Modded NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 With 16 GB of VRAM Shows Impressive Performance Uplift

[GFreeman]

A memory mod for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 that doubles the amount of VRAM showed some impressive performance gains, especially in the most recent games. While the mod was more complicated than earlier ones, since it required some additional PCB soldering, the one tested game shows incredible performance boost, especially in the 1%, 0.1% lows, and the average frame rate.

Modding the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 to 16 GB VRAM is not a bad idea, since NVIDIA already planned a similar card (RTX 3070 Ti 16 GB), but eventually cancelled it. With today games using more than 8 GB of VRAM, it means that some RTX 30 series graphics card can struggle with pushing playable FPS. The modder benchmarked the new Resident Evil 4 at very high settings, showing that those additional 8 GB of VRAM is the difference between stuttering and smooth gameplay.



As said, the recent mod is a bit more complicated than the earlier one done on some earlier graphics cards, as some resistors needed to be grounded in order to support higher-capacity memory ICs, and the modded graphics card had to be set to high-performance mode in the NVIDIA Control Panel, in order to fix flickering.

AMD marketing has recently called out NVIDIA and pulled the VRAM card, but with NVIDIA launching the GeForce RTX 4070 with 12 GB of VRAM, it appears this won't change anytime soon. These mods show that there is definitely the need for more VRAM, at least in some games.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[natr0n]

I would do this if I had the tools.

 

[ZoneDymo]

planned obsolescence

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

I would do this if I had the tools.

I'd buy one.

 

[Vayra86]

Where's my popcorn at

 

[ClaytonCTA]

Congratulations to the Brazilian people there sending well in international forums.

 

[Space Lynx]

planned obsolescence

Nvidia loves the peasantry kneeling before them indeed

 

[playerlorenzo]

This MAGIC trick will make your 3070 not obsolete!

 

[Bomby569]

There was a local guy that modded xbox 360, and nintendo consoles, and it involved soldering in some cases. I guess a local industry could flourish from this. Those indian stores that repair phones and are everywhere could specialise in this

 

[tvshacker]

Might be a bit too late, but I would have loved if EVGA gave a last "middle finger" to Nvidia and launched a 16gb 3070/ti

 

[mechtech]

I wish they had 4 so-dimm slots around the gpu, so you could change ram quantity and speeds........if you so desired............just like a cpu............

 

[Arkz]

I wish they had 4 so-dimm slots around the gpu, so you could change ram quantity and speeds........if you so desired............just like a cpu............

Good luck finding GDDR6 SODIMMs

 

[LupintheIII]

Why not just power shunt an RTX A4000???
That seams unnecessary...

In any case yes, 8GB are not enough and has been for 3 years at least, that's why I sold my 3070 after 4 months post launch.

 

[mechtech]

Good luck finding GDDR6 SODIMMs

build it............................and they will come

 

[LupintheIII]

I wish they had 4 so-dimm slots around the gpu, so you could change ram quantity and speeds........if you so desired............just like a cpu............

That will just increase latency and complexity for no real reason.
An easy solution is just to give video cards enough Vram, 2GB GDDR6 modules are like $8-15 each, $18-25 for GDDR6X... Nvidia won't go bankrupt for that.
The easiest solution would have been buy an RX 6800 for more performance and less money tho.
Lets see how many will make the same mistake with a 4070/4070Ti...

There was a local guy that modded xbox 360, and nintendo consoles, and it involved soldering in some cases. I guess a local industry could flourish from this. Those indian stores that repair phones and are everywhere could specialise in this

Or you could just buy an AMD graphic card... I know, sound crazy, right?

 

[mechtech]

That will just increase latency and complexity for no real reason.
An easy solution is just to give video cards enough Vram, 2GB GDDR6 modules are like $8-15 each, $18-25 for GDDR6X... Nvidia won't go bankrupt for that.
The easiest solution would have been buy an RX 6800 for more performance and less money tho.
Lets see how many will make the same mistake with a 4070/4070Ti...

of course, but it still be nice to have an option like that.............

 

[Bomby569]

Or you could just buy an AMD graphic card... I know, sound crazy, right?

Buying any card, amd or nvidia at these prices doesn't sound crazy, it's actually crazy.
Anyway more thinking of the ones that already have one.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

planned obsolescence

It really does seem so. Or maybe planned gimping to make the upsell more appealing. Apple does the same thing. Base Macs have 8GB RAM, and 16GB is a big upsell. There’s no reason they can’t default to 16GB.

 

[Space Lynx]

It really does seem so. Or maybe planned gimping to make the upsell more appealing. Apple does the same thing. Base Macs have 8GB RAM, and 16GB is a big upsell. There’s no reason they can’t default to 16GB.

Apple does it with storage and ram, and it does work sadly...

 

[Jism]

I always wondered what was possible if we where giving the option for faster ram. Both camps usually place what's available and call it a day. But over time chips, speeds and quantity do change and by replacing it you could be looking at 25% up to 40% of memory bandwidth boost.

The polaris 480/580 for example, does'nt scale beyond 1200Mhz - it's memory bandwidth constraint. Now if we found a way to upgrade it's ram and push for even faster speeds imagine how much performance would be uncorked from such a chip. Replacing memory on boards is'nt old; it happened with even SIMM's which where single sided 2MB large; and one just figured it out to solder another set at the back side of the SIMM and suddenly have 4MB per stick.

 

[Space Lynx]

I always wondered what was possible if we where giving the option for faster ram. Both camps usually place what's available and call it a day. But over time chips, speeds and quantity do change and by replacing it you could be looking at 25% up to 40% of memory bandwidth boost.

The polaris 480/580 for example, does'nt scale beyond 1200Mhz - it's memory bandwidth constraint. Now if we found a way to upgrade it's ram and push for even faster speeds imagine how much performance would be uncorked from such a chip. Replacing memory on boards is'nt old; it happened with even SIMM's which where single sided 2MB large; and one just figured it out to solder another set at the back side of the SIMM and suddenly have 4MB per stick.

I think there is a definite limit to this concept, and I think you would hit that limit by testing this on a 580, maybe very specfific games like Hogwarts Legacy might run a little better at 1080p? That's about all you would see I think. Just a guess though, its a good question for sure...

 

[Jism]

Some polaris cards can do beyond 1633Mhz core. But it's obsolete since it won't really scale beyond 1200Mhz because it's memory bandwidth capped.

 

[MarsM4N]

Surprised this even worked. I mean, don't you need some custom BIOS for it to access the more RAM? Aren't they made "tamper proof" by Nvidia?

Where's my popcorn at

Want some?

 

[N/A]

There's no planned anything it's just what makes the most sense economically and the path they fell into like using G6X that is being too expensive and in short supply, g6 on the other hand is too slow. In case 3070 and 3080 were 16GB cards that would cause insane shortages and can't have a 3080 12 GB and at the same time 3070 with so much more Vram. In the case of 3060 apparently we can. GDDR7 doesn't allow for any deviations or room for possible scenarios at least as 12 GB 36Gbps is going to be insanely fast and insufficient. This means 5070 and 5080 are both 16GB with 1152 GBs wow. But without any clock speed advantage can't beat the 4090 which is so inefficient that's so disappointing, 16383 CU 176 Rops and barely as fast as a hypothetical 12288 CU 128 Rops or double the 4070 in performance.

 

[Dr. Dro]

Congratulations to the Brazilian people there sending well in international forums.

I always wondered what was possible if we where giving the option for faster ram. Both camps usually place what's available and call it a day. But over time chips, speeds and quantity do change and by replacing it you could be looking at 25% up to 40% of memory bandwidth boost.

The polaris 480/580 for example, does'nt scale beyond 1200Mhz - it's memory bandwidth constraint. Now if we found a way to upgrade it's ram and push for even faster speeds imagine how much performance would be uncorked from such a chip. Replacing memory on boards is'nt old; it happened with even SIMM's which where single sided 2MB large; and one just figured it out to solder another set at the back side of the SIMM and suddenly have 4MB per stick.

Memory bandwidth per-se doesn't change unless frequencies change as well, what changes is the memory pressure factor. Even if 8 GB is adequate for any given workload, often assets have to be replaced in memory whereas they can simply remain resident if more was available to begin with. Similar phenomenon occurs with system RAM, and why 16 GB RAM systems have a rotten experience most of the time nowadays - and the worst of all, many people still running only 16 GB of RAM aren't even aware of it.

I think there is a definite limit to this concept, and I think you would hit that limit by testing this on a 580, maybe very specfific games like Hogwarts Legacy might run a little better at 1080p? That's about all you would see I think. Just a guess though, its a good question for sure...

Availability of larger GDDR5 modules may prove a challenge, though, and I'm not sure a clamshell configuration can even be installed in most RX 580 boards. In any case - the RX 580 is a very weak GPU by modern standards, its performance has always more or less been equivalent to that of the GTX 980, which is now 9 years old. It's probably not as relevant on such hardware to go beyond 8 GB, and your doubt could likely be serviced by a Barco MXRT-8700 - a custom WX 7100 variant with 16 GB, if you can find someone who owns one and is willing to test it for you.