The first video card, which appeared in the 3800 series, was published in 2008. The new appearance, user-friendly design and support for manufacturer technologies have made the Radeon HD 3850 the most popular model of its time.
Characteristics
So, the core of the HD 3850 processor, with a frequency of 670 megahertz, has the code name RV670. There are 320 stream processors in the GPU, and the memory frequency is 830 megahertz. Texture blocks are presented in the amount of 16 pieces, as well as rasterization blocks.
As for video memory, there are two options - 256 megabytes and 512 megabytes. Of course, for gaming purposes it is better to have more video memory. The 256-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 53 gigabits per second, which is necessary for accelerated exchange of information.
The size of the chip, compared to the previous series, has become much smaller - 55 nanometers. Such parameters allow you to consume less energy, as well as reduce the amount of heat generated. The GPU is built on 666 million transistors.
Testing in games and programs
In terms of power consumption, we can say that the HD 3850 graphics card is in third place after the Radeon HD 6670 and GeForce GT 240. Its power consumption is less than 100 watts. The efficiency of this GPU is in the middle of the list and is less than 20 watts. According to the performance index, the card is far behind - it is not surprising, because it is a representative of the early model.
In the game Serious Sam 2, with the settings at maximum and without anti-aliasing, the video card produces stable 125 frames, while with the anti-aliasing settings, the indicators showed 71 frames per second.
The same situation with the game Call Of Juarez, where the main settings are set to the maximum, the game produces stable 34 frames. With 16x anti-aliasing enabled, the indicators are slightly lower - only 25 frames per second. Here at Prey of the old generation, things are a little better - in the first version, you can see the performance up to 130 frames per second, and the connected anti-aliasing reduces the quality to 84 frames.
Description of appearance and configuration
The printed circuit board went to the reference standard, on the front side the fan is located on the side of the radiator, which allows better blowing of the video chip. The architecture of the board is no different from the previous generation, except for the sticker on the cooling. There is a 6-pin port for connecting additional power.
The video card is packaged in a compact box that contains everything you need: adapters for video output, adapters for using old-generation power, a bridge for connecting several video cards, a driver disk, an instruction manual and a logo sticker.