15 years ago, with the ATi Radeon HD 3850, the manufacturer AMD launched an attack on the mid-range segment of the graphics card market. For a price of 135 euros, the model offered a performance like no other.
Table of contents
- A price Performance cracker
- In terms of performance, a GeForce 8800 GTS 320
- Conclusion
A price-performance hit
The ATi Radeon HD 3850 was based on a fully activated RV670 GPU, which was manufactured at TSMC using the modern 55 nm process and had 666 million transistors. The differences to the more expensive Radeon HD 3870, which also relies on the RV670 GPU, were limited and were primarily limited to lower clock rates. Another difference was the use of slower GDDR3 memory, which also only had a capacity of 256 MB and did not have the 512 MB GDDR4 of a Radeon HD 3870. Otherwise, the Radeon HD 3850 had all the innovations introduced with the Radeon HD 3870 – such as the unified video decoder, DirectX 10.1 and PCIe 2.0.
(MADD) 64 (5D) 24 (5D) 96 (1D) 32 (1D) FLOPs (MADD/ADD) 496 GFLOPS 429 GFLOPS 192 GFLOPS 346 GFLOPS* 139 GFLOPs* ROPs 16 4 20 8 Pixel fill rate 12,400 MPix/s 10,720 MPix/s 3,200 MPix/s 10,000 MPix/s 5,400 MPix/s TMUs 16 8 48 16 TAUs 32 16 24 16 Texel Fill Rate 12,400 MTex/s 10,720 MPix/s 6,400 MTex/s 24,000 MTex/s 10,800 MTex/s Unified Vertex Shader Shader
in hardware ✓ Shader model SM 4.1 SM 4 geometry shader ✓ Amount of memory 512 MB GDDR4 256 MB GDDR3 256 MB GDDR3
(256 MB GDDR4) 640 MB GDDR3
(320 MB GDDR3) 256 MB GDDR3 Memory clock 1,125 MHz 830 MHz 700 MHz
(1,100 MHz) 800 MHz 1,000 MHz Memory interface 256 bit 128 bit 320 bit 128 bit Memory bandwidth 72,000 MB/s 53,120 MB/s 22,400 MB/s
(35,200 MB/s) 64,000 MB/s 32,000 MB/s
In terms of price, the Radeon HD 3850 was placed like a GeForce 8600 GTS at 135 euros, while the performance was more like that of a GeForce 8800 GTS 320, which cost just under 235 euros. AMD placed the graphics card so aggressively on the market that it was attractive to almost all gamers in the price range from 100 to 250 euros. Compared to the dual-slot cooler of the larger HD 3870, the HD 3850 only had a single-slot model, but it was made entirely of copper. The built-in radial fan was comparatively small with a diameter of 60 mm.
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ATi Radeon HD 3850
Image 1 of 6
Radeon HD 3850 back side
Radeon HD 3850 air vents< /figure>
Radeon HD 3850 voltage converter
Radeon HD 3850 cooler rear< figure class="thumbs__figure thumbs__figure--has-caption"> 
Radeon HD 3850 without cooler
In terms of performance, a GeForce 8800 GTS 320
In the benchmarks, the ATi Radeon HD 3850 was either slightly ahead of, on par with, or slightly behind a GeForce 8800 GTS, depending on the resolution and settings. The difference to the larger Radeon HD 3870 was between 20 and 40 percent, especially in high resolutions with activated anti-aliasing the Radeon HD 3870 benefited from the larger and faster memory.
Performance rating
- 1280×1024
- 1280×1024 4xAA/16xAF
- 1600×1200
- 1600×1200 4xAA/16xAF
Performance rating – 1280×1024
-
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 Ultra152.1
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX139.5
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT134.8
- ATi Radeon HD 3870121,9
- ATi Radeon HD 2900 XT121,8
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS104,2
- ATi Radeon HD 3850100.0
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS 32088.8
- ATi Radeon X1950 XTX80 ,7
- Nvidia GeForce 7950 GX271.7
- ATi Radeon 2600 XT X2 (3)60.6
- Nvidia GeForce 7900 GTX59.0
- ATi Radeon X1950 Pro52,6
- Nvidia GeForce 7950 GT51,1
- Nvidia GeForce 8600 GTS48, 5
- ATi Radeon HD 2600 XT (4)43.8
- ATi Radeon HD 2600 XT (3)41.9
- Nvidia GeForce 8600 GT38.5
- Nvidia GeForce 7900 GS34,5
- ATi Radeon X1650 XT33,8
- Nvidia GeForce 7600 GT26,4
- ATi Radeon HD 2400 XT20,4
- Nvidia GeForce 8500 GT17,4
Unit: Percent performance rating – 1280×1024 4xAA/16xAF
-
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 Ultra188.3
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX170,9
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT150,7
- ATI Radeon HD 3870126,3
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS126.0
- ATi Radeon HD 2900 XT122.7
- ATi Radeon X1950 XTX105.0
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS 320104.4
- ATI Radeon HD 3850100.0
- Nvidia GeForce 7950 GX272.6
- ATi Radeon 2600 XT X2 (3)65.2
- ATi Radeon X1950 Pro64.3
- Nvidia GeForce 7900 GTX59.1
- Nvidia GeForce 8600 GTS58.0
- Nvidia GeForce 7950 GT51.4
- Nvidia GeForce 8600 GT45,3
- ATi Radeon HD 2600 XT (4)43,9
- ATi Radeon HD 2600 XT ( 3)42.0
- ATi Radeon X1650 XT40.5
- Nvidia GeForce 7900 GS31.8
- Nvidia GeForce 7600 GT23.0
- Nvidia GeForce 8500 GT21.4
- ATi Radeon HD 2400 XT20.0
Unit: Percent Performance Rating – 1600×1200
-
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 Ultra162.6
< li class="chart__row">Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX148.7
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT140.0
- ATi Radeon HD 3870126.2
- ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT126.1
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS109.1
- ATI Radeon HD 3850100.0
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS 32092.1
- ATi Radeon X1950 XTX83.0
- Nvidia GeForce 7950 GX270 ,4
- ATi Radeon 2600 XT X2 (3)61.2
- Nvidia GeForce 7900 GTX58.2
- ATI Radeon X1950 Pro51.7
- Nvidia GeForce 7950 GT49,6
- Nvidia GeForce 8600 GTS47,2
- ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT (4)43.5
- ATi Radeon HD 2600 XT (3)41.5
- Nvidia GeForce 8600 GT37.9
- ATi Radeon X1650 XT33.3
- Nvidia GeForce 7900 GS33.0
- Nvidia GeForce 7600 GT25.1
- ATi Radeon HD 2400 XT19.8
- Nvidia GeForce 8500 GT16.7
Unit: Percent Performance Rating – 1600×1200 4xAA/16xAF
-
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 Ultra208.4
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX189.1
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT149.2
- ATi Radeon HD 3870138.4
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS132,6
- ATi Radeon HD 2900 XT125,0
- ATi Radeon X1950 XTX111,7
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS 320101.5
- ATi Radeon HD 3850100.0
- Nvidia GeForce 7950 GX278 ,1
- ATi Radeon X1950 Pro67,5
- ATi Radeon 2600 XT X2 (3)66.5
- Nvidia GeForce 7900 GTX63.9
- Nvidia GeForce 8600 GTS53,9
- Nvidia GeForce 7950 GT52,4
- ATi Radeon HD 2600 XT (4)43,3
- ATi Radeon X1650 XT43,2
- Nvidia GeForce 8600 GT42,1
- ATi Radeon HD 2600 XT ( 3)40.5
- Nvidia GeForce 7900 GS34.7
- Nvidia GeForce 7600 GT24,5
- Nvidia GeForce 8500 GT20,1
- ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT19, 2
Unit: percent
The Radeon HD 3850 cut a good figure in the B ratings. The sound pressure level was low both when idling and under load – despite the small 60 mm fan – and the power consumption was clearly superior to that of the equally fast GeForce 8800 GTS 320. There was only potential for the GPU temperatures to increase, with almost 90 °C under load they were in the limit area. The overclocking qualities of the Radeon HD 3850 were below average, about 4 to 8 percent more performance could be expected.
Charts
- Volume
- Temperature
- Power Consumption
- Overclock
Volume
- Idle:
- ATi Radeon HD 2600 XT (4)47.5
- ATi Radeon HD 385047.5
- ATi Radeon HD 387047.5
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT47.5
< li class="chart__row">Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX47.5
- ATi Radeon X1950 XTX48.0
- Nvidia GeForce 7950 GT48.0
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS48.0
- ATi Radeon HD 2400 XT48.5
- ATi Radeon HD 2900 XT48.5Short term: 56 dB
- Nvidia GeForce 7900 GTX48,5
- Nvidia GeForce 7950 GX248,5
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS 32048.5
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 Ultra50.0
- Nvidia GeForce 7900 GS50.5
- Nvidia GeForce 8500 GT50.5
- Nvidia GeForce 8600 GTS50,5
- ATi Radeon X1950 Pro51,5
- ATi Radeon 2600 XT X2 (3)53, 5
- Nvidia GeForce 8600 GT55.0
- Nvidia GeForce 7600 GT62.0
< li class="chart__group"> Last:
- ATI Radeon HD 387047.5
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT48.0
- ATI Radeon HD 385049.0
- Nvidia GeForce 7900 GTX49.0
- ATi Radeon HD 2400 XT49.5
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS49.5
- ATi Radeon HD 2600 XT (4)50.5
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS 32050.5
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 Ultra50.5
- Nvidia GeForce 8500 GT51.5
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX51.5
- Nvidia GeForce 8600 GTS52.0
- ATi Radeon X1950 Pro54.5
- ATi Radeon 2600 XT X2 (3)54.5
- Nvidia GeForce 8600 GT55,0
- ATi Radeon HD 2900 XT56,0
- Nvidia GeForce 7950 GX257,5
- Nvidia GeForce 7900 GS58.5
- ATi Radeon X1950 XTX59.0
- Nvidia GeForce 7950 GT59.0
- Nvidia GeForce 7600 GT62.0
Unit: dB(A) Temperature
- Idle:
- ATi Radeon 2600 XT X2 (3)38
- Nvidia GeForce 7900 GTX40
- ATi Radeon X1950 Pro41
- ATi Radeon HD 2400 XT42
- ATi Radeon HD 387047
- Nvidia GeForce 7900 GS47
li>
< li class="chart__row">Nvidia GeForce 8600 GT48
- ATi Radeon HD 385049
- Nvidia GeForce 7600 GT49
- Nvidia GeForce 8600 GT49
- Nvidia GeForce 7950 GT53
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS 32056
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS56
- Nvidia GeForce 8500 GT57
- ATi Radeon X1950 XTX59
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT59
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX59
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 Ultra64
- ATi Radeon HD 2600 XT (4)67
- ATi Radeon HD 2900 XT71
- Nvidia GeForce 7950 GX275
- ATi Radeon 2600 XT X2 (3)55
- ATi Radeon HD 2400 XT63
- Nvidia GeForce 7900 GTX63
- Nvidia GeForce 7900 GS66
- ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT (4) 67
- ATi Radeon X1950 Pro69
- Nvidia GeForce 8500 GT69
- Nvidia GeForce 8600 GTS69< /li>
- Nvidia GeForce 7600 GT70
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS 32071
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS72
- Nvidia GeForce 8600 GT73
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX80
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 Ultra80
- ATi Radeon HD 2900 XT81
- ATi Radeon X1950 XTX84
- ATi Radeon HD 387088
- ATi Radeon HD 385089
- Nvidia GeForce 7950 GT90
- Nvidia GeForce 7950 GX291
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT93
- Nvidia GeForce 8500 GT41
- ATi Radeon HD 2400 XT45
- ATi Radeon 2600 XT X2 (3)47
- ATi Radeon X1950 Pro51
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS 32051
- Nvidia GeForce 7600 GT52
- Nvidia GeForce 8600 GTS52
- ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT (4)54< /li>
- Nvidia GeForce 8600 GT54
- Nvidia GeForce 7900 GTX55
- Nvidia GeForce 7900 GS56
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS58
- ATi Radeon X1950 XTX67
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX67
< li class="chart__row">ATi Radeon HD 2900 XT68
Unit: °C Power consumption
- Idle:
- ATi Radeon HD 2400 XT158
- ATi Radeon HD 3850161
- ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT (3)163
- Nvidia GeForce 7600 GT167
- ATI Radeon HD 3870167
- Nvidia GeForce 8500 GT169
- Nvidia GeForce 8600 GT172
- ATi Radeon X1650 XT172
- ATi Radeon X1950 Pro174
- Nvidia GeForce 8600 GTS176
- Nvidia GeForce 7900 GS176
- Nvidia GeForce 7950 GT177
- ATi Radeon X1950 XTX181
- ATi Radeon HD 2600 XT (4)187
- Nvidia GeForce 7900 GTX188
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT196
- ATi Radeon 2600 XT X2 (3)200
- Nvidia GeForce 7950 GX2209
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS 320213
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS218
- ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT229
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX233
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 Ultra253
- Last:
- ATi Radeon HD 2400 XT179
- Nvidia GeForce 8500 GT182
- Nvidia GeForce 7600 GT193
- Nvidia GeForce 8600 GT203
- ATi Radeon HD 2600 XT (3)205
- Nvidia GeForce 7900 GS206
- Nvidia GeForce 8600 GTS209
- Nvidia GeForce 7950 GT216
- ATi Radeon HD 2600 XT (4)217
- ATi Radeon X1650 XT221
- ATi Radeon HD 3850231
- ATi Radeon X1950 Pro238
- Nvidia GeForce 7900 GTX243
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT248
- ATI Radeon HD 3870252
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS 320264
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS267
- ATI Radeon 2600 XT X2 (3)269
- Nvidia GeForce 7950 GX2281
- ATi Radeon X1950 XTX290
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX300
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 Ultra334
- ATi Radeon HD 2900 XT351
li>
Unit: Watt (W ) Overclock
- Company of Heroes:
- Radeon HD 3850 – Overclocked (750/855)61.8
- Radeon HD 3850 – Standard (668/828)59.3
- F.E.A.R.:
- Radeon HD 3850 – Overclocked (750/855)57.0
- Radeon HD 3850 – Standard (668/828)53.0
- Prey:
- Radeon HD 3850 – Overclocked (750/855)52.1
- Radeon HD 3850 – Standard (668/828)48.6
Unit: frames per second (FPS)
Conclusion
For a price of 135 euros, the ATi Radeon HD 3850 was simply unrivalled. The next Nvidia graphics card with a similar performance was around 100 euros more expensive, louder and required more energy. Anyone who liked computer games and didn't need the performance of a Radeon HD 3870 or GeForce 8800 GTS/GTX/Ultra could not find a better alternative than the Radeon HD 3850 15 years ago.
In the category “In the test 15 years ago”, the editors have been taking a look at the test archive every Saturday since July 2017. The last 20 articles that appeared in this series are listed below:
- With the Zalman VF-1000 against Arctic Coolings S1
- ATi made a comeback with the Radeon HD 3870
- Nvidia's GeForce 8800 GT was almost perfect
- Intel's 45 nm process made Penryn fast and economical
- The best Radeon HD 2600 XT were blue
- Thermalright's Ultra-120 Extreme was the reference
- 249 euros was too much for the Radeon HD 2600 XT X2
- Teufels elegant 2.1 system with excellent sound
- Arctic Coolings Accelero S1 was colder than the competition
- Zalman wanted to reinvent itself and failed
- Cooler Masters Cosmos to an astronomical Price
- The best multimedia keyboard came from Microsoft
- Sparkles Caliber GeForce 8600 GT ran far from the norm
- Xigmatek was on the road to success with the HDT-S1283
- Movie playback on GPUs from ATi versus Nvidia
- Teufel and Logitech in a 5.1 exchange of blows
- Scythe's Katana 2 was the cooler king of the middle class
- A nearly inaudible gaming PC for 3,100 euros
- Corsair's Voyager GT was the best USB stick for 100 euros
< li>Two towers weren't enough for the Thermalright IFX-14
Even more content of this kind and many other reports and anecdotes can be found in the retro Corner in the forum of ComputerBase.