ATI Radeon HD 3450 and Radeon HD 3650 Video Cards

Temperatures

Since video card temperatures and the heat generated by next-generation cardshave become an area of concern among enthusiasts and gamers, we want to take a closer look at how these cards generate heat under load.

With the ATI Tool open, the video card was rendering the object in the picture above at an average 67 frames per second. This object puts the GPU at 99% load, which is great for heating up the card. We let it run for half an hour and it was enough to get the Radeon HD 3450 up to 74 degrees Celsius from 50 degrees Celsius. It should be noted that this was done on the open test bench with the motherboard laying flat, so expect slightly higher temperatures with the card installed in a case. Not bad for a card with passive cooling!

The ATI Radeon HD 3650 is active cooled, but was generally hotter than the Sapphire Radeon HD 3450 with passive cooling. The Radeon HD 3650 would idle at 51 degrees Celsius, but peaked at 84 degrees Celsius at load, which is pretty warm.

Let’s take a look to see how the ATI Radeon HD 3650 and Sapphire Radeon HD 3450 do against other ATI Radeon HD graphics cards.

Benchmark Results: The ATI Radeon HD 3650 does get pretty hot at full load, but 84C wasn’t enough to catch up and pass the ATI Radeon HD 3870 or Radeon HD 3850 with the reference coolers. The ATI Radeon HD 3450 did very well considering the fact that it features a passive cooler.