[SOLVED] Upgrading memory modules on a GPU

[darezi]

Excuse me for a silly question but I'm just too curios!!!

I know that you can replace bad modules and even upgrade more memory on some GPUs. I was wondering if I can give some performance boost to my GTX 760 (GV-N760OC-2GD) that is in my other 10 year old PC. It's used for when my cousins and friends come with kids and I let them play games on it. Can I add an additional 2 modules to make it 4Gb and flash it with the 4Gb ROM? Another question is the card has GDDR5 modules. Can I put GDDR5X or only GDDR5 modules?

Thanks in advance for not trolling me for this question and to the ones with honest answers!

 

[Koekieezz]

I know that you can replace bad modules and even upgrade more memory on some GPUs. I was wondering if I can give some performance boost to my GTX 760 (GV-N760OC-2GD) that is in my other 10 year old PC. It's used for when my cousins and friends come with kids and I let them play games on it. Can I add an additional 2 modules to make it 4Gb and flash it with the 4Gb ROM?

Theoritically, you could. But you must know the SKU chip that have the almost identical chip in your board, with the only difference is the Density of the chip. Also you should know the PCB Schematics and know how to work around it, since there is a modded Rtx 2070 from 8gb to 16gb of GDDR6.

It's not worth the hassle if you are aiming vram capacity as its performance is still outstanded by a 1050 in stock settings, well unless you want to do experimenting, good luck on finding the SKUs

 

[hotaru.hino]

The short answer is no.

The long answer is still no, but for the following reasons:

• You're going to need equipment capable of soldering on the chips. BGA isn't something you can take a soldering iron to.
• You have to use GDDR5 modules and you have to find the ones with the same spec they used. Otherwise the firmware is going to work with chips that are out of spec and bad things will happen.
  • Better spec'd chips may work, but I'm not familiar with low level memory control
• Populating the missing spots with chips won't work anyway because they're not actually connected to the GPU. GPUs have a number of memory controllers and there's a 1:1 ratio of memory controllers and chips. The only reason why there's a spot on the PCB is because the design got recycled from another video card.

 

[darezi]

I thought of doing something after watching this Russian guy "VIK-on " on Youtube where he added more memory 16Gb on 2070, 22Gb on 2080Ti, 16Gb on 3060 and 3070, and all cards were working just fine.

 

[hotaru.hino]

I thought of doing something after watching this Russian guy "VIK-on " on Youtube where he added more memory 16Gb on 2070, 22Gb on 2080Ti, 16Gb on 3060 and 3070, and all cards were working just fine.

I mean it's fine and all if you want to try this but you have to understand the points I made in my last post. If you don't have a BGA soldering reflow station (that you actually know how to use) and the correctly specced GDDR5 modules, then you can stop right where you are.

 

[Eximo]

I believe vBIOS editing is also required to get the cards fully functional. Having a GPU read more memory and use more memory aren't quite the same thing.

 

[darezi]

I mean it's fine and all if you want to try this but you have to understand the points I made in my last post. If you don't have a BGA soldering reflow station (that you actually know how to use) and the correctly specced GDDR5 modules, then you can stop right where you are.

I have access to all those types of tools where I used to work and I can go there when ever I wish for any service free of charge. The question was if its worth the trouble and if GDRR5X can be used instead of the stock GDDR5.
I'm sure that the memory specs can be found with a little investigation.

 

[darezi]

I believe vBIOS editing is also required to get the cards fully functional. Having a GPU read more memory and use more memory aren't quite the same thing.

That goes without saying! Also, on majority cards, you can flash bios from similar ones.

 

[hotaru.hino]

I have access to all those types of tools where I used to work and I can go there when ever I wish for any service free of charge. The question was if its worth the trouble and if GDRR5X can be used instead of the stock GDDR5.
I'm sure that the memory specs can be found with a little investigation.

No, you have to use GDDR5. GDDR5X has more pins and is likely incompatible with GDDR5 based layouts to avoid mixing and matching.

EDIT: Confirmed, GDDR5 and GDDR5X have a different pinout (from http://monitorinsider.com/GDDR5X.html)

 

[Eximo]

I just learned that myself the other day when I read through the wikipedia entries for them. Always thought they were just faster modules.

Most people don't realize that GDDR5X and up are actually quad data rate memory, they just didn't want to rebrand and confuse people. Also I think GDDR6 and up also have ECC just like DDR5. So when everyone is on that level of tech, a lot less crashing.