We recently looked at HIS’ x700 pro based card and were impressed by its looks and performance. While the x700 PRO is more of a mainstream card, today we have their very high-end x850XT. Like their x700 PRO, the x850 is cooled by their iceQ technology although it’s a newer version. Lets start with the packaging.

The x850XT comes nicely packaged in a blue box to match the color of the HSF unit. The front of the box has a see through section revealing the card while the back lists the specifications and features. Inside the box, you find a component cable as well as S-Video/RCA in/out cables since the card is VIVO ready. On the software side, you get full versions of Flatout  and Dungeon Siege while a demo of Dungeon Siege 2 is also included. For editing/multimedia, HIS provides you with 3D Album PicturePro, Power2GO, Power Director SE+ and trial versions of PowerDVD, Medi@show3 and PowerBackup.

An overclocking application is also provided by HIS called iTurbo which overclocks the card well without causing concern for instability. The default core/memory of this card is 520MHz/1080MHz and the iTurbo button makes it jump to 540MHz/1180MHz which is lower than the speed we were able to successfully overclock the card to with full stability- 570MHz core and 1220MHz memory.

The IceQII cooling system draws cool air from inside the case and exhausts warm air outwards. This prevents the fan from recycling warm air to cool the VPU, which increases cooling performance and lower the air temperature inside the case significantly. We'll say it again that we think that HIS should use a blue PCB to match the IceQ II HSF unit. One complain we have is that the power connector is very tightly placed below the large fan which makes it extremely hard to remove the power cable.