Apart from Nvidia and ATi, why are there EVGA and Zotac and stuff?

Question

I find it a bit hard to find an article or something on the internet explaining about this so am asking here :)

I saw some card images, headers and in video clips showing things such as EVGA GeForce GTX260 or something like that, or some others from Zotac or some from ASUS.. I was wondering what are these and i thought the real original two are just Nvidia and ATi.. How do I know if ASUS just uses ATi cards or both? It's just kinda confusing..

Additional: for example if there's an EVGA GeForce GTX260, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX260, are they gonna have the same power?

Answer 1

ati and nvidia dont actually manufacture cards (although thats slowly changing). both companies make what is called a reference design and then manufacturers (evga, asus etc) make the cards, but they are allowed to use different fans, over clock or even under clock the cards in some cases. so, if you want to know if its the same you can always compare it to the specs nvida/ati has on their website

Answer 2

Nvidia and ATI make the graphics chipset (basically, just the technology), while brands like ASUS, Saphire, XFX mass produce these chipsets as end-user cards (i.e. cards you can buy and install in your computer). So, the EVGA GTX 460 means, its an EVGA graphics card based on the nvidia GTX 460 chipset.



Nvidia and ATI do not make the cards themselves, so you won't find a Nvidia GTX460 in the market. It will always have been produced by some brand.



PS - Starting about a month ago though, Nvidia started producing cards themselves, but I think they sell it exclusively at Best Buys. In this case, Nvidia GTX460 means its an Nvidia graphics card based on the GTX 460 technology.



Similar chipsets but different brands will perform almost equally. There might be a slight difference in performance as some brands overclock the chipset (make it run faster than it is supposed to with the trade-off of more heat generation) and equip it with aftermarket coolers (better, more efficient fans etc to compensate for the tradeoff.). The choice of picking one brand over the other mostly depends on the quality,reliability, customer service and warranty offered by the brand.

Most brands offer lifetime warranty, which is a great thing. XFX however offers double-lifetime warranty, which means the card is covered for the entire duration that you use it + f you sell it, the other owner's lifetime with the card is also covered.

Answer 3

Here is a chart, all nvidia on the left, all ATI on the right

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/graphics-card-geforce-radeon,2761-7.html



nvidia/ati do research & development and produce the video card. than brands like asus/evga/sapphire/his/diamond/powercolor sell them under their own name. The first release of new cards are called 'reference design', it's literally just an ati/nvidia card with an EVGA/Zotac sticker on it. Eventually evga/zotac create their own coolers and change the amount of ram and that's called 'non-reference'.



a stricly Nvidia GTX 260, or ATI 5850 straight from the company would be called OEM and only go into pre-built computers from big companies like DELL and HP. End consumers have to get it from asus or evga.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_NVIDIA_graphics_processing_units#GeForce_200_Series

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_AMD_graphics_processing_units#IGP_.28HD_3xxx.2C_HD_4xxx.29



98% of cards from Nvidia vs EVGA are the same thing, except the rare exception like the GT 240 consumer level vs commercial level (OEM, which u see in the wiki link).



ATI card go like , 3xxx series, 4xxx series, 5xxx series, 6xxx series.



Nvidia use to go 68xx, 78xx, 88xx, now they got, GTX 2xx , GTX 4xx, soon GTX 5xx

Answer 4

Any company can buy gpu's from the two leading makers and put it on their own card, comparable numbers should produce comparable results, regardless of brand, but the chips can be set with a different amount of memory or that memory could be running at different speeds depending on which card you choose, investigate the specs of any card you choose to compare the amount of memory on the card