Question about Nvidia

I thought I would simply purchase an Nvidia GTX 460 graphics card. But when I search for the GTX 460 I find other names like Asus, PNY, Sparkle, Palit, Gigabyte, etc. And they list the Chipset Manufacturer as Nvidia. I think I saw only one that had Nvidia stamped on the outer case which confuses me. Your advice would be appreciated. Thanks

Nvidia is a fabless semiconductor company. They have a group that designs the chip, which is then sent off to a company like TSMC who fabricate the silicon in large wafers. Those wafers are then cut into individual die and packaged. Nvidia also provides a reference design for each card series, so for the GTX 460 for instance, they came up with a layout to use on the circuit board, what memory to use, what power regulation circuitry to use, what display outputs, the type of heatsink, and all that.

Companies like EVGA, Asus, PNY, etc all have the option of taking that design of Nvidia's and putting their own brand sticker and bios on the card, or, they can design their own card and make the card longer or shorter, adjust the clock speeds, voltage, cooling systems, etc - all in an effort to make their own product more than just the same old card.

Nvidia is starting to sell their own branded cards in some markets but to my knowledge these cards are currently manufactured by a third party and not by Nvidia themselves.

Each brand has its own advantages and typically they will come in the form of warranty services (some may only offer a 1 year warranty, others have a standard 3 year or even lifetime warranty), performance (some GTX 460s are clocked MUCH higher than what Nvidia set as reference), cooling (some cards use more advanced cooling designs that make the cards run at lower temperatures and/or with less noise), and finally...the included bundle. With some cheap cards you simply get the card itself, a DVI-to-VGA adapter, and 2x 4-pin molex-to-PCI Express Power adapters. While other cards will include other useful cables, free games, overclocking/tuning software, and so on.

So when comparing makers, if you are concerned with performance then look for the card with the highest clock speed in the same series. Nvida set the GTX 460 to run at 675/1350/900 but many brands are running significantly higher, an EVGA model I recently received to review was running 763/1526/950 by default, and I managed to push it easily to 825/1650/975.

hope that helps.