noob question about gpu flavors

[crumply]

i have no actual facts to base this on, but i am guessing that it is cheaper to make the various flavors of graphics cards (se, pro, xt, whatever) using the same chips and/or architecture on each board, and then disabling (either physically or with software) the high-end features in the lower priced cards.

a little like contact lenses--extended wear and disposable are the exact same lenses, they are just marketed differently, and one costs 20 times as much.

assuming my assumption is correct, that the se pro and xt versions are all basically the same, can you "crack" the disablement of the card to make it perform as a higher priced version?

 

[jagec]

Originally posted by: crumply
noob question about gpu flavors

I like Grape, myself.

As to your question, yes, they use the same chips, and if you follow the vidcard forum you'll notice that every once in a while there is a card which is easily flasheable to the higher end model. The Radeon 9500pro>9700pro comes to mind.

However, sometimes the disabling is done in hardware....they still use the same chip, but they use a laser or something to cut some traces and disable the higher-end features.

 

[crumply]

thanks jagec. i'll visiit the vidcard forums. hope i did not post in the wrong forum.

 

[BEL6772]

Another thing to consider...
Chips from the same wafer don't necessarily have the same performance. Chip makers test every chip they make to see what "bin" they go into. The parts that test fastest go into the high end market. The slower chips go into the mainstream market. So, even if there is a BIOS flash or something to enable extra features/speed, you may very well have a chip that won't function properly even though it was made right alongside a chip that does.

Of course sometimes there is excess demand in the mainstream segment and a few 'fast' parts are 'downbinned' to fill the demand. That is the dream of OCers everywhere

 

[broly8877]

In many cases, it is actually much cheaper to develop a cut-down part.
NV41 (the new 6800) and the 9600 come to mind.

The core can be just too big and expensive, so developing a new, smaller core can save money (more cores per wafer).