Diamond Viper Radeon HD 3870 and HD 3870 1GB
Throughout most of the 1990s, Diamond Multimedia was one of the major players in the graphics card world. Their well made cards with solid performance resulted in some of the most well known brand names of the time including the Speedstar, Stealth, and Viper. After merging with S3 Incorporated in 1999, the resounding failure of their joint contribution: the Diamond Viper II Z200 based on S3's Savage 2000, eventually led to the combined Diamond/S3 company backing away from third-party graphics cards.
In 2003, however, Best Data stepped in and purchased the rights to the brand name and assets from SONICblue Incorporated, including the Stealth and Viper brand names. Focusing on ATI's Radeons as their GPU of choice, the original line-up seemed to be focused mostly on the lower-end, more mainstream cards, including the Stealth S80 we took a look at in early 2003. The good news is, with some more time and resources under their belt, Diamond has completely revitalized the Viper name in both body and spirit. Once again, with high-end products at the core, Diamond is a force to be reckoned with in the market. Today, we've got two of their HD 3870's in the labs for comparison - one is mostly plain vanilla but the other is an overclocked version utilizing GDDR4 memory. Let's get a bit more acquainted with them, shall we?
Diamond Viper Radeon HD 3870 and HD 3870 1GB
In 2003, however, Best Data stepped in and purchased the rights to the brand name and assets from SONICblue Incorporated, including the Stealth and Viper brand names. Focusing on ATI's Radeons as their GPU of choice, the original line-up seemed to be focused mostly on the lower-end, more mainstream cards, including the Stealth S80 we took a look at in early 2003. The good news is, with some more time and resources under their belt, Diamond has completely revitalized the Viper name in both body and spirit. Once again, with high-end products at the core, Diamond is a force to be reckoned with in the market. Today, we've got two of their HD 3870's in the labs for comparison - one is mostly plain vanilla but the other is an overclocked version utilizing GDDR4 memory. Let's get a bit more acquainted with them, shall we?
Diamond Viper Radeon HD 3870 and HD 3870 1GB
