gtx 960 evga ftw 2gb into 4gb?

[chase f]

so this may seem dumb of me to ask. but im sure we all know about amds new cards and how they sold the 8gb card as a 4gb card. all that extra memory was able to be accessed by tweaking the bios. now what i am wondering (i know it is nvidia and i know they are trusted) is if the same could be for the evga gtx 960 ftw? i know there is a 4gb version of this card. i dont know i could just be getting my hopes up cus i bought the 2gb. at the time i was short on money and it looked way better then my gtx550 ti lol

 

[InvalidError]

Check the memory IC part numbers. If the chips physically total 2GB, then there is no chance in hell of a hack since the memory is physically not there.

Why did AMD piss away half the RAM on 4GB RX480s? I have no clue, probably availability or excess inventory. Don't count on 4GB non-reference boards keeping that up since this costs the manufacturers an extra $15-20 to put on there.

 

[Shaun o]

It`s a bit of a hard question to answer Chase.

I mean to be honest, most cards that are produced for example in the same model range, that have different memory configurations on them.

Will simply have the set amount of memory chips fitted to them for the memory size.
But as for the card it`s self or the circuit board used for say a 2Gb version and a four the card will come with the very same solder points for example for 4Gb of memory to be fitted.

There will be marked points on the circuit board of the card to in fact fit, or solder another 2GB of memory to it.

By adding the extra ram chips.
They are known as Bga packages.

But in order to do it you need special equipment, and need to know the exact specifications of the memory chips in a Bga package to get, in relation to speed,and memory timings chase.

I Highly doubt to be honest a bios tweak would unlock a Gtx 960 card from 2 GB to a 4 GB card to be honest.
It`s unlike Nvidia to do such a thing.

 

[InvalidError]

On modern cards using 32bits-wide DRAM chips, you will have four chips for both 2GB and 4GB models. The difference will be that the 2GB GPU is using 4Gbits chips (4x512MB) while the 4GB one will be using 8Gbits chips (4x1GB or 4x dual-die 512MB). All GTX960 that I have seen only have four GDDR5 chips.

The third GDDR5 footprint on the top and bottom of the board is there only because the GTX960's footprint had pads for a 192bits memory controller but the chip ended up shipping as a 128bits one. Manufacturers put in the footprint for the extra chips because it is cheaper to have an unused footprint than re-spin the boards to put in if Nvidia decided to launch a 960Ti with 192bits memory.

 

[chase f]

thank you guys im not sure what one to pick as a solution lol both very good info once again thank you for the info on this i think ill do some research on it an post back because you guys are defiantly correct on nvidia and not false advertising lol. but if it is possible to solder the other chips in ill see if it is doable and if it is and if i have access to the tools i will need i will post how to do it too.

 

[InvalidError]

The unpopulated channels are most likely disabled by Nvidia. Otherwise, you would likely have seen some AIB manufacturers use the 192bits configuration on their boards or people hack their cards to 192bits.

The only thing you can do is remove the existing chips, replace them with the correct type of 1GB ones and flash the firmware with a compatible one setup for 4GB RAM or hack your card's firmware to change the memory setup configuration stuff yourself.