OEM and reference cards

[Linnaeus]

I'm kinda confused between OEM and reference cards. I'm thinking that they are somehow related by definition. My question is:

Does an AMD reference card mean it is an OEM? It's produced straight from the GPU manufacturer with its personally designed cooler, right? And a non-reference card is not an OEM because they took the same GPU architechture and just added their own fan tweaking and core clock?

Thanks.

 

[M0j0jojo]

An original equipment manufacturer, or OEM, manufactures products or components that are purchased by another company and retailed under that purchasing company's brand name Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_equipment_manufacturer

 

[hunter315]

AMD and nVidia make a card at launch, that is the "reference card". It has a decent cooler and a mid priced PCB, the board partners later make changes to the cooler and board layout.

There really aren't any "OEM" cards since AMD and nVidia don't make consumer level cards themselves anymore, the cards you see tagged "OEM" are generally modified versions which are meant for HP, Dell, and others to put into prebuilt machines, they have different specs than the normal cards of that same number.