Help me understand reference cards

[milomak]

We are talking about video cards here. What is this thing they call a reference card? Is it that no matter the maker, it is the same card just branded differently. The brand maker has not added any of their goodies on it?

 

[werner]

i make a graphics chip, and i am very happy with this chip. i put it on a circuit board, with capacitors 'n stuff, and it works well.

this is my reference card.

i then pass (via royalty payments etc) this reference design to gainward/asus/sparkle etc to make their cards, but designing a whole new pcb is a big deal, so normally they just base their design on my reference design..the one we ALREADY know works, the one which requires no further R+D input.

 

[cyberarmy]

It's usually called reference designed card. Nvidia/Ati will give GFX manufacturer a reference design/blue print of what the recommended layout of the PCB and components are before the official release of new products. And usually only one of those manufacturer that's very close to the N/A will manufacture the first batch of the graphics cards, then these cards go to different suppliers and they put on their own stickers, in this case 4850, reference designed cards all manufacturered by Palit in Dongguan, China.

Interesting enough, Palit is one of the biggest OEM/ODM graphics card manufacturer in the world, and they had released a lot of non-reference designed graphics card in the Chinese market, which involves a lot of R & D to re-design the circuit boards and components used to provide value for money (in other words same chip, similar RAM but at a much affordable price) to the customer, but we rarely see any of these non-reference cards here for some reason.

Reference 3850 from Sapphire http://images.sanhaostreet.com/News//2007/12/20071228162857202.jpg
MSI non-reference 3850:http://we.pcinlife.com/attachments/...58d6e4fb605bde33974WJirQeyYwAM5.jpg.thumb.jpg
One of the Palit non-refeerence 3850:http://pcdiy.i530.cn/2/lib/200803/11/255/qch-1.jpg

 

[milomak]

ah excellent