GDDR4 HD 3850 Pictured

[Jimmy 2004]

Expreview claims to have pictures of a version of the Radeon HD 3850 which uses GDDR4 memory instead of the GDDR3 found on current models. Dubbed the HD 3850 512MB Infinity, this card is built by Unika and uses Hynix 0.8ns memory - and you may notice it also has a non-reference PCB and quite an unusual cooler, which has been designed by Triplex. Apparently this card is clocked at 700MHz core and 2200MHz RAM, and according the Expreview the price will remain at around $200.



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[ktr]

the cooler looks incompetent for that card.

 

[OrbitzXT]

Very interesting fan indeed, video cards are confusing me lately. There's so many high performing cards now, even the mid-range cards are great for a change. It makes figuring out the ideal performance/price ratio difficult.

 

[pt]

the cooler looks incompetent for that card.

you do know that these cards run as cold as ice?

 

[X-TeNDeR]

This makes the gap between the 3850 and 3870 even smaller.. if the 3870 were priced as they should (219$), this card would fall between the chairs. anyway, the smaller PCB is nice for small systems\HTPC i guess.

 

[Thermopylae_480]

That is so much shorter than the 3850s being released right now.

 

[Scrizz]

so what's diff between 512 3870 and 512 ddr4 3850, apart from the clock speeds?

 

[Silverel]

The cooler may be incompetent, but it sure looks good. Thats one reason for having a side window on a case.

 

[Ripper3]

This card has a shorter PCB, and a slower core speed (can't remember the speed of the memory on the 3870, so I won't comment, but it won't make an enormous difference).
The difference is so small, if any. I hope I can grab one in the UK, it might make a fine addition, especially considering it's lowered price as compared to the 3870.

 

[erocker]

It looks rather impossible to find any cooling device for that thing other than the gpu? I think, if I can get a hold of one of these, it would be a good candidate for some custom heatsinks.

 

[Basard]

It can't be much worse than the stock cooler. at least they figured out a way to shrink the PCB... and its only 200 bucks.

 

[panchoman]

hey! wheres the gddr5? yeah the fan doesn't look like something you'd except on that card, but these cards run very cool

 

[Agility]

HD3850
700MHz core
GDDR 4 2200Mhz Memory
256Bit memory.

 

[jpierce55]

This makes the gap between the 3850 and 3870 even smaller.. if the 3870 were priced as they should (219$), this card would fall between the chairs. anyway, the smaller PCB is nice for small systems\HTPC i guess.

This card is pointless! Check this out: http://www.ncixus.com/search/?categoryid=0&q=3870 The prices are going to be to close.

 

[WarEagleAU]

Very interesting. That cooler is pretty awesome, though the fins are spaced out a very good bit. I suspect it resembles one of Zalmans funky coolers.

 

[Scrizz]

hey! wheres the gddr5? yeah the fan doesn't look like something you'd except on that card, but these cards run very cool

they usualy leave the new stuff for the high-end cards

 

[nflesher87]

lol that thing looks like a 1600pro with a 6pin connector and cheap cooler!

 

[MrW]

It's a vf-700alcu clone... More than enough to cool that card.

 

[erocker]

lol that thing looks like a 1600pro with a 6pin connector and cheap cooler!

No doubt! That card would look just plain silly in my case! It's really cool though that a high/mid range card can look like that again! Powerful, and efficient with power usage and temperatures.
Imagine if this card came out just after the x1950xtx?! It would of been one of the most amazing things of all time!

 

[eidairaman1]

that .8ns ram isnt overclocking as well as the 1.0ns ram

 

[eidairaman1]

What do you care, you got a 3870, this topic was based upon the 3850 from the getgo, dont bash a card that maybe the First Party Board (Sans the cooling device) (I like first party ATI boards)

This card is pointless! Check this out: http://www.ncixus.com/search/?categoryid=0&q=3870 The prices are going to be to close.

 

[tkpenalty]

That is so much shorter than the 3850s being released right now.

They could do exactly the same with the HD3870...

 

[btarunr]

Similarly, is there any board-partner working on a 1GB HD-3870?

You can just step up the clock speeds and this card would run close to a stock 3870. But I somehow didn't like the cooler. Add to that, the memory banks are bare. Bad cooling to the memory banks is a put-off for me.

And that's a huge box

 

[eidairaman1]

IMO, who gives a care if a board comes out with 1 G of ram or not, cause they end up being way too much for people, and the performance gain is not noticeable unless if you have a over 30 Inch TV. Youd be upgrading a year later due to something coming out faster than that 1 G card and has way less ram.

 

[InnocentCriminal]

I'd care if I could get a decent, mid-to-highend GFX card with 1GB DDR3/4 as long as the card had the memory bandwidth to utilize all the available memory.