[SOLVED] Just Curious: Graphic Card Names

Oct 6, 2020
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In March of 2021 I assembled my first computer. At that time graphic card availability was extremely challenging. I spent months on waiting list, shuffles and checking 3 major vendors several times per day. In March one vendor had one 3000 series card of any variant in stock with a promise of delivery in 3 days. I purchased that card. I ignored the brand and all other labeling. I just purchased the only Nvidia 3000 series card that was not out of stock or out of the country. Due to the supply chain issues I was not willing to purchase a card that was not already in the country. I am pleased to say it was delivered as promised. The name of the card on the invoice is :

"ASUS TUF Gaming Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 OC Edition Graphics Card"

Since that time I have seen a dizzying array of cards with similar names. I have failed entirely to be able to determine if the cards I see today should be faster or slower that the card I have. I have spent time on the seller sites attempting to compare features with no success. This morning I went to the ASUS website and was unable to find any card that would match the name of the card I have. The letter OC and gaming show up on many different cards even if I limit the search to the TUF line.

The situation is worst when one attempts to compare cards across different companies. I just do not understand how one can tell what cards should out perform. I am ignoring the addition of the suffixes "Super" and "Ti"

I understand that it is confusing. I am wondering of what value is this confusion to the manufacturers of these products?

For the record I am very pleased with the card. It meets my video editing needs and supports my streaming activities. I can stream for hours without the cooling fans turning on or the CPU utilization exceeding single digits.
 
Solution
Does this look like your card?


I put your invoice description into Google and it was the first link.

The only difference is that "Nvidia" and "Graphics Card" is not in the product name in the site description. but that's because "GeForce" comes only from Nvidia. Just like Camry is only made by Toyota. And it is a "graphics card".

What exactly are you questioning?

Does the invoice indicate something different that the box that the card came in?

Or... Was this a new card in box, or a used card that had no retail box? You don't say if this was a used purchase, but the more I re-read your initial post, the more I'm beginning to...

joeldf

Commendable
Oct 11, 2021
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1,545
Does this look like your card?


I put your invoice description into Google and it was the first link.

The only difference is that "Nvidia" and "Graphics Card" is not in the product name in the site description. but that's because "GeForce" comes only from Nvidia. Just like Camry is only made by Toyota. And it is a "graphics card".

What exactly are you questioning?

Does the invoice indicate something different that the box that the card came in?

Or... Was this a new card in box, or a used card that had no retail box? You don't say if this was a used purchase, but the more I re-read your initial post, the more I'm beginning to wonder.

Is there a label on the back board of the card itself? Perhaps a model number is on a sticker. You can look that up unless the sticker was removed.
 
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Solution
Not sure what country you are in but i litteraly copied this "ASUS TUF Gaming Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 OC Edition" into google and a link to asus was the first thing on the list

typically the Ti and super cards fall in between the base card and the next card above it. i.e 3060, 3060 ti, 3070. I believe the 2000 series was the only ones to get the super name.
 
Oct 6, 2020
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My issue is comparing my card to others I see in published benchmarks. I have a clear definition of the card I have but when I see benchmarks in publications I never see a card with a matching name. I see words like "gaming" an "OC" but when I use the compare function on Newegg I never see a matching name. I used the ASUS website this morning and could not find my card listed at all. I can not be sure of my card's performance relative to the one called "3060" in the benchmarks.

I would like to understand the naming conventions.
I would like to understand how to compare cards when I see new benchmarks published.

Today I see benchmarks of the new RTX 3050. In the comparisons I see a card called RTX 3060. But which one? The base model? The ASUS alone has several versions and 3 different product tiers. I can't tell how fast my card is vs the one in the benchmark comparison.

I am not having trouble identifying my card. I am having difficulty understanding the meanings of the names I hear even within one brand. If "GeForce" only comes from Nvidia why does my ASUS card say "GEFORCE RTX" across the top of the card which faces the glass side panel of my case*?

I just want a rosetta stone so that I can understand the card compared in the benchmarks to the one I have.

This is not a problem, only a curiosity. I do not know why I have a persistent interest in GPUs. I keep looking at prices when I have no plans to upgraded in the next 3 or 4 years. I guess I find CPUs much easer to understand.

I am very satisfied with the system I have and should stop looking at GPU prices. Yes, I paid too much last March but I have learned much about 4k RAW video editing, color grading and streaming to YouTube. I have not seen a lower price that would save enough to be worth a 10 month delay in learning what I have learned about those two applications.

Michael.

* I would have put "RTX 3060" across the top.
 
"RTX3060" <- that's the performance of your card. That's the chip NVIDIA makes and companies like Asus buy the chip and put it on a PCB and slap a cooler on it.

The rest is basically cooler differences and maybe a 5% stock OC that would likely get overridden by GPU Boost3.0 anyway.
 
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Most comparison reviews are done with base model cards to get an apples to apples review. Back before the RTX series cards, getting a factory overclocked card meant your were getting a better silicon lottery card.

so lets look at the EVGA GTX 1080
GTX 1080 core clock 1607MHz boost 1733MHz
GTX 1080 SC core clock 1708MHz boost 1847MHz
GTX 1080 FTW2 core clock 1721MHz boost 1860MHz

looking at the FTW2 the factory guarantees that card will hit 1860MHz when boosting/overclocking anything over that is bonus. Now if you were to buy the stock GTX 1080 that only boosts to 1733MHz (guaranteed speed) you might be able to overclock it to the FTW2 boost speed or beyond but that would be luck of the draw as that card is not guaranteed anything past 1733MHz.

So that is only 3 cards from EVGA, each manufacture has there own stock cards and factory overclock cards with their own name scheme and of those factory overclocked cards none of them will have the same speeds between manufactures. That is why most reviews are done with factory stock cards, you might get reviews with factory overclocked cards to show how much of a performance gain you could get by a boost in core clocks.

Jump to the RTX series cards and ill look at my 2080 ti FTW3 Ultra gaming since i have it and know it
RTX 2080 ti clock speed 1350MHZ boost 1545MHZ
RTX 2080 ti XC2 Ultra Gaming clock speed 1350MHZ boost 1650MHZ
RTX 2080 ti FTW3 Ultra Gaming clock speed 1350MHZ boost 1755MHZ

Now as you can see my factory boost is 210MHz higher then the factory card, but with Nvidia's new GPU boost3.0 as long as the power factor, voltage, and temp stay in check it will boost well beyond what the factory boost number is. At stock settings my card will boost to 2025MHz but will normally hover around 1995Mhz sustained during gaming. If i turn up the power factor to 124% and max the voltage on the card it will sustain a boost of 2145MHz.
 
Its not posible to get reviews and compare all brands and models. Ther are really lots of them for each GPU tier.

What you need to look for in reviews is your GPU name, in this case RTX 3060 (which is the "brain" inside your video card).

You can look at reviews and charts and when you see RTX 3060 on them you know your current card should perform around those results. (As long as you have a similar system to the one the reviewer used of course)
 
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As I mentioned before, GPU Boost3.0 for Nvidia cards throws almost all the advertised boost clocks out the window. My EVGA 3060Ti FTW3 is advertised boost clock of 1800MHz. It regularly hits 2100MHz even in "power virus" tests. For this reason, reputable reviewers will publish the actual GPU frequency during testing so the reader can gauge performance accordingly. Note % increase in frequency isn't necessarily equal to % increase in performance.

Like we've been saying, RTX3060 is your performance tier. Beyond that, you're buying based on the cooler quality and price (and these days, or just something that's available anywhere near MSRP).

I'd suggest to enjoy your GPU and the fact that you got one. Don't get too worked up on whether some other factor OC'd RTX3060 outperforms yours by a couple %. You can easily equalize that metric by overclocking/undervolting with MSI afterburner.

Keep in mind that performance values published in any review are valid and unique only to the CPU being used in that review (RAM to a lesser degree). Also a lot of GPU reviews will use a manually OC'd CPU to remove as many potential CPU bottlenecks as possible.
 
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Oct 6, 2020
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Thanks for the responses. I have learned three things here today.

One:
I have learned that my factory overclocked card is not different from another non OC cards if one is overclocking the card. There may be a difference in the cooler provided. Mine is over 2.5 slots wide so this is consistent with observation. From this I gather that there would be little to gain by manually overclocking my card unless luck intervened.

Two:
It might be valid to assume that my card is marginally faster than the RTX 3060s I see in published benchmarks.

Three:
What I want does not exist. I want a resetta stone that will help me translate product names.

I am very pleased with the card. I do not know why these questions still trouble me. Yesterday I was able to get my iPhone to provide a second camera for my streaming system. Today I hope to get my BMPCC 4k to become a third camera.

Ok, I have to ask what is "FTW2"?
 
Ok, I have to ask what is "FTW2"?
FTW = For the Win.
FTW is one of many EVGA brand naming conventions of their GPU offerings (SC, XC, FTW, then combine that with Gaming/Black/Ultra/Ultra Gaming. ie RTX 2060 Super SC Ultra Gaming is a card they sell). Every manufacturer uses different names. For EVGA, FTW are usually their highest end cards.

(not all-encompassing)
AsRock: Challenger, Phantom, Taichi
Asus: Dual, TUF, Strix
EVGA: SC, XC, FTW
Gigabyte: OC, Windforce, Eagle, GamingX, Aorus
MSI: Mech, Ventus, Gaming
Sapphire: Pulse, Nitro
etc etc
 
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Oct 6, 2020
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Yes, I have wondered about these names! When I got my card it said TUF and I had no idea what this means. I was planning to purchase an MSI card where I saw the names Ventus and Gaming. These meant nothing to me. I was planning to get an MSI card only because I was using an MSI motherboard. I got the ASUS card because it was available one Saturday at the end of March 2021 at 2 in the afternoon. There were a hand full of 3060s at one vender. I did not care what brand and 3060 was the only choice in the 3000 series.

After I got the card working we were disappointed to learn from MSI that its software to control the RGB functions were only compatible with MSI GPU cards.