16 GB Memory Mod of Radeon RX 5600 XT Adds 29% Performance

[btarunr]

The mid-range AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT is not supposed to have 16 GB of video memory, but the same hardware modders from Brazil behind the recent GeForce RTX 2080 16 GB mod, had other ideas for the card. They have not only increased the memory size to 16 GB through memory chip replacement, but also succeeded in widening its memory bus to 256-bit. The RX 5600 XT was launched in 2018 with 6 GB of 14 Gbps GDDR6 memory over a 192-bit memory interface. The card is cut down from the 7 nm "Navi 10" silicon powering the RX 5700 series, by enabling 36 out of 40 compute units (the same count as the RX 5700), but with a truncated 192-bit memory bus wired to 6 GB of memory (and so 25% lower memory bandwidth).

Paulo Gomes and Ronaldo Buassali pulled off the daring Radeon RX 5600 XT memory mod, which involves not just increasing the memory size from 6 GB to 16 GB, but also widening the memory bus from 192-bit to 256-bit. Since the RX 5600 XT is based on the same "Navi 10" GPU as the RX 5700, custom-design graphics cards tend to reuse PCB designs from the RX 5700 series, and have two vacant memory pads that are sometimes exposed and even balled. The mod involves three key stages—to replace the six 8 Gbit GDDR6 memory chips with eight 16 Gbit ones; to add the required electrical SMDs and VRM components for the two additional memory chips; and lastly, to give the card a modified BIOS that can let it play with the new memory configuration. The "Navi 10" silicon also powers certain Radeon Pro graphics cards with 16 GB of memory using 16 Gbit memory chips, so that could be the starting point for the BIOS mod.



The mod was successful, and the GPU was able to address 16 GB of memory, which means it is able to benefit from the wider memory bus. During the course of the BIOS mod, the team also gave GPU overclocking their best shot. The result of the memory mod and GPU overclock is a massive 29% performance gain when tested with Unigine Superposition. The resulting card is essentially a Radeon RX 5700 with 16 GB and a GPU, but its ingenuity is beyond impressive!

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[docnorth]

11% is already higher than rx 5700. 26% is higher than rx 5700 xt. It smells like BS, or after a few days like a burnt GPU due to extreme OC.
P.S. The comment is about gaming performance, not synthetic benchmarks.
The only useful conclusion is that the GPU was gimped because of the narrower bus, like, cough-cough, some Nvidia GPUs.

 

[Beginner Macro Device]

Eh, only if it wasn't so cost inefficient. Only viable if you have metric tonnes of stuff laying around and a couple hours spare time on top of itchy fingers.

I also don't think this GPU benefits from being above 8 GB as much. Too far behind 3070 Ti where this mod is almost a must.

 

[Jeffersonsilva_vga]

Thank you for publishing your mod, for more content about video cards follow us on our intagrans: @Jeffersonsilva_vga @paulgomesvga

 

[Lew Zealand]

So they modded it to a 5700 XT with double the VRAM and it performs like a 5700 XT. With more VRAM.

I get the impression that instead of selling for $280, this card might have gone for $500 so maybe AMD's design for the 5600XT was a decent set of tradeoffs to hit a price point.

But this is a fun project, I have 2x 5600 XTs and if I had the skills I'd be trying out at least an 8GB mod on one of them.

 

[Redwoodz]

Eh, only if it wasn't so cost inefficient. Only viable if you have metric tonnes of stuff laying around and a couple hours spare time on top of itchy fingers.

I also don't think this GPU benefits from being above 8 GB as much. Too far behind 3070 Ti where this mod is almost a must.

You have no clue. This has nothing to do with any other card or any other brand or if it's commercially viable.

 

[Beginner Macro Device]

You have no clue. This has nothing to do with any other card or any other brand or if it's commercially viable.

Nah, it's you who has no clue.

This modification is the proof-of-concept. It works. Hurray I guess. We got another one unique device.
This modification, however, doesn't explicitly lead to money saving. Usually the opposite. Despite overclocking and hardware mods originally "invented" as a mean to saving money.

 

[Redwoodz]

Nah, it's you who has no clue.

This modification is the proof-of-concept. It works. Hurray I guess. We got another one unique device.
This modification, however, doesn't explicitly lead to money saving. Usually the opposite. Despite overclocking and hardware mods originally "invented" as a mean to saving money.

Try let's just experiment and see if we can make it work.

 

[Dwarden]

quite impressive mod ... nice proof of concept ...

i would like to see how would 7900 GRE fare with faster GDDR6 memory
instead of the 18Gbps to have it 19.5Gbps (RX 7800 XT) or 20Gbps (RX 7900 XT)
as IMHO that GRE suffers from having same memory speeds like RX 7700 XT

so some hardware modder could prove if that was good or bad design decision