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There is no doubt the SCS3 HD 4650 will perform silently thanks to the passive cooling but with the tagline "Mesmerizing 3D Graphics for True Gamers" right on the box, we will see if their HD4650 has what it takes to please the gamers as well. With a street price under $70, this may just be the budget HD card you have been looking for.
Our review sample arrived without the factory packaging and accessories you see here. Based on the above graphic taken from the PowerColor site the packaging looks to be both attractive and informative.
The real attraction isn't the packaging, its the huge SCS3 passive cooler. With the heatsink running nearly the length of the card this cooler should provide performance at least as good as the puny small fans these cards are usually saddled with. The heatsink is slightly bent on the left side but this may be the result of our sample shipping without the factory packaging. From this angle you can see the GPU mounting plate is made of aluminum with the two copper heatpipes running through the center.
The HD4650 is based on the reference design and sports the standard two DVI ports and a single S-Video output. All ATI 4000 series cards are capable of 7.1 audio output over HDMI with ATI's adapter however the HDMI adapter is listed as optional for this model.
The oversized heatsink is suspended over the card by the two heat pipes and just misses the capacitors. Although the heatpipe offers coverage for the GPU, it does not cover the memory at all. The DDR2 is left to dissipate heat through passive airflow.
This angle gives a good view of the two copper heatpipes. The fins are evenly spaced and have several air vents cut through them as seen here. The fins feel rather fragile but should provide a lot of surface area for heat dissipation. The top of the cooler sticks out just enough to risk taking a second slot in our test PC.
The heatpipe structure is supported by the four spring tensioned mounting screws as seen here. The copper and the red PCB look good together though our sample has no manufacturers markings as of yet.
Taking a closer look at the memory reveals the DDR2 is provided by Samsung. The full data sheet for the DDR2 can be found on Samsung's site, here. Specifications:
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While most of the high end graphics cards tend to get the big press,
a growing segment of specialized mid-market cards have been quietly
battling for your hard earned dollar. Recently PowerColor has
introduced the latest in a line of successful SCS3 passively cooled
cards, the HD4650 SCS3 edition. Targeted at the HTPC crowd the
SCS3 features an oversize passive cooling solution designed to offer
top notch performance with zero noise. 
