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Review: 3-way passively-cooled midrange shootout. Sapphire vs HIS vs XFX

by Tarinder Sandhu on 4 May 2007, 08:45

Tags: HiS Graphics

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qaicd

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HIS X1650 XT iSilence II 256MiB bundle and warranty







The box is a full-retail model, so here's what you get inside:







Items HIS Platinum Pack
Drivers CD
Printed user guide
1 x DVI dongle
HDTV-Out (component) cable
S-Video cable
S-Video-to-composite adapter
ATI CrossFire bridge


The Platinum pack has been shipping for a while now and, whilst useful, isn't a killer bundle presently, looking somewhat out of date.

The hardware provision is good, though, and it includes a CrossFire bridge.

Warranty considerations

HIS offers a two-year warranty on its graphics cards, and the first year's cover is directly with the reseller you purchased from whilst the second is with the manufacturer. A UK address is provided for the second year's cover, by the way.

The warranty is transferable should you sell the card on, but the warranty begins on the date the card was manufactured, not when the original owner bought it, so any card sitting in a warehouse is slowly running down the warranty cover.

Pre-benchmark summary

The HIS X1650 XT iSilence II is a genuinely passively-cooled design that's currently priced at around £82. It benefits from the X1650 XT's dual-link DVI and HDCP-enabled outputs. The bundle is reasonable, as well. The overriding question is whether it provides adequate performance for the money. We'll answer that in the benchmark section.