Are GPUs purchased direct from Nvidia binned?

[Lee Neighoff]

I stumbled upon a Craigslist post selling a reference GTX 980 manufactured and sold completely by Nvidia. In the post, the person mentioned that GPUs Nvidia itself sells are binned for the best performance, etc. etc.

I personally have an Nvidia-manufactured reference GTX 970, so I'm wondering if what the seller says is true. I wouldn't put it past Nvidia to do that (in the same sense as sending binned engineering samples to reviewers), but couldn't find anything about it online.

 

[MasterMadBones]

NVIDIA provides reference card designs to OEMs and you must have been lucky to get one of those. May I ask where you got it?

Besides that, reference cards do not provide any better performance than OEM cards. Some OEMs even overclock their card so they are faster than the reference card.

 

[Lee Neighoff]

NVIDIA provides reference card designs to OEMs and you must have been lucky to get one of those. May I ask where you got it?

Besides that, reference cards do not provide any better performance than OEM cards. Some OEMs even overclock their card so they are faster than the reference card.

You can buy reference cards, but there are not many places that sell them.

Here's what I bought: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/nvidia-geforce-gtx-970-4gb-gddr5-pci-express-3-0-graphics-card-silver-black/9855169.p?id=1219441201895&skuId=9855169

I wouldn't think that Nvidia would do any special binning (picking the best chips from each batch) for the GPUs they sell directly, but at the same time I wouldn't be surprised if they did.

 

[Someone Somewhere]

What packaging did it come in? Can you post pics?

 

[Lee Neighoff]

What packaging did it come in? Can you post pics?

I took these when I got the card: http://imgur.com/a/AHKA0

They have them at Best Buy for like $380.

 

[Lee Neighoff]

Could someone please answer my question, though? I would also prefer that you provide some sort of evidence, otherwise your claim has the same relevance as that of the Craigslist seller's.

 

[MasterMadBones]

Could someone please answer my question, though? I would also prefer that you provide some sort of evidence, otherwise your claim has the same relevance as that of the Craigslist seller's.

A GPU is only better when it can achieve higher OC's. I cannot provide any evidence that NVIDIA does or doesn't do GPU binning for reference cards, but I find it unlikely. It requires a lot of testing and a lot of GPUs will be built into cards only to be disposed of or taken out again, just to be built into an OEM's card. Such practices would cost NVIDIA tremendous amounts of money.

 

[Someone Somewhere]

I believe the chips all have to be binned before you fit them onto the card in the first place; it would occur at the same time as testing for bad sections on the chip, and determines whether e.g. a GM200 chip becomes a GTX970 or 980.

However, I doubt that the Nvidia-branded cards are higher-binned - the whole purpose of binning is so you can sell the better chips for more cash. They'd go into the 980s.

 

[Lee Neighoff]

However, I doubt that the Nvidia-branded cards are higher-binned - the whole purpose of binning is so you can sell the better chips for more cash. They'd go into the 980s.

The Nvidia-branded cards are more expensive than normal models from 3rd party manufacturers. Is that markup by Nvidia because they have to make them, markup by Best Buy, or markup because they're higher binned?