HIS Radeon 6850 ICEQ X Turbo review - Introduction

Customized graphics cards are a hip thing these days and despite the Radeon HD 6900 series was just released, for this editor one of the more exciting product releases last year has been AMD's Radeon 6800 series. The Radeon HD 6850 and 6870 have had a warm welcome already in the mid-range gaming segment of graphics cards.

ODMs know this and as such they just love to pimp up products that people like, HIS submitted a Radeon HD 6850 for a test here at Guru3D.com and as such we'd be more than happy to bring you a full review on one of their newest products today, the IceQ X edition of the Radeon HD 6850.

The mid-range series 6800 delivers a very decent chunk of gaming performance, a set of new features and, as always, will carry a 175 EUR price tag.

The product is based on a nice component selection including the all new IceQ X series cooler.

But HIS added two new Radeon HD 6850 cards to its lineup: the IceQ X and the IceQ X Turbo. Both models are equipped with the IceQ cooler, this fansink features four heatpipes, an aluminium fin array and a central 92mm fan. According to HIS, the IceQ X will reduce temperatures by 13°C and cut noise levels by 7dBA versus to the reference cooler.

The 'regular' IceQ X model comes clocked in at a 775MHz core and 1GB GDDR5 clocked at 4000MHz, the IceQ X Turbo model has a 820MHz core and 4400MHz memory. Both cards have dual-DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort outputs.

Let's have a quick peek at the new card  and then head onwards into the review, where we'll cover the features, architecture, photo-shoot, power consumption and heat levels and benchmarks... oh yeah... you are in for the entire Guru3D treat today. Next page you guys.