Do GPU board partners change/manufacture reference GPUs?

[AstroBenny]

So when you buy a reference 980 from EVGA, are they just reselling the Nvidia manufactured card or do they manufacture the card themselves and/or change the board design?

In other words: When the board partners sell the reference models, are the PCBs/components designed by the board partner or do they just resell the Nvidia reference version..?

[PokeCatz]

Yes but only for a short time after launch.

http://m.newegg.com/Product/index?itemnumber=N82E16814121923

[Mohenjo]

There are no modifications i believe, they are just manufacturing it and distributing it and badging it. Since nvidia isnt a manufacturing company. its similar to apple. Apple does not make iphones they only design them.

[Nena Trinity]

Nope same as Nvidia unless they change the PCB or cooler...

[AstroBenny]

1 minute ago, Mohenjo said:

There are no modifications i believe, they are just manufacturing it and distributing it and badging it. Since nvidia isnt a manufacturing company. its similar to apple. Apple does not make iphones they only design them.

I meant do the Nvidia's manufacturers just send the cards straight to the board partners or do the board partners get the cards manufactured themselves..?

[Enderman]

all reference cards are built by nvidia and given to board partners to sell

they are all the exact same card

[Nena Trinity]

Just now, AstroBenny said:

I meant do the Nvidia's manufacturers just send the cards straight to the board partners or do the board partners get the cards manufactured themselves..?

They get them from Nvidia!

[Enderman]

3 minutes ago, Mohenjo said:

There are no modifications i believe, they are just manufacturing it and distributing it and badging it. Since nvidia isnt a manufacturing company. its similar to apple. Apple does not make iphones they only design them.

you know that nvidia sells their own GPUs, right?

http://www.geforce.com/hardware/geforce-gtx-980-ti/buy-gpu

[zMeul]

just like every Titan X board was built by nVidia - if nVidia doesn't allow AIB to make custom PCBs, they won't

[Mohenjo]

1 minute ago, Enderman said:

you know that nvidia sells their own GPUs, right?

http://www.geforce.com/hardware/geforce-gtx-980-ti/buy-gpu

oh, then i believed wrong, sorry 

[gcubed]

Yes.

 

Look, Nvidia will sell anything to their partners that the partners want. From just the Pascal chip to a manufactured card. What the partners do with that is pretty much their business, except for the Titans.

 

An EVGA, ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI, PNY, (insert your favorite manufacturer here), REFERENCE (now called Founders) card may be assembled from parts or it may be a complete Nvidea manufactured card that the partner will slap their branded blower cooler on. These are the cards that the partners are most likely to ship on launch day and in the few days to weeks after launch.

 

After a short period of time, the variants will start showing up. These variants will always have the NVidia manufactured GPU on them, as a minimum, but (except for the Titan) all other parts are subject to change. Different coolers, different PCB's, different capacitors, different just about anything. In the past, Nvidia put more restrictions on the Titans and boards (among other things) had to be reference.

 

 

And just so you know, the same type of thing goes on with the AMD cards that the partners sell.