system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5:How do many companies produce the same graphics card?

On NCIX I see the GTX 650 ti card from ASUS, Zotac, EVGA... How are so many companies able to make the same card? Is it still a Nvidia product? Are there copyright issues? Are they the same cards?
gpt
Nvidia and AMD produce chip "reference designs" which they license to other companies - such as ASUS, Zotac, Gigabyte, etc.

Those companies then package those basic "reference designs" however they like. Some may add a bit of extra memory, or they may overclock the chip for extra performance and package their card with water cooling rather than conventional fans, or it may be exactly as described in the reference design.

This is the same business model that ARM use for their mobile chips. They license chip designs which companies like Apple, Qualcomm, Samsung and Broadcom then use in their systems (e.g. the CPUs in iPhones, and iPads are usually made by Samsung or TMSC for Apple, using a design Apple license from ARM).