aphic Processing Unit, Chinese translation is "graphics processor"

The direct translation of GPU is that the graphics processing unit is like the central processing unit of the CPU

ASUS (ASUS)

When it comes to the ASUS brand, everyone in the IT industry knows it. As far as graphics cards are concerned, the quality of ASUS graphics cards goes without saying. Mid-to-high-end products have won numerous awards, which comes from its strong R&D and production capabilities.

Compared with other manufacturers, ASUS's achievements in graphics card design are also impressive. Every ASUS product is fully tested before it is released, even if it is a homogeneous product. There are also ASUS-specific functions, such as the heat dissipation part of high-end products. When every new product is launched, the heat dissipation parts of homogeneous products are the same, but ASUS's are different. The ones used by ASUS are all specially tested. , choose the one that best suits that product from many options. And from the first version to the final version, the board design has never shrunk due to the decline in market prices. This is also the reason why ASUS graphics card prices are relatively stable.

However, the strategy of high quality and high price has not affected the market performance of ASUS graphics cards ----- Since ASUS graphics cards began to implement the "Simba Project" in 2004, ASUS graphics cards have ranked 10th in the world. With its market share and shipment volume of 7.7 million units, it has become the world's largest graphics card supplier. In 2005, its shipment volume was close to 10 million units, and it continued to widen the gap with the second place.

The biggest feature of ASUS graphics cards is their non-public version design. ASUS believes that the two manufacturers ATI and NV are good at chip design, not layout. From ASUS's perspective, the public versions launched by ATI and NV still need to be modified in some parts to achieve optimization, so ASUS I will add some of my own design ideas to the public versions launched by these two manufacturers to achieve product optimization. At the same time, in terms of graphics card technology, ASUS's determination to continue to innovate has brought many new ideas to the fiercely competitive but increasingly monotonous graphics card market. For example, the attractive SilentCool technology has brought revolutionary changes to the cooling of graphics cards - the SilentCool graphics card cooling system is a new generation of heat pipe cooling system. It is an exclusively designed heat dissipation group with a built-in heat pipe that can rotate 90 degrees. In addition to itself In addition to having good heat dissipation effect, the CPU fan can also be used to quickly take away the heat generated on the graphics card.

In addition, ASUS's many innovative technologies, represented by unique functions such as Colorful Technology, GameFace Live, GameFace Messenger, GameReplay, etc., have expanded the application of graphics cards to an unprecedented level, providing The vast number of consumers have brought more value-for-money enjoyment. It is the ASUS graphics card with so many special features that makes ASUS graphics card a partner of Blizzard, a world-renowned game company. Blizzard designated ASUS graphics card as the world's only graphics card partner in the world-famous game "World of Warcraft".

Leadtek (Leadtek)

When the name Leadtek is mentioned, DIY players with a little experience will feel more familiar with it. Leadtek graphics cards are almost a symbol of quality and performance. Since the beginning of the GeForce era, Leadtek has been an important partner of NVIDIA (Leadtek's graphics card product lines are all NVIDIA series products), and it also has a high reputation in the domestic market. But it is regrettable that Leadtek was acquired by Hon Hai and Foxconn in 2004 and became its subsidiary. The current Leadtek is no longer the previous Leadtek, just like the current Elsa is no longer the previous Elsa. Same as Sha: Leadtek is now only responsible for technology research and development, and the GeForce series graphics cards for civilian use are manufactured by Hon Hai. However, this "Leadtek R&D, Hon Hai OEM" model can make great use of existing resources and also makes Leadtek's graphics card products more affordable.

In terms of product features, all NVIDIA series products are based on public version designs and green PCB boards. However, the fan design of Leadtek graphics cards has never followed NVIDIA's reference design, and often uses pure copper designs for large air volume heat dissipation. Fans are used to achieve more effective heat dissipation. However, the biggest feature of Leadtek graphics cards is that its excellent circuit design is at least 20-30 times better than other brands of graphics cards with the same model and chipset, so many game enthusiasts are its loyal followers.

In addition, Leadtek is one of the few manufacturers that designs monitoring software specifically for its own products. Leadtek's WinFox graphics card monitoring tool has many functions. In addition to monitoring memory usage and bus resources, it also provides various diagnostic, color calibration and overclocking tools. It is worth mentioning that WinFox supports Nvidia's public version drivers, so you can directly upgrade the latest released program without waiting for Leadtek's own driver upgrade.

MSI (Micro Star)

MSI’s graphics card shipments are not inferior to ASUS, and it is one of the major graphics card OEMs. MSI owns all product lines of NVIDIA and ATI graphics cards, and is also the largest OEM manufacturer of NVIDIA public version graphics cards. According to MSI’s data, MSI graphics cards have very good sales in Europe and can almost be regarded as the world’s number one brand... All of this shows that MSI has the ability to make good graphics cards. In fact, from the perspective of market performance, MSI graphics cards The quality is really good too.

MSI's board and card products have a three-year warranty, and MSI provides a free warranty within three years from the date of purchase. MSI graphics cards focus on quality and stability, while early products did not focus on overclocking, but MSI products are still regarded as classics by many DIY users.

The red PCB board commonly used in MSI graphics cards is quite excellent in terms of workmanship and performance, and it mainly takes the mid-to-high-end route. MSI graphics cards have strong independent research and development capabilities, and they are one of the few manufacturers that can independently launch non-public version products that are more powerful than the public version.

GIGABYTE (GIGABYTE)

I believe that everyone knows the brand GIGABYTE from its motherboards. As one of the four major board manufacturers in Taiwan, GIGABYTE Technology has its motherboards from Since the beginning of the BX era, it has been deeply loved by DIYers for its exquisite workmanship and stable overclocking. Gigabyte's involvement in the field of graphics cards also began during that era, including the early TNT, TNT2, BANSHEE, and the unique G400, etc. Although Gigabyte graphics cards were depressed in the following years, by the end of 2001, Gigabyte once again came out to cooperate with ATI in the field of graphics cards, becoming one of the top first-tier manufacturers in the ATI camp at that time, and then launched Gigabyte MAYA, MAYA II series graphics cards. At that time, all Gigabyte graphics cards used ATI graphics chips, which were famous for their beauty and stability, and also gained a very good reputation in the market! Since ASUS joined the ATi camp and planned to produce A cards and N cards at the same time, it caused a chain of events among many industry manufacturers. Response, so currently Gigabyte is taking care of both ATI and NVIDIA graphics cards.

Since the second half of last year, Gigabyte, which has always been on the high-end route in the public mind, has increased its promotion of high-end, high-end and low-end graphics cards in the Asian market, from the mainstream 6600 and 6600GT to the mid-to-high-end 6800GS and 7800GT. , Gigabyte are the first to make their graphics cards the lowest price among similar products. At the beginning of this year, GIGABYTE X1000 series graphics cards were launched across the board, once again using "price-cutting" tactics to raid the market. The prices of many products are already comparable to second- and third-tier graphics card brands, which is really incredible!

GIGABYTE is in The graphics card takes a similar route to the motherboard, and the product is also accepted by players for its "exquisite workmanship and stable overclocking".

In particular, the recently launched DP series overclocking graphics cards are sought after by many DIY enthusiasts - unique heat pipe design, fan double ball production, stable overclocking of video memory and core, unique Gigabyte V-Tuner2 software, three-year quality service system and The quality assurance of the original Taiwanese manufacturer has attracted batch after batch of end users to purchase GIGABYTE products. Moreover, Gigabyte is also very powerful in the research and development of graphics card products. For example, the first dual GF6600GT graphics card based on SLI technology was launched by Gigabyte. It also launched a graphics card heat pipe cooling technology similar to ASUS SilentCool technology---Silent-Pipe technology.

In February 2003, XFX officially became nVIDIA's highest-level "Launch Partner" (only 18 companies in the world have this authorization), and officially entered the Chinese DIY market, showing domestic gamers a European and American style. The full range of nVIDIA graphics cards and Personal Cinema products have formed a comprehensive lineup of high, medium and low-end products to meet different consumption levels. At the same time, with one-year replacement, three-year full free warranty after-sales service and outstanding quality, XFX graphics cards are also rising in the attention of consumers.

XFX's graphics card products belong to the tepid type. The first impression is that they are made of good materials, excellent workmanship and design. The quality is consistent from beginning to end. It has become a The product of choice for high-end players. In many evaluation projects, XFX's products can also stand out among similar products. Although the price is still the same as that of other manufacturers, in terms of the product itself and the additional accessories, it is even more value-for-money

Colorful

Colorful’s first impression on consumers is that it is of high quality and low price. Often the lowest price of a product is created by Colorful, which is the vanguard of NVIDIA’s attack on the city. For example, the 6600 and X700 are the first ones from Colorful to have prices below 800. As a board card product distributor, it has occupied a large share of the market share - it is already the top three in the domestic graphics card market. Colorful has always been very cautious in the choice of OEM, so the quality of its products is upstream.

Colorful graphics cards feature unique silent cooling technology as a selling point, and its gaming series of cards aimed at gamers have firmly established themselves in the mid-to-high-end graphics card market with their features such as high-speed video memory, low power consumption, and extreme overclocking. At the same time, we designed and produced a SmartVGA software for our own product Colorful. Its functions are roughly the same as those of the driver control panel, but its functions are more powerful.

Sapphire

Sapphire is an important partner of ATI, and its graphics cards enjoy the reputation of original cards. This title is not excessive, because Sapphire not only Not only is it an AIB manufacturer, but it is also one of the OEMs for ATI's original cards. Sapphire's graphics cards can be said to be ATI's ace.

Sapphire Technology is one of the first manufacturers to reach an AIB agreement with ATi. Since ATi announced the ODM and AIB production and sales relationship with Sapphire in June 2001, Sapphire has always been ATi display Major supplier of cards worldwide. Sapphire is headquartered in Hong Kong, and its factories have been certified by ISO9001 and ISO14001. It has more than 2,000 employees worldwide and annual sales of more than 4 million ATi graphics cards. Sapphire's products cover all ATi product lines, and we strive for excellence from design and research and development to finished product production and sales channels. Sapphire’s market share in Europe is as high as 35%, and in the United States, Sapphire’s market share ranks first. The impeccable quality, production capabilities and product reliability of Blaupunkt ATi graphics cards are unquestionable.

Graphics card products all use high-quality electronic components and accessories, forming product features of high stability and strong compatibility, so that the interests of consumers are protected to the greatest extent.

GALAXY

As an emerging brand, the market has paid great attention to GALAXY in recent years, and its good sales performance has also stabilized the core AIC of nVIDIA. status.

As NVIDIA AIC and "Launch Partner" product release partner, GALAX can release the latest products as soon as possible. In 2005, the company launched the brand concept of "Galaxy Graphics Cards for Personalized Players" and began to seize the market with the Gamer Series and the Ultimate Gamer Series products. For example, the GALAX 6600 series of graphics cards have been sold well for many times, establishing GALAX's high cost-effective image. Many GF7 graphics cards also maintain this feature. At the 2005 Taipei COMPUTEX exhibition, GALAXY won the "Excellent Partner" award from NVIDIA. In August 2005, GALAXY received the "Triple Power Gold Partner" award from NVIDIA.

As an AIC manufacturer, they have spared no effort to design a variety of non-public products for users, featuring "strong overclocking capability, dual BIOS, buzzer alarm, and support for core voltage adjustment". These features fully guarantee the safety of users' overclocking and modification, allowing you to take advantage of every advantage of GALAXY graphics cards as you wish. For example, the Qisha Edition series and Player Edition system products have unique comprehensive overclocking characteristics, which are definitely worthy of the title. He is the shameless killer in the NV camp.

Tongde OEM. I am new to the forum and don’t know what Tongde OEM is. Later, I gradually understood that Tongde is a large OEM factory. The commonly referred to Tongde products are the five channel manufacturers: Colorful, Shuangmin, Onda, Yeston and Mingxuan, commonly known as the "Tongde Five Tigers".

When it comes to Tongde products, many netizens on forums (including other forums) give advice: poor quality and poor after-sales service, which is a sign that Tongde will continue to have power. I began to slowly accept this view. But as time went by, I felt something was wrong. Colorful, Shuangmin, Onda, Yeston, and Maxxuan are so overwhelmingly displayed in my local computer mall that nothing can compare to XFX Sapphire. (How about other places? I haven’t been there, so I don’t know, so I won’t say more.) Questions began to arise in my mind: What is going on? They all say it’s not good, but many bosses are selling it. If the quality is really poor and the after-sales service is not good, wouldn’t the bosses have to return the product all day long and quarrel with people every now and then? Can this thing also bring them interest rates? Are they mentally ill? Check online with questions.

In September, Colorful 115K, Shuangmin 80K, Onda 60K, Yeston 25K, Mingxuan 80K were shipped through mainland China channels. The Tongde Five Tigers totaled 360K. There was also 70K of Xiaoyingba manufactured by Tongde. On the other hand, XFX 83K, Sapphire GALAXY did not make the top ten.

In October, Mainland China channels shipped Colorful 87K, Shuangmin 62K, Onda 48K, Yingtong 23K, Mingxuan 55K, and Tongde Five Tigers totaled 275K. Xiaoyingba 53K manufactured by Tongde. XFX has 58K, GALAXY has 36K, and Blaupunkt can’t even make it into the top 10. Dizzy! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! The shipment volume of high-quality brands in the market cannot even reach one-third of that of the German Five. (Not counting Xiaoyingba) Haha. . . . . . . . . From a marketing perspective, in front of Tongde, Sapphire and others are just small factories, and they are no match for Tongde's large factories. If Xunjing continues to develop like this in the mainland market, Sapphire will fail sooner or later if it doesn't work hard. Tongde will be driven out of the graphics card market.

After reading the above products, I feel that Tongde is better than XFX, Sapphire, GALAXY, etc. in terms of procurement cost, comprehensive board design, and sales channels. In terms of PCB boards alone, the total of Tongde's five tigers in October was 275K, while XFX only had 58K, which was less than one-third of Tongde's. In terms of supply of raw materials, large quantities are always preferred. I don’t care whether you are a large OEM or a first-tier factory. The party with large quantities can get a lower price, and in the end, the benefits are still the end consumer.

OEM factories generally take orders from channel vendors. After the new graphics card core comes out, the channel vendors will provide the price, performance requirements, and source material requirements at the first time or through follow-up methods based on their own market positioning. It is designed by the OEM factory. After the OEM factory gets the requirements, it designs a sample card and then sends it to the channel dealer for testing. If it is not satisfied, it will be taken back and modified until the final product is finalized. The process was actually constant design research. Due to cost and market demand reasons, the public version started to come out. Later, each company gradually segmented the market by making graphics cards with different requirements based on market conditions. Think about the time when 5 to 6 channel dealers all had different requirements. The OEM factory had to do 5 to 6 such design studies to satisfy its different customers. In terms of raw material selection, the design of various ideas was better than that of a single factory. Much more. Slowly, the selection of raw materials and the design of various ideas will mature. We will also have a clearer understanding of consumer requirements. In the end, there were a large number of homogeneous products that ordinary consumers could identify with. At the same time, in terms of channels, there are five companies versus one, how can XFX Sapphire and the others be rivals! However, using scolding Tongde to attack 5 channel dealers at the same time is also a high-end marketing method. If you are doing business, you can learn from it. Take the fire out of the cauldron! ! ! hehe. . . . . . . . At this time, if XFX Sapphire wants to survive in this market, it can only work hard on quality and after-sales service. If they couldn't do these two things well, they would have been kicked out by Tongde and the channel dealers below.

Regarding the issue of poor quality of Tongde’s products, I don’t know what its specific anti-revision rate is (I think it’s the anti-revision rate, not the amount of anti-revision!!!). But I think Tongde’s anti-revisionist power is definitely higher than Xunjing’s! ! ! Let’s look at the shipments of Colorful and Yeston, both of which are Tongde OEMs, from September to October. In those two months, Colorful’s market strategy was obviously more advanced than Yeston’s, and XFX had to bow its head in front of Colorful. . It is normal for the anti-revision rate to be high when the quantity is large. Think about it, multiply the shipments of both factories by 10. The total of Tongde Five Tigers is 3.6K, and XFX is 0.83K. Haha...there are so many people calling Tongde garbage! Among them, there are some graphics card channel dealers who use price as their main means of attack. They give Tongde the lowest price when placing orders, but Tongde cannot do a loss-making business. You get what you pay for, so they have to lower the choice of raw materials. Standard. In the same way, some channel vendors will also require Tongde to produce high-quality graphics cards due to their own market positioning (you wouldn’t think that every graphics card and model of channel vendors such as Colorful, Shuangmin, Onda, Yeston, and Maxxuan is garbage. goods?), but even so its cost is lower than other manufacturers. Remember that OEMs have no contact with consumers. How you position yourself in the market is your business. After you give your request, it is your business to respond to the market. In the end, you will screw up your own brand. It's also your business. This principle is not only suitable for Tongde but also for other foundries! ! ! Remember! ! ! Please think about this principle before scolding Tongde. Poor after-sales service is actually caused by the negative impact of huge quantities. Due to the large amount of anti-repair, there will be huge pressure in the deployment of personnel and materials. If Tongde opens a dedicated maintenance factory, the cost will increase, and the increase in cost will eventually be reflected in the price of the terminal. hehe. . . . . . . . He was in a dilemma what to do! ! ! I have no choice but to choose a balance between sales volume and cost. This has caused the negative impact of today's poor after-sales service.

Did you spot a problem? While 360K consumers chose Tongde, which was criticized as rubbish, 0.83K XFX users got indirect benefits from Tongde! ! ! It is precisely because of Tongde's foundry and large-scale procurement and channel advantages that large-scale shipments have quickly lowered the price of graphics cards. It has also driven up the prices of graphics card manufacturers such as XFX, Sapphire, and GALAXY. We can buy XFX faster and at a lower price. hehe. . . It seems that these famous manufacturers still have to live according to Tongde's face. If the price does not keep up with Tongde, they may be eaten by Tongde's five tigers.

It’s quite interesting that those who should be thanked are scolded all day long, while those who should not be thanked for the money you spent originally are given high salary! ! ! Have you ever thought about what would happen to the IT market without foundries such as Tongde and channel providers such as Colorful? Touch your pocket and think about it (don’t think about it if you have a lot of rice).

Go back to the forum and look at the posts of netizens, and think about it quietly. In fact, each company has its own market positioning and different customer groups. Everyone should treat large OEMs, private brand factories, and channel distributors with a fair attitude. After all, the ultimate beneficiary of market diversification is us. Isn’t it a good thing to let them compete with each other? If a large OEM factory fails, we will be sad about the price. If the private label factory has no price pressure and channel pressure, will its quality and after-sales service be good? If the private label factory collapses, we will have a headache for superior quality and after-sales service. If the big OEM factory loses the pressure on quality and after-sales service, does it need to reduce prices quickly? If all the distributors fail in the market, will there be so many brands for us to choose from?

The above personal opinion is only based on the mainland business environment.

Rainbow, Shuangmin, Onda, Yeston, and Maxxuan Card are all OEM products. They do not have N card production lines and are not AIC. Most of them are manufactured by Tongde in Taiwan, the quality is average, the positioning is mid-to-lower, and they win with price! Tongde is the core AIC, but Tongde is an alternative, famous for its large shipment volume, average workmanship, and average quality!

There are only 19 core AICs in the world!

GALAXY, Xiangsheng, and Inzhong are AICs. AICs are manufacturers with N-card production lines. They can produce them themselves, but the shipment volume is not large, so they are not considered core AICs!

XFX, core AIC, unofficial highest level partner (Launch Partner)!

However, the Launch Partners for different products are generally not fixed. This is mainly based on previous development cooperation and the technical strength of the manufacturer. NVIDIA will choose among close partners.

The launch partners of NVIDIA’s GeForce 7800GTX are: ASUS, BFG, EVGA, Gigabyte, Leadtek, MSI, PNY, and XFX; while the launch partners of GF7800GTX 512MB are only five: ASUS, BFG, EVGA, MSI, XFX. Being named the highest-level partner naturally creates a lot of momentum, but Launch Partner is relative and can only be used as a reference. The real official standard of NV should be the core AIC.

Graphics card level:

N card, merchants in core AIC that can release the latest NV graphics cards immediately: ASUS, MSI, XFX, (BFG, EVGA are not common in mainland China) and Leadtek, the only company in Asia that produces Quadro graphics professional cards, is better than other core AIC brands found in mainland China. Among the core AICs, Tongde is an exception. Tongde cards are exclusively for the five Tongde brands (Colorful, Shuangmin, Yeston, Mingxuan and Onda). Tongde cards are of average quality and workmanship, but they have a huge market in mainland China. There is nothing that NV can do with Tongde! There are also brands such as AIC’s GALAXY, each of which has its own characteristics!

ATI cards, the three major manufacturers Sapphire (Pannon), Powerline (Dynamics), Gigabyte and first-line ASUS MSI are better than Tongde cards!

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NV cards are divided into core AICs (19 Home), AIC.

● ABIT Computer (USA) Corporation, headquartered in Taiwan.

● Albatron Qingyun, headquartered in Taiwan.

● AOpen, Inc. is established and headquartered in Taiwan.

● ASUS Computer International, headquartered in Taiwan.

● BFG Technologies, Inc. is headquartered in the United States.

● BIOSTAR U.S.A. BMA INDUSTRIAL INC. BIOSTAR is headquartered in Taiwan.

● Chaintech is headquartered in Taiwan.

● eVGA.com Corporation, headquartered in the United States.

● Gainward is headquartered in Taiwan. Now it has been acquired by Tongde, but Europe Gengsheng has not changed and is still operating as usual.

● Geminan International LTD is headquartered in Hong Kong and its mainland sub-brand is Fu Cai.

● Gigabyte Technology Co.LTD Gigabyte, headquartered in Taiwan.

● Jaton is headquartered in Taiwan.

● Leadtek Research, Inc., headquartered in Taiwan, is the only manufacturer in Asia designated by NVIDIA to manufacture Quadro graphics professional cards. Now acquired by Hon Hai, Leadtek is now only responsible for technology research and development. As for the GeForce series graphics cards for civilian use, Hon Hai OEMs.

● MSI Computer (A Micro-Star International Company) is headquartered in Taiwan.

● Palit Microsystems, Inc. is headquartered in Taiwan.

● PNY Technologies, headquartered in the United States, is the only manufacturer of Quadro graphics professional cards in Europe and the United States designated by nVIDIA.

● Point of View, headquartered in the Netherlands.

● Prolink Computer, Inc., headquartered in Taiwan.

● XFX Technologies, Inc. (A Division of Pine) XFX, a subsidiary of Pine King, is headquartered in Hong Kong.

ATI Card Officially Certified Highest Level Partner (AIB)

● ASUS, headquartered in Taiwan.

● Club 3D, headquartered in the Netherlands.

● Connect3D, headquartered in Germany.

● GECUBE is headquartered in Taiwan and owned by Gigabyte Holdings.

● GIGABYTE is headquartered in Taiwan.

● HIS Keen Information, headquartered in Hong Kong.

● MSI is headquartered in Taiwan.

● PALIT Tongde, headquartered in Taiwan.

● SAPPHIRE, headquartered in Hong Kong, is a subsidiary of PC Partner. It also manufactures original graphics cards for ATI.

● TUL is headquartered in Taiwan, its sub-brand is PowerColor, and it is OEM for PowerColor. ShakeXun is now acquired by Hon Hai.

ATI’s three major manufacturers are Sapphire (Pannon), Powered by PowerRay (Dynamics), and Gigabyte!

Final summary:

You can know what grade the card you are buying is. After all, the cards from big manufacturers are expensive, and there is basically no difference between those from small manufacturers. So as long as the price is low, there is no need to buy cards from small manufacturers. When choosing brands in the factory, they are all products from the same production line with different trademarks. Do you think it is necessary to spend an extra 50-100 yuan for that trademark?

In addition, product group purchasing is available on the virtual machine group , super cheap