| Sapphire 1024MB Radeon HD3850 Graphics Card
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Conclusion:
While there have been many developments in the graphics card market since the ATI Radeon HD3850 was released, it still remains a viable option for those who don't care to layout the kind of money the truly high end cards command. By taking the decent features and specifications this GPU offers on its own and enhancing it with a few tweaks here and there, Sapphire just might be able to deliver on the marketing hype found on the box... "Delivering mayhem to the mainstream".
The Sapphire 1024MB Radeon HD3850 graphics card was able to outperform a more generic (256MB) HD3850 in all games and benchmarks, and did so while also remaining relatively cool and quiet. To further appeal to gamers, the aesthetics are unique and rather stylish, incorporating a custom one slot cooling solution on a blue PCB.
The performance may make the Sapphire 1024MB HD3850 more appealing than a typical HD3850, but another key test of whether it can be considered mainstream is the price. The graphics card market is tightly packed with competition from a variety of makes and models, and enhancing a card like the HD3850 doesnt' allow for much additional cost before you wind up competing with another level of card all together.
This seems to be the biggest problem. While I would definitely recommend it over a typical HD3850, if the prices were comparable, they aren't even close. Newegg.com carries this card for about $175 (US), which is about $50 to $60 more than what you would pay for a more typical HD3850 with 256MB or 512MB of memory. While it will perform better than these cards, it doesn't perform $50 better.
Taking a look at the price from a different perspective makes it even less appealing. Looking around Newegg.com some more shows that for less money you could pick up any one of a variety of 512MB HD3870 cards. For $5 more you could pick up the overclocked 512MB Sapphire Toxic HD3870 card that easily outscored the 1024MB HD3850 across the board in this review. Even some of the brand new HD4850 cards cost about the same in the end, if you don't mind dealing with mail in rebates.
The bottom line is that a typical ATI Radeon HD3850 can not compete with Sapphire's 1024MB Radeon HD3850 graphics card. The only problem is that the price of this card has it competing with stronger performers like the HD3870 and HD4850, and those are match ups it just can't win.
Pros:
» Performance easily outpaces typical HD3850
» Runs cool and quiet
» Single slot cooler design
» Respectable bundle of accessories
Cons:
» More expensive than many HD3870 and HD4850 cards
Special thanks to Sapphire for providing the Sapphire 1024MB Radeon HD3850 Graphics Card to Bigbruin.com for review!
Please drop by the Bigbruin.com Forum and feel free to post any comments or questions.
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