How does flashing the bios make a difference if clock speeds are the same?

[sersalpha]

How does flashing say a 9800 Pro to a 9800XT make a difference if you're already running at the clock speed of the XT using a Pro?

[kRaZeD]

i think the XT uses more aggressive CAS timings on the ram, which strains the ram more, but also gives u more performance. apart from that, i dont think there is that much different.

[DanTheBanjoman]

Agressive timings? Doesn't that mean you could OC your ram further by using a pro bios on a XT?

[sersalpha]

I'll take MHz over timings any day :D

[Frozen]

PRo is 380/340/ XT is 412/365. Its not the same...

[sersalpha]

True, but I have my 9800 Pro stable at 470/380. I just wanted to know if flashing to the XT Bios would afford me better performance. If better CAS/tRAS/tRCD/tRP timings are what I have to gain by flashing to XT, then it's not worth it to me since I'd likely take a hit in memory clock speed overclockability. I'm guessing that it would negatively affect my overall card performance.

[mpan3]

No, since you can already manage 470/380. which is waaaaayyyy over the XT stock.

[sersalpha]

So you think that I could still hit 470/380 with the XT bios? My card has the R350 core and 128MB of RAM - which bios would I use?

[pablofrogo]

Maybe.... the OC won't fall that much and it will give you a nice increase.

The lower latencies will more than compensate for the loss of Mhz.