5 computer with an PCIe 4X,
8X, or 16X expansion slot.
• QuickTime® 7.1 or higher.
• Minimum 512MB of system memory.
Operating
System • Mac OS® X version 10.4.7 or higher.
Monitor • Compatible display devices: DVI or ADC style digital
flat panel using a DVI-to-ADC adapter. A VGA display
using the supplied DVI-to-VGA adapter. A TV by using
an optional DVI-to-TV adapter.

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.
• Watch full screen, full motion, DVD quality video using the
Apple® DVD Player or QuickTime® playback acceleration.
• Output your Mac’s display to digital flat panels and digital
projectors.
• Output to analog displays and projectors.
The following information describes these features in more detail and
suggests ways you can optimize your machine to get the most out of your
card.
Viewing 3D Graphics
RADEON® X1900 G5 MAC EDITION supports the following advanced
3D graphics capabilities:
• 36 Pixel Shader processors.
• 8 Vertex Shader processors.
• Hardware accelerated vertex and pixel shaders.
• 256 bit memory interface
• 27.6 billion texture pixels per second fill rate.
• 1.15 billion vertices per second transform rate.
• 38 GB/Sec memory bandwidth.
• Full Scene Multi Sample Antialiasing.
• Bilinear, Trilinear, and Anisotropic filtering.
In addition, the RADEON® X1900 G5 MAC EDITION brings new and
exciting graphics technologies to the Macintosh® platform:

TV Out Support 3
SMOOTHVISION™ HD is an antialiasing solution that raises the bar for
image quality using programmable multi-sampling methods to post-
process 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.
HYPER Z™ HD makes Z-buffer bandwidth usage more efficient by
decreasing the amount of information sent to the frame buffer at higher
resolutions than ever before.
RADEON® X1900 G5 MAC EDITION only displays 3D graphics in
thousands and millions of colors. When you set your display to 256 colors,
this will affect Finder™, OpenGL®, Quartz® Extreme, and QuickTime®
acceleration.
TV Out Support
The RADEON® X1900 G5 MAC EDITION supports TV Out by using the
optional Apple® DVI-to-Video adapter or the supplied Video-Out dongle.
For more information see your local Apple® reseller.

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
1Open the Apple® System Preferences.
2Click the ATI Displays icon.
or
1Click the Hard Disk icon.
2Open Applications folder.
3Open Utilities folder.
4Open ATI Utilities folder.
5Open ATI Displays.
For detailed instructions on how to set up and use these features, refer to
the built-in help feature, which can be accessed through the ATI Displays
control panel.

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.
The Profile dialog presents information on the specific Radeon® graphics
card and video driver installed in your computer. Even if ATI Displays
cannot identify your ATI product it will still provide display configuration,
driver version and other related information. A warning dialog will display
if no ATI product is installed in your computer if this option is enabled.
The Support dialog provides an internet link to ATI Technologies’ web
site.
Click Create Apple® System Profiler Report to generate a detailed
report of the computer’s installed hardware and software.

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
UsetheVersaVision™tabtorotate your display whilemaintaining thefull
feature set of other ATI 2D and 3D technologies. ATI’s hardware
accelerateddisplayrotationand scaling technologyprovidesrotationleft or
right by 90 degrees or turn it upside down to a full 180 degree rotation.
Use Relative Rotation to rotate the contents of your display relative to its
current position. Hovering the mouse cursor over a direction button will
show you a preview of the change. Clicking the desired rotation button will
cause the display to refresh and rotate.
Full 3D support is maintained regardless of rotation selected.
Use the Default button to reset Relative Rotation and return your display
to its normal orientation.
Use the Revert button to undo all changes and reset the desktop to the
original state or last known good setting.

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 StandardUnderscan(87%) in the DesktopSize 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.
EnableATI“Valid”and“Safe” flagsinmodelist, when enabled, lets the
video card to determine which video modes are valid and safe.
Enable Hot Plug Detection lets the operating system automatically detect
when a display is connected to the computer and activates the “Detect
Displays” button. This removes the need to restart the computer after
attaching a secondary display.
Defaultbutton undoesall changes andsets everything to thefactorydefault
settings.
Apply button causes all the selected options to be enabled at one time.

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).
Enable Alternate DVI TMDS Receiver Mode corrects problems such as
noise or blank screens on some flat panels.
Default button undoes all changes and sets everything back to the original
factory settings.
Apply button enables all the selected options at one time.
3D OpenGL® Overrides
ATI Displays can override key 3D graphics options for OpenGL® based
games and applications. Create a profile, a group of settings, that can be
applied on a per program basis. Use OpenGL® Overrides to turn on
OpenGL® functionality when it is not supported by a specific application
or turn off functionality where it is enabled by an application.

12 3D OpenGL® Overrides
Add an Application Profile
To add an application to the Application Profile list:
1Click the 3D icon in ATI Displays.
2Click Add.
3Browse to the desired application.
4Click 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:
1Click the 3D icon in ATI Displays.
2Select the desired preset from the Preset drop-down menu.
To create a new preset:
1Click the 3D icon in ATI Displays.
2Click Preset drop-down menu and select New Preset.
3Enter a name for the preset.

ATI Displays Help 13
4Configure 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 icon on the
ATI Displays control panel.
Using QuickTime®Playback
Use the RADEON® X1900 G5 MAC EDITION’s QuickTime® playback
acceleration to stretch movies to full screen size without compromising
frame rate or image quality. RADEON® X1900 G5 MAC EDITION’s
hardware scalar maintains the original quality of your QuickTime® movie
when scaling to a larger size – even full screen.
When playing movies in thousands or millions of colors, the ATI card
utilizes the 3D engine’s capabilitiesto scale andaccelerateplayback.When
scaling video, the RADEON® X1900 G5 MAC EDITION uses special
hardware techniques (bilinear filtering) to enhance the video quality
instead of just repeating pixels.
Using Digital Flat Panel (DVI)
RADEON® X1900 G5 MAC EDITION’s DVI support feature allows you
to output your computer’s display to your DVI digital flat panel, providing
you with:
• Crisper, clearer images.
• A true flat screen.
• Virtually no eye strain from prolonged viewing.
Using RADEON® X1900 G5 MAC EDITION DVI Connector
Your RADEON® X1900 G5 MAC EDITION includes support for DVI
allowing you to connect to a digital flat panel display.

14 Using Digital Flat Panel (DVI)
To output your computer’s display to a DVI digital flat panel
1Looking at the back of your Mac, locate your ATI Graphics
Accelerator.
2Attach 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.
3Turn on your DVI flat panel and your Mac.
Note: The DVI connector is hot swappable. You no longer need to
shut down your computer before attaching a digital flat panel.
Note: TV Out is enabled in Mac OS® X. For more information see
the Mac OS® X online help. When a TV and a VGA display is
connected to the DVI port (1) only one display device will work.
1Dual Link DVI Monitor Port (supports TV-OUT using an Apple
dongle)
2Video Out Connector
3Dual Link DVI monitor port

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.
Supported Modes
Display Resolution Maximum Refresh
640 x 480 200
720 x 480 200
800 x 600 200
832 x 624 75
1024 x 768 200
1152 x 864 200
1152 x 870 75
1280 X 960 200
1280 x 1024 150
1600 x 900 150
1600 X 1024 150
1600 X 1200 120
1792 X 1344 75
1856 X 1392 75
1920 X 1080 120

16 Video Mode Table
The minimum refresh rate for the above modes is 60Hz.
Digital Flat Panel
*Using a reduced blanking interval compatible with Apple®’s Cinema HD
ADC Display. This timing is not compatible with VESA’s 1920 x 1200
resolution when attached to an ADC connector.
1920 X 1200 100
1920 X 1440 90
2048 X 1152 100
2048 X 1280 100
2048 X 1536 85
Connection Type Resolution Example Product
Single-Link (one DVI
or ADC) 1920 X1200* Apple 23” Cinema HD
Dual-Link (one DVI) 2560 X 1600 Apple 30” Cinema HD
Single-Link (one DVI
low refresh rate) 3840 X 2400 IBM T221
Supported Modes
Display Resolution Maximum Refresh