Sapphire Radeon HD3850 512MB GDDR3 Dual DVI-I / TVO AGP Graphics Card

by Sapphire Technology

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 2.5 x 10.5 inches ; 1.4 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00145CQUC
• Item model number: 100228L
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: March 20, 2008

Product Description

Delivering Mayhem to the Mainstream Long thought to be the market of the conservative gamer, the affordable mainstream products, which use to suffer only adequate performance, now experiences a frame rate revival with the SAPPHIRE HD 3850. Built upon the award winning Radeon HD 3850 core, the SAPPHIRE 3850 offers a comprehensive feature-set that eclipses previous and current mainstream offerings. Unleash the enthusiast inside you with support for advanced technologies such as DirectX® 10 and Shader Model 4 support, integrated HDCP support for Blu-ray¿/HD DVD decoding and for extreme enthusiast, Jam a SAPPHIRE HD 3850 into your rig and still have some coin left over to buy that title you have been waiting for!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Review of Saphire Radeon HD3850, December 24, 2008

By 

A. C. Abcar "aca98" (Glendale, California United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sapphire Radeon HD3850 512MB GDDR3 Dual DVI-I / TVO AGP Graphics Card (Personal Computers)

I bought this card as a way to extend the life of my aging AGP based system. I have a P4 2.8 GHZ machine w/ Windows XP and 2 GB of RAM. I was using the system w/ an NVIDIA 7600 GT Card.
I have been a big fan of NVIDIA in the past because I think they make great cards and have very stable drivers. I had tried ATI cards in the past and have always gone back to NVIDIA mainly due to stability of driver issues. This was the fastest AGP based card that I could find so I decided to give it a try. By the way-I only use my machine for World of Warcraft. My frame rates had dipped into about 12 FPS since I just upgraded to a 26 inch 1080P Samsung monitor.

I uninstalled my NVIDIA driver and uninstalled the card and put this one in and I downloaded the full Catalyst Suite from ATI (the most recent one from December 2008) and restarted the machine. I have to say I've been very impressed with this card. I have the graphics setting now pretty much maxed out and its running at 1900x1200 resolution at 30 to 40 FPS. So basically, it allowed me to squeeze about another 6 months to a year out of my system. I'm planning on getting an allienware system built next year.

Overall-I'm very impressed with the price and quality of the card and the driver stability seems to be much better. Maybe since AMD took over ATI they fixed this issue. Hope this review was helpful.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Utterly satisfied!, November 12, 2008

By 

Joshua Freeland (Ohio, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sapphire Radeon HD3850 512MB GDDR3 Dual DVI-I / TVO AGP Graphics Card (Personal Computers)

I originally was saddened very much when I learned how obsolete my old video card was. I upgraded from an ATI Radeon 9800 XT (AGP interface). I thought this card was awesome and was disappointed that it was the only thing holding me back from playing newer games such as Bioshock. My older card only had pixel shader 2.0. This was VERY depressing as I bought the computer used and wasn't looking forward to the option of having to replace the whole system. However I was surprised to see that such a good card came in the AGP format. This card is just awesome. It is however extremely long, longer then I had anticipated. If your computer is a small compact thing, this simply will not fit in it. It has a power cord that comes with it. Its really simple to plug in; Just make sure your power supply can handle the extra strain. Also this card does come with DVI ports (2) and S-video (1). Don't worry though: This card will work with your standard VGA monitor as they included a converter. However to fully appreciate this card, you will get better results with a LCD via DVI connection. This card so far has handled everything I've thrown at it with surprising numbers of FPS (frames per second). I am extremely pleased with this card. I was not looking forward to having to replace my whole computer just to try and get a PCI-E slot. If you know your case has a great amount of space, and your looking to take your game to the next level, you should really try this card out. You will be stunned!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best AGP Graphics Card on Market, February 5, 2009

By 

Gregory M. Gorsuch (N. Charleston, SC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sapphire Radeon HD3850 512MB GDDR3 Dual DVI-I / TVO AGP Graphics Card (Personal Computers)

While NVIDIA seems to have abandoned the AGP market in late 2007/early 2008...ATI stepped up to plate and hit a homerun with this awesome graphics card. I previously had a NVIDIA 7950 (over heated), then NVIDIA 7600GS but this beats them both. Very smooth animation, incredible 3D effects, easy install. The ATI software support is not as great as NVIDIA, but it will get you the latest drivers.

If you're stuck with an AGP motherboard and aren't ready to upgrade yet to PCI-E, get another year of gaming with this graphics card.