INTRODUCTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Today happens to be a holiday in quite a few places around Europe (i just learned of this almost 2 weeks ago) so i basically didn't plan to upload any reviews (resting once in a while is not bad thing especially if you work between 13 and 17 hours a day) but since something urgent came up for this weekend and also because i did promise more graphics cards reviews inside May (and it's almost over) to all of you i figured that it would be nice to have another review surrounding yet again one of the latest mid-end graphics cards to hit the market by HIS digital, the Radeon HD 7850 iCooler 2GB.

 

     HIS - Hightech Information System Limited is an internationally acclaimed graphics cards company. Time and time again, HIS were compared and tested by hundreds of worldly renowned critics. The results are phenomena, HIS have proven to offer far superior, cooler, quieter, and faster graphic cards than any other leading rivals. Up to the fourth quarter of 2008, HIS has won over 1000 awards with AMD graphic solution from major media worldwide. HIS is being recognized by providing performance leading and award-wining products. HIS was established in 1987 with the mission to produce the highest quality PC products in the industry. Besides strong devotion to excellent products and services, HIS has been conducting business with the aim to "Glorifying God". Honesty and integrity are the two key principals of how HIS are conducted. Ethical business practice has been an everyday commitment to our clients, vendors, and investors. Headquartered in Hong Kong, and with sales offices and distribution networks in Europe, Middle East, North and South America, Asia Pacific Regions our worldwide customers benefits from efficient and localized services. ISO Certified, HIS's manufacturing facility in China is managed by a team of professionals with expertise in quality control and production planning. Working with world-class clients, HIS has been consistently meeting high quality standards and fulfilled volume order in short lead-time.

 

   Unlike the Radeon HD 7770 which uses the Cape Verde GPU the Radeon HD 7850 comes with the more advanced (and more powerful) Pitcairn core featuring a total of 1024 Shader units, 32 ROPs (raster operators) and an 256bit memory bus so just by taking into account the specifications alone the Radeon HD 7850 should be roughly 50% faster than its smaller brother the Radeon HD 7770. As expected from one of the latest generation offerings in the market the Pitcairn core (just like the Cape Verde one) is also compatible with the latest DirectX 11.1 and PCIex 3.0 protocols but personally i was mostly interested to see its performance results and since I’m sure most of you feel the same way let's move to the main review.

 

 

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just like the previous HIS cards the Radeon HD 7850 iCooler 2GB comes packed inside a tall box with a large sword on the front right above the main product features.

 

 

At the left side we see the specifications list and 3 images showcasing the differences between the PCIex, AGP and PCI slots.

 

 

The bundle contents are listed at the right side of the box.

 

 

Moving to the back of the box we see an in-depth explanation of all of the units features.

 

 

The Radeon HD 7850 iCooler 2GB is safely placed inside a thick black piece of Styrofoam.

 

 

Inside the box you will find the card, CF link, DVI-I to VGA adapter, HIS case badge, user's guide, a paper showcasing how to install the card and two software CDs.

 

 

 

THE HIS RADEON HD 7850 ICOOLER 2GB

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just like the Radeon HD 7770 iCooler 1GB the Radeon HD 7850 iCooler 2GB is covered with a black plastic shroud.

 

 

Unlike the TurboX models which come with 2 fans the iCooler models feature a single 92mm fan.

 

 

The card uses a single 6pin power connector.

 

 

The part of the reference cooler used has no heatpipes like the one used in the more high-end TurboX models.

 

 

Crossfire support is also present (as expected).

 

 

The PCB has the usual light blue color HIS has been using like forever.

 

 

At the front of the card we see two mini display port connectors, one dual-link DVI port and one full sized HDMI 1.4a port with audio output support for 7.1 Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD, AC-3 and DTS.

 

 

Both the Radeon HD 7770 iCooler 1GB and the Radeon HD 7850 iCooler 2GB are almost identical in size.

 

 

The iTurbo software is the latest offering by HIS and it's not only very easy to use but also offers a wide range of information about your card (it also works with other card models).

 

 

 

TEST BED

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TESTING METHODOLOGY

 

     Just like in the past launch reviews is not something i prefer to do for a variety of reasons and i don't think that will change, not anytime soon. Also i always try to perform all tests with the latest possible drivers (even beta ones), however due to time issues and also because some older models are no longer in our hands this is not possible so once again both the card and the driver used to benchmark it (when it was available) will be noted in this section. Also take into consideration that all tests were done with the default driver settings in both the Catalyst Control Panel and the NVIDIA Control Panel (power management modes are set to maximum performance) to make things fair and square.

HIS Radeon HD 7850 iCooler 2GB - Catalyst 12.3
HIS Radeon HD 7770 iCooler 1GB - Catalyst 12.3
Gainward GeForce GTX 590 3GB - GeForce 301.24 Beta

     Once again the screen used for all the benchmarks is our primary NEC 30" 3090WQXi LCD with a maximum resolution of 2560x1600. Unlike in the past and since quite a few of you asked instead of having multiple different settings and just 2 resolutions we decided to have a total of 3 resolutions (2560X1600, 1920X1200, 1680X105) and a single quality setting (4xAnti Aliasing) to make it easier to pinpoint the differences between cards (more FPS, easier to see). We also changed our game lineup and so this time over we will be using Aliens VS Predator, Crysis 2, Battlefield 3, Alan Wake, Hard Reset and The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim. For these benchmarks we maxed out the graphics settings of each game and also updated them to their latest versions. All tests were repeated 3 times and in a fresh Windows 7 Ultimate Service Pack 1 64Bit installation on an OCZ RevoDrive 3 240GB SSD. As usual all tests took place in a room with a controlled ambient temperature of 23 degrees Celsius, the temperatures of the cards were recorded using AIDA64 (former Everest Ultimate by Lavalys) and GPU-Z while the noise levels were recorded using our ExTech HD600 dBA meter from a distance of no more than 5-10cm away.

 

 

TEST RESULTS - ALIENS VERSUS PREDATOR

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - CRYSIS 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - BATTLEFIELD 3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - ALAN WAKE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - HARD RESET

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - THE ELDER SCROLLS V SKYRIM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - TEMPERATURES / NOISE LEVELS / POWER CONSUMPTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - OVERCLOCKING

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We managed to get a quite good overclocking jump of 160MHz on the core (18%) and 315MHz on the memory modules (26%).

 

 

This translated to an overall 12% performance increase in both games we benchmarked it with.

 

 

Fortunately although we did achieve a good overclock the temperatures of the card did not increase almost at all.

 

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

      Thanks to the mid-end Pitcairn core the Radeon HD 7850 iCooler 2GB proved to be quite faster than the Radeon HD 7770 iCooler 1GB with performance differences ranging from 50% and up to 80%. What's really impressive however is that the Radeon 7850 iCooler 2GB managed to pull that off with virtually the same noise levels as the 7770 and only a 30% increase in power requirements. When it comes to overclocking we were able to squeeze an additional 12% increase in performance which is not bad at all especially since it's for free and since you can achieve that by using the brand new and extremely easy to use iTurbo software by HIS.

 

   As usual HIS has a rather aggressive pricing tactic in place and so as we speak the Radeon HD 7850 iCooler 2GB retails for USD229 inside the USA (Newegg/ After mail rebate card/ Free DiRT Showdown coupon) and at around 220Euros inside the EU, a price tag which lands it right amongst the cheapest Radeon HD 7850's in the market today. However despite the good overall performance, rather impressive overclock (for a single fan, near inaudible solution) and aggressive pricing the HIS Radeon HD 7850 iCooler 2GB remains just a mid-end graphics card something which can be easily seen from our graphs and therefore it lacks the punch of the more advanced Radeon HD 7970 which is the weapon of choice for hardcore gamers. This is really the only thing that is keeping it from getting our Platinum Award, still it's overall value for money is more than just enough for the HIS Radeon HD 7850 iCooler 2GB to walk away with our Golden Award.

 

PROS

- Build Quality
- Performance
- Near Inaudible Noise Levels
- Power Consumption
- Low Temperatures
- Connectors
- PCIex 3.0 & DX 11.1 Compatible
- Price (For Some) 

 

 

CONS

- None