Why are Nvidia brand cards so expensive?

[toty]

Hello,

Are Nvidia own branded cards better in any way over the others done by EVGA, PNY, etc?

Why are they so much more pricey?

Would these cards be better since they are the ones who invented the thing in the first place?

Opinions anyone?

Thanks

 

[Kari]

mmm I haven't seen any cards with just nvidia branding on them... maybe it just in your local market.....

anyhow, evga, pny etc are called AIB or add-in-board partners who actually assemble the cards and sell them. Nvidia just makes the gpu chips and provide reference desings for the rest of the board and coolers. The partners can also make their own desing for the boards as well (...if they want to. edit and usually they do ).

 

[benski]

Usually Nvidia produces cards under there own name for the OEM market, these cards are priced higher because they don't want to cut into the sales of there licensed partners retail cards. They are probably no better than any other reputable manufacturers cards but you probably get better tech support from them them from a 3rd party if you have problems.

 

[_scientist]

In my opinion, I would think reference board designs would be a little less susceptible in terms of being D.O.A. I'm basing that off the fact that all reference boards would have came from Nvidia, still using the stock PCB.

Now, because the Nvidia boards with no other branding have not been shipped to the third party companies like you mentioned PNY or EVGA, I would imagine these boards would be viewed as the most reliable. This might justify a higher MSRP in the eyes of Nvidia.

With that being said, I have no problems not buying reference designs. In fact, I actually prefer the aesthetics from after-market coolers, or different coloured PCBs.

 

[rwayne]

It is not so much that Nvidia has a higher price but that AMD has been dropping their prices due to the competitive products that Nvidia has been releasing recently.

The HD7970 was selling for $550 originally.

Nvidia came along and released the faster GTX680 for $499. This forced AMD to eventually drop their prices below this point. (However they held on to the $550 mark for a while due to the lack of availability of the GTX680).

Then the GTX670 came out which forced AMD to drop the price of the 7950.

Then this month the GTX660ti came out which caused AMD to drop the price of the HD7870.

AMD is lower because they are reacting to what Nvidia is releasing.

AMD cuts HD 7000 series price even further
http://fudzilla.com/home/item/28433-amd-cuts-hd-7000-series-price-even-further

 

[tomjgum1]

correct me if im wrong but nivida use Intel chips and intel is known to be expensive

 

[Mousemonkey]

correct me if im wrong but nivida use Intel chips and intel is known to be expensive

You're wrong, Nvidia use their own GPU's.

@OP, are you referring to the cards sold at Best Buy?

 

[tomjgum1]

You're wrong, Nvidia use their own GPU's.

@OP, are you referring to the cards sold at Best Buy?

ok then i just recall reading some where they use the same tunneling config or something

 

[Mousemonkey]

ok then i just recall reading some where they use the same tunneling config or something

Huh? What?

 

[tomjgum1]

Huh? What?

tunneling you know, layout on the chip, the crevices that electricity flows

 

[Mousemonkey]

tunneling you know, layout on the chip, the crevices that electricity flows

I have never seen it referred to as tunneling before as such a word does not exist but as they each design their own processors which are then made by different foundries I have to assume that you don't know what you are talking about.

 

[tomjgum1]

that was the best way i could describe it

i talk better than i type

 

[iHaveNoParts]

To me, I think it's because the reference design for NVidia looks so cool and has an LED Logo. But the only con about the reference design is the cooler which isn't that strong. That's why many people go for EVGA, MSI, Gigabyte, ZOTAC (idk why ZOTAC), XFX, PNY, and Sapphire. If you go for an NVidia GPU, get one from EVGA because their coolers are the best or you can go for MSI Twin Frozr with 2 strong fans or Gigabyte Windforce which has 2 - 3 Fans. If you go for ATI, get XFX of Sapphire, MSI, or Gigabyte.