Yes, depending on the class of GPU * at the lower end, partner cards can support special form factors and lower power variations. * at the midrange, partner c

Yes, depending on the class of GPU * at the lower end, partner cards can support special form factors and lower power variations. * at the midrange, partner cards can, like motherboards do aswell, design better power delivery and cooling solutions to get more out of a specific chip than reference designs. * at the high end it's all about different cooling solutions and better power delivery to squeak every last inch of performance out of these chips. Adding to that, don't underestimate how much industry knowledge is there at the partners. They often know better how to make a board for a GPU than Nvidia and AMD themselves. There are lots of optimizations that require years of knowledge and experience to design.