Kind of reminds me back in the day where you could flash your Ati X800 card (12 pipelines) to upgrade it to 16 pipelines of the X800 XT model. (http://www.techp

Kind of reminds me back in the day where you could flash your Ati X800 card (12 pipelines) to upgrade it to 16 pipelines of the X800 XT model. (http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/100 http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/100). This decision corresponds with the quote in the top comment."It is far cheaper to make one very good chip for the highest market, and modify it slightly for lower end markets..."