Does nvidia themselves make cards?

[Azureth]

My friend has a GTX 550Ti he bought from best buy awhile back. I asked him who the manufacturer was and he said Nvidia. He also said that's the only name on the box, but I think nvidia didn't make their own cards?

 

[neel14]

i think the reference ones are made by nvidia themselves and the aib partners makes their,while the main chip is provided by nvidia.
your friend might have got a reference card.

 

[Derangel]

Nvidia does sell some Nvidia branded cards in stores like Best Buy, but no they don't manufacture them themselves. The GPU itself comes from TSMC, the memory chips, PCB, shroud, etc are all sourced from other companies. The reference cards are designed by Nvidia, but Nvidia doesn't own facilities to actually make the parts. Only a small handful of graphics card companies make their own PCBs (sorry, can't remember which ones off the top of my head).

 

[GoldenTiger]

EDIT: Misinformation apparrently, if Derangel is correct there. Editing my original text out. I wasn't aware any Nvidia-branded cards were sold to consumers.

 

[Derangel]

EDIT: Misinformation apparrently, if Derangel is correct there. Editing my original text out. I wasn't aware any Nvidia-branded cards were sold to consumers.

Yeah. They started doing it sometime last year or the year before, something like that. It's all mid-range stuff.

 

[GoldenTiger]

Yeah. They started doing it sometime last year or the year before, something like that. It's all mid-range stuff.

Thanks, it's an interesting tidbit to know.

 

[NoxTek]

Last I heard Nvidia reference design cards were manufactured by Flextronics.

In fact back in the days of the 68xx, 78xx, 88xx and 98xx Nvidia wouldn't even allow any of the board partners to make their own designs for the high end cards. They would ship the board partners (EVGA, BFG, PNY, etc) the cards and all the board partners would do is slap a custom sticker on the reference cooler and throw the cards into their own retail packacing. This policy went the way of the Dodo after the GTX280 though IIRC.

These days you'll see Nvidia branded retail packaging at certain retail outlets, namely Best Buy. I'm actually surprised they're still doing this as I remember reading a couple of years ago that it was a bit of an experiment. Looking at Best Buy's pricing for Nvidia branded cards they are anything but competitive with e-tailers like Newegg.

 

[JohnnyChuttz]

I bought an Nvidia GTX 560ti from Best Buy(My buddy was a manger, so I got a steep discount). It was pretty stout for a reference card. Kept a stable OC of 1050mhz. Never had a problem with it.

I thought the packaging/unboxing was nice for a reference mid-range card.

 

[tonyftw]

I remember one of my local best buy's, were selling nvidia branded 660 ti's. The box looked really nice.

 

[Jasonx82]

wow these look alot better then all the other aib with there odd graphics

I bought an Nvidia GTX 560ti from Best Buy(My buddy was a manger, so I got a steep discount). It was pretty stout for a reference card. Kept a stable OC of 1050mhz. Never had a problem with it.

I thought the packaging/unboxing was nice for a reference mid-range card.

 

[bigted]

Last I heard Nvidia reference design cards were manufactured by Flextronics.

In fact back in the days of the 68xx, 78xx, 88xx and 98xx Nvidia wouldn't even allow any of the board partners to make their own designs for the high end cards. They would ship the board partners (EVGA, BFG, PNY, etc) the cards and all the board partners would do is slap a custom sticker on the reference cooler and throw the cards into their own retail packacing. This policy went the way of the Dodo after the GTX280 though IIRC.

These days you'll see Nvidia branded retail packaging at certain retail outlets, namely Best Buy. I'm actually surprised they're still doing this as I remember reading a couple of years ago that it was a bit of an experiment. Looking at Best Buy's pricing for Nvidia branded cards they are anything but competitive with e-tailers like Newegg.

and this is why the Arctic Cooling NVSilencer's were so popular back in the day!

(think 5950's and 6800 ultra)

 

[Drepd]

[H] had their own story on this back in 2010....

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/10/05/nvidia_enters_retail_direct_sales_at_best_buy#.UZVC8Rco5dg

 

[FrgMstr]

Yes, NVIDIA still has video cards built for it on a very small scale and sold directly into retail. I think this was all a testing of the market to see if it was viable for it to bypass AIC partners and be successful. Most of the cards were built by Flextronics IIRC.

 

[Godmachine]

Nvidia does sell some Nvidia branded cards in stores like Best Buy, but no they don't manufacture them themselves. The GPU itself comes from TSMC, the memory chips, PCB, shroud, etc are all sourced from other companies. The reference cards are designed by Nvidia, but Nvidia doesn't own facilities to actually make the parts. Only a small handful of graphics card companies make their own PCBs (sorry, can't remember which ones off the top of my head).

Its kind of a clusterfuck when you realize how cards are made. We always think of each brand as an individual partner for each solution but its far more "all eggs in one basket" than we realize it.