Visiontek Radeon HD 3850 256MB GDDR3 PCI-E Dual DVI-I HDCP HDMI HDTV Out Video Card

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I needed this to replace a dead Diamond HD3850 I picked up used , Wanted to find a matching card since the Diamond are single slot cards. UNable to find but low and behold for $70 plus tax this is a decent deal. If you have a Crossfire board and have a 3850 256ddr3 this is a cheap ugrade to run SLI. 2 of these will play games up to 1920x1200 with no detail. Interestingly enough the Diamond 3850 256 was equally as fast as an 8800gts and in some cases beat it so 2 of these will be decent enough until later in the year when I will sell them off and grab a used GTX275 or 4890. Really for $70 plus tax you can not do much better and 2 at 150 gives you better performance than a 9800gtx+ but less ram. So far with what I have quickly tested the 256ddr3 has not been an issue. Check it out and I can say it is true, newer games such as Far Cry 2 is playing well at 1920x1200 on Vista 64 with Cat 9.5http://www.legionhardware.com/document.php?id=721&p=5 This review was modfied by poster @ 06-15-09 09:22 PM

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Good product works as described

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Compared to the 8600 GT, and even 8600 GTS, this card destroys them. The ultimate mid-high range card for the money.

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As has been said before, it is not a HD 3870 or 8800GT/GTS but it does blow the geforce 8600 cards away with ease.Also been said before, this card gets extremely hot. Mine was going up to 90C then crashing so I setup RivaTuner to automatically change the fan speed based on temp and now under full load for extended periods of time this card does not exceed around 75C when overclocked to 715Mhz gpu/1035Mhz mem.On a side note, at 100% fan speed it is extremely loud but at around 70% it is ok unless you are running the board case-less. At 50% you can barely hear the fan.This is not all that bad a card really and with PowerPlay the GPU speed drops to 300Mhz when no 3D apps are open. This means for me at least, that it idles around 35C.It is not a horrid investment either as you can use it in a crossfire/xfire setup with the HD 3870 or HD 3870x2 so if you need a card now and have a crossfire board you could just pick up a 3870 based card later.In the end I would say that this card would be good for average home use as well as budget gaming and even some midrange gaming provided you have something handle the fan speed or replace the stock cooler altogether. For high-end gaming you really want a geforce 8800 or something or a HD3870 but for what this card is, it is not that bad.

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I got this a few days before the 512mb 8800gt were on sale for $10 more than this card. Now I wish I waited instead. This card falls somewhere between 'decent' and 'excellent' in that it's good for all the older games, but chokes on all the newer ones. This card is known to run HOT, it idles at 60 degrees and get creep up to 80+ degrees under load (I honestly fear that the solder on my card is gonna melt at times), considering that this card consumes the least power of all cards in its class, I'd have to say visiontek should've included a better cooler for this card. Oh, and I lost my black box card, which sucks. :( This review was modfied by poster @ 02-26-08 01:12 PM

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This is a Very good card that comes with a great price. It plays all my games at a decent graphics setting some where between Medium and High. I am very happy with this purchase. I would recommend this card to anyone wanting to build a budget gaming computer or use it for a HTCP, I would defiantly buy again or another ATI product. This review was modfied by poster @ 05-31-08 06:32 PM

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This card represents the fruit of AMD's labour against the Intel Nvidia 8600 series. Marketed as a midrange-high end card this gpu completely destroys its 8600 competition according to the latest benchmarks. In a performance:cost ratio this card is the best on the market. ATI hit a home run on this one.

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I doubted that ATI could beat Nvidia, but this card blew those doubts away. The quality, features & speed of this card is unbelievable. Thanks to TD, I was able to get this card very easily & reasonably priced too. Buy this card if you want to run all the newer games, HD movies, and software packages.

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WOW! Get this Card if you got the $$.... Its the BEST! I run BF2142 at MAX settings and get a 80-100 FPS. But be aware, it is a BIG card, make sure you have room in your case for this baby to fit. its like 8-10 inches long. But it gets a 10 from me all day. Thanks Tiger!

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Very good card, if you can wait go for the 3870, I got the 3850 cos they were out of stock for the 3870, but I ordered my 3870 today, with crossfire X you can get 4 different card on the same mobo. Running crysis at medium setting in 1024x768, I can run it higher but its not smooth enough I need more ram(just ordered), to run it at very high & 1280x1024. On GA-MA790FX-DQ6, phenom 9600 e 2.45ghz 2gig ram 8500. Ill overclock more once I get my new heatsink. GFX temp is around 45 on full load! CPU is sitting around 30-35.

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Upgraded from 8600 gts oc, what an upgrade! Very fast card for the price, silent as could get. Was not even able to play crysis in 1024*768 with my 8600gts at medium settins, and now same resolution and high setting except for AA and AF, play really smooth. Good performance for your buck.The bundle don't have any game included except that valve give half life 2 lost coast to all ati cards owner. Highly recommended to all mid range gamer that don't want to buy 700$ high end video cards.