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ATI Radeon HD 3850 256MB
Introduction
With its release during the massive hardware holliday last year, the HD 3850, the least of four major cards, is easily overlooked. That's really a shame, since it's really a top-notch gaming card. Obviously, it's not the first choice for enthusiasts, but from a value perspective, it's without a doubt the best choice. AMD has replaced the confusing suffixes on their old cards with a more intuitive number scheme: 50 = Pro, 70 = XT, and X2, for all intensive porpoises is XTX. Which brings about another comparison. The mere mention of the ATI Radeon X1950 Pro should warm busoms; a couple years back it cinched together the price of the mainstream bracket with the performance of serious gaming hardware. It, at the time, was the best video accelerator, was the first to use CrossFire bridges and not dongles, and was an all-around improvement for ATI's lineup. The HD 3850 is in every way the spiritual successor to the X1950 Pro: enthusiast hardware priced for the mainstream. The Card & Bundle The card is about the same size as the HD 2600 XT and the X1950 Pro of old. Small for enthusiasts, big for everone else. It's a medium-sized card (9.5 x 3.1 x 11.7 inches, 1.8lbs.). What we've got on the bench is an OEM sample, so it's just the card. It has two DVI-D connectors and a TV-out connector, a sixteen lane PCI-Express 2.0 connector, two CrossFire connectors at the top, and a 6-pin molex power connector pointing towards the front of the card. The heatsink has many subtle changes from older single-slot Radeon coolers, starting with more densly-packed fins, a wider fan opening, and a much queter fan with swept edges--not a traditional blower. The base of the heatsink extends towards the front of the card to passively cool the power regulation hardware. The card uses a mix of electrolytic and aluminum capacitors for power regulation. At the back of the card, the heatsink exhausts into a scoop that redirects the air towards the card's top.    
Page 1: Introduction, The Card & Bundle
Page 2: Testing Methodology and Specifications Page 3: Testing - HL2 Episode 1 Page 4: Testing - F.E.A.R. Page 5: Testing - Company of Heroes Page 6: Testing - Prey Page 7: Testing - 3Dmark 06 & HQV Page 8: Performance Summary, Power & Noise, and Overclocking Page 9: Conclusion 
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