/?pid=4210

Updated:05:42 AM EST Jan 01


this is ggmania.com subsite Four Overclocked RADEON HD 3650/3850/3870 Graphics Cards Tested - TechAmok

Four Overclocked RADEON HD 3650/3850/3870 Graphics Cards Tested - [hardware]
06:06 PM EDT - Mar,10 2008 - post a comment

Digit-Life has posted a review on four overclocked RADEON HD 3650/3850/3870 graphics cards:
The RADEON HD 3650 expectedly performs like the RADEON HD 2600 XT, being outperformed by the latter strictly proportional to the difference in operating frequencies. Unlike the 2600 cards, the 3650 cards now support DirectX 10.1. This feature will be praised by marketing specialists to the skies, but it will bring little to end users, because there are no such games so far. Besides, you will have to disable lots of effects to play the latest games on such cards (have a look at CRYSIS results). That is, when you buy such a card, you should not think that you can enable all bells and whistles in the latest games and play them at acceptable speed.

Thus, I've proved my initial thesis that the 3650 is essentially identical to the 2600 PRO/XT. Do not get carried away with the numeral 3 in the name of the card. It's just a cunning trick, which stands for a new fabrication process, DX10.1, and improved AVIVO (we haven't tested it yet). But we should point out one important detail: price. It will be lower than for the RADEON HD 2600 cards. In fact, the 3650 will replace these products (the 2600 family will be discontinued). It will be about 100 USD, may be a tad higher. I want to draw your attention to 512 MB of video memory used in these cards. This memory volume will soon become a standard even for such cards, which performance is sufficient in modern games only in low resolutions. That will be the minimum size. Cards with 256 MB of memory will become a thing of the past, just like 128 MB products.

- HIS IceQ RADEON HD 3650 Turbo 512MB PCI-E is an improved modification of the 3650 (in frequencies and in its cooling system). It's a good choice, if the price is adequate. And you shouldn't forget about the two-slot cooling system.

- HIS IceQ III RADEON HD 3870 Turbo 512MB PCI-E is actually the best 3870 card of all. It's a tad inferior to the 8800GT, so it must be cheaper. If this condition is true, it will be the best choice (but we should wait for the GeForce 9600, which may shake positions of the 3870 cards). If the 3870 cards have the same prices or are more expensive than the GeForce 8800 GT, the latter will be more preferable.

- MSI RADEON HD 3850 OC 256MB PCI-E is the standard reference card, it's just slightly overclocked. It offers no special features and comes with a modest bundle. So you just compare the prices and choose a card. The other conclusions on the 3850 have been drawn already.

- PowerColor RADEON HD 3650 Extreme 512MB PCI-E is currently the best 3650 product. Its increased frequencies yield performance on a par with the 2600 XT, and it's equipped with a highly efficient cooler.


Add your comment (free registrationrequired)

Short overview of recent news articles

Jan,01 2026 How Did RAM Get So Expensive?!
Dec,31 2025 GeForce RTX 5090 prices to soar to $5,000 as NVIDIA and AMD prep GPU
Dec,30 2025 Hacker arrested for KMSAuto malware campaign with 2.8 million
Dec,29 2025 Killer Whale - Official Trailer (2026) Virginia Gardner, Mel
Dec,28 2025 NVIDIA Showed Me Their Supercomputer
Dec,28 2025 2026 CPU Launches! AMD, Intel & NVIDIA: Buy Now or Wait?
Dec,27 2025 Disable this Windows Feature that Secretly Eats Up RAM!
Dec,27 2025 New Windows 11 vs Old Malware: Will it survive?
Dec,27 2025 Samsung TriFold Durability Test: We found the limit
Dec,26 2025 TRUST WALLET CONFIRMS SECURITY BREACH
Dec,26 2025 Xiaomi 17 Ultra Leads And Samsung To Follow With A 10 Percent Price
Dec,25 2025 Merry Christmas Gaming Insanity
Dec,24 2025 Battlefield 6 - Official PS5 Features Trailer
Dec,24 2025 NVIDIA GeForce Hotfix Driver 591.67 Released
Dec,23 2025 Finally! A Battery That's Better Than Energizer and Duracell!
Dec,22 2025 NVIDIA Killing Cheap 16GB Local AI GPUs?
Dec,21 2025 Top 10 Movie Sequels of All Time
Dec,21 2025 He Built a Privacy Tool. Now He's Going to Prison (Kone Rodriguez,
Dec,20 2025 Insane Moves! B-Boy Shigekix vs. B-Boy Issin - Red Bull BC One World
Dec,20 2025 9800X3D & RTX 5070 Ti Gaming PC - MSI Project Zero Done Right
Dec,19 2025 The XG27AQWMG Sets a New Standard for 1440p OLED
Dec,19 2025 OnePlus 15R Boasts Huge 7,400 mAh Battery
Dec,19 2025 Motorola Refreshes moto g power for 2026
Dec,18 2025 NVIDIA GeForce 591.59 WHQL Driver
Dec,18 2025 Are We Quitting YouTube Due To DRAM Apocalypse?
Dec,16 2025 The Samsung TriFold is AWESOME!
Dec,16 2025 $30 vs $30,000 TV
Dec,16 2025 Stranger Things 5 - Volume 2 Trailer
Dec,14 2025 Google Brings Live Video Sharing to 911 Calls on Android
Dec,14 2025 Samsung One UI 8.5 Will Offer New Features
Dec,14 2025 Dell AW3225QF Review - 32-inch curved gaming monitor
Dec,13 2025 HW News - AMD Says AI Definitely, Absolutely Not A Bubble, New
Dec,13 2025 The BEST Smartphones of 2025!
Dec,11 2025 10 Atmospheric Games That Might CHANGE YOUR LIFE
Dec,11 2025 Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra - Samsung Isn't Hiding It Anymore
Dec,10 2025 AMD Releases Adrenalin Edition 25.12.1 WHQL Drivers
Dec,10 2025 S25 Ultra VS 17 Pro Max
Dec,09 2025 All You Need Is Kill - Official Trailer
Dec,09 2025 Why can’t you be NORMAL?!? Roasting Staff Setups
Dec,09 2025 A Ryzen Cooling MONSTER - be quiet Silent Loop 3 Review
>> News Archive <<

TechAmok - Privacy Policy        loading time:0.01secs