Diamond HD 3650 1024 MB DDR2

[W1zzard]

Diamond's latest HD 3650 card features a huge video memory of 1 GB, but uses only slow DDR2. For media PC systems an extra HDMI output has been added which natively supports HDCP and audio. We run this card through our benchmarks and check whether the extra memory can make a performance difference.

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[Para_Franck]

That's exactly what I said when the 1 gig 3650 was announced, 1 Gig is useless on a slow card like this!!

I most say, that since this card is oriented towards the HTPC market, I would have liked to see a review that put the card in an HTPC environnement. Gaming is not all, specially for an HTPCcard. what HD decoding performance does it have, is the HDMI working good, etc...

Franck

 

[W1zzard]

all recent ati and nvidia cards have enough hd decoding performance that just works with basically any cpu. however, video decoding tests are something i am looking into for all our gpu reviews

explain how hdmi can not work good? you plug it in and it works ..

 

[Hawk1]

Looks decent. Will be building a system for my Bro-in-law soon and he just needs basic video, but I may just go with a 512Mb version though. I like it doesn't use too much power, and interesting that it can work with crossfireX on an NV chipset (although begs the question, why bother xfireing these things on any chipset). The fan noise doesn't look promising if your going for an HTPC - same db at idle and load and its higher than most of the better cards.

 

[newtekie1]

1GB is useless, it is even more uselss when the memory used it slow 400MHz GDDR2. I hate that GDDR2 is even still used on anything from the mid-range. GDDR2 should be on the low-end cards only.

 

[InnocentCriminal]

Another marketing gimmick?

I think so.

 

[Para_Franck]

Well I admit that HDMI has no other choice but to work good. My experience with the ATI HDMI capable cards (HIS 3850 turbo) was good, except for a little glitch in the sound quality(only in certain situations) And I hate to have to use an adapter to switch from DVI to HDMI, native HDMI is best, In my opinion, espacially when dealing with space limitations.

 

[newtekie1]

Another marketing gimmick?

I think so.

Yep, just like when they used to put 512MB on FX5200s and the countless other times they have just bumped up the memory size to make the cards more appealing to the public.

 

[ArkanHell]

I think is a sad card. Make me feel depress.