Can you explain video cards please?

Ok so the two main brand things are ATI and NVidia right? What are all the other brands like BFG, Sapphire, Innovision, Gainward? I mean when I'm looking up a Nvidia geforce video card there's actual 'nvidia geforce 7xxx etc' cards and then i find all these others like 'innovision 7xxx Geoforce blah blah.'





If I require a Nvidia geforce 7600, that would include all the other brands that say they're a (eg) ' InnoVision nVidia GeForce 7600 GS 512MB' or 'Gainward BLISS 7600GS nVidia GeForce 7600 GS 256MB', as well wouldn't it








Say you can get a Nvidia Geforce 7xxx in each Innovision, Gainward, Sapphire. If they each say they are a geoforce 7xxx from Nvidia aren't they all going to be the same? or do the companies change them? I'm a bit lost.





Please just explain the whole brand thing.

Can you explain video cards please?
the name brands like BFG or watever take a base ati or nvidia card and maybe overclock it slightly and create their own custom bios for it sometimes to give slightly better proclaimed performance ... and thats somthing u can usually do urself with a cheaper base card ... and they also sometimes add a custom fan.
Reply:Nvidia and ATI mainly make video card chipsets. The different brands then create cards using the chipset and ram. The different companies will use different types and amounts of RAM to complete a card. The companies may use slightly different drivers because of this also. But for the most part, they will probably be very similar.





Note: be careful of cards using turbocache or hypermemory, they use system memory instead of only memory on the video card (which will be slower).
Reply:What the person said before used to be true but most manufacturers who sell cards based on Nvidia or ATI chipsets are what they call reference cards. Which in many cases means that they are made oversees by a company who then ships them to companies like BFG EVGA Gainward etc for branding. So your best bet is to get the one with the best warranty and customer service. Used to be EVGA was hands down the best as they used to cross ship and pay return shipping. They are stil prob the best since you can basically overclock the card till it explodes, ship them the pieces and they will ship you back a working card without question. Lifetime warranty etc. I would stay awat from the 7600 unless you get it very very cheap. The 8800's are out now and you can pick up 7800 or 7900s cheap and they blow the 7600 out of the water by a mile.