DIY upgrade RTX card for more power

[elevengyerek]

Hi all

 

I have a very interesting question about DIY home upgrade a RTX 2070.

So I bought the cheaper MSI Armor RTX2070 8GB version and some of the component are missing from the PCB. These are responsible for power supply I think.

What would happen If I solder the correct missing component? Will it become stronger and can I overclock it more before hitting the power limit?

 

Thanks your attention if you read that and also for #Linustechtips I would be glad if you guys make a video about it because this is that "stupid" thing that you may like

 

[aisle9]

Given how much trouble RTX cards are having staying alive in the first place, I wouldn't gamble on something that will void the warranty you're likely to need.

[TechyBen]

No.

AFAIK they do on die/chip changes now to prevent this. Though you can improve overclocking (See 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrwObTfqv8u1KO7Fgk-FXHQ Actual Hardware Overclocking)...

 

 

... if you know what you are doing.

[Electronics Wizardy]

My guess is the driver is modded to not send a signal to the unused phases, so even if you put parts there it wouldn't be used. You can test for this if you have a scope.

 

You could change the config of the driver, but this is a lot of work and design, and getting a better card is cheaper and easier.

[TechyBen]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

My guess is the driver is modded to not send a signal to the unused phases, so even if you put parts there it wouldn't be used. You can test for this if you have a scope.

 

You could change the config of the driver, but this is a lot of work and design, and getting a better card is cheaper and easier.

Shock, plot twist, if you look up Actual Hardware Overclocking, often the phases are "faked" anyhow. XD

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, TechyBen said:

Shock, plot twist, if you look up Actual Hardware Overclocking, often the phases are "faked" anyhow. XD

But if you just take a phase out it will have bad power as its timing between phases isn't equal.

 

And normally the fake phases seem to be just extra inductors or mosfetts, there not just adding parts that aren't connected.

[PC Pig]

[kb5zue]

Lemme see if I got this right.  You buy a new card and there are two spaces on the card that are not occupied by matching parts from the other spots on the card.  I'm curious, how do you know the card was not designed this way and the reason there are no parts installed to the two spots is because the factory did not put them there?  So you're telling me that you, as a user, know more about the card and the parts installed on it than the people that made the card in the factory?????

[TechyBen]

48 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

But if you just take a phase out it will have bad power as its timing between phases isn't equal.

 

And normally the fake phases seem to be just extra inductors or mosfetts, there not just adding parts that aren't connected.

Yeah, the parts are connected, but they don't do a "phase", so you could theoretically take some out, providing it still provides the power draw (amps)... though that's going by what I've heard, I'm no expert.

 

6 minutes ago, kb5zue said:

Lemme see if I got this right.  You buy a new card and there are two spaces on the card that are not occupied by matching parts from the other spots on the card.  I'm curious, how do you know the card was not designed this way and the reason there are no parts installed to the two spots is because the factory did not put them there?  So you're telling me that you, as a user, know more about the card and the parts installed on it than the people that made the card in the factory?????

No. Literally some factories/products work like that. Not often now, due to the ease of multiple moldings/boards/PCBs... but in the past the "pro" and the "gamer" or "consumer" model was 1 resistor that told the card "enable pro features/disable". Or it was 1 extra ram chip etc:

http://retro64.altervista.org/blog/64k-commodore-16-to-expand-its-ram-memory/

 

This is less the case. Or there are more "DRM" like preventions for the end user to do this.

[elevengyerek]

9 hours ago, aisle9 said:

Given how much trouble RTX cards are having staying alive in the first place, I wouldn't gamble on something that will void the warranty you're likely to need.

I hope mine doesn't have any problem :( and I am not planning to do that just in theory maybe some years later when this will useless I will try it out.

9 hours ago, TechyBen said:

No.

AFAIK they do on die/chip changes now to prevent this. Though you can improve overclocking (See 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrwObTfqv8u1KO7Fgk-FXHQ Actual Hardware Overclocking)...

 

 

... if you know what you are doing.

Thanks for the recommendation It seems a good youtube channel about pcb electronic.

9 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

My guess is the driver is modded to not send a signal to the unused phases, so even if you put parts there it wouldn't be used. You can test for this if you have a scope.

 

You could change the config of the driver, but this is a lot of work and design, and getting a better card is cheaper and easier.

I assume maybe the driver is the same. From my opinion it is more easy if in boot they just check all the component are working fine so if some of them die they can just ignore it. So with the OC card use the same driver but they have the component too. It seems more easy to do and more money efficient.

But this is just my opinion there a high chance I am stupid. :)

8 hours ago, kb5zue said:

Lemme see if I got this right.  You buy a new card and there are two spaces on the card that are not occupied by matching parts from the other spots on the card.  I'm curious, how do you know the card was not designed this way and the reason there are no parts installed to the two spots is because the factory did not put them there?  So you're telling me that you, as a user, know more about the card and the parts installed on it than the people that made the card in the factory?????

Sorry if you get me wrong. I am not saying me as a user know more about this. If I would than there wouldn't been this question about it. Also I think if you design a card with missing parts that isn't money orientated but if you just design the "best card" which is in this case the OC version you could sell that in a higher price and if you left out some component the card would be weaker and you can sell it cheaper. I think this is just a way to make us money cows. Because if you design two cards that would be expensive. But if you design the stronger card just a little modification would be enough and there is the "low tier" card.

 

 

I heard an old story that was happened when I was little. There was an AMD card and if you soldered a jumper wire for it you got much better performance because that was the only difference between that and a higher tier card.

 

Thanks all of you by the way I got a feeling about both side should it work or not. I am just an engineer student so I am not expert in electric or computer hardware.But I thought this is an interesting idea and I would like to know more about these.

 

If anybody have more information about the topic I would appreciate  that :)

 

Also ignore my English I hope you can understand it I am not very good with grammar. 

[TechyBen]

We had one of those ATI cards... but I never did try that trick (I think? looong time ago XD ).