Differences between GeForce nVidia/Asus/EVGA & Radeon Sapphire/MSI/ASUS etc.

[olimaltar]

Hi guys -


As i understand, there are 2 main GPUs product line in the market:
1) GeForce
2) Radeon

And they are sold by a bunch of companies
1) GeForce: nVidia (who seems to be the building the GeForce GPU), ASUS, EVGA
2) Radeon: Sapphire, MSI, ASUS


So really, what is the difference? If I want a GeForce, should I just go with nVidia?

Is it only that the GPU is the same, but the card itself (power, clock, etc.) is different? If yes, what differs from one another exactly?


Tks in advance!
Oli

 

[Shephard]

the difference is price and geforce cards have gimmick PhysX.

7970ghz by AMD is the fastest single gpu you can buy right now.

The best branded cards for nvidia are by EVGA.

AMD I don't really know because I haven't used them in a long time. Maybe Sapphire, Gigabyte, ASUS.

 

[Fallengod]

Kind of a big open subjective question here...

GeForce is Nvidia btw.... GeForce is just Nvidia's brand for the cards.....

Radeon is AMD(formerly ATI)'s brand.

The difference, well, do some research around the net. Its a pretty subjective answer.....

All brands differ in some way(Clock speed, power, features, software, warranty, etc). The only thing I can suggest is just doing some research, because theres almost no answer for you on which is "better".

IMO, the best Nvidia brand names are EVGA, MSI, Asus. In the AMD arena, MSI or Asus are the only brands ive used thus far.

All warranty and RMA policies are different too between brands.

 

[olimaltar]

Tks guys.

Just one last questions that im not clear no then.

What is the common point between the nVidia GeForce, the ASUS GeForce and the EVGA GeForce?

There must be something since they all call it GeForce...

 

[BallaTheFeared]

If you're looking at reference cards there is really no difference.

Nvidia creates the reference design, the board partners slap their logo on it and sell it.

GeForce is the namesake of Nvidia's desktop line of video cards, there is also GT and GTX which has pretty much lost all meaning expect you don't want a GT >.<

 

[Cadarin]

nVidia and AMD design the cards and the different companies manufacture and sell them. So an "Asus Geforce" is actually an nVidia Geforce card manufactured by Asus. A reference card is one that hasn't been changed at all from the original design by nVidia and AMD, while a non-reference card is one that the manufacturer's have modified in some way. Usually they introduce their own cooling solutions (in the case of AMD cards, a non reference cooler is a big plus), and they often also overclock the cards, or make other minor changes. When deciding which brand to buy, I'd compare price, coolers, warranties, and then public opinion in that order.

Of course, since AMD and nVidia design dozens of different cards that range in price from ~$50 to $1,000, its far more important to decide on the right model before you worry about the brand. Start by picking a price point and go from there.

 

[Eureka]

Tks guys.

Just one last questions that im not clear no then.

What is the common point between the nVidia GeForce, the ASUS GeForce and the EVGA GeForce?

There must be something since they all call it GeForce...

There are only two (2) manufacturers of GPUs that we care about. Nvidia, and AMD. They make the actual GPU (graphic processing unit), the little silicon die that does all of our graphic work.

Nvidia makes GeForce, AMD makes Radeon. That's just the name of their desktop lines. Nvidia also makes Quadro and AMD makes FirePro, but those are for business use, and we don't care about those as much for home user.

Everyone else buys these chips from Nvidia and AMD, and build a full card out of it (I'm 90% sure no one else actually manufacturers the chips on their own contract). So you cannot buy a Nvidia card or a AMD card. You buy an Asus, EVGA, MSI, etc, which has either a Nvidia chip or an AMD chip on it.

When you start buying cards, you look at the chips themselves. Right now, for example, the two most powerful chips you can get are based on a Radeon HD7970, or Geforce GTX 680. The next two, down the line, are Radeon HD 7950 and Geforce GTX 670. Then you take the actual chip, and you look at which manufacturers you want to buy.

Say you want the 680. All 680-based cards are roughly the same in performance/power/clocks at the beginning. However, certain cards will be clocked faster (meaning they do more work) from the factory. However, in an ideal world, you can take any 680 card and overclock it to the same power. The difference is that certain manufactuers will build better cards around these chips, meaning they can pump more power into the chip, cool it better, which means in the end, it's a faster card overall. You will pay for that extra overclocking ability. This is why an Asus 680 or a MSI 680 costs $100 more than a basic Galaxy or Zotac 680. They build their own boards from scratch (instead of using Nvidia's recommended design), and use better parts and coolers. Whether that is worth an extra $100 is debatable.

If you look at reviews, they generally review the stock version of the chip, as designed by nvidia or amd. This will be the slowest version but it is guaranteed to always run at that speed. This way you can compare the baseline. Any overclock is considered as a bonus.

 

[urch]

There are only two (2) manufacturers of GPUs that we care about. Nvidia, and AMD. They make the actual GPU (graphic processing unit), the little silicon die that does all of our graphic work.

Nvidia makes GeForce, AMD makes Radeon. That's just the name of their desktop lines. Nvidia also makes Quadro and AMD makes FirePro, but those are for business use, and we don't care about those as much for home user.

Everyone else buys these chips from Nvidia and AMD, and build a full card out of it (I'm 90% sure no one else actually manufacturers the chips on their own contract). So you cannot buy a Nvidia card or a AMD card. You buy an Asus, EVGA, MSI, etc, which has either a Nvidia chip or an AMD chip on it.

When you start buying cards, you look at the chips themselves. Right now, for example, the two most powerful chips you can get are based on a Radeon HD7970, or Geforce GTX 680. The next two, down the line, are Radeon HD 7950 and Geforce GTX 670. Then you take the actual chip, and you look at which manufacturers you want to buy.

Say you want the 680. All 680-based cards are roughly the same in performance/power/clocks at the beginning. However, certain cards will be clocked faster (meaning they do more work) from the factory. However, in an ideal world, you can take any 680 card and overclock it to the same power. The difference is that certain manufactuers will build better cards around these chips, meaning they can pump more power into the chip, cool it better, which means in the end, it's a faster card overall. You will pay for that extra overclocking ability. This is why an Asus 680 or a MSI 680 costs $100 more than a basic Galaxy or Zotac 680. They build their own boards from scratch (instead of using Nvidia's recommended design), and use better parts and coolers. Whether that is worth an extra $100 is debatable.

If you look at reviews, they generally review the stock version of the chip, as designed by nvidia or amd. This will be the slowest version but it is guaranteed to always run at that speed. This way you can compare the baseline. Any overclock is considered as a bonus.

Just wanted to register to tell you that this was an outstanding reply. Really made a difference, thanks!

 

[Techhog]

Just wanted to register to tell you that this was an outstanding reply. Really made a difference, thanks!

You registered to bump a 2.75 year old thread. Are you kidding me? :thumbsdown:

 

[Biox Man]

There are only two (2) manufacturers of GPUs that we care about. Nvidia, and AMD. They make the actual GPU (graphic processing unit), the little silicon die that does all of our graphic work.

Nvidia makes GeForce, AMD makes Radeon. That's just the name of their desktop lines. Nvidia also makes Quadro and AMD makes FirePro, but those are for business use, and we don't care about those as much for home user.

Everyone else buys these chips from Nvidia and AMD, and build a full card out of it (I'm 90% sure no one else actually manufacturers the chips on their own contract). So you cannot buy a Nvidia card or a AMD card. You buy an Asus, EVGA, MSI, etc, which has either a Nvidia chip or an AMD chip on it.

When you start buying cards, you look at the chips themselves. Right now, for example, the two most powerful chips you can get are based on a Radeon HD7970, or Geforce GTX 680. The next two, down the line, are Radeon HD 7950 and Geforce GTX 670. Then you take the actual chip, and you look at which manufacturers you want to buy.

Say you want the 680. All 680-based cards are roughly the same in performance/power/clocks at the beginning. However, certain cards will be clocked faster (meaning they do more work) from the factory. However, in an ideal world, you can take any 680 card and overclock it to the same power. The difference is that certain manufactuers will build better cards around these chips, meaning they can pump more power into the chip, cool it better, which means in the end, it's a faster card overall. You will pay for that extra overclocking ability. This is why an Asus 680 or a MSI 680 costs $100 more than a basic Galaxy or Zotac 680. They build their own boards from scratch (instead of using Nvidia's recommended design), and use better parts and coolers. Whether that is worth an extra $100 is debatable.

If you look at reviews, they generally review the stock version of the chip, as designed by nvidia or amd. This will be the slowest version but it is guaranteed to always run at that speed. This way you can compare the baseline. Any overclock is considered as a bonus.

-- Brilliant thanks for this, I couldnt find this clear info anywhere. People dont give clear explanation, because actually, they dont know!

 

[Bacon1]

You registered to bump a 2.75 year old thread. Are you kidding me? :thumbsdown:

Once again relevant

 

[ChicagoX]

There are only two (2) manufacturers of GPUs that we care about. Nvidia, and AMD. They make the actual GPU (graphic processing unit), the little silicon die that does all of our graphic work.

Nvidia makes GeForce, AMD makes Radeon. That's just the name of their desktop lines. Nvidia also makes Quadro and AMD makes FirePro, but those are for business use, and we don't care about those as much for home user.

Everyone else buys these chips from Nvidia and AMD, and build a full card out of it (I'm 90% sure no one else actually manufacturers the chips on their own contract). So you cannot buy a Nvidia card or a AMD card. You buy an Asus, EVGA, MSI, etc, which has either a Nvidia chip or an AMD chip on it.

When you start buying cards, you look at the chips themselves. Right now, for example, the two most powerful chips you can get are based on a Radeon HD7970, or Geforce GTX 680. The next two, down the line, are Radeon HD 7950 and Geforce GTX 670. Then you take the actual chip, and you look at which manufacturers you want to buy.

Say you want the 680. All 680-based cards are roughly the same in performance/power/clocks at the beginning. However, certain cards will be clocked faster (meaning they do more work) from the factory. However, in an ideal world, you can take any 680 card and overclock it to the same power. The difference is that certain manufactuers will build better cards around these chips, meaning they can pump more power into the chip, cool it better, which means in the end, it's a faster card overall. You will pay for that extra overclocking ability. This is why an Asus 680 or a MSI 680 costs $100 more than a basic Galaxy or Zotac 680. They build their own boards from scratch (instead of using Nvidia's recommended design), and use better parts and coolers. Whether that is worth an extra $100 is debatable.

If you look at reviews, they generally review the stock version of the chip, as designed by nvidia or amd. This will be the slowest version but it is guaranteed to always run at that speed. This way you can compare the baseline. Any overclock is considered as a bonus.

Just registered to say Thank you for the easy explanation. Hope you're doing good in this pandemical year.

Thanks again.

 

[nurturedhate]

You registered to bump a 2.75 year old thread. Are you kidding me? :thumbsdown:

This seems to be required.... tradition or something...