The HIS Radeon HD 3850 IceQ3 TurboX owes its name to two things, the famous IceQ3 cooler and 735MHz core, hence the suffix TurboX. Just in case you've been living on Mars and don't know about IceQ3, it's HIS's ace cooler, and they use it on their champion cards. HIS once again proved their excellence when it comes to ATI cards. Besides the Radeon HD 3850 IceQ3 TurboX, there is a bit slower version that runs at 720MHz core and 1820MHz for the memory. But the TurboX, on the other hand runs at 1960MHz memory speed, but not even that will push the limits on Samsung memory. The aforementioned memory has 1.0ns access speed, and that accounts for 2000MHz effective. - FudZilla

HIS Radeon HD 3850 IceQ3 TurboX Graphics Preview

We all want our graphics cards to run ever faster, and HIS lets you have it straight out of the box. The Radeon HD 3850 reference speeds are 670MHz core and 1660MHz memory. This card packs 512MB of GDDR3 memory, and since newer games are quite hungry for memory, it looks like you're good to go. The card also has UVD engine that decodes HD video entirely on the GPU, thus ridding the CPU of this tiresome task. The RV670 chipset also packs 5.1 audio which means DVI to HDMI dongle will handle video and sound at the same time, thus enabling full HD gaming experience.

To minimize interference when the signal is transferred to the dongle, HIS glazed their dual DVI outs with a thin layer of gold and we know that gold is the best conductor. Of course, that doesn't mean that this DVI output will work any better than any other DVI output, but when it comes to interference, you simply never know. The IceQ 3 cooling technology is not only quiet but it significantly lowers the temperatures, so HIS dared to overclock the card, and sell it as such. The cooler also has a small heatpipe that helps transfer the heat to the cooler fins. The cooler is UV sensitive, you can enjoy a blueish color of the cooler.

This is a DirectX 10.1 and Shader Model 4.1 card, which means that this card will definitely last. Any day now you should be able to use it in CrossFireX mode, chaining four identical cards and harnessing their power. If you want to use only two, CrossFire is already enabled. PowerPlay is a feature that will handle power consumption depending on your GPU's workload, and it's rapidly becoming a trend. If you care for power consumption, then this is the card for you, because it will consume less power in idle mode than NVIDIA's cards do. Maximum consumption we measured was 242 watts, while in idle it dropped to 138 watts.

HIS did a great job putting an IceQ3 cooler on their Radeon HD 3850's. The card is no longer single slotted, but in return you get great cooling and low noise levels. The core runs at 735MHz, straight out of the box. The IceQ3 cooler is the component that made overclocking possible, and unlike ATI's reference cooler, this cooling solution will blow the heat out of your case. Memory also got a boost, and it runs at 1960MHz, which is 300MHz more than reference 1660MHz. This is a fully enabled DirectX 10.1 card with Shader Model 4.1 and it means that it will be enough for a long time.

With 512MB of GDDR3 memory, the IceQ 3 TurboX edition card can be your gaming as well as multimedia solution. It has HDCP, and with a little help from an HDMI dongle that you get in the box, you can use both gold plated dual link DVI ports for HDTV. You can use this card for gaming, with performance almost identical to reference Radeon HD 3850, but this is definitely not the lowest priced Radeon HD 3850 that we've seen, as it will set you back about $220. Still, we recommend this card to anyone who likes their Radeon HD 3850 cool and quiet.