Graphic Cards What is a nVidia Reference Card...

Reference card is actually the one manufactured by NVIDIA or ATI themselves (Including Graphics Processor,Cooling, PCB design, Other components etc), Sometimes even manufacturers get it from NVIDIA/ATI and put their Logo on it. Such card can also be termed as reference card.

Whereas the non reference cards come from manufacturers which purchase the graphics processor from NVIDIA or ATI and then mount that on there own PCB design with different types of Cooling solutions..
 
chiragsthakur said:
Reference card is actually the one manufactured by NVIDIA or ATI themselves (Including Graphics Processor,Cooling, PCB design, Other components etc), Sometimes even manufacturers get it from NVIDIA/ATI and put their Logo on it. Such card can also be termed as reference card.

Whereas the non reference cards come from manufacturers which purchase the graphics processor from NVIDIA or ATI and then mount that on there own PCB design with different types of Cooling solutions..
Click to expand...

Is there any benefit by buying a ref. card? Is it generally available in the market?
 
I have never bought a reference card :( Havent even seen them personally in market.. Some users might be having it..

I dont see any benefit nor loss in buying reference cards... IMO Cooling might be an issue...
 
^^ Absolutely right...Cooling is certainly an issue with the reference cards, so people with high usage avoid them...

The cooling solutions provided by the non-reference cards are just great [E.g. Twin Frozr Series :hap2:]
 
Reference card is nothing but only the design given by nvidia/ati to the fellow manufacturers on the lines of which the respective cards are thus manufactured. Every manufacturer is in competition to offer his best product than his rivals. So apart from the reference pcb layout design, the rest part is solely designed by the manufacturer himself in terms of cooling, overclocking, underclocking etc. factors as per he wants them but within the valid specifications.

So in reality you cant simply go out and ask any shop to give you a original,a reference or a dummy card. Even they will get confused as to what you exactly want.
 
BikeAdvice said:
Is there any benefit by buying a ref. card? Is it generally available in the market?
Click to expand...

NVIDIA doesn't sell reference cards to consumers. Instead, it licences the design out to its partners, who then come out with their own versions.
 
Hope you are not confusing reference card to reference design. Reference design is the PCB layout design by Nvidia or AMD. Whenever a new chip is launched, initially almost all third party vendors would be selling a "reference design".
 
+1 to what Aces said.

Afaik there aren't any reference _cards_ being manufactured these days. Back in the day ATI used to make Built By ATI (BBA) cards, where they made the whole thing themselves, but it doesn't happen any more.
 
Ya, reference design = the diffused core on the PCB. A plastic shroud with a squirrel fan, and rubberized thermal pads for mosfet cooling. That is about it.

My 4890's are of those type.
 
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