My Big Fat Review
First Times a Charm.
Anyone who spends a lot of time working on computers knows crappy drivers and poorly written interface programs can take up an entire day if not days of your life. So I love it when I come across a well packaged piece of hardware and this is one of those times. The Sapphire HD 3850 was a sweet dream to install which is not a small feat with my Media PC setup. I have lot of crap crammed into that small box and on top of that I'm using a Dell Optiplex Gx260 Mobo I scavenged. It was free so I shouldn't complain, but Dell makes some real semi-proprietary crap. Back to the point the Sapphire didn't have even a hickup. Instaling with the drivers from the CD was quick and problem free (later on I did update with drivers from the website, which is recommended, and they also worked flawlessly). If you have a GX260 finding an AGP card that works with the mobo is hit or miss. I originally bought a HIS Hightech H165PRQ512AN-R Radeon X1650PRO 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 for this computer and after hours of slamming my head against a brick wall realized it just wouldn't work, part mobo problem and part crappy drivers. So I purchased the SAPPHIRE 100228L Radeon HD 3850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 AGP a better card all around. I have it interfaced to my Optoma EP 727 via a Dual DVI-I cable. The clarity is superb a big step up from my very, very old video card, a Radeon 9000 pro 128mb. Definition and quality in movies is much sharper and clearer. Text clarity also increased substantially. I mean, it's an HD card, what more can I say. My AGP on the mobo only goes up to 4x so I am not getting th full 8x speed, but for movies this is acceptable. I wouldn't recommend this card for gaming unless you are stuck with AGP as your only choice. I also have this card hooked up to a 21" monitor via vga and a 32" flat screen boob tube via s-video. The vga is well vga and the s-video is well s-video, good quality from both. This card supports Blu-ray and the dying format of HD-DVD. For the price it is a great choice for Media PC/Home Theater setup. Be aware this card requires a minimum 450 watt power supply with 30Amps on 12 volt with 2x4 power connector and if you're running a Media PC with lots of goodies in it you'll probably need something even bigger.