ATI Technologies X850 - Radeon Xt Platinum Edition 256 Mb Agp, User Manual

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Dashboard
The dashboard is the part of the Catalyst™ Control Center used to display
a graphical representation of the features available in installed ATI
hardware and software. The dashboard can be used to access all of the
aspects (sets of related graphical features) available on a graphics card. The
dashboard offers two views of the software: a Basic view, which is a
simplified view that includes wizards, and an Advanced view aimed at
more experienced users, providing access to the complete feature set of the
software. Users can also create a Custom view.
Direct 3D®
Part of Microsoft®’s DirectX API designed for rendering 3D graphics on
Windows® systems. It provides software developers with low-level access
to functions on graphics cards, providing the type of performance
necessary for intensive 3D applications such as games.
Dithering
A computer graphics technique that takes advantage of the human eye’s
tendency to mix two colors that are adjacent to each other to produce
smooth boundary transitions. Dithering adds intermediate color values
between two or more boundaries, producing smoother, more natural look
to 2D images or 3D objects.
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 sub-
pixels 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. If the monitor is set to lower resolutions, the pixels will
be comprised of multiple dots.