Diamond Radeon HD3650 1GB Review :: Diamond HD3650 1GB Card

One thing about modern high-end video cards is they tend to have two-slot cooling solutions. The Diamond HD3650 is a single slot solution, meaning the card can be used in a computer with only one PCI Express x16 slot. Home Theater users wanting a small card to fit into a small case can use this card. The card is not a low-profile card, meaning that a full height case is required to install this card.

Front of PCB

Front Area of PCB

Heatsink/fan

Rear of front PCB

Card length is about 6 inches long, a far cry from the 9.5 inches that the 9800GX2 or HD3870X2 require. The small fan and heatsink effectively cool the card with temperatures reaching 50C under load but a reasonable 39C in idle conditions. The heatsink covers about 1/3 of the card with a picture of Ruby (ATI’s mascot) gracing the cover. The fan and heatsink cover the graphics chip leaving the memory chips exposed.

Circuits

Capacitors

The 1GB version of the HD3650 has 4 256MB DDR2 memory chips rated at 800MHz and clocked at 792MHz. This brings a total of 1GB of memory that’s effectively clocked at 1.584GHz to the video card. HD3650 has a 128-bit memory bus meaning that the 3650 has about 12.7GB/second of memory bandwidth. This hardly compares with the HD3870 which has a 256-bit memory interface and a 1.0GHz memory speed, but the two cards are meant for different markets.

Rear of PCB

GPU Mount

Memory

Serial Number

The input/outputs on a video card vary by manufacturer but usually take the form of two Dual-Link DVI ports and a HDTV port. The HD3650 1GB card from Diamond comes with a Dual Link DVI connection VGA connection and a HDMI connection to allow two monitors to be used at the same time in any combination with adapters. This card also supports a HDMI connection through a DVI adapter allowing dual HDMI support out of the box.