Xpert Vision ATi HD 3850 PCI-E Graphics Card Review

Official Product Website:  http://www.xpertvision.com/

My old graphics card just wasn’t coming up with the frame rates it used to. I’m becoming increasingly more addicted to games such as Team Fortress 2. My battle-hardened Geforce 6800 was pretty good in most games surprisingly - but there were signs of trouble. In some certain games (my son’s Marvell Ultimate Alliance particularly) the GPU just couldn’t handle the extra shadows, geometry and particles.

So I browsed my local e-tailers for something to put a smile back on my gaming family’s face. I was torn between ATi HD 2900Pro or the mighty new ATi HD 3850. I found a nice cheap 3850 (with 256mb) on Overclockers.co.uk for less than £100 with tax and delivery!

Click the pictures to see higher resolution images.

The Xpert Vision HD3850 box. It’s kind of Terminator-like to say the least.

The contents of the box include PCI-E Graphics card, multi-language quick-start guide, 2 molex –> PCI-E power lead, Tomb Raider Anniversary game disc and driver disc.

The actual PCB looks quite dated, in fairness. This image reveals a standard heat-sink and fan, 6 pin power input. Nothing unusual there. I have to admit I was quite gutted when I didn’t see a lovely red plastic flame exhaust thing. Oh well it was really cheap and it might be quite good. Though if you look closely you’ll see a VGA output, a Dual-Link DVI output and what’s this? A HDMI socket, not a DVI to HDMI adapter - a real proper HDMI socket!

Ok fancy some technical guff? Here’s the specifications while I plug it in and test it.

• Bus interface: PCI Express® 2.0
• Memory Support: 256MB GDDR3
• Memory Interface: 256 bit
• Memory Clock: 1656 MHz (828 MHz x 2)
• Core Clock: 668 MHz
• RAMDACs: 400 MHz
• Full Microsoft® DirectX® 10.1 Shader Model 4.1 support
• Dual-link DVI output supports 2560×1600 resolution display
• Superscalar unified shader architecture
• 320 stream processing units
• 128-bit floating point precision for all operations
• Dynamic Geometry Acceleration
• ATI CrossFireX™ Multi-GPU Technology
• ATI Avivo™ HD video and display technology
• HD audio controller with multi-channel (5.1) AC3 support
• Native HDMI
• Built for Microsoft® Windows Vista™

After playing a couple of games I can comfortably say that this card is probably more than enough power for most gamers. I’ve not had a single gaming, driver, hardware issue with it. It may not have enough video memory to play Crysis at 2560×1600 with full details and Anti-aliasing, but for under £100 it is an amazing buy.

I suspect you could probably run Team Fortress 2 in high definition though -with 4x Anti-aliasing and full 16x Anisotropic filtering. I can’t remember the last time I bought a graphics card for under £100 that was any good. It does actually run Crysis fine with medium and high settings mixed. You can forget Anti-aliasing sadly though. Still looks great though and plays smooth so no real problem in reality.

We also tried NFS: Pro-Street, Unreal Tournament 3, Call of Duty 2, Call of Duty 4, Guild Wars, Counter Strike:Source, Disney Pixar’s Cars, Spider-Man: Friend or Foe, Assassin’s Creed, Sonic Riders, Half Life 2 series and they all worked flawlessly. Fast frame rates and Superior image quality. Some game engines really allowed me apply insane amounts of detail with no performance loss at all.

The video power was far superior to my previous Purevideo offering. ATi offer motion picture acceleration on most video files unlike my old nVidia’s Purevideo’s WMV and DVD support. AVI formats like DivX and Xvid through hardware acceleration is noticeably better. No scaling bugs either (nVidia please note this).

The fan is not loud, even under stress. The card only fills one expansion slot, yet the bracket is a double. A little strange - but I suppose it prevents overheating. Just think of it as bit of surplus metal for free!

It drains very little power too. There’s not much heat coming from it either. I guess you can figure it has good overclocking possibilities, right?

I just cannot stress how happy we are with our purchase. We love it here, and it’s getting plenty of use! I just had to share the gossip, otherwise I wouldn’t sleep tonight. Welcome to the goat herd, ATi and Xpert Vision!

Performance:

Price Rating:

Features:

Pros
Xpert Vision HD3850 is a really Über-great value and well built graphic’s card.
You get a top title game (Yes, even if it’s Tomb Raider and not Orange Box).
You get native HDMI support which is quite nice to see.
It’s great for home theater. Quiet cooling.
 

Cons
It’s not really very pretty. Maybe think twice if you have a chassis with a window.
People might think you own a Radeon 9800Pro.
256mb of GDDR3 is fast, but may not be enough for future games. 512mb versions are available though.

“It’s cheap & very cheerful.”

GG Xpert Vision for a good budget product.
GG Overclockers.co.uk for the excellent service, as always.

Guru3D - Driver Sweeper v1.0 Final Relased

No More Goat Soup Salutes FnF
FnF has updated the Guru3D - Driver Sweeper. This release includes many improvements on previous version and even a handy Desktop Icon Position Restorer. Best of all, he’s very kindly added a whole bunch of Creative Vista files/entries for us. Mainly the files that have caused many hours of stress for many people here….

This utility is awesome. It’s going to solve many install errors, and I find it an essential tool for Creative updates in Vista. I’ll also take a moment to add that the Guru3D.com community rules.

Go download it right away!

Guru3D - Driver Sweeper is a fast tool to remove driver leftovers from your system. It’s very important to remove your drivers on a proper way, because driver leftovers can cause problems like stability and startup problems. You can use it if you want to update/remove drivers from your system. The current supported drivers are NVIDIA (Display and Chipset), ATI (Display), Creative (Sound) Realtek (Sound), Ageia (PhysX) and Microsoft (Mouse).

More info can be found at the Guru3D Driver Sweeper homepage.

System requirements:
The Guru3D - Driver Sweeper is fully tested on Windows 2000, XP and Vista. Both 32-bit and 64-bit versions are supported.

New functions: 

• Desktop Icon Position Restorer. This can restore the positions of your desktop icons. Only 32-bit Windows versions are supported at the moment.

Updated: 

• Help is now opened maximized.   
• Improved Creative File Cleaning. Thanks to MrBozack.   
• Improved Creative Registry Cleaning. Thanks to MrBozack.   
• New icons on toolbar.   
• Added Spanish translation. Thanks to GalForD.   
• Added Portuguese translation. Thanks to AmnesyA.   
• Optimalizations.   
• Window positions from Logs, Backups, Options and Desktop Icon Restorer are now at the center of main. Special thanks to Na’Ryan and Mr. T. for this release! 

Download:

• Download (with installer) :
  http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1655
• Download (no installer, pure binaries) :
  http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1672

Getting Better Vista Performance With Older nVidia Graphics Cards

I’m a great fan of Windows Vista, I’m not ashamed to say it. Even though I know there’s a a huge following of torch bearing geeks in anoraks, who burn people at the stake for saying “I like Vista”. I don’t really like Vista for the look and I can sure do without little features like Windows Aero. No, I like Vista for it’s stability, ease of access and most of all faster operation.

Aside from all the troubles with Creative Labs Vista drivers, only one other device has proved problematic; my beloved nVidia 6800.

I don’t play that many games, myself. I like to play Guild Wars and I enjoy playing Call of Duty 2. My son plays other games, but those are the only two I really get a chance to play. My PCI-E XFX 6800 is a great card, using this card in Windows XP still gives me good quality and good frame rates. Sadly it’s a different story in Windows Vista. Myself, and many other older card owners, are finding the recent nVidia drivers around 30% slower than Xp versions.

In my quest to find a better driver I discovered that some XP Forceware drivers actually work really well in Windows Vista! I began experimenting with various drivers. After about 10 driver installs, I discovered that Windows XP Forceware Version: 81.98 seems to be the last working “Vista compatible” XP driver.

Wow.. I was really amazed when I started benchmarking this driver. It even benchmarked better in Vista than it did in XP. It contained the classic control panel, overclocking and all the other extra features like TV-OUT and Digital Vibrance.

I fired up my games and sure enough, they were performing better than they used to in XP. Brilliant!

Sadly there are a couple of drawbacks with this driver.

• This is an XP driver, so no WDDM support and no Windows Aero
• No SLi support
• Limited support for older nVidia cards only

NVIDIA_NV11.DEV_0110.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce2 MX/MX 400″
NVIDIA_NV11.DEV_0111.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce2 MX 100/200″
NVIDIA_NV11.DEV_0113.1 = “NVIDIA Quadro2 MXR/EX”
NVIDIA_CR11.DEV_01A0.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce2 Integrated GPU”
NVIDIA_NV17.DEV_0170.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 460″
NVIDIA_NV17.DEV_0171.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440″
NVIDIA_NV17.DEV_0172.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 420″
NVIDIA_NV17.DEV_0173.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440-SE”
NVIDIA_NV17.DEV_0178.1 = “NVIDIA Quadro4 550 XGL”
NVIDIA_NV17.DEV_017A.1 = “NVIDIA Quadro NVS”
NVIDIA_NV18.DEV_0181.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440 with AGP8X”
NVIDIA_NV18.DEV_0182.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440SE with AGP8X”
NVIDIA_NV18.DEV_0185.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 4000″
NVIDIA_NV18.DEV_0188.1 = “NVIDIA Quadro4 580 XGL”
NVIDIA_NV18.DEV_018A.1 = “NVIDIA Quadro NVS with AGP8X”
NVIDIA_NV18.DEV_018B.1 = “NVIDIA Quadro4 380 XGL”
NVIDIA_CR17.DEV_01F0.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce4 MX Integrated GPU”
NVIDIA_NV20.DEV_0200.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce3″
NVIDIA_NV20.DEV_0201.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti 200″
NVIDIA_NV20.DEV_0202.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti 500″
NVIDIA_NV20.DEV_0203.1 = “NVIDIA Quadro DCC”
NVIDIA_NV25.DEV_0250.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4600″
NVIDIA_NV25.DEV_0251.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4400″
NVIDIA_NV25.DEV_0253.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4200″
NVIDIA_NV25.DEV_0258.1 = “NVIDIA Quadro4 900 XGL”
NVIDIA_NV25.DEV_0259.1 = “NVIDIA Quadro4 750 XGL”
NVIDIA_NV25.DEV_025B.1 = “NVIDIA Quadro4 700 XGL”
NVIDIA_NV28.DEV_0280.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4800″
NVIDIA_NV28.DEV_0281.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4200 with AGP8X”
NVIDIA_NV28.DEV_0282.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4800 SE”
NVIDIA_NV28.DEV_0288.1 = “NVIDIA Quadro4 980 XGL”
NVIDIA_NV28.DEV_0289.1 = “NVIDIA Quadro4 780 XGL”
NVIDIA_NV30.DEV_0301.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce FX 5800 Ultra”
NVIDIA_NV30.DEV_0302.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce FX 5800″
NVIDIA_NV30.DEV_0308.1 = “NVIDIA Quadro FX 2000″
NVIDIA_NV30.DEV_0309.1 = “NVIDIA Quadro FX 1000″
NVIDIA_NV31.DEV_0311.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600 Ultra”
NVIDIA_NV31.DEV_0312.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600″
NVIDIA_NV31.DEV_0314.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600XT”
NVIDIA_NV34.DEV_0321.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra”
NVIDIA_NV34.DEV_0322.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200″
NVIDIA_NV34.DEV_0323.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200LE”
NVIDIA_NV34.DEV_0326.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce FX 5500″
NVIDIA_NV34.DEV_0327.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce FX 5100″
NVIDIA_NV34.DEV_032A.1 = “NVIDIA Quadro NVS 55/280 PCI”
NVIDIA_NV34.DEV_032B.1 = “NVIDIA Quadro FX 500/FX 600″
NVIDIA_NV35.DEV_0330.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900 Ultra”
NVIDIA_NV35.DEV_0331.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900″
NVIDIA_NV35.DEV_0332.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900XT”
NVIDIA_NV35.DEV_0333.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce FX 5950 Ultra”
NVIDIA_NV35.DEV_0334.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900ZT”
NVIDIA_NV35.DEV_0338.1 = “NVIDIA Quadro FX 3000″
NVIDIA_NV35.DEV_033F.1 = “NVIDIA Quadro FX 700″
NVIDIA_NV36.DEV_0341.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700 Ultra”
NVIDIA_NV36.DEV_0342.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700″
NVIDIA_NV36.DEV_0343.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700LE”
NVIDIA_NV36.DEV_0344.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700VE”
NVIDIA_NV36.DEV_034E.1 = “NVIDIA Quadro FX 1100″
NVIDIA_NV40.DEV_0040.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra”
NVIDIA_NV40.DEV_0041.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce 6800″
NVIDIA_NV40.DEV_0042.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce 6800 LE”
NVIDIA_NV40.DEV_0043.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce 6800 XE”
NVIDIA_NV40.DEV_0045.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT”
NVIDIA_NV40.DEV_0048.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce 6800 XT”
NVIDIA_NV40.DEV_004E.1 = “NVIDIA Quadro FX 4000″
NVIDIA_NV41.DEV_00C0.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS”
NVIDIA_NV41.DEV_00C1.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce 6800 “
NVIDIA_NV41.DEV_00C2.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce 6800 LE “
NVIDIA_NV41.DEV_00C3.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce 6800 XT “
NVIDIA_NV41.DEV_00CD.1 = “NVIDIA Quadro FX 3450/4000 SDI”
NVIDIA_NV41.DEV_00CE.1 = “NVIDIA Quadro FX 1400″
NVIDIA_NV43.DEV_0140.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT”
NVIDIA_NV43.DEV_0141.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce 6600″
NVIDIA_NV43.DEV_0142.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce 6600 LE”
NVIDIA_NV43.DEV_0143.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce 6600 VE”
NVIDIA_NV43.DEV_0145.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce 6610 XL”
NVIDIA_NV43.DEV_014A.1 = “NVIDIA Quadro NVS 440″
NVIDIA_NV43.DEV_014E.1 = “NVIDIA Quadro FX 540″
NVIDIA_NV43.DEV_014F.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce 6200″
NVIDIA_NV44.DEV_0160.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce 6500″
NVIDIA_NV44.DEV_0161.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce 6200 TurboCache(TM)”
NVIDIA_NV44.DEV_0162.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce 6200SE TurboCache(TM)”
NVIDIA_NV44.DEV_0163.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce 6200 LE”
NVIDIA_NV44.DEV_0165.1 = “NVIDIA Quadro NVS 285″
NVIDIA_NV44.DEV_0221.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce 6200 “
NVIDIA_G70.DEV_0090.1  = “NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX”
NVIDIA_G70.DEV_0091.1  = “NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX “
NVIDIA_G70.DEV_0092.1  = “NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT”
NVIDIA_G70.DEV_009D.1  = “NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500″
NVIDIA_NV48.DEV_0211.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce 6800  “
NVIDIA_NV48.DEV_0212.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce 6800 LE  “
NVIDIA_NV48.DEV_0215.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT “
NVIDIA_C51.DEV_0240.1  = “NVIDIA GeForce 6150″
NVIDIA_C51.DEV_0241.1  = “NVIDIA GeForce 6150 LE”
NVIDIA_C51.DEV_0242.1  = “NVIDIA GeForce 6100″
NVIDIA_BR02.DEV_00F1.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT “
NVIDIA_BR02.DEV_00F2.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce 6600 “
NVIDIA_BR02.DEV_00F3.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce 6200  “
NVIDIA_BR02.DEV_00F4.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce 6600 LE “
NVIDIA_BR02.DEV_00F5.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GS”
NVIDIA_BR02.DEV_00F8.1 = “NVIDIA Quadro FX 3400/4400″
NVIDIA_BR02.DEV_00F9.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Series GPU”
NVIDIA_BR02.DEV_00FA.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce PCX 5750″
NVIDIA_BR02.DEV_00FB.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce PCX 5900″
NVIDIA_BR02.DEV_00FC.1 = “NVIDIA GeForce PCX 5300″
NVIDIA_BR02.DEV_00FD.1 = “NVIDIA Quadro PCI-E Series”
NVIDIA_BR02.DEV_00FE.1 = “NVIDIA Quadro FX 1300″
NVIDIA_Win2KDualView   = “NVIDIA Dualview”
NVIDIA_MultiView       = “NVIDIA Multiview”

Before installing, don’t forget to clean your old driver files out with a driver cleaner of some sorts. I recommend Guru3D’s Driver Sweeper. It’s free and it sure gets the job done.

This driver installs fine for me with the installer, but some people have found they needed to manually intall through Windows Device Manager. Either way, your machine must be set to “Allow unsigned drivers”. You can enable this feature by holding down the F8 key before Windows Vista boots.

After experimenting, I suspected nVidia were deliberately sabotaging drivers to force older card owners to upgrade. However since then I have learnt a number of reasons why Vista Forceware is slower than XP Forceware. One example would be the thousands of extra lines of code in each Vista driver!

Either way, I’m sticking to Windows XP Forceware Version: 81.98. If you’re using a 7800 or under, I suggest you give it a try too.

Good Luck!