Monday, May 10th 2021
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Modded to Support 22 GB of GDDR6 Memory
Have you ever wondered if your graphics card could pack just a little bit more VRAM than it is advertised to come with? Well, if you have some spare time and some awesome soldering skills, you could find out yourself by placing higher-capacity VRAM chips in place of the standard memory. That is exactly what VIK-on, a hardware modder from Russia, has done with his graphics cards. Before, VIK-on modded the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 to support 16 GB of GDDR6 memory and modded NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 3070 to also support 16 GB of GDDR6 memory. Today, VIK-on has done it again and the modder has tested his skills by proving that it is possible to install 22 GB of GDDR6 memory on the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti graphics card.
The modder has taken a broken NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti GPU that was in very bad condition. He had to re-solder the GPU and fix some broken PCB traces. Finally, after that, he tried to install more VRAM than the card came with in the first place. The TU102 SKU is capable of handling up to 48 GB of VRAM, as seen with Quadro RTX 8000 GPU. However, the problem would be firmware support. VIK-on used a strap mod, leading the GPU BIOS to believe that there is much more memory present compared to the stock version, and the card managed to boot. However, some screen flickering was present and it had stability issues, so the mod isn't very successful.
Additionally, one of the biggest problems was that VIK-on couldn't source eleven 16 Gb GDDR6 chips to make the 22 GB GDDR6 VRAM configuration, however, it was proven that with appropriate soldering skills and a bit of luck sourcing components, you could mod your GeForce RTX 2080 Ti graphics card to support 22 GB of VRAM.
Sources:
VIK-on (YouTube), via Tom's Hardware
The modder has taken a broken NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti GPU that was in very bad condition. He had to re-solder the GPU and fix some broken PCB traces. Finally, after that, he tried to install more VRAM than the card came with in the first place. The TU102 SKU is capable of handling up to 48 GB of VRAM, as seen with Quadro RTX 8000 GPU. However, the problem would be firmware support. VIK-on used a strap mod, leading the GPU BIOS to believe that there is much more memory present compared to the stock version, and the card managed to boot. However, some screen flickering was present and it had stability issues, so the mod isn't very successful.
23 Comments on NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Modded to Support 22 GB of GDDR6 Memory
Not only is it properly built but it's newer, more efficient and just BETTER.
All of this and its not stable and flickers whats the point.
A 16Gb 3080 would eat into the sales of the much more profitable 3090. So if someone DID decide to make one you can guarantee Nvidia would suddenly not be able to supply said maker with the GPU cores anymore
I guess Nv and AMD put a stop to it, with all the shit variants hurting the products image
"excuse me sir but I exist"
IMHO A very good GPU's that was created is the 1050ti. There is a great deal they could have done with this bugger as that little GPU had so much potential. So to my Chagrin in hearing that Nvidia ramping up the 1050ti once again kind of made me smile. I would have love to see innovation on this GPU as well as others however...
Greed kills innovation. Greed kills just about everything in the end.
As for "the point" - the point is to see if it can be done. Nothing more, nothing less. And that's fine - it's pretty interesting to see, after all!
It's like swapping two 8GB sticks for two 16GB sticks in a desktop vs trying to add a fifth slot to a board
It's not practical, but it IS amazing to see the potential for higher VRAM variants of cards if manufacturers were allowed to by Nvidia/AMD, and saw a need.
3080Ti being an 12GB 3090 is a perfect example of this going the other direction (and what NV could have launched from day 1)
I mean if anyone hasn't tried doing it, how do we know if the controller is fully enabled, but since there is only 11 chips, the bus is 352-bit because of that.