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

[NaXter24R]

AIB won't ship in 4gb i think.

 

[Recon-UK]

I can only see this as a stunt to aid growth of sales, it's always a good trick AMD had up their sleeve through mistake previously, this cannot be by mistake as the full 8GB of Vram is on the 4GB versions.

 

[NaXter24R]

Probably in the future they do intend to have 4GB worth of chips on the card, however for now in order to be able to sell for a lower price and not to affect the sales of the 8GB version, they did this bios trick.

I think its utterly stupid from their part ... they could just sell the 8GB variant and let people wait for the 4GB for the time when it will come.

If they never intend to make a 4GB version then this is another story.
If they wanted more money for the same card, they could have done the nvidia move and have a founders edition, which brings nothing extra but it is more expensive.

Nope, check Samsung's specs for 4gb model

 

[xorbe]

I can't even fathom that they actually did this. Now I have to eat my hat.

What about vram clock speed? Wasn't the 4GB supposed to run slower?

 

[Recon-UK]

I can't even fathom that they actually did this. Now I have to eat my hat.

What about vram clock speed? Wasn't the 4GB supposed to run slower?

Anyone tested how high the "4GB" overclocks on the memory?

 

[dorsetknob]

Anyone tested how high the "4GB" overclocks on the memory?

Expectations to come with a review /test

I can't claim credit for that, there have been reportings before of the fact that the 4 GB card comes with 8 GB VRAM.
As far as I know I'm the first to have tested it, and successfully.

WE avidly WAIT

 

[truth teller]

so the review sample bios works on retail cards? no need to edit the bios that is shipped with the card?
nice! thx for testing! god, its starting to feel like good old mod times

 

[W1zzard]

Anyone tested how high the "4GB" overclocks on the memory?

To the adjustment limit of 2250 MHz, just like my 8 GB press card. It's the same memory chips rated for 2 GHz

so the review sample bios works on retail cards? no need to edit the bios that is shipped with the card?
nice! thx for testing! god, its starting to feel like good old mod times

Yup, I didn't do any BIOS editing, just grab the BIOS off the news post. MAKE SURE TO SAVE YOUR BIOS USING ATIFLASH BEFORE FLASHING. Then flash with atiflash 2.74 from our downloads section.

 

[suraswami]

AMD always has some surprise!!

 

[nem..]

Polaris Bios Editor:
Link: https://github.com/caa82437/PolarisBiosEditor
http://www.overclock.net/t/1604686/polaris-bios-editor

 

[the54thvoid]

This has to be the worst scamming scheme then. AMD sells you a cheaper 4GB card that you can flash to a 8GB card for free. Oooooook...

The scam is on those who pay extra for the 8Gb you silly billy.

 

[cdawall]

The scam is on those who pay extra for the 8Gb you silly billy.

It's not really a scam... AMD is likely doing this for yield sizes same reason why the voltage is cranked so high

 

[Ungari]

I can't believe anyone would complain about this.
What is wrong with these people?

 

[Xzibit]

 

[-The_Mask-]

The scam is on those who pay extra for the 8Gb you silly billy.

It's only possible for the first ones build by AMD with only a sticker from manufacturer like Power color or XFX for example.

AMD had only one product for certification and testing, which is cheaper then having two separate production lines. When the custom versions are coming you will see real 4GB cards.

 

[xkm1948]

This will only benefit the first wave buyers. As I am sure AMD will address this later the road for 4GB card.

Anyway this does bring back lots of memories. I remember unlocking my 9500 to 9700 back in 2003, glorious days!

I can't believe anyone would complain about this.
What is wrong with these people?

fanboys, need I say more? Just ignore some comments.

 

[NaXter24R]

It's only possible for the first ones build by AMD with only a sticker from manufacturer like Power color or XFX for example.

AMD had only one product for certification and testing, which is cheaper then having two separate production lines. When the custom versions are coming you will see real 4GB cards.

I don't think. Search the data sheet. 7ghz for the 4gb model is 1.55v instead of 1.5. So why spending more with a second production line and increasing the power consumption?

 

[-The_Mask-]

I don't think.

I do

 

[the54thvoid]

This will only benefit the first wave buyers. As I am sure AMD will address this later the road for 4GB card.

Anyway this does bring back lots of memories. I remember unlocking my 9500 to 9700 back in 2003, glorious days!



fanboys, need I say more? Just ignore some comments.

I'm not a fan boy you idiot.

Though it's amusing that people cannot see logic as it stares them in their red little faces. It's as simple as this. I buy a 8gb card for 'x' amount but the same card is sold at '<x' with bits simply hidden. People in the know can just enable the extra 4Gb and have the same card I paid extra for. It's not a scam but it's fucking lazy of AMD.

But I do love seeing how people see this as a positive (which it is if you are in the know) when people are being sold the 8Gb identical card for more money.

But, in the interests of balance, it's not anywhere near as bad as Nvidia selling a Titan at the price they go for (when they release a faster version 2 months later as a xx80ti). I can say bad things about both sides - I see a lot of people here unable to say anything bad about team red or green - that be a fanboy.

So is it fair that people have rushed out and bought an 8Gb card and paid more for it because it has 8Gb when the cheaper card is also an 8Gb card but AMD didn't tell anyone? If you think that's fair - you're a douche.

 

[cdawall]

I'm not a fan boy you idiot.

Though it's amusing that people cannot see logic as it stares them in their red little faces. It's as simple as this. I buy a 8gb card for 'x' amount but the same card is sold at '<x' with bits simply hidden. People in the know can just enable the extra 4Gb and have the same card I paid extra for. It's not a scam but it's fucking lazy of AMD.

But I do love seeing how people see this as a positive (which it is if you are in the know) when people are being sold the 8Gb identical card for more money.

But, in the interests of balance, it's not anywhere near as bad as Nvidia selling a Titan at the price they go for (when they release a faster version 2 months later as a xx80ti). I can say bad things about both sides - I see a lot of people here unable to say anything bad about team red or green - that be a fanboy.

So is it fair that people have rushed out and bought an 8Gb card and paid more for it because it has 8Gb when the cheaper card is also an 8Gb card but AMD didn't tell anyone? If you think that's fair - you're a douche.

So what's your opinion on the 290/290x all the 290 is, is a 290x with pipelines masked. They can sometimes be unlocked as well. Nvidia does the same but no unlocks since the 6600/6800

 

[RejZoR]

I've had HD6950 that wasn't unlockable. Should I call AMD "scammer" because of that? Of course not. I just wasn't as lucky as some were. Same goes for R9500 that unlocked to R9700. It's just how it is.

 

[Recon-UK]

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?

 

[Crap Daddy]

This is either a very clever marketing stunt in order to increase the 4G cards sale or a very stupid business decision to put physically 8G on a card which cannot be fully accessed and sell it for the price of a 4G card. Next we'll find out that somehow it's possible to access a Zen CPU forgotten on the PCB.

 

[crow1001]

To the adjustment limit of 2250 MHz, just like my 8 GB press card. It's the same memory chips rated for 2 GHz


Yup, I didn't do any BIOS editing, just grab the BIOS off the news post. MAKE SURE TO SAVE YOUR BIOS USING ATIFLASH BEFORE FLASHING. Then flash with atiflash 2.74 from our downloads section.

"SubsystemIDs mismatch" any help with this thanks.

 

[qubit]

This is either a very clever marketing stunt in order to increase the 4G cards sale or a very stupid business decision to put physically 8G on a card which cannot be fully accessed and sell it for the price of a 4G card. Next we'll find out that somehow it's possible to access a Zen CPU forgotten on the PCB.

Found it!