Diamond Viper HD3850 Crossfire Review

At a price of $179 each, ATI/Diamond have positioned the HD 3850 series to compete on both price and performance in the $150 to $250 price range. With the migration to the 55 nanometer process, the consumption of power has been reduced. Using Powerplay technology, the drivers underclock the video card to reduce the power draw when not in a demanding 3D environment. The HD 3800 series of cards uses a built-in hardware decoder (Unified Video Decoder) that relieves the CPU of the burden of managing HD-DVD and Blu Ray content. Couple this with built-in HDMI 5.1 sound, and you have a potent combination for that HTPC build. Setting up Crossfire is a matter of just installing the interconnect cables, powering up the system and checking the "Enable Crossfire" check box in the Catalyst Control Center. No fuss no muss.