ATi Radeon HD 3690 reviewed

Keywords: AMD ATi radeon HD 3690 HD3690 review
PCPop has got their hands on the HD 3690 card that I talked about a few days ago.

Most of the time the 128bits memory interface doesn't really make a particularly huge impact in performance, like you can see in Crysis above, but it does suffer when some more regular resolutions like 1440x900 come around.
Crysis is a very intensive game and most don't have such a big impact, allowing for very close performance with the 3850 in 1680x1050 without any filtering. The same amount of ROPs are of much importance nowadays.
CoD 4 shows a more considerable impact in performance but it's more of a dent in the armor than a huge hole.

The 2GHz, 1ns memory, in this particular card, that comes clocked at 1660MHz promises to allow for some serious competition with the HD3850, since the only difference between the cards is the memory bus width.
On the video side of things, the red card is considerably more powerful that what the green camp offers.

All things considered, it's a very viable option for price conscious buyers - it completely wipes the floor with the 8600GTS.
The 8800GS 384MB on the other hand is the card to take home - if you can afford either of the four. It doesn't support DX10.1 capabilities but it's a better performer all around.
If you're not hurting for a new card just now, hold your breath for the 9600GT, till middle of February, or get an 8800GT with 512MB - that sure will put a smile on your face.

The full review is worth browsing since it is a very well done, in-depth test.