HIS HD 3870 IceQ3 Turbo 512 MB

[W1zzard]

The HIS Radeon HD 3870 IceQ3 uses the proven HIS IceQ3 cooling solution. It also comes with higher clocks out of the box which are among the highest we have seen so far from all manufacturers. The recent price drops from AMD make this card a solid choice for the sub-$200 segment.

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[DanishDevil]

Isn't this the Turbo version W1zz? The Turbo comes with a core clock of 850, while the IceQ3 comes with a core clock of 777.

Also, the cooler is not completely aluminum. I'll post some pics this weekend to verify. It is copper painted silver painted copper, and some of the baseplate is aluminum. Why? Who knows.

 

[gR3iF]

1200mhz capable Ram only running@1062mhz... Poor Bios or tight Timings, w1zzard can you figure it out?

 

[DanishDevil]

I never thought of tight timings. It's a possibility.

 

[Agent_D]

i have the non turbo version that is clocked 780/1130 factory, when ati tool fan settings at 100% ati overdrive sets the clocks at 890 core and 1330 memory, it runs stable at these speeds, but i run it normally at 875/1300 just so im not at the peak of the overclocking potential, however core may be capable of higher than 890, thats the cap for overdrive on the card.

 

[erocker]

Thanks, Agent_D! I'm in the market for a couple 3870's right now and the HIS card is one of the more inexpensive ones out there.

 

[WarEagleAU]

I dont know, His isnt terribly inexpensive, I find they have a premium. Awesome review though W1zz. Graphics memory is odd to, hard to hit the maximum its rated for without awesome cooling.

 

[DanishDevil]

What's weird is that the cooler does have pretty decent ram cooling. I was however able to get them up to about 1330 with an extra fan or two blowing on them versus the 1270 I get with stock cooling. And this was on the non-turbo version, btw.

 

[newtekie1]

Great review as always W1z. I am kind of disappointed by the cooler used by HIS. I can understand it with the 3850, but I was hoping they would use a beefier Copper cooler on the 3870. Though it cools well, so I guess you can't complain too much about it.

I am disappointed with the overclocking too, but I'm really not surprised. My HIS x1950Pro ICEQ3's both overclock like shit also. It just shows that HIS really cherry picks their cores and pushes them to their max before shipping them to the customer. Perhaps they are just adjusting their voltages though. It would limit the people buying weaker version, and more imporantly give lower temperatures. It actually makes sense to me that they would lower the voltages. It would be interesting to see the voltage numbers on this card, is that possible W1z?

1200mhz capable Ram only running@1062mhz... Poor Bios or tight Timings, w1zzard can you figure it out?

The RAM gets up to over 1200MHz when W1z overclocked it, the stock speeds were just under 1200 at 1190.

 

[Sasqui]

Nice review W1zzard as usual... thorough, methodical and consistent... wondering why you left out the latest GX2 results, I assume it was lack of time?

 

[0V3CHKiN]

The heatsink being painted to look like copper is sketch. That and after going through two bad 1900xts by HIS, I won't be buying from them again.

 

[ShinyG]

I think there's a typo at the end in the overcloking section:
The screenshot shows 1260Mhz memory clock but the text shows 1062Mhz overclock...
Can you please check it, W1zzard?

 

[Cuzza]

Awesome review man. Interesting to see this card dominating on Quake4, ATI look to be doing the business with that game, wish they could extend it to a few more.

@ newtekie1 yeah you're right about the cooler, painting it copper thats a total waste of time. and a bit noisy for my liking.