How does ATi/Nvidia make money off their cards? - Page 2 - Overclock.net

*Chozart* · 07-14-08

Quote:

Originally Posted by A Russian :D

so AMD buys from TSMC, then other companies buy from AMD, then they sell it

No.

TSMC is a subcontractor. AMD gives TSMC the blueprints and tells them: we're paying you $xxx if you make a whole lot of these things for us. It's not really 'buying' since TSMC never gets ownership of the components throughout the process.

So the process is something like this:

AMD designs the components (most expensive part: R&D)
AMD makes a few of these components themselves, and tests them.
Design phase is ready
AMD tells TSMC to make however many parts they need for a negotiated price. Also, AMD purchases the memory chips and other components needed.
Once enough components are manufactured, the parts are sold to the card manufacturers
Cards are produced, and hit the market through various channels.

A Russian :D · 07-14-08

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chozart

No.

TSMC is a subcontractor. AMD gives TSMC the blueprints and tells them: we're paying you $xxx if you make a whole lot of these things for us. It's not really 'buying' since TSMC never gets ownership of the components throughout the process.

oh they give them $$$$ for make wafers of the 4XXX core. I remember reading for a 300mm wafer its costs about $5000 and due to the 55nm of the 4XXX it can make more chips on the wafer right? and has about a 70%+ of good yields. so then they buy the VDDR from someone else i would guess

*Chozart* · 07-14-08

Quote:

Originally Posted by A Russian :D

oh they give them $$$$ for make wafers of the 4XXX core. I remember reading for a 300mm wafer its costs about $5000 and due to the 55nm of the 4XXX it can make more chips on the wafer right? and has about a 70%+ of good yields. so then they buy the VDDR from someone else i would guess

yep. the GDDR is bought from the usual memory suspects (samsung is a prominent one).

A Russian :D · 07-14-08

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chozart

yep. the GDDR is bought from the usual memory suspects (samsung is a prominent one).

ok thx i would +rep you but you don't have the button

im amazed that after all that AMD can still make money of the 4850 :O can't wait for 40nm R870 in Q1 09

. umm one more question do you know how many 4XXX core chips are on a 300mm wafer ? i hear 65nm = about 100 cores on a 300mm

oh found it 55nm = 130 chips on a 300

so $5000/130=$38 or so + the bad cores = $50 per core

A Russian :D · 07-15-08

ok i found out that OMENs make less $$ out of this around $20 per card like newegg
It costs ATi $50 make the core ...sell it for $100-$110...then the companies assembly(like viosntek) the PCB and cooler sell it which costs about $35 for a 4850 so then they sell it to newegg for around $165 then newegg sells for $189.99-$194.99 and makes the less amount of $$. so either way AMD still makes money due to the price of the 4850 brining in lots of buyers

**t4ct1c47** · 07-15-08

All of nVidia's cards are assembled by FoxConn, but the GPU's themselves are developed in nVidia's labs. When it comes to companies like EVGA, BFG, etc... they all use FoxConn as the sub-contractor for the manufacturing process. None of the nVidia manufacturers actually have fabs of their own, they just slap a sticker on their cards and put them into their own packageing, which is then sent to the distributors, and then onto the retailers.

A Russian :D · 07-15-08

Quote:

Originally Posted by t4ct1c47

All of nVidia's cards are assembled by FoxConn, but the GPU's themselves are made in nVidia's Fabs. When it comes to companies like EVGA, BFG, etc... they all use FoxConn as the sub-contractor for the manufacturing process. None of the nVidia manufacturers actually have fabs of their own, they just slap a sticker on their cards and put them into their own packageing, which is then sent to the distributors, and then onto the retailers.

Nvidia has no fabs it has TSMC

so companies like Evga and Newegg make around $20 or so for each card?

and whats a sub-contractor?

**t4ct1c47** · 07-21-08

Quote:

Originally Posted by A Russian :D

Nvidia has no fabs it has TSMC

so companies like Evga and Newegg make around $20 or so for each card?

and whats a sub-contractor?

Sorry, I've corrected my typo, fabs should be labs.

A sub-contractor is a company that another company hires to make their products for them, or assist in some way in providing their main service.

Quote:

"Our today's article may seem boring to some of you, because we are going to examine another reincarnation of reference cards, packed into Foxconn's boxes. However, NVIDIA uses manufacturing facilities of this very company to produce its reference cards. So, theoretically we can say that it's Foxconn who actually manufactures these products. But still it's NVIDIA's engineers who thoroughly monitor the entire manufacturing process. Foxconn only owns the assembly lines."

http://www.digit-life.com/articles3/video/g92-8-p1.html

Quote:

Foxconn was at the top of NVIDIA's pile when it came to sampling with an implementation of NVIDIA's flagship nForce 590 SLI chipset because Foxconn was so happy with NVIDIA's own reference design that it decided to realise the reference design and bring it to market.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/200...nforce590sli/1

Quote:

One of the more interesting tidbits on the side has been Foxconn's ties to nVidia and Intel, most Foxconn motherboards are based either on nVidia or Intel chipsets, in addition, Foxconn has recently moved away from just contract manufacturing of nVidia GeForce-based graphics cards to carrying their own retail line of graphics adapters. So, all in all, Foxconn appears to be determined and ready for the big push into the retail market where recently only a handful survivors are battling the monopolist conglomerate formed by the fusion of GigaByte and ASUS.

http://www.lostcircuits.com/motherbo...xconn_975x7ab/

nVidia do not manufacture any of their motherboards and graphics cards. They design the GPU's and cards. They do have limited facilities in order to create small quantities of engineering samples while new GPU's are in development.

Many technology manufacturers operate in such a manner. The company I currently work for, AWS Electronics, manufactures products for many different organisations ranging from the UK MoD, right the way through to Joy Mining, an international mining equipment company.

Anybody who claims that BFG/EVGA/etc... manufacture their cards is misinformed and has no basis for their claims. I appreciate the limited sources I have provided don't prove that absolutley every nVidia card ever made was made by FoxConn, but you will not find anybody who can provide a source that proves BFG/EVGA/whoever manufactures any cards at all. As far as I know FoxConn has been making nVidia's cards for them at least since the GeForce 7 series.

Companies such as BFG/EVGA/etc... may hire their own sub-contractor to manufacture their cards, but they most certainly don't have the facilities to manufacture them themselves.