On the ATI front the major rumors that are circulating are all about the upcoming dual-GPU graphics accelerator, which should normally feature two RV670 cores. The same graphics chips are currently already used on some single GPU video card which are bringing great performance as a mid-range price. These cards are currently widely available and you can find these as the Radeon HD 3850 and the faster Radeon HD 3870 board series. Today we are taking a look at another ATI graphics card, this time a more special Radeon HD 3850 version from ASUS. This particular Radeon HD 3850 is factory overclocked for more performance than typical Radeon HD 3850 graphics cards. - I4U News

ASUS Extreme AH3850 TOP Graphics Edition Review

The ASUS Extreme AH3850 TOP version is factory overclocked and has a clock speed of 730MHz on the core and 1900MHz on the memory. And this video card uses 256MB of GDDR3 memory and is built on a 55nm fabrication process. One of the nicest features of the ASUS Extreme AH3850 TOP version is the built-in 5.1 surround sound that allows video and audio out on an HDMI cable. As it is making use of the RV670 chip, the card comes with DirectX 10.1 technology and is also CrossFireX ready. This means that you can actually combined the power of several Radeon HD 3850 cards into one huge graphics monster.

The ASUS Extreme AH3850 TOP performed marginally better in our benchmarks than a stock clocked Radeon HD 3850 did. You are certainly getting some performance advantage from the factory overclocked card. The performance gains aren't huge, but for someone looking for the best performance that can be had from a Radeon HD 3850 without needing to overclock the card themselves will want to check out the Extreme AH3850 TOP edition from ASUS. For a bit more money you do get improved performance with the ASUS Extreme AH3850 TOP edition making this a very nice card for gamers on a budget.