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The Board - The Bundle

What's in the box? Just like the PCI-Express version this AGP bundle is as always fantastic, HiS is paying attention to the total package and we see a lot of software bundled as this is a seriously impressive package. That does translate a tad on the pricing though but I consider the cards that HiS released on the market the cream of the crop. Let's have a look:

• FlatOut (the full game)
• Dungeon Siege Full
• PowerDirector 3 SE Plus
• Power2Go 4
• PowerDVD 5
• 3D Album PicturePro
• S-Video Cable
• RCA Cable
• Conversion connecter Mini-Din to RCA
• HDTV Output cable (RCA component)
• DVI to VGA Adaptor (2x)
• Molex power connector

You will also receive some trial software, which can be found on a bonus CD. Think PowerDVD, MediaShow there and I think I even saw some of ATI demo's on there.

Next for the card itself. We see a plethora of cables in the form of S-Video in/out cable, DVI to CRT/VGA adapters so that you are able to hook up 2 CRT VGA monitors to your card.

Also quite important for some excellent HDTV usage, a component 3-way RCA cable. Connect the card to a nice LCD or Plasma screen and you can play HDTV games or playback movies on that big screen. The cards themselves then. It's quite hard to determine real changes at PCB level over the reference model as the cooler is blocking my view! I can tell you though that HiS is following reference design precisely. The trick however is faster memory and the cooling technology, which is called IceQ-II, which we'll get into in a minute.

Compared to the PCI-Express (PCX from now on) make note of the fact that these x850's do not have dual-DVI. Finally a difference. You'll get a VGA/CRT and DVI-I connector. Also on the PCX models you'll get the 6-pin power cable, and here on the AGP models we see the good old Molex connector back in place. A molex extender power cable is included. That's value guys, value.

We also notice the traditional video output connector, both our cards are equipped with the Rage Theater chip and thus have an optional video input through that same connector and supplied cables.

I recently build a small HTPC and placed the XT in there to see how it was behaving. Truly marvelous in and output guys! I used the S-Video in/outputs on a wide-screen TV. Image quality is sharp and crisp. Soon we'll do some HDTV testing also as I finally have a plasma screen inbound.

Nevertheless, this is a really fantastic bundle. BTW we reviewed the game Flatout, you can read that review right here.

Included is the PC game Flat Out, quite a funny game and with some nice graphics.