How Come There Are Different Versions of The Same Graphics Card?

• 

  scrimshaw on 01/10/2014 - 00:13

  +8

  Mostly because of factory overclocking - Some cards come overclocked out of the box, and command a small price premium over vanilla cards.

  You will also hear the term 'reference' being thrown around a lot, a 'reference' card refers to a card that was designed strictly to the specifications outlined by Nvidia or AMD and the manufacturers simply copied that design and used the same chipset, memory, cooler and minor components as stipulated by the technology provider.

  whereas a non-reference card is a design that is enhanced slightly in several areas (e.g it could have more VRAM, different clock speeds, different cooler design and even a different length). That's why the ASUS DirectCU series is usually the most expensive card around.

  second reason is brand, some brands are cheaper than others.

  • 

    oringal on 02/10/2014 - 17:53

    +1

    Also take into account how the stock cooling is designed, this influences how quiet the graphics card is. Some graphics cards have poorly designed fans and just sound like a leaf blower when you use them.

    • 

      Zaxo3000 on 02/10/2014 - 18:21

      Unless someone has reviewed the particular card version and highlights this, is there any way to tell which have poorly designed fans?

      • 

        scrimshaw on 02/10/2014 - 18:55

        +1

        The more fans there are the more noise you can expect it to make.

        Cards using blower style fans (i.e usually based on reference design) use a wind tunnel type of cooling method where the card is sealed in plastic shroud and a single fan with vertical blades push the air through that shroud and exhaust it out towards the back of the desktop.

        This is actually a pretty efficient design, because the plastic shroud prevents the warm air from the GPU from leaking back into the case. Without the shroud, some of the air doesn't go outside the case causing the warm air to be recycled inside and raising the overall temperature in the case.

        These fans typically spin at a high RPM and as such tend to be pretty loud. That's about the only con about these designs.

      • 

        oringal on 02/10/2014 - 20:30

        +1

        nope, you pretty much have to read the reviews on the cards. Fortunately most cards do get reviewed and you are sure to find some info on noise of the fans.

• 

  ethereal88 on 01/10/2014 - 07:14

  -7

  Reference cards are trash. You want an aftermarket with a fat cooler to keep it cool and a fat overclock to squeeze out more FPS. Out of those pick the one you can afford. PS - $540 is ridiculous for a midrange card.

  • 

    tonyjzx on 02/10/2014 - 11:42

    lol ethereal, i luv ya man - i gotta give you a positive vote every time for the lols

    here's a counterpoint:

    reference cards are engineered by AMD/Nvidia so they meet accepted guidelines as far as cooling, noise and space goes and the will always work with reference drivers

    you dont have any worries about fitting a reference card in your pc and you know you are getting like for like for the money despite different manufacturers

    you dont have a situation where you get an alleged respected manufacturer like Gigabyte producing a card with 5 fans and unacceptable noise levels

    i also question the need to overclock a card like the 970… here is a card that is extremely fast and head over shoulders over the competition AND its just superceded older brothers but you still want that extra 10%??? why?

    is 85fps over 80fps such a big deal?

  • 

    mrmarkau67 on 02/10/2014 - 17:59

    You want an aftermarket with a fat cooler to keep it cool and a fat overclock to squeeze out more FPS.

    Hey Ethereal, not everyone is just like you, and not everyone wants to overclock.

    Let me take the liberty of rephrasing your post a little:

    For power gamers like me, reference cards are trash. I like an aftermarket with a fat cooler to keep it cool and a fat overclock to squeeze out more FPS. I then pick pick the one I can afford. PS - $540 is ridiculous for a midrange card.

    I think that communicates the same content, but it would have gotten you zero negs.

    • 

      ProspectiveDarkness on 02/10/2014 - 18:57

      To be fair, this doesn't necessarily mean that you'd have to be into overclocking yourself.

• 

  ethereal88 on 03/10/2014 - 06:59

  Reference cards are loud trash. Look at the reference 290X, junk. By all means buy some cheapo homebrand crap.