Graphic cards - Manufactures

[Legit101]

I was looking at some 6970 cards and I noticed something, the 6970 is made by many different companies like Amaze, ASUS, msi, HIS, GIGABYTE, XFX and Sapphire. I always thought that graphic cards were made by the designer, in this case AMD.
Which leaves me with many choices of cards. So I ask why aren't the cards manufactured by AMD themselves and what is your favourite manufacturer for AMD cards? Thanks.

 

[Elf_Boy]

AMD and Nvidia design and manufacture key chips for graphics cards. They also will design a "reference" board which uses the key chips and other standard parts like ramdac's and, well more things then I can name off the top of my head.

Companies like Asus, Pny, EVGA, etc buy the core chips and the reference design. Mostly they build products that are very close to or spot on the standard cookie cutter pattern. Some of the companies will redesign things, adding more ram, higher clock speed, etc.

I have head of Nvidia selling generic reference cards to be branded and resold. I would not be surprised if AMD does the same.

For the companies that make their own cards they have some choices, like what brand/type memory to use, what ramdac to use etc. Some use better, or at least more expensive parts, some more generic parts. This of course will have an effect on the quality of the end product.

Does this answer the question? Or did I wander around the topic too much?

I tend to buy Nvidia cards so I cant say much about which AMD secondary brand to purchase, I do know Asus has a pretty good rep, they are also much more expensive, at least whenever I have checked for Nvidia flavor GPU's. That extra cost may translate into better overclocking due to better parts.

 

[Legit101]

AMD and Nvidia design and manufacture key chips for graphics cards. They also will design a "reference" board which uses the key chips and other standard parts like ramdac's and, well more things then I can name off the top of my head.

Companies like Asus, Pny, EVGA, etc buy the core chips and the reference design. Mostly they build products that are very close to or spot on the standard cookie cutter pattern. Some of the companies will redesign things, adding more ram, higher clock speed, etc.

I have head of Nvidia selling generic reference cards to be branded and resold. I would not be surprised if AMD does the same.

For the companies that make their own cards they have some choices, like what brand/type memory to use, what ramdac to use etc. Some use better, or at least more expensive parts, some more generic parts. This of course will have an effect on the quality of the end product.

Does this answer the question? Or did I wander around the topic too much?

I tend to buy Nvidia cards so I cant say much about which AMD secondary brand to purchase, I do know Asus has a pretty good rep, they are also much more expensive, at least whenever I have checked for Nvidia flavor GPU's. That extra cost may translate into better overclocking due to better parts.

Thank-you sir that answered my question pretty much spot on.