WEBVTT 00:00:00.280 --> 00:00:05.620 If you're in the market for a new graphics card, you probably know that for the time being, 00:00:05.620 --> 00:00:08.640 you have only two options when it comes to a GPU, 00:00:08.640 --> 00:00:12.080 AMD or NVIDIA. But once you've made your decision 00:00:12.080 --> 00:00:17.040 and you go to buy the actual graphics card, you're inundated with a ton of options 00:00:17.040 --> 00:00:20.640 from different companies like ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI and a bunch of others. 00:00:20.640 --> 00:00:24.440 Why are there so many and why don't AMD and NVIDIA 00:00:24.440 --> 00:00:27.480 just make the entire card themselves? 00:00:27.480 --> 00:00:31.920 And yes, obviously both companies make their own reference design cards you can buy, 00:00:31.920 --> 00:00:34.920 but cards from add-in board or AIB partners 00:00:34.920 --> 00:00:38.760 remain the most popular choice. Let's start by looking at this 00:00:38.760 --> 00:00:43.480 from the perspective of the chip maker. For example, CPUs for a desktop PC 00:00:43.480 --> 00:00:48.960 are sold separately from other boards. Although it wouldn't exactly be difficult for Intel or AMD 00:00:48.960 --> 00:00:52.680 to make their own PCB and slap a CPU on it, 00:00:52.680 --> 00:00:55.800 the issue is that manufacturing a complicated processor, 00:00:55.840 --> 00:00:59.240 whether that's a CPU or a GPU is a lot more involved 00:00:59.240 --> 00:01:04.160 than putting together a PCB with some traces on it. But if manufacturing the board is simple, 00:01:04.160 --> 00:01:09.700 how does that then tip the scales in favor of outsourcing that work to an AIB partner? 00:01:09.700 --> 00:01:12.780 Unsurprisingly, cost is a big consideration. 00:01:12.780 --> 00:01:15.920 Because the GPU itself is the big determining factor 00:01:15.920 --> 00:01:20.420 of performance for a home gamer and high performance models are difficult to design 00:01:20.420 --> 00:01:23.760 and produce, margins on GPUs are quite high. 00:01:23.800 --> 00:01:28.360 By contrast, a PCB is a rather low-cost, low-margin product. 00:01:28.360 --> 00:01:34.160 It's not hard to turn out lots and lots of them, but the amount of profit a company makes per board 00:01:34.160 --> 00:01:39.300 just on the board itself is quite low. But how about from the AIB partner's point of view? 00:01:39.300 --> 00:01:44.960 The calculus is similar, but just works the other way around. These companies are rarely just making graphics cards 00:01:44.960 --> 00:01:49.120 and are already in the business of making PCBs for lots of other components. 00:01:49.120 --> 00:01:52.440 Just think about how many AIB partners you know also make motherboards, 00:01:52.440 --> 00:01:55.760 which of course are just PCBs with capacitors and slots soldered on, 00:01:55.760 --> 00:02:02.600 as well as power supplies, mice, cases, et cetera, things that also need PCBs, albeit smaller ones. 00:02:02.600 --> 00:02:08.040 So doing this makes economic sense for both parties. NVIDIA and AMD get to pour money and resources 00:02:08.040 --> 00:02:11.440 into innovating where it really counts in the GPU itself. 00:02:11.440 --> 00:02:14.760 Meanwhile, AIB partners whose expertise is on the commodity, 00:02:14.760 --> 00:02:18.400 PCB side of things, can buy the GPUs from Team Green 00:02:18.400 --> 00:02:23.520 and Team Red, solder them onto a board and resell them to consumers for a healthy profit. 00:02:23.520 --> 00:02:28.180 And of course, there's also money to be made by competing in the AIB space itself. 00:02:28.180 --> 00:02:31.800 Partner companies can set themselves apart with out of the box over clocks, 00:02:31.800 --> 00:02:35.520 variety of cooling solutions, advanced power delivery built into the board 00:02:35.520 --> 00:02:40.480 to better serve enthusiasts and tweakers, and other features that result in a broad product stack 00:02:40.480 --> 00:02:45.080 within the same GPU family. So if you just need a certain GPU model 00:02:45.080 --> 00:02:49.480 that simply functions, you can pay something near the bottom of the pricing stack. 00:02:49.480 --> 00:02:54.520 But the companies can also make money from selling cards with more advanced features stuck on the PCB 00:02:54.520 --> 00:02:59.440 for a higher price. Not convinced by the theory? Here's a cautionary tale of what can happen 00:02:59.440 --> 00:03:03.720 if you try to do everything yourself. If you are a little older, 00:03:03.720 --> 00:03:08.440 you might remember when a company called 3DFX was a big player on the GPU scene. 00:03:08.440 --> 00:03:13.280 However, the company went on a business in the early 2000s and a big part of why was that they insisted 00:03:13.280 --> 00:03:17.040 on making their own cards after acquiring a PCB manufacturer 00:03:17.040 --> 00:03:20.680 and attempting to control the entire process top to bottom, 00:03:20.680 --> 00:03:24.880 vertically integrating. However, this decision led to cost and quality problems 00:03:24.880 --> 00:03:28.360 that could have been avoided if 3DFX had used multiple AIBs 00:03:28.360 --> 00:03:32.920 and the company soon collapsed under the weight of fierce competition from NVIDIA and ATI. 00:03:32.920 --> 00:03:38.600 So remember, there's absolutely no shame in not doing everything yourself. 00:03:38.600 --> 00:03:41.680 How do you think matchmakers stay in business? 00:03:41.680 --> 00:03:45.640 Just tell me who to date. I can't trust myself to swipe right. 00:03:45.640 --> 00:03:50.880 So thanks for watching guys. If you liked this video, give us a thumbs up, hit subscribe and be sure to hit us up in the comment section 00:03:50.880 --> 00:03:53.880 with your ideas for topics that we should cover in the future.