A great looking card budget card from ASUS with some cool performance feature, the EAH3650 Top is based on ATi’s 36xx GPU series that’s set to replace the HD2600 series.
The Appearance
What attracted me the most about this card was the Glaciator heatsink, it’s refreshing to see a decently huge and rather bright colored heatsink this time.
The PCB is just like any other ATi card you see in the market, RED in color. The card uses solid capacitors and has an orange colored DVI port, which so happens to be the same color as the DVI-HDMI converter included in the bundle. YES! You heard that right, DVI-HDMI converter it is.
The Bundle
- HDTV-out
- DVI-VGA converter
- DVI-HDMI converter
- Installation guide & driver CD
Card Details
Here’s a summarized detail of the card.
| GPU | HD3650 |
| GPU Code Name | RV635 Pro |
| Memory Type | DDR3 |
| Memory Bandwidth | 128-bit |
| Memory Capacity | 256MB |
| Core Clock | 800Mhz |
| Memory Clock | 900Mhz (1.8Ghz DDR) |
More details at the official product page
Test Setup
The computer setup used for this review.
| Processor | Intel E2140 Overclocked @ 3.2ghz |
| RAM | 2x 1GB Kingston DDR2 667 @ DDR2 800 |
| Motherboard | ASUS P5K-E |
| Cooler | Xigmatek HDT-S963 |
| Monitor | 20″ Dell Ultra-sharp Wide-screen LCD |
| Operating System | Windows XP (SP2) |
| Driver Version | Catalyst 8.1 (Version: 8.451) |
The Performance & Overclocking
This PCI-E 2.0 card comes pre-overclocked, with 800Mhz on core and 900Mhz memory (meaning 1.8Ghz DDR) instead of the supposed 725Mhz for core and 800Mhz on reference HD3650 boards.
Amazingly, this could even be overclocked up to 911/1080 to successfully pass 3DMark06 test with a score of 5776. On the sad side of the story, this speed is not attainable throughout all the tests thrown. In the end I settled for 900/1000, a speed that passes all tests.
I’ve included the performance of the HD2600XT for better comparison, take note that the HD2600XT scores were taken from a slightly overclocked version an older driver – Catalyst 7.10 (Version: 8.421).
3DMark06
Default setting.
| Card | Score |
| EAH3650 Top | 5138 |
| EAH3650 Top (900/1000) | 5635 |
| HD2600XT | 5038 |
F.E.A.R.
Graphics were set to maximum details, resolutions 1024 x 768 and 1680 x 1050.
| Card | Resolution | Average |
| EAH3650 Top | 1024 x 768 | 36 |
| EAH3650 Top (900/1000) | 1024 x 768 | 39 |
| HD2600XT | 1024 x 768 | 34 |
| EAH3650 Top | 1680 x 1050 | 17 |
| EAH3650 Top (900/1000) | 1680 x 1050 | 20 |
| HD2600XT | 1680 x 1050 | 18 |
Lost Planet : Extreme Condition
Graphics were set to default details, resolutions 1024 x 640 and 1680 x 946.
| Card | Resolution | Snow (Average) | Cave (Average) |
| EAH3650 Top | 1024 x 640 | 45.9 | 54.3 |
| EAH3650 Top (900/1000) | 1024 x 640 | 50.4 | 53.6 |
| HD2600XT | 1024 x 640 | 28.1 | 37.4 |
| EAH3650 Top | 1680 x 946 | 23.4 | 33.5 |
| EAH3650 Top (900/1000) | 1680 x 946 | 24.7 | 34.3 |
| HD2600XT | 1680 x 946 | 13.6 | 18.7 |
Company Of Heroes : Opposing Fronts
Graphics were set to the following details
Resolutions at 1024 x 768 and 1680 x 1050.
| Card | Resolution | Average |
| EAH3650 Top | 1024 x 768 | 58.7 |
| EAH3650 Top (900/1000) | 1024 x 768 | 59.0 |
| HD2600XT | 1024 x 768 | 58.9 |
| EAH3650 Top | 1680 x 1050 | 45.3 |
| EAH3650 Top (900/1000) | 1680 x 1050 | 49.7 |
| HD2600XT | 1680 x 1050 | 45.5 |
As for the temperature, the EAH3650 Top hovers at around 35°C on idle and 52°C on load. When overclocked, the card idles at 36°C on idle and 54°C on load. Readings were taken when ambient temperature was around 25°C.
The HD3650 is a low power consumption GPU, this also means it also generates lesser heat. With the Glaciator heatsink, it took quite a while just to wait for the temperatures reach it’s peak.
Conclusion
With support of DirectX 10.1 feature-set, universal video decoder ,Avivo HD post-processing engine, HDMI interconnection support, PCI Express 2.0 and the generally improved graphical performance – who’s to say the HD3650 GPU is a disappointment? ASUS made the product even better by providing a nice heatsink to add value to the package while it’s overclocking ability is pretty impressive.
The ASUS EAH3650 Top is a product worth looking into, considering you’re getting so many new features and decent performance for something that’s below RM 400!
Reference : More details on the HD3650 processors at AMD and X-bit labs
Hey, sifu…Need ur advice a bit. Should i actually go for a 3850 (256bit 256mb ddr3 ) or a HD2900pro (512bit 512mb ddr3)…Kinda confused which 1 to get =/
I’ll go for the HD3850 because it drains lesser power, runs cooler and better resale value for being the newer card. 🙂
Can it actually play crysis at max details w/ 2x AA and 4x AF only, 1280×1024 res? 🙂
Hehe, it’s a performance of a 2600XT so I’m sure you can’t get decent framerates with those settings.
Does it change the fan speed depending on load?
No it doesn’t.
Btw goldfries how much does this actually cost in M’sia. just curious xD
Last I know it was around RM 380. Price may drop soon since ATI announced price drop recently. Let’s not forget nVidia’s released the 9600GT.
gee thanks for the information o_O i hope to upgrade my 4+ years HT Acer aspire 512 ram-.- + 9550 radeon ge
lol. ur information is enuff for me to slowly buy a new one around 2008-2009. ^_^
Hehe, by the time you upgrade – you might as well upgrade the whole thing. 🙂
Excuse me, can you tell me if Speedfan, atitools or rvatuner can detect the GPU Temp of the EAH3650?
Thanks!
I can’t remember using any of those for the EAH3650, even if I did I can’t remember whether they show the temperatures.
However, nowadays I just use HWmonitor from the makers of CPU-Z. 🙂
http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php
I hope you like it.
bro.. how do you feel comparing between the 3650 and 3870/3850?
sifu goldfries… i am currently upgrading my gpu but i stuck between choosing xfx 8600gt xt edition with zalman or HIS HD 3650 IceQ Turbo GDDR3 256MB or 512MB?? my gpu budget is around RM450
what i can see between these two cards is the figure in the core speed & memory speed
my cpu is p4D 3.4ghz with 3gb ram… (currently gpu is galaxy 6600le)
not really a gamer but will be playing cod4 and crysis occasionally
@kelv!n : the 3650 shouldn’t even be compared to the 3850 / 3870 for framerates. it’ll just be trailing far behind. 🙂 It’s barely any much faster than the HD2600XT!
@duck : both of them game similarly. i let my friend use my 8600GT. after that the 3650. he told me……..SAME LA.
i personally like the 3650 as it’s a really nice all rounder package for games and video. the nVidia counterparts, i always feel that their color output is somewhat lacking but i find that they’re usually more overclockable. 🙂
if you want FRAMERATES, then save up like RM 100 more and get the 9600GT. it’s well worth it!
should i say that eventhough 512mb 3650 against 256mb 8600gt, both still having the same end results
juz the difference in the fps between ati & nvidia…
by looking at the core speed & memory speed, its seems like 3650 is having a higher figure than 8600gt, hence it should perform better than 8600gt… correct me if i’m wrong
if save more & get 9600gt, it would be much of a bottleneck for my cpu, rite???
@duckevo,
why not try to change your P4 into C2D or C2Q? it will surely boost the performance 🙂
asking him to change his processor compared to just deciding between gc’s is rather harsh imo.
@duckevo, why not save for a 4850? 😀
@kyLL 4850 is not cheap la…. crazy?
Halo Can EAH 3650 play HD game & support SLI or not
@xmacina
not sure what you mean by HD game. yes, it does support crossfire (i know that’s what you mean). you can see it by the crossfire connectors on the top.
i’m going to buy a new pc..3.0G amd X2,asus 9800GT,Ram 2 G 800Hz,however..i don’t know if 460W is able to support this spec and what is the best low price motherbord for this spec?tq.
not related to the article, isn’t it? 🙂 460w PSU should be able to do so.
I do aware that my statement is not related to the ASUS EAH3650,somehow,i just new with this..anyway,thanks a lot goldfries..
well, hi admin adn people nice forum indeed. how’s life? hope it’s introduce branch 😉
hey ppl.I have a asus ati radeon hd3650 and im looking to upgrade to the hd4650 , is it faster . . ?
You can get a utility from asus’ site that lets you give it auto fan control if your the silent type. Personally I’m not, I like the card to be as cool as possible as long as its no louder than a hoover.
hrmm…….. smartdoctor? 😀 anyway I don’t recall the fan being noisy.
I have another Glaciator based graphic card with me now and it certainly isn’t noisy enough to hassle myself to get a controller software.
Power enthusiasts don’t really care about how much noise is being made as long as the game we are playing is louder than the fans! (I’m right, right?)
I got one of these and I thought it was superb.