HEXUS.net reviews HIS Radeon X1950Pro IceQ 3 Turbo video card
The last two cards we've seen from HIS, which were based on the X1600 XT and X1650 XT SKUs, left us feeling somewhat disappointed. The X16xx series didn't have a great deal of poke, though, so perhaps it wasn't HIS' fault.
However, there's no room for excuses with the HIS X1950Pro IceQ 3. It's based on the impressive X1950 Pro GPU, which we already know is a good card for the money. As ever, the question is how does it fare against its competition? Read on to find out.
As we've come to expect, HIS has done away with the reference cooler and added its third-generation IceQ 3 heatpipe cooler instead. The IceQ coolers are usually very quiet, and this third version of the HSF is no different. It remained quiet and offered good cooling through all of our tests.
The HSF doesn't cool the memory or the power regulators. Instead, a couple of chunky passive heatsinks are attached to stop those components overheating. This should keep the card's 256MiB of graphics memory cool. Additionally, the heatsink for the power regulators is directly under the fan shroud and is cooled by the rear of the fan...
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