Are all ATI x1800XL based cards the same?

[DrivinWest]

I've got a Sapphire x1800XL 256MB card that is giving me some issues with a hack that I'm doing. I'd like to rid it of the Sapphire BIOS and flash it with the GeCube BIOS for their version of the x1800XL.

Per my understanding, the hardware between all x1800XL's regardless of brand is the same e.g. they're all made in the same plant and then branded with decals based on vendor (Sapphire, ATI, GeCube, HIS, etc.). Is that the case?

Assuming so, is the BIOS on the cards the same as well or is it vendor specific?

Many thanks in advance.

 

[b1lk1]

No, they are not all the same. Sometimes the XL versions can be running different cores and also there could be different speced memory on it. You need to make sure the bios you want to flash is for the same core/memory your card has. Take off the heatsink/fan and have a look.

 

[tofu]

The cores are more or less the same. I think it's the PCB configuration as well as the memory on the X1800XL. As for the differently spaced memory, very few cards differentiate here. There is one thing you have to make sure though: some ram on the X1800XL's are 1.4ns, however, some are 2.0ns.