Soldering Vram onto 970

[DuckaSocks]

So, interesting topic here, with little results here or anywhere regarding this, so here goes:

 

I bought my 970 g1 a while ago (about august 2015) and haven't noticed the VRAM issue that everyone complains about. While doing some school work I thought to myself, if DRAM can be taken out and upgraded, why can't VRAM? I hunted and found little, no results on replacing VRAM on the 970 to get rid of the 3.5 buffer.. 

I want to replace the nerfed  chip on the 970 with a chip that isn't nerfed, but still makes the card 4GB? I don't mind the warranty but I don't want to bork the card? ? 

 

So I ask you, reader, is it possible to replace the shoddy VRAM?

[Trey222]

Nooooooo.

[givingtnt]

3 minutes ago, DuckaSocks said:

So, interesting topic here, with little results here or anywhere regarding this, so here goes:

 

I bought my 970 g1 a while ago (about august 2015) and haven't noticed the VRAM issue that everyone complains about. While doing some school work I thought to myself, if DRAM can be taken out and upgraded, why can't VRAM? I hunted and found little, no results on replacing VRAM on the 970 to get rid of the 3.5 buffer.. 

I want to replace the nerfed  chip on the 970 with a chip that isn't nerfed, but still makes the card 4GB? I don't mind the warranty but I don't want to bork the card? ? 

 

So I ask you, reader, is it possible to replace the shoddy VRAM?

oh god

why

 

please don't

[Trey222]

It is not the VRAM chip that is nerfed it is the way the architecture of the chip itself works. 

[Oshino Shinobu]

If I'm not mistaken, the issue isn't with the vRAM itself, but rather how the GPU accesses the vRAM. Might be wrong.

Either way, I am almost certain soldering on new vRAM would not work and most likely will break the card. 

[thekeemo]

You cant fix the 3.5gb issue you would have to completely redo the board design

[PlayStation 2]

If you wanna kill the fucking thing, sure.

[Trey222]

Here is a picture of the problem. 

[QueenDemetria]

8 minutes ago, DuckaSocks said:

So, interesting topic here, with little results here or anywhere regarding this, so here goes:

 

I bought my 970 g1 a while ago (about august 2015) and haven't noticed the VRAM issue that everyone complains about. While doing some school work I thought to myself, if DRAM can be taken out and upgraded, why can't VRAM? I hunted and found little, no results on replacing VRAM on the 970 to get rid of the 3.5 buffer.. 

I want to replace the nerfed  chip on the 970 with a chip that isn't nerfed, but still makes the card 4GB? I don't mind the warranty but I don't want to bork the card? ? 

 

So I ask you, reader, is it possible to replace the shoddy VRAM?

The 970 is a 4GB card, just 500MB of the 4GB is slower than the rest. There is no fix for this, as it was designed this way(its not the RAM itself that is slower, but the RAM interface).

 

As for unsoldering and resoldering RAM chips though, its possible, but not easy to do(leave it for the professionals, it requires specialty tools.).

[aajjeee]

6 minutes ago, DuckaSocks said:

So, interesting topic here, with little results here or anywhere regarding this, so here goes:

 

I bought my 970 g1 a while ago (about august 2015) and haven't noticed the VRAM issue that everyone complains about. While doing some school work I thought to myself, if DRAM can be taken out and upgraded, why can't VRAM? I hunted and found little, no results on replacing VRAM on the 970 to get rid of the 3.5 buffer.. 

I want to replace the nerfed  chip on the 970 with a chip that isn't nerfed, but still makes the card 4GB? I don't mind the warranty but I don't want to bork the card? ? 

 

So I ask you, reader, is it possible to replace the shoddy VRAM?

That sounds like a great idea, do it then post pics. 

[RedWulf]

I had a class mate add the chip from a sandisk thumb drive onto his card...DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT IT

[DuckaSocks]

2 minutes ago, Trey222 said:

Here is a picture of the problem. 

Okay I see the thing now, now I feel stupid 

[Glenwing]

8 minutes ago, DuckaSocks said:

So, interesting topic here, with little results here or anywhere regarding this, so here goes:

 

I bought my 970 g1 a while ago (about august 2015) and haven't noticed the VRAM issue that everyone complains about. While doing some school work I thought to myself, if DRAM can be taken out and upgraded, why can't VRAM? I hunted and found little, no results on replacing VRAM on the 970 to get rid of the 3.5 buffer.. 

I want to replace the nerfed  chip on the 970 with a chip that isn't nerfed, but still makes the card 4GB? I don't mind the warranty but I don't want to bork the card? ? 

 

So I ask you, reader, is it possible to replace the shoddy VRAM?

The memory chips aren't what cause the problem, every memory chip on the card operates at full speed. It's the memory controller inside the GPU that is partially disabled.

[manikyath]

so.. first time thumbing up almost an entire thread.

 

i'll add some extra info since most people have covered the main thing here.

you *can* replace them, say for when a chip went bad, you can take them off, and put a new one on.

however, the process is very difficult, even when done with the right equipment, and has the chance of both killing the new chip, and potentially doing damage to other components on the board.

 

hence why people dont repair electronics professionally anymore.

[Midnitewarrior4]

4 minutes ago, RedWulf said:

I had a class mate add the chip from a sandisk thumb drive onto his card...DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT IT

.......

[Yummychickenblue]

The equipment costs required to actually do something like that would be more money than just buying a better GPU. The problem isn't with the ram anyway, it's with the memory controller itself

 

2 minutes ago, manikyath said:

so.. first time thumbing up almost an entire thread.

 

i'll add some extra info since most people have covered the main thing here.

you *can* replace them, say for when a chip went bad, you can take them off, and put a new one on.

however, the process is very difficult, even when done with the right equipment, and has the chance of both killing the new chip, and potentially doing damage to other components on the board.

 

hence why people dont repair electronics professionally anymore.

A few people still do it, like that Louis Rossmann guy who's been making the rounds on the forum recently.

[Sat1600]

I never heard of anyone actually having a real world problem with the 970. This issue is all on paper. That being said here is an easier fix. Sell it and get a 390. That will double your vram

[manikyath]

Just now, Yummychickenblue said:

The equipment costs required to actually do something like that would be more money than just buying a better GPU. The problem isn't with the ram anyway, it's with the memory controller itself

 

A few people still do it, like that Louis Rossmann guy who's been making the rounds on the forum recently.

its only really done in unique cases, because on any modern part replacing would most likely be cheaper than repairing.

the only case i've heard of someone wanting a repair was an old LGA775 motherboard that the guy can no longer find a replacement for.

[Guest]

DO IT FOR THE DANK MEMES!!!

 

no jk don't do it that's stupid.

[manikyath]

Just now, jaffer said:

DO IT FOR THE DANK MEMES!!!

 

no jk don't do it that's stupid.

or y'know, as a paid hobby/part time job theres quite a bit of money in it if you get good at it.

 

you wont get very many clients tho

[handymanshandle]

The reason that 512MB isn't usable is because essentially binning though I think in this case Nvidia physically disabled that last block because of performance or something or another.

 

Though if you already have a 970 or were going to get a 970 and it's absolutly important to have a true 4GB of vram just go for an R9 380, R9 380X or R9 390.

Actually that might be why I like AMD better than Nvidia because you have only the 950, 960, 970, 980 and 980Ti with Nvidia AMD you have everything in between.

 

The 380 is pretty much on par with the 960, the 380X is in between the 960 and 970, and the 390 is on par with the 970...

The 390X though is sort of closer to the 980 rather than in the middle of the 970 and 980.

 

[ivan134]

6 hours ago, DuckaSocks said:

Okay I see the thing now, now I feel stupid 

You shouldn't, you're human. You didn't know something and you asked questions.

[Benji_w]

6 hours ago, DuckaSocks said:

So, interesting topic here, with little results here or anywhere regarding this, so here goes:

 

I bought my 970 g1 a while ago (about august 2015) and haven't noticed the VRAM issue that everyone complains about. While doing some school work I thought to myself, if DRAM can be taken out and upgraded, why can't VRAM? I hunted and found little, no results on replacing VRAM on the 970 to get rid of the 3.5 buffer.. 

I want to replace the nerfed  chip on the 970 with a chip that isn't nerfed, but still makes the card 4GB? I don't mind the warranty but I don't want to bork the card? ? 

 

So I ask you, reader, is it possible to replace the shoddy VRAM?

Modding like that requires great skill and patience it can be done but is it worth it? Not really, only hardcore overclockers etc do stuff like that.

[NJM1112]

Uh, The "missing .5GB" isn't missing, it's there and it just runs at a slower chip because part of the GPU is missing a L2 cache chunk. not the ram itself. Replacing ram would do nothing. that is of course if you can even replace the ram on GPUs the packages are soldered directly onto the PCB and the traces and interconnects are much too small for human precision. That and i'm 99.9% sure you can't just BUY a .5GB Dram that will work with a 970 off of Ebay, lol.

[Benji_w]

Just now, NJM1112 said:

Uh, The "missing .5GB" isn't missing, it's there and it just runs at a slower chip because part of the GPU is missing a L2 cache chunk. not the ram itself. Replacing ram would do nothing. that is of course if you can even replace the ram on GPUs the packages are soldered directly onto the PCB and the traces and interconnects are much too small for human precision. That and i'm 99.9% sure you can't just BUY a .5GB Dram that will work with a 970 off of Ebay, lol.

Probably not, I've seen someone replace Hynix RAM chips for samsung ones before though on the KINGPIN forum I believe.