HIS Radeon HD 6850 IceQ X Turbo 1GB Video Card Review

My Thoughts On The HIS Radeon HD 6850 Turbo Video Card

As far as performance goes the HIS Radeon HD 6850 Turbo hung right in there with the rest of the 6850 crop that we benchmarked. Although it was not the fastest or the coolest as far as temperature it was still a very steady performer, produced good numbers and did it all way quieter than the other cards. On top of that it was super easy to overclock and we managed to get it over the GHz mark.

The IceQ X cooler was very quiet; as a matter of fact, it was the quietest card we looked at and to me it was the coolest looking. The IceQ design is nice and it does keep the card much cooler than the reference style coolers, but here we can see that the XFX card’s Vapor X type setup was about 6C cooler than the IceQ during idle. But the IceQ ramped it up and there was only a 2C degree difference while under 100% load. So, not only did the IceQ perform very well in every game and benchmark we threw at it, it is also quiet and cool.

As mentioned earlier in the review, you can clearly see from the picture above that the HIS Radeon HD 6850 Turbo is quite a bit smaller than the reference sized cards and will therefore fit in much smaller cases which, in my opinion, makes it more versatile and will be compatible with a lot more case sizes than the larger cards. And how much better looking can a card get? This one has a custom PCB, a custom cooler, and a custom BIOS that all combine to make one hell of a cool looking and performing video card.

The HIS Radeon HD 6850 Turbo is a cool looking, quiet, low temperature card that fits in a wide range of cases and it will only set you back $189.99 plus shipping, and that also includes a two year warranty on parts and labor. It was a real treat to take an in depth look at this card and I look forward to newer and better cards from HIS.

The Legit Bottom Line: An easily overclocked card that stays cool even at the height of battle is a killer tool to have in your arsenal. I also love the fact that this card has the aqua blue cowling as it makes it look very different from all of the black that seems to permeate GPU coolers these days.