Home > Consumer Reviews > HIS H385Q512ANP Radeon HD 3850 IceQ 3 Turbo HDMI Dual DL-DVI (HDCP) 512MB (256bit) GDDR3 AGP Video Card Retail (RoHS)

I was weighing out the costs of upgrading to a Intel Duo or Quad Core system to upgrading my AGP graphics card on my Pentium 4 and I realized it is cheaper for me to get the AGP card so I did and purchased the strongest AGP card ever made, the HIS Radeon 38450 ICEQ 3 Turbo.

System Specs-
Socket 478 Motherboard
Intel Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 3.4Ghz OC'd @ 3.8Ghz
2Gig 400Mhz Dual Channel OCZ Ram
Windows XP SP3
ReadyBoosted 2Gigs dedicated memory (4Gigs total)

With this exact system I am able to run Fallout 3 on Ultra settings. I am normally a Nvidia type of guy but decided to cross the playing field because I knew this card was the fastest ever made since my EVGA 7800GS Superclocked AGP card malfunctioned. I'm happy I took the plunge and got this card and the bags under my eyes from playing Fallout 3 is the evidence because of that. I used ATI's Overdrive function to overclock my card and now it is sitting pretty at above stock settings. I now realized that my Pentium 4 can't handle new games like Grand Theft Auto IV and Left 4 Dead so I guess I will have to upgrade my Mobo to a 775 socket with a AGP slot. That just shows that this card can handle the newest games out, its just that my processor is getting ready to retire in the near future. Also I took advantage of the DVI to HDMI adapter and hooked the card up to my 32in LCD and the quality is great. Now I just use my LCD for everything from Cable TV, Internet, Gaming, and other tasks that would require both a T.V. and a Computer Monitor if used separately.

Pros-
Fastest AGP card you can get
The ICE Q 3 cooling system
Run most recently released games on High or Very High settings
Included DVI to VGA, DVI to HDMI, and S-Video to Composite adapters.

Cons-
Price
The Y-power connector. (You will need to use both leads in order to overclock the card)
Updating Catalyst Drivers can only be done through the HIS website, not ATI's.

I would highly recommend this card if your not yet ready to upgrade to the modernized systems. Just remember, this card is very capable of crossing over with you when you are ready to upgrade. Just remember to find a socket 775 board with a AGP slot and you would be set for another 3-4 years.

I'm very satisfied with this product.
I had no trobule installing it in my cpu and everything worked out great.
Definetly an improvement over my previous video card.

This card ROCKS!
Runs COD4 in medium settings. and 8xAA 16xAF; COD 2 Full High.
Im Installing drivers from HIS, 8.501, no problems with drivers.
I dont need install all the stuff came with the driver, like AVIVO or HIDRAVISION, cause may give you problems if you dont have HDMI.
My setup: Asus A8V Deluxe, AMD 4000 Clahwammer @ 2.64 ghz.; 2gb Corsair; 120 HD Seagate; 650 OZC PSU

I upgraded to the HIS iceq3 turbo from a gecube 1950 xt card. The card outperforms it but not by a whole lot. The big improvement was HIS cooling solution keeps the card running at a very cool temperature. Since it runs so cool it was easy to overclock using ATI overdrive to 1000 hz. Running very stable even with overclocked. I would have to say that the iceQ cooling technology works as advertised and gives this card an advantage over other APG 3850 solutions. Also this card takes up much less space and is much quieter than the 1950 xt I upgraded from. This card is right now and probrably will always be the fastes card you can get for the aging AGP bus. I am running with a single core processor but I hear that if you have a dual core setup you will be able to take advantage of more features on this card as it pretty much is limited by the single core cpu. I don't run Vista so I cant comment on the DX10 capabilities but this is one of the only DX10 cards that will run on the AGP bus.