Can i upgrade my Graphics card ?

[snib]

Hi all, I bought a gigabyte RTX 3060 oc 12gb a few months back and i was looking at images showing the pcb board.

I noticed that 2 microchips that can be added to make it 16gb.

I have looked at the RTX 3060 ti and can see abit of difference between the two cards.

The ti used all the spaces for the 1gb chips for the vram as the 12gb card only using 6 spaces at 2gb each.

My ? is can it be done and if yes would cause any problems after adding them ?.

[Blue4130]

6 minutes ago, snib said:

Hi all, I bought a gigabyte RTX 3060 oc 12gb a few months back and i was looking at images showing the pcb board.

I noticed that 2 microchips that can be added to make it 16gb.

I have looked at the RTX 3060 ti and can see abit of difference between the two cards.

The ti used all the spaces for the 1gb chips for the vram as the 12gb card only using 6 spaces at 2gb each.

 

My ? is can it be done and if yes would cause any problems after adding them ?.

No, you can't just add random amounts of RAM to a card and have it work. You need a bios that would recognize the ram. There was no 3060 that had 16 gb or ram, so no bios made.

[snib]

23 minutes ago, Blue4130 said:

No, you can't just add random amounts of RAM to a card and have it work. You need a bios that would recognize the ram. There was no 3060 that had 16 gb or ram, so no bios made.

I seen a video of this being done on a RTX 2080 or ti but don't know if that card had bios too.

He added extra samsung 1 gb or 2gb microchips to the card and moved a few small microchips for it to show in task manager

I think gigabyte did make it 16gb but then cut it down to 12gb hence the two spaces.

It would be cool if you could get into the bios just like we do on motherboards.

[Blue4130]

8 minutes ago, snib said:

I seen a video of this being done on a RTX 2080 or ti but don't know if that card had bios too.

He added extra samsung 1 gb or 2gb microchips to the card and moved a few small microchips for it to show in task manager

I think gigabyte did make it 16gb but then cut it down to 12gb hence the two spaces.

It would be cool if you could get into the bios just like we do on motherboards.

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/16gb-rtx-3070-mod

 

This is what you are talking about. He didn't just add ram to unpopulated pads on the card, he removed and replaced existing modules.

 

And no, Gigabyte didn't make it 16 gb and then cut it down to 12. The reason why it has unpopulated pads is because the reused the PCD design from a card that needed 8 chips.

[adm0n]

4 minutes ago, Blue4130 said:

And no, Gigabyte didn't make it 16 gb and then cut it down to 12. The reason why it has unpopulated pads is because the reused the PCD design from a card that needed 8 chips.

This is precisely the case!

 

There is no way for you to add two more memory chips to those pads and have the GPU recognize them, as the memory bus only allows for the number of chips, that are already there.

 

The only way to upgrade is to either add modules, that have twice the density or add two modules per slot (so another one on the back of the device). And as was already pointed out, you need to put those changes into the bios of the card, so it knows what is going on and can address them properly

[snib]

18 minutes ago, Blue4130 said:

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/16gb-rtx-3070-mod

 

This is what you are talking about. He didn't just add ram to unpopulated pads on the card, he removed and replaced existing modules.

 

And no, Gigabyte didn't make it 16 gb and then cut it down to 12. The reason why it has unpopulated pads is because the reused the PCD design from a card that needed 8 chips.

 

11 minutes ago, adm0n said:

This is precisely the case!

 

There is no way for you to add two more memory chips to those pads and have the GPU recognize them, as the memory bus only allows for the number of chips, that are already there.

 

The only way to upgrade is to either add modules, that have twice the density or add two modules per slot (so another one on the back of the device). And as was already pointed out, you need to put those changes into the bios of the card, so it knows what is going on and can address them properly

Am not saying gigabyte made the 16gb for sale, i mean in the background they done this.

I get your points about the bios that they would need to be updated with the 16gb config in the bios unless you can hack the bios to do so.

I think the NVidia drivers will fook the card because the drivers won't know the correct vram.

Seems a lot to do just for an extra 4gb.

 

Thank you guys on your feedback.

If you come across something that will help get into bios please post here thanks.

[adm0n]

43 minutes ago, snib said:

Am not saying gigabyte made the 16gb for sale, i mean in the background they done this.

I get your points about the bios that they would need to be updated with the 16gb config in the bios unless you can hack the bios to do so.

I think the NVidia drivers will fook the card because the drivers won't know the correct vram.

Seems a lot to do just for an extra 4gb.

You are not getting the point here entirely.

 

The 3060 12GB has a memory bus width of 192 bit which is exactly 6 * 32 bit. So it can access 6 memory chips with a 32 bit bus. If you would now add another 2 memory chips to this, they have a place to fit on the board, but you cannot physically connect them to the memory controller on the GPU.

 

The 3070 has a 256 bit bus, so 8 * 32 bit. And they likely considered using the same board design for that as well, because it saves on manufacturing and design cost.

[Blue4130]

37 minutes ago, snib said:

 

Am not saying gigabyte made the 16gb for sale, i mean in the background they done this.

I get your points about the bios that they would need to be updated with the 16gb config in the bios unless you can hack the bios to do so.

I think the NVidia drivers will fook the card because the drivers won't know the correct vram.

Seems a lot to do just for an extra 4gb.

 

Thank you guys on your feedback.

If you come across something that will help get into bios please post here thanks.

See what @adm0n said about bus width. Gigbyte *couldn't* have made a 16 gb card. It would not work.