3rd party vid cards?

Question

How are video cards made by 3rd party companies different than ones direct from say ATI or nVidia? Companies like Sapphire, BFG, Asus, etc

Answer 1

Oh I get you now, you're talking about cards that are made by other companies that use ATI and Nvidia's technology.

Well, high-end cards are considered "improvements" over the basic reference design that ATI and Nvidia provide. For example, Gigabyte and Asus video cards usually have better cooling, sometimes are slightly overclocked, may use higher quality memory, etc.

I suggest you go to www.tomshardware.com to research benchmarks and different offerings from each "3rd-party" company. You will find that the difference is sometimes good enough to justify the higher price. They usually include more software (such as games), better tech support, and of course, better overall performance than the basic offerings directly from the ATI or Nvidia.

Answer 2

3rd party video cards, at the core, are simply video cards made with the original company's GPU (Graphics Processing Unit).

There is usually very litte, (if any) difference. In some cases the performance is even better than the original. The 3rd party designs their own supporting circuits and circuit board as well as writes the software drivers & programs.

Think of it something like grocery stores having their own brand of a national brand of product.

Answer 3

They are all exactly the same, its just some people prefer other companies. Like, i always get my products from eVGA because of their RMA services. I also like BFG as a second choice because their card are extremely reliable and are usually pre-overclocked. But all the cards are the same if its an eVGA 7800GT or a BFG 7800GT, its all the same