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AMD HD3870 512MB roundup, Club3D and HIS compared

Videocards/VGA Reviews by geoffrey @ 2008-03-10

The HD3800 series have been available for nearly three months now, but it´s only until NVIDIA recently decided to launch their 9600GT that we decided to have another look at ATI´s current mainstream video card. Our article includes two samples, one standard clocked HD3870 branded Club3D, and one supercharged video card labeled HIS. Head on to found out how we rated the HD3870 three months after release.

HIS HD3870 IceQ3 Turbo: inside the box & specs

HIS HD3870 IceQ3 Turbo 512MB: Inside the box

HIS's box is having the IceQ3 logo all over it, just to make sure you aren’t buying the wrong HD3870 :) The backside of the box uses the card itself as decoration; this should give people a good view on what he might be buying. The inside token out:

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HIS HD3870 IceQ3 Turbo 512MB

One crossfire bridge (not pictured)

One DVI => VGA adapter

One DVI => HDMI adapter

One Composite video-out adapter

Quick installation guide

CD with drivers

HIS case sticker

Voucher for Valves Black Box (Half File 2: Episode 2, Team Fortress 2, Portal) for download from Steam

HIS all-in-one screwdriver / penlight tool

The contents of this box is pretty much the same as with every HD3870 out there, though a nice add-on might be this tool:

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It comes with two screwdriver heads, a spirit level, and a single LED lightning device, all in one handy device which you can easily hold anywhere near your PC.

HIS HD3870 IceQ3 Turbo 512MB: specifications

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Chipset : ATI RV670 core
- 3D Clock: 850 MHz

512Mb (8x64Mb) GDDR4 memory with 256-bit Ringbus interface
- Brand/Type: Hynix HY5FS
- 3D Clock: 1190 MHz DDR (2380 MHz)

Connector: Video out, dual dual-link DVI- I

HDMI, HDCP compatible

ATI Avivo video acceleration

ATI PowerPlay

CrossFire

DirectX 10.1

System Interface: PCI-Express 2.0 x16

HIS HD3870 IceQ3 Turbo 512MB: more info

The HIS HD3870 videocard we're reviewing here today comes with the latest edition of IceQ cooling systems. This cooling device has been found on many different HIS products before and has build up quite a good reputation due to providing lower GPU temperatures at lower sound levels. The heatsink is dual slots wide and is just like the ATI reference heatsink pushing the heated air through a copper heat exchanger back outside the pc housing. The top cover also seems to be UV reactive, for the modders among us.

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Just like ATI's reference heatsink, the IceQ3 cooling system comes with 3 independent heatsinks, one for the GPU, one for the memory chips, and one for the mosfets. In fact, the ATI reference heatsink looks pretty much the same as the IceQ3 heatsink, although that HIS has added more surface area on the GPU and memory heatsinks. In order to further decrease GPU temperatures HIS has added a big and massive heatpipe, all together the IceQ3 should have no problems outperforming the standard ATI heatsink.

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The memory heatsink is covering all the DDR4 memory chips. Pads are used to create proper contact between the heatsink and memory chips. For the GPU HIS has chosen to use silver based thermal paste.

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The HIS HD3870 might look specially designed but in reality it is just a replica of ATI's reference PCB design. The board color has been changed to the HIS color scheme and some of the board components have been slightly changed, but overal you can just neglect all this as you may never notice it anyways.

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The back plate of the card has been colored black and comes with gold plated connectors. This effort fills in to the High Definition concept as gold plated connectors offer better quality.

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Just as any HD3870 you'll spot double CrossFire connectors and one 6-pins power adapter on the HIS HD3870 video card.

Not much to add here, let's move on to our benchmark but let us first have a look at our test setup ->

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