Upgradable vram

[Marbo]

When building a pc a lot of people on a budget will get the minimum amount of ram they need for their particular use. We know that should we need more we can do at a later date. 

 

Is there any reason why this can't be applied to graphics cards? 

 

I know it has been done in the past. 

 

I don't really need any more power from my card but I could always use more vram. 

 

I'm sure this would appeal to many people. I have 8gb on my card if I want more then my only option is to go with new card at a much higher cost. Is this why its not done? Do manufacturers see more money in selling cards than additional vram? 

[RollinLower]

3 minutes ago, Marbo said:

Do manufacturers see more money in selling cards than additional vram? 

that's basically it. 

if you add upgradability to an existing product, that product will be on the market a lot longer. it's a lot more atractive to manufacturers to just let a card go obsolete due to hardware limitations which forces people to upgrade to a new card.

[Curious Pineapple]

Not sure if it would even work. GDDR has a much wider data and address bus, may not be enough physical space to break it all out onto pins on a connector without making cards much bigger.

[Haro]

15 minutes ago, Marbo said:

When building a pc a lot of people on a budget will get the minimum amount of ram they need for their particular use. We know that should we need more we can do at a later date. 

 

Is there any reason why this can't be applied to graphics cards? 

 

I know it has been done in the past. 

 

I don't really need any more power from my card but I could always use more vram. 

 

I'm sure this would appeal to many people. I have 8gb on my card if I want more then my only option is to go with new card at a much higher cost. Is this why its not done? Do manufacturers see more money in selling cards than additional vram? 

GPU  architectures  usually last around 2 years because GPU technology gets better by the second more frame buffer here a higher bus better silicon etc. and even if an architecture lasts more it's usually a hord of rebrands over and over take Polaris for e.g  like 3 rebrands but with ram usually a business where it's kind of no brainier to add more  cuz of its cheaper price and wide compatiblity ddr4 for e.g has been existing for like 3 or 4 years and with performance being  about the same but imagine if a GPU was upgradable over time it wouldn't be 1st be easy 2nd cheap so it's not really a thing that will be thought of  

[Marbo]

11 minutes ago, RollinLower said:

that's basically it. 

if you add upgradability to an existing product, that product will be on the market a lot longer. it's a lot more atractive to manufacturers to just let a card go obsolete due to hardware limitations which forces people to upgrade to a new card.

Personally I change my card after around 2-3 years. If I had the option of a card with an additional vram slot I would probably buy the best available for my budget, as I do now, then add vram as soon as I could afford to get more if I found I could use it. Still looking to change the card after the same time frame. 

 

I think this would be an extra line of income rather than prolonging the lifespan of the card. 

 

There is no way I'm buying a 2080ti for £700 more than my 2060 super because I could use more memory. But I would pay a couple of hundred 6 months later to add a good chunk of extra memory. 

 

I think there's a market out there that wouldn't affect card sales greatly. 

[GoldenLag]

GDDR has 2 things contributing to bandwidth. Speed of the dies and how wide the bus is. 

 

This would mean it wouldnt be possible to changw bus size to all the variants we have today. And running a 384-bit wide bus would practically be impossible. 

 

Each die needs to be exactly the same distance from the IMC on GDDR6 and on GDDR5 the same applies with some extra margins on distance from the IMC. 

 

 

Tldr: due to size limitations and signal integraty it would be infeasable.

[Intergalacticbits]

5 minutes ago, RollinLower said:

that's basically it. 

if you add upgradability to an existing product, that product will be on the market a lot longer. it's a lot more atractive to manufacturers to just let a card go obsolete due to hardware limitations which forces people to upgrade to a new card.

Yup, that is the way of the world.  

They make more money selling you a new card. I can't fault them for it really. I just wish new products had features designed more with what the buyers would like instead of just stuff they think they can market.

 

Like the new thing being RT on the cards. I couldn't give a stale fart about that stuff. I don't think I would even notice it in a good shooter game and I definitely don't want to pay extra for it.  

 

Now if they sold a high end card that had a special extra chip on it that you could turn on in the driver. That would allow the game and card to deliver extra gore effects, extra destructible environment effects. I'd be glad to pay more for that card. 

 

I don't mind paying if card makers would just give me what I want in a new graphics card. The naughty bad stuff.

 

 

 

[Marbo]

19 minutes ago, GoldenLag said:

GDDR has 2 things contributing to bandwidth. Speed of the dies and how wide the bus is. 

 

This would mean it wouldnt be possible to changw bus size to all the variants we have today. And running a 384-bit wide bus would practically be impossible. 

 

Each die needs to be exactly the same distance from the IMC on GDDR6 and on GDDR5 the same applies with some extra margins on distance from the IMC. 

 

 

Tldr: due to size limitations and signal integraty it would be infeasable.

So in the case of my 2060 does this mean that 8gb is the max? 

 

Would it be possible for them to offer a choice of cards with different amounts of memory. Let's say a base model with 8 and an extra version with 12.

 

It probably wouldn't have much if any effect on gaming performance, but how I use my gpu it would be a great help. 

 

 

[GoldenLag]

Just now, Marbo said:

Would it be possible for them to offer a choice of cards with different amounts of memory. Let's say a base model with 8 and an extra version with 12

They can only change the chip capacity, not the number of chips. 

 

Lile the rx570 which has a 4GB model and a 8gb model. 

 

I dont remember what capacity the 2060 uses. 

 

2 minutes ago, Marbo said:

So in the case of my 2060 does this mean that 8gb is the max? 

2060 is 6GB. I dont see them going higher. 

[Marbo]

6 minutes ago, GoldenLag said:

They can only change the chip capacity, not the number of chips. 

 

Lile the rx570 which has a 4GB model and a 8gb model. 

 

I dont remember what capacity the 2060 uses. 

 

2060 is 6GB. I dont see them going higher. 

It's the super with 8gb.

 

The card is perfectly adequate for my usage performance wise, but as I said more memory would be fantastic. My only option atm for more is the 2080ti or Titan. But the price difference is far too much for me to justify buying.