HIS Radeon HD 3650 IceQ Turbo
HIS' Radeon HD 3650 IceQ Turbo, on the other hand, uses a dual-slot-taking cooler to achieve the same effect.
The Turbo nomenclature indicates that it's an overclocked model, and it runs at 790MHz core and 1,780MHz memory, so marginally slower than the Sapphire card.
The heatsink/fan combination is extremely quiet and cool-running, but the card's BIOS is programmed such that it doesn't clock- or voltage-throttle down when in 2D mode - a feature that AMD advertises as PowerPlay on the desktop.
The HIS IceQ Turbo is also outfitted with 512MiB of GDDR3 memory that provides around 28.6GB/s to the GPU. HIS adopts the same memories - eight in total - and outfits them on both sides of the card, as well.
The familiar front-end of an IceQ cooler. It might not be useful for smaller chassis where space is at a premium, although it should provide for excellent overclocking.
The warm air is exhausted from the back, through the vents. HIS, too, uses twin dual-link DVI slots and eschews DisplayPort connectivity. We see the sense in not integrating them just yet, considering the lack of DisplayPort-capable displays.
The mini-DIN socket is for video-out only, by the way.
Summary
The IceQ cooler is excellent, if a little overkill for a budget card based on a power-efficient manufacturing process.
HIS could, and perhaps should, have raised pre-overclocked clockspeeds a little more, to better compete against the slew of other overclocked HD 3650s out there.
Current pricing is around £57, or around 10 per cent higher than the Sapphire's.
Bundle:
| Items | HIS driver CD Steam voucher DVI-to-VGA dongle HDMI connector Multi-language quick-install guide CrossFire dongle |
|---|
HIS' bundle is understandably sparse. There is no bundled game, but you can grab Half-Life 2: Lost Coast and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch off the Steam server via the included voucher. This, however, is open to all ATI-based retail cards and doesn't represent a value-adding extra.
Warranty
HIS offers a two-year warranty with each card, the first year through the retailer, the second directly with HIS.
Returns to HIS are made to a UK address, saving shipping time and cost compared to a mainland European office, as some companies use.
