ATI Technologies Radeon CrossFire Manual de usuario

Radeon®CrossFire™

Installation Guide

P/N 107-40316-10

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, without the express written permission of ATI

Technologies Inc. is strictly prohibited.

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 the furnishing, performance, or use

of the ATI hardware, software, or other products and documentation provided herein.

ATI Technologies Inc. reserves the right to make changes without further notice to a product or system

described herein to improve reliability, function or design. With respect to ATI products which this

document relates, ATI disclaims all express or implied warranties regarding such products, including but

not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-

infringement.

Product Notices

Dolby® Laboratories, Inc.

Manufactured under license from Dolby® Laboratories. Dolby and the double-D symbol are trademarks of

Dolby Laboratories. Confidential Unpublished Works.

Macrovision

Apparatus Claims of U.S. Patent Nos. 4,631,603, 4,577,216, 4,819,098, and 4,907,093 licensed for limited

viewing uses only.

This product incorporates copyright protection technology that is protected by method claims of certain

U.S. patents and other intellectual property rights owned by Macrovision Corporation and other rights

owners. Use of this copyright protection technology must be authorized by Macrovision Corporation, and is

intended for home and other limited viewing uses only unless otherwise authorized by Macrovision

Corporation. Reverse engineering or disassembly is prohibited.

Documentation Updates

ATI is constantly improving its product and associated documentation. To maximize the value of your ATI

product, you should ensure that you have the latest documentation. ATI’s documentation contains helpful

installation/configuration tips and other valuable feature information.

iii

Table of Contents

CrossFire™ FAQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Welcome to CrossFire™ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

CrossFire™ Overview 7

Allowable CrossFire™ System Components 7

CrossFire™ Rendering Modes 7

Getting Started. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

System Requirements 9

External Connections 10

Before You Begin 10

Record Your Serial and Part Numbers 10

Uninstall Previous Graphics Card Drivers 10

Installing the CrossFire™ Edition Master Graphics

Card. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Installing Master Graphics Cards 13

Connecting devices for CrossFire™ 16

Display Configurations 17

Connecting Your Monitors for Multiple Display 18

Enabling Multiple Displays 21

Installing Your Software and Drivers. . . . . . . . . . 23

Windows® New Hardware Found 23

Installing the Catalyst™ Software Suite 23

Enabling CrossFire™ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Launching Catalyst™ Control Center 25

Launching Catalyst™ Control Center Using the Start Menu 25

Other Quick Launch Access Points 25

Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Troubleshooting 29

Product Registration 34

Customer Care 34

Getting Additional Accessories 35

CHAPTER 1:

CrossFire™ FAQ

The following is a listing of frequently-asked questions about CrossFire™.

For the latest information, please consult the CrossFire™ Web site at:

ati.com/crossfire

1What combination of products are required to build a working

CrossFire™ system?

Three components are required:

• a CrossFire™ Edition graphics card that works as the Master

graphics card.

• a CrossFire™ Ready graphics card from the same brand-family

that works as the Slave graphics card.

• a CrossFire™ Ready motherboard (which contains two PCIe™

X16 slots).

More information on the requirements for each of these components can

be found within this FAQ.

2What graphics cards work with CrossFire™?

A CrossFire™ graphics card works with all members of the same brand-

family. Thus a Radeon® X850 CrossFire™ Edition can be used as the

Master graphics card with any Radeon® X850 product.

3What motherboards support CrossFire™?

The optimal configuration for a CrossFire™ system is one based on a

Radeon® Xpress 200 CrossFire™ Edition motherboard. Motherboards

from other manufactures will be certified as CrossFire™ Ready when

they become available.

4Are there specific CMOS motherboard settings for CrossFire™?

On some motherboards, the CMOS may be set by default to support only

a single PCI Express® X16 slot. Ensure that both PCIe™ X16 slots are

enabled in the CMOS.

5Which slot does the CrossFire™ Master card go into on the

motherboard?

The CrossFire™ Master card must go into the primary PCI Express®

slot (slot zero) on the motherboard.

Note: To determine which PCIe™ slot is the primary slot, consult your

motherboard manual.

Alternately, to determine whether or not a CrossFire™ Edition card is in

the correct slot, connect your display directly to the DVI-I connection on

the Master graphics card instead of using the CrossFire™ DMS-59™

connector, with both graphics cards seated in their respective slots on the

motherboard. If an image appears on the screen upon boot-up, the card

has been placed in the correct slot on the motherboard.

6Are there any software settings required for CrossFire™ to work?

Yes, there is a setting in the Catalyst™ Control Center that needs to be

enabled for CrossFire™ to operate. When all of the hardware and

software has been properly set up and installed, the following

CrossFire™ aspect appears in Catalyst™ Control Center:

To access and enable CrossFire™ in Catalyst™ Control Center, do the

following:

•ClickCrossFire™ in Advanced View. Then, select Enable

CrossFire™.

When CrossFire™ is successfully enabled, all display devices except the

one used by CrossFire™ will be disabled. Multiple monitors/displays

that are disabled when CrossFire™ is enabled reappear after

CrossFire™ is disabled.

7What is the difference between a CrossFire™ Edition graphics card

and a standard graphics card from the same family?

CrossFire™ Edition graphics cards include a “compositing engine,” a

chip that takes the partially rendered image from the Slave graphics card

and merges it with the partially rendered image from the Master graphics

card. The result is a complete frame rendered at up to twice the

performance of a single graphics card.

8How are the graphics cards connected on a CrossFire™ system?

The two cards are connection by an external cable. The cable is attached

from the Slave graphics card’s DVI-I connection to the CrossFire™

Edition’s DMS-59™ connection, which is used to convey information

from the Slave graphics card to the Master graphics card and transmit

the combined signal to a display device.

9Which games/applications work with CrossFire™?

CrossFire™ works with all 3D games and applications. If Catalyst™

A.I. is enabled in the Catalyst™ Control Center software, the optimal

rendering mode available for the application is automatically selected.

10 Is a driver profile required to make CrossFire™ work?

No. CrossFire™ is enabled by default for all 3D games and applications.

11 What happens if you pair a 12-pipeline CrossFire™ Edition

graphics card with a CrossFire™ Ready 16-pipeline graphics card?

In this scenario both graphics cards will operate as 12-pipeline graphics

cards while in CrossFire™ mode.

12 What happens if the CrossFire™ Edition graphics card and the

CrossFire™ Ready graphics card have different clock speeds?

Both cards will continue to operate at their individual clock speeds;

neither card is “stepped down.” The compositing engine on the

CrossFire™ Edition card merges the resulting images independent of the

clock speed on either graphics card.

13 What are the rendering modes, and what are their specific

advantages?

The following dynamic rendering modes are available:

• SuperTiling - CrossFire™ renders alternate 32x32 pixel squares in a

fine-grained checkerboard pattern. This configuration increases

image-rendering quality, as each card processes half of the complex

3D objects in the pixel squares.

• Scissor Mode - each graphics card renders up to half of the display,

either vertically or horizontally depending on the game or application.

• Alternate Frame Rendering - the two graphics cards are used to render

alternate frames of the display. This configuration increases the detail

of the 3D objects each card can render, as each card handles half of

the total number of frames.

• Super Anti-aliasing - improves image quality by combining the

results of full-screen anti-aliasing across two graphics cards in a

CrossFire™ configuration. The two graphics cards work on different

anti-aliasing patterns within each frame.

The first three features are performance features settings automatically

selected by ATI's Catalyst™ Control Center. Super Anti-aliasing is a

display quality mode selectable using Catalyst™ Control Center.

14 On what basis are different rendering modes chosen?

When Catalyst™ A.I. is enabled in Catalyst™ Control Center, it

determines the optimal rendering mode to use, based on the application

or game being used. The default rendering mode is dependant on both

the hardware configuration and the application being run; typically it

will be either Scissor or SuperTiling mode. If Catalyst™ A.I. is not

enabled, any Direct 3D® applications that are running on a system based

on graphics cards with 16-pipeline graphics processors will use

SuperTiling Mode.

15 What type of performance improvement is expected?

Performance enhancements experienced on a CrossFire™ system

depend on the application or game being used. Performance

improvements can be increased up to 100%, and the latest graphics-

intensive programs will generally see over 80% performance

improvement at high resolutions and image-quality modes.

16 How many independent displays can be connected to a CrossFire™

system?

While CrossFire™ is designed for optimal use on a single display, it is

possible to drive multiple monitors using a CrossFire™ system when

CrossFire™ is not enabled. On a standard CrossFire™ system, it is

possible to drive three separate sets of monitors and still have one of

those displays as a dedicated CrossFire™ display. If the motherboard

contains an integrated video connection and SurroundView™ is enabled,

more displays can be added.

Additional issues are covered in the “Troubleshooting” chapter in the User’s

Guide.

Tabla de contenidos

Otros manuales de Tarjeta de video de ATI Technologies

ATI Technologies

ATI Technologies RADEONX1900 - G5 Mac Edition ROHS/256MB Pcie Manual de usuario

ATI Technologies

ATI Technologies 9550 - X Radeon 256MB Agp Manual de usuario

ATI Technologies

ATI Technologies All-in-Wonder X800 PCI Express Manual de usuario

ATI Technologies

ATI Technologies HD3800 Series Manual de usuario

ATI Technologies

ATI Technologies Radeon X600 Manual de usuario

ATI Technologies

ATI Technologies ALL-IN-WONDER PRO Manual

ATI Technologies

ATI Technologies RadeonX800 Series Manual de usuario

ATI Technologies

ATI Technologies X1650 - AMD Radeon XT 256MB PCI-E Graphics... Manual de usuario

ATI Technologies

ATI Technologies X800XL - 100-435502 Radeon 256MB GDDR3 SDRAM PCI Express x16 Graphics... Manual de usuario

ATI Technologies

ATI Technologies RADEON X800 PCIe Series Manual de usuario

ATI Technologies

ATI Technologies V3300 - Firegl Tm Pcie Manual de usuario

ATI Technologies

ATI Technologies 100-505141 - Firemv 2200 128 MB PCIE Graphics... Manual de usuario

ATI Technologies

ATI Technologies Radeon Guía de configuración

ATI Technologies

ATI Technologies Vectra VL420 Guía de inicio rápido

ATI Technologies

ATI Technologies V7750 - Firepro Pcie 1GB DDR3 2PORT Dvi Manual de usuario

ATI Technologies

ATI Technologies X700 - Radeon Pro 256 MB PCIe Manual de usuario

ATI Technologies

ATI Technologies 9200 - Radeon 128MB Video Graphics Card Manual de usuario

ATI Technologies

ATI Technologies FireGL V5100 Manual de usuario

ATI Technologies

ATI Technologies RADEON 9800 PRO Manual de usuario

ATI Technologies

ATI Technologies FIRE GL1 Manual de usuario

ATI Technologies

ATI Technologies 9000 - Radeon Pro Manual de usuario

ATI Technologies

ATI Technologies X1900 - Radeon XTX 512 MB PCIE Video Card Manual de usuario

ATI Technologies

ATI Technologies FireGL? T2-128 Manual de usuario

ATI Technologies

ATI Technologies 100-714127 - HD-TV Wonder Manual de usuario

Manuales populares de Tarjeta de video de otras marcas

Gainward

Gainward GeForce GTX 690 4GB Manual de usuario

MSI

MSI N220GT series Manual de usuario

SIIG

SIIG aurora Manual de usuario

ClearSpeed

ClearSpeed ClearSpeed Advance e720 Manual de usuario

MSI

MSI R7850 series Manual de usuario

DVS

DVS Atomix HDMI Manual de usuario

Aztech

Aztech VGS3D-AGP Manual de usuario

Advoli

Advoli TB4 Standard Manual de usuario

ELSA

ELSA ERAZOR III LT Manual de usuario

Gigabyte

Gigabyte GV-R7500L Manual de usuario

Themis

Themis TGA-7000 PMC Manual de usuario

EMS

EMS XtremeRGB-Ex1 Manual de usuario

Nvidia

Nvidia Quadro Workstation Manual de usuario

Pioneer

Pioneer PDA-5003 Manual de usuario

QDI

QDI N2 Manual de usuario

NEC

NEC N8116-48 Manual de usuario

MSI

MSI R7770 PoweR Edition Manual de usuario

Gigabyte

Gigabyte GV-N68T256D Manual de usuario