Diamond Radeon HD 3650 PE 512MB Video Card

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Max Slowik
Beth
Diamond
Jun. 5, 2008

Specifications

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Introduction

ATI's HD 3650 replaces the HD 2600 Pro, a frustrating underachiever. Generally, I dislike video cards in the $50-100 range, mainly because they're not going to play new games well and, if you're after features, then you're better off buying a lesser model from the same series.

The features here are the real selling points--I'm going to jump the gun and assume that, for gaming, this card doesn't break the mold--two of which stand out ahead of price, connectivity (HDMI), and low power-consumption. First is video playback. ATI swings when it comes to playing movies, and even their entry-level cards are going to do well, if not flawlessly. Second is Hybrid CrossFire.

All 3000-series cards can be run in CrossFire with motherboards that have the 780G (and upcoming 790GX) chipsets, in either a performance mode (like regular CrossFire) or power-saving mode, which completely powers down the video card when integrated video is good enough. Combined, these features might give cause to move up a price bracket, favoring a 36 over a 34.

The Card & Bundle

Despite the municipal great looks of the card, neither layout nor cooling is stock. The PCBs tweaked with some improved power-regulation hardware, although there are still a handful of electrolytic capacitors. The heatsink is larger, but doesn't look like a silent cooling system. And it's branded with ATI's heroine, Ruby, looking indifferent. Although it's laughable, you can run these in CrossFire without a bridge; PCI-Express is enough bandwidth.

The biggest deviation is the inclusion of an HDMI connector, between a VGA and a DVI connector. There are no other TV-outs. This card doesn't have or need a 6-pin power cable, so the only included extra is a DVI-to-VGA adapter. There isn't a bundle to speak of.

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Page 1 of 6

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Page 1: Introduction, The Card & Bundle
Page 2: Specifications and Setup
Page 3: DirectX 10 Titles
Page 4: DX9, OpenGL, and Synthetics
Page 5: Video, Power, and Overclocking
Page 6: Conclusion

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