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HIS Radeon X1950XT IceQ3 Turbo What you get The HIS Radeon X1950 XT IceQ3 Turbo comes with the usual HIS goodies. These include a driver and utility CD, CyberLink's PowerDVD v7; full versions of Dungeon Siege, Power Director 5 SE Plus, Power2Go 5, Medi@Show 3; demo versions of Roller Coaster Tycoon 3, Half Life 2, Act of War, Tribes, Axis and Allies; trial versions of Power DVD Copy, Power Backup, Label Print and Jukebox. Also in the box is a HIS case badge, two DVI to VGA adapters, a VIVO cable and a HDTV component cable.
A nice surprise was a game coupon allowing the user to pick one of a limited number of games listed here (which includes free shipping) to the user. This is the first significant step I've ever seen from a manufacturer trying to let the retail end user pick their bundle. In exploring this I ran on an irregularity. Now this is a fluke I'm sure, but the United States wasn't available for a selection to be shipped to in a required pull down menu on check out. I halfway expect this to be fixed prior to the posting of this review.
The Card As you saw in the specs we listed earlier, HIS's Turbo version X1950XT IceQ3 card runs at XTX speed on the core speed. The memory speed of the GDDR3 equipped X1950XT is rated at 1800MHz where the XTX sports GDDR4 memory at a slightly faster 2000MHz clock. The X1950XT also gets a large bump over the X1950 Pro elsewhere; sporting 48 pixel shaders up from the 1950 Pro's 36 and 16 pixel pipelines to the Pro's 12. Performance generates heat so its no surprise to find the IceQ3 Cooler. A UV reactive clear acrylic assembly stretches over the entire 230mm length. With the X1950XT having 256MB of onboard memory, it is able to pack it all away on one side under this massive cooler.
Most all high end cards are large but I wanted to give you some perspective on the size. Below is a shot of HIS's X1650XT sitting over the X1950XT IceQ3.
At the far end we have a 70mm high fin count turbine type fan. The fan speed is auto adjustable to keep the sound level at a comfortable level when not in full frag mode. HIS includes their iTurbo software for manual overclocking and manual fan speed adjustment for folks wanting to take more direct control. Before we move on, look closely at the fan shroud. HIS's fan design draws air in from both the top and bottom of the fan to be pulled over the cooling fins within and outside the case. And yes, the expected 6-pin PCI-E power connection is present as well.
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