As usually, after the basic models all made in the same fashion as the reference one, the first cards with more exotic cooling systems begin to arrive. Not that it is an imperative with such cold weather at the moment, but an overclocker values every extra bit to lower the temperature. This time, we got a graphics card from HIS, made in cooperation with Arctic Cooling, the well known manufacturer of different advanced cooling systems for PC components. The card is following the usual Turbo equipment with again a new version of the popular IceQ cooling. The full name of the graphics card we present you with today is HIS Radeon HD 3850 512MB IceQ3 Turbo edition. - InsideHW

HIS Radeon HD 3850 IceQ3 Turbo Video Card Review

Inside the very nicely designed box, there is nothing too special as far as bundle is concerned. Although it may seem strange at first, HIS tends to follow the general trend set by other manufacturers lately and expel all non essential things from the box of enthusiasts' cards, going for the lowest possible price. That means the card itself, driver disc, basic cables and converters. As soon as you cast a glance on it through the transparent part of the packaging, it will be clear to you that this is a special card you are dealing with. The cooling system is more impressive even than the one on the reference Radeon HD 3870 model.

Its basis is made fully in copper. Beside the part covering the GPU, there is also a part which covers the voltage unit and another one leading the heat away from the memory chips. All of this is covered by a plastic armor which neatly creates a steady airflow towards the back of the case. This affects the card temperature greatly, and thus indirectly the case itself, as the hot air is ejected from the case without mixing with the rest of it. This system is most evidently a work of Arctic Cooling, and although the previous IceQ models sport the same coolers, this time, Arctic Cooling surpassed itself.

This is truly remarkable, and sets this card as the best cooled Radeon HD 3850 on the market. The cooling system takes up two slots, naturally, but this cannot be considered a drawback even remotely, since performance is the target of the manufacturer. The PCB is identical to those seen before, except that it is blue colored, in order to fit the image of HIS better. The bracket connectors are gold plated to provide perfect signal transition, but we cannot recall any monitors which have this kind of connectors, so this will probably remain unexploited. Still it is a very nice feature that can differentiate it from the competition.

The RV670 core has 320 stream processors, and since the Turbo in the title suggests, its clocks are set slightly higher than ordinary. So we actuallly get 735MHz for the GPU and 1960MHz for the memory. This is a respectable overclock for factory shipped standards, which comes dangerously close to the Radeon HD 3870 clock values. The memory bus is 256-bit wide, and the memory chips are declared to 1.0ns response time, which is the maximum possible for GDDR3 memory chips. This is the only difference with the Radeon HD 3870 which possesses GDDR4 chips with 0.9ns and clock speeds of 2250MHz.

If you are still unsure about purchasing this card, we will make it easier for you and warn you that it is a limited edition card, which means that it will not be remade after the initial series is sold out. As its price is insignificantly higher than the other, regular Radeon HD 3850 cards, we recommend that you rush to the nearest shop and get one immediately. These will hardly hang on the market for long, so get it while you can.