After the launch of HD 3850, it was obvious that partners like Sapphire, PowerColor, and now HIS, will make and launch the AGP version. We think there is still a nice market for AGP cards, since users either want to upgrade their AGP systems, or they just want to turn them into a decent HTPC system.

HIS has decided to launch two versions of the HD 3850, one with reference cooling and the other will be a part of HIS's IceQ Turbo series. The standard, reference cooled version will work at 668MHz for the core and 1656MHz for the memory. Both of them will feature 512MB of GDDR3 memory and a small Rialto bridge chip on the back. The IceQ 3 Turbo version will come with a factory overclock to 720MHz for the core and 1820MHz for memory.

Both cards have DirectX 10.1 and Shader Model 4.1 support. You can find the standard version here, and the IceQ 3 Turbo version is here. Pricing of HIS's HD 3850 AGP cards is still unknown, but these cards usually retail around €160.