Well, in the past, Nvidia would make a reference card design with a horrible cooler and power delivery, then AIBs would make an actual card that you want with proper cooler and power delivery. After some time, production of reference card would slow down or stop and custom cards will dominate.
For 10x series, Nvidia decided that AIBs are parasites that leech on Nvidia success and started designing their own "good" cards called Founders Edition that has a good cooling and power delivery. That was not related to the reference design card given to AIBs.
10x series was still meh in terms of cooling, better than reference, but meh compared to say EVGA FTW or really any other AIB card that isn't a reference design. Nvidia, kept nice things like Titan to themselves.
For 20x and 30x they doubled down on their own cards, both had good cooler and power delivery. Again, certain consumer chips for only available in Nvidia made cards.
Note: in all cases, some AIBs sell generic reference design cards under their brand.
> Surely they make more money if they sell the whole thing to customers themselves?
It's about who takes the risk. Yeah, their margin for cards is probably better than margin for chips, but:
- Nvidia had much smaller supply chain
- Nvidia didn't have to deal with distribution
- Nvidia didn't have to deal with end customer
- Every was sold in bulk
- Logistics were not as complicated
It's a fine as somewhat noisy read exhaust card that you won't overclock and hide in a case without glass. There is a use case for them, but like you said, it's not for average PC users.
For 10x series, Nvidia decided that AIBs are parasites that leech on Nvidia success and started designing their own "good" cards called Founders Edition that has a good cooling and power delivery. That was not related to the reference design card given to AIBs.
10x series was still meh in terms of cooling, better than reference, but meh compared to say EVGA FTW or really any other AIB card that isn't a reference design. Nvidia, kept nice things like Titan to themselves.
For 20x and 30x they doubled down on their own cards, both had good cooler and power delivery. Again, certain consumer chips for only available in Nvidia made cards.
Note: in all cases, some AIBs sell generic reference design cards under their brand.
> Surely they make more money if they sell the whole thing to customers themselves?
It's about who takes the risk. Yeah, their margin for cards is probably better than margin for chips, but:
- Nvidia had much smaller supply chain - Nvidia didn't have to deal with distribution - Nvidia didn't have to deal with end customer - Every was sold in bulk - Logistics were not as complicated