AMD Retail Radeon RX 480 4GB to 8GB Memory Unlock Mod Works, We Benchmarked

[rav]

nice!! this should start the lottery..

ps. the 4 extra gigs dont make much of a difference from what i can see..

8gb video ram ONLY makes a difference if it is needed. Running DX11 gaming benchmarks do not tax a system architecture where 8 gb will offer much of performance increase over 4gb.

However as DX12 and Vulkan begin to be better utilized by game studio programmers 8 gb and up will certainly will make a difference.

VRAM is among other things a page buffer. 4k video requires 199MILLION bits for every pixel per page. So do the math. Memory bandwidth per second in the RX 480 is 320 gb/second.

Consider the bucket analogy; 8gb of memory is just using a larger bucket to fill with the SAME volume of water that 4gb vram is capable of.

More Vram provides more "pipelines" to fill that bucket but if the bottleneck is the CPU then more VRAM will make no difference.

The Media benchmarking writers just do not want to provide accurate information to the consumer. So while buying 8gb of RAM for $29 might get you a percentage point increase in performance over 4 gb, the consumer just needs to know the value of that additional performance.

So for any given percentage in performance increase what would be your willingness to part with your cash?

Would you spend $300 to gain a 2-10% increase in performance?

Would you spend $29 to gain a 5% increase in performance? 8gb VRAM certainly future proofs your GPU investment for a very small outlay in cash.

 

[-The_Mask-]

Why is my 670 not unlocking into 1070? i have 1080P monitor, i times it by the refresh rate, i use backwards and sideways math, why does this not work?

It's not an AMD.

 

[Casecutter]

Why even bother releasing a 4GB card if it's the same 8GB card? AMD scamming people again to buy 8GB cards.

Beats finding out your only addressing 3.5Gb at full speed, and there a difference in Bandwidth performance!

Then again they might not, because they really need to push up sales, so this trick could have been deliberately put in for enthusiasts to discover.

Some AMD guy who sat on the computer waiting to get a $200 card just got the fringe benefit for believing... is a win in my book I'd say even if you could find a 4Gb reference going forward I would not consider seeing it have all 8Gb. Just a nice one time "perk" that seems to once in a while show up in a release for whatever reason.

This is probably only going to be true of reference cards which aren't going to be around very long. The same trick likely won't work with non-reference cards (AIBs will not install the extra chips).

Exactly...

If they never intend to make a 4GB version then this is another story.

I think there will be some more AMD/RTG reference but 4Gb will have just 4Gb.

I don't see how it's scamming anyone. They got what they bought and what was at least as advertised. If I bought the 4/8Gb it's what I said add to cart, I suppose there would be some that are jaded but they at the very least got all 8Gb as advertised

 

[chrishatred]

I did the bios flash on my XFX 4GB card and it worked! I tried the XFX 8GB dump from the TPU database first but the card didnt boot up (black screen - no signal). Switched to iGPU and did the flash with the linked file from the article.

Tested the capacity with starting 3 games the same time - fine!

 

[the54thvoid]

Beats finding out your only addressing 3.5Gb at full speed, and there a difference in Bandwidth performance!

Ask 970 owners - I never bought one.

Well, FWIW, I'm sure all those that bought the 8Gb versions aren't too unhappy. It is stupid of AMD though. It's lazy, I don't think it's marketing and yeah, the AIB's wont do it on customs.

And to show I can laugh at stuff, I think I found the 970's 'missing' 0.5GB on the back of my 980ti. Pesky Nvidia.

 

[AsRock]

I'm guessing this is good news for owners with multiple cards in crossfire. Not sure if it would make a lot of difference for single card user resolutions. Speaking of which, are we going to see a full review of a 4GB sample of the RX480 soon?

It's still a plus for AMD, and thinking about it there are 3 games i play that use 4G, in fact Shadow of Mordor with the HD pack recommends 6G although i ran it with 4G without issue.

 

[Recon-UK]

It's still a plus for AMD, and thinking about it there are 3 games i play that use 4G, in fact Shadow of Mordor with the HD pack recommends 6G although i ran it with 4G without issue.

SOM ran fine on only 1.5GB Vram GTX 580 when it asked for 3GB...

 

[Fluffmeister]

Ask 970 owners - I never bought one.

Well, FWIW, I'm sure all those that bought the 8Gb versions aren't too unhappy. It is stupid of AMD though. It's lazy, I don't think it's marketing and yeah, the AIB's wont do it on customs.

And to show I can laugh at stuff, I think I found the 970's 'missing' 0.5GB on the back of my 980ti. Pesky Nvidia.

I for one loved my 970, and looking at the TPU RX480 review it more than holds it's own. Maxwell on the 28nm process is fab, and only now people are appreciating how far ahead it was for it's time.

Anyway, lets hope most cards currently available flash to 8GB, AMD users need some love after all the hype.

 

[AsRock]

SOM ran fine on only 1.5GB Vram GTX 580 when it asked for 3GB...

Running 3200x1800 ?, but i do believe like Elite Dangerous it don't really need it but it uses it if it's available.

 

[Recon-UK]

Running 3200x1800 ?.

1080, completely maxed with textures on the 3GB recommended setting.
990mhz core clock, 4200mhz memory.
45-63FPS paired with Phenom II.

 

[CounterSpell]

all this fuss for just 01 fps?

what about the risks of bricking your card?

 

[Recon-UK]

all this fuss for just 01 fps?

what about the risks of bricking your card?

Flashed my old GTX 480's 5 times.. never bricked..
Flashed my old 580... never bricked...
Flashed a 5850, guess what? never bricked.

 

[truth teller]

https://github.com/caa82437/PolarisBiosEditor

thats great!

 

[xvi]

oh ffs. It's not a scam, they're not stupid for leaving that 8GB on it. It's standard practice. Everyone does this. Lower AMD Phenom II CPUs were just high end CPUs with cores disabled. Intel i5s are just i7s with HT and other bits disabled. Mercury Tracers are just Ford Escorts with fancier plastic. It's cheaper (and more profitable) to just leave the components there instead of having to design and produce two separate versions.

Flashed my old GTX 480's 5 times.. never bricked..
Flashed my old 580... never bricked...
Flashed a 5850, guess what? never bricked.

Not everyone is good at flashing.

all this fuss for just 01 fps?

Unlocking the extra memory isn't done for an increase in FPS.

 

[xorbe]

I've done plenty of bios flashing on my Titans ... even messed them up a few times so that the nv driver wouldn't load (but the default vesa or whatever windows has worked). You can in fact mess up the boost and power tables, and the nv driver just bails.

 

[CounterSpell]

oh ffs. It's not a scam, they're not stupid for leaving that 8GB on it. It's standard practice. Everyone does this. Lower AMD Phenom II CPUs were just high end CPUs with cores disabled. Intel i5s are just i7s with HT and other bits disabled. Mercury Tracers are just Ford Escorts with fancier plastic. It's cheaper (and more profitable) to just leave the components there instead of having to design and produce two separate versions.


Not everyone is good at flashing.

Unlocking the extra memory isn't done for an increase in FPS.

soooo.... what would you like with the extra memory?

 

[Norton]

oh ffs. It's not a scam, they're not stupid for leaving that 8GB on it. It's standard practice. Everyone does this. Lower AMD Phenom II CPUs were just high end CPUs with cores disabled. Intel i5s are just i7s with HT and other bits disabled. Mercury Tracers are just Ford Escorts with fancier plastic. It's cheaper (and more profitable) to just leave the components there instead of having to design and produce two separate versions.

AMD did this with their Phenom II quads- there's a market demand for dual cores> AMD runs low on dual cores/gimped quads> AMD locks down 2 cores on perfectly good quad core chips and keeps selling chips- seems to be the same here... gpu's/cpu's/widgets are no different- give your customers what they ask for.

The only thing is there are some folks (like us) know that you may be able save a few bucks by rolling the dice a little bit

 

[$ReaPeR$]

8gb video ram ONLY makes a difference if it is needed. Running DX11 gaming benchmarks do not tax a system architecture where 8 gb will offer much of performance increase over 4gb.

However as DX12 and Vulkan begin to be better utilized by game studio programmers 8 gb and up will certainly will make a difference.

VRAM is among other things a page buffer. 4k video requires 199MILLION bits for every pixel per page. So do the math. Memory bandwidth per second in the RX 480 is 320 gb/second.

Consider the bucket analogy; 8gb of memory is just using a larger bucket to fill with the SAME volume of water that 4gb vram is capable of.

More Vram provides more "pipelines" to fill that bucket but if the bottleneck is the CPU then more VRAM will make no difference.

The Media benchmarking writers just do not want to provide accurate information to the consumer. So while buying 8gb of RAM for $29 might get you a percentage point increase in performance over 4 gb, the consumer just needs to know the value of that additional performance.

So for any given percentage in performance increase what would be your willingness to part with your cash?

Would you spend $300 to gain a 2-10% increase in performance?

Would you spend $29 to gain a 5% increase in performance? 8gb VRAM certainly future proofs your GPU investment for a very small outlay in cash.

if the core cannot use it its almost useless.. the 390 8gig version had the same "problem".

 

[Mistral]

nVidia gives you "Founders Edition"
AMD gives you "Download More Ram Edition"

Pretty much in line with standard practice, if you ask me...

 

[Cruise51]

I don't see why anyone would complain about this. Like buying a 400 horse power car and finding out it actually has 500.

 

[arbiter]

I don't see why anyone would complain about this. Like buying a 400 horse power car and finding out it actually has 500.

Cept when you unlock that power you find out the rest of the drive train like the transmission and the rear end can't take the power could possible cause damage to the thing.

 

[AsRock]

1080, completely maxed with textures on the 3GB recommended setting.
990mhz core clock, 4200mhz memory.
45-63FPS paired with Phenom II.

Like i said i believe it takes what ever is available,l this is in 1080P.

 

[cdawall]

Cept when you unlock that power you find out the rest of the drive train like the transmission and the rear end can't take the power could possible cause damage to the thing.

Bad analogy

 

[xkm1948]

Nvidia: sells a 3.5gb card as 4gb, legions of people defend it. "Nobody needs 4gb"

Amd: sells 8gb card as 4gb, make it possible for you to unlock. Hordes of people calling it "scam"

This is why we cant have nice things, too much stupidity and ignorance.

 

[xkm1948]

I don't see why anyone would complain about this. Like buying a 400 horse power car and finding out it actually has 500.

Nvfanboys will. People need to bash on something to make themselves feel good.