AMD GPU Confusion

[bobdabiulder]

Hi guys!

I was looking at GPUs on the AMD website, and I noticed something - if I look for the AMD R7 240(my current OEM GPU), there will be about 15 different versions of it by different brands, non of which really say AMD right on them.  Some are MSI, Asus, etc.  Why are they on the AMD website with AMD names but are made by different companies?  Thanks! 

[Vegetable]

They produce the EXACT SAME CARD under their own branding. They take it, put a better cooler on it, make it like 1% faster and sell it for a bit more. 

[REX.exe]

Why are you looking at a r7 240?

EDIT: Woops didn't read properly
 

[Oshino Shinobu]

The GPU itself is made by AMD. The board is made by other companies (board partners). The GPU is still AMD, but the entire card an be considered the board partner's. 

 

With low end cards like that one, there won't be much difference between any of them though. 

[Lotus]

AMD only makes the chip. Think of a graphics card like a motherboard plus RAM plus CPU all together, except it's a GPU and VRAM. AMD only provides the GPU chip itself, and the board partners have to make the PCB (motherboard) and add in the VRAM, and the cooling solution. However since the chips are all identical, you'll find the most important difference (other than thermal limits of the cooler which only matter on the highest end cards) is the silicon lottery.

[bobdabiulder]

Silicon lottery?  Ik Linus mentioned that in a video I recently watched.  What is it??

[bobdabiulder]

Hi guyss!  Read the post above.  Also, if I have a graphics card with ONLY a PCIe 3.0 connection and no other wires etc going to it, and I want another one like it, would I need a new power supply?  I have the ATI r7 240, and want a MSI Radeon R7 260x, will I need to give it more power??