Is there any interest in doubling GPU memory capacity on RTX portable workstation ?

[TheQuentincc]

Hi, 

I wanna know if any of you guys could be interested paying a service to upgrade/replace the GPU memory of your workstation/laptop so you could double the capacity ? For now I'm offering such upgrade (on local France forum) for like 150€ the 6GB to 12GB upgrade (192bits bus width) and 200€ for the 8GB to 16GB upgrade (256bits bus width).

It's mostly aimed at lower SKU like Quadro RTX 3000/4000 (low/mid tier series) cause Quadro RTX 5000 (high end series) is already at his max capacity, it applies to Turing and Ampere generation (Ada is already using high density memory IC). It also apply to gaming cards but it's a lot harder to find the memory strap resistor/boardview.

I don't know if there is any needs to double the memory capacity on portable workstation, 6/8GB should already be plenty for many uses cases but I don't know I upgraded the RTX3000 of my Precision 7730 to 12GB anyway 😄

So what's your thoughts ? 

[Reciever]

I've been curious about having this done to my older cards liek the 5970, 690, gtx 295 and such but I dont have a hot air station nor have any skill in such things lol

 

I can solder more or less but no experience with hot air yet

[GuitarG]

4 hours ago, Reciever said:

I've been curious about having this done to my older cards liek the 5970, 690, gtx 295 and such but I dont have a hot air station nor have any skill in such things lol

 

I can solder more or less but no experience with hot air yet

With heating plate and hot air everything is possible 😄 It would be cool to replace mobile core with desktop one, like one guy did on NBR with 980.
In China lately a lot of older GPU gets more memory upgrade, sometimes even up to 24GB I heard.

Don't know about older, newer GPU needs correct strap resistors to set up memory vendor and capacity. Also force eDP output (and use mining GPUs with laptop).

 

With steady hand and BGA soldering skill, every BGA CPU is socketed. ^_^ Beginning is harsh, with every try it get easier.

[Reciever]

1 hour ago, GuitarG said:

With heating plate and hot air everything is possible 😄 It would be cool to replace mobile core with desktop one, like one guy did on NBR with 980.
In China lately a lot of older GPU gets more memory upgrade, sometimes even up to 24GB I heard.

Don't know about older, newer GPU needs correct strap resistors to set up memory vendor and capacity. Also force eDP output (and use mining GPUs with laptop).

 

With steady hand and BGA soldering skill, every BGA CPU is socketed. ^_^ Beginning is harsh, with every try it get easier.

With that premise the one thing I really wanted was the Alienware 13 R3 with 7820hx instead of the 7700hq, heck maybe a 8850h and disable the dGPU for eGPU but nothing like that existed or exists. Would've been really cool to see.

 

Older GPU may be similar, that was the main issue @Khenglish ran into with installing desktop GPU vRAM modules to MXM board on the same mod you are referring to IIRC.

 

Love seeing these kinds of mods though!

[TheQuentincc]

On 5/15/2024 at 7:53 PM, GuitarG said:

With heating plate and hot air everything is possible 😄 It would be cool to replace mobile core with desktop one, like one guy did on NBR with 980.
In China lately a lot of older GPU gets more memory upgrade, sometimes even up to 24GB I heard.

Don't know about older, newer GPU needs correct strap resistors to set up memory vendor and capacity. Also force eDP output (and use mining GPUs with laptop).

 

With steady hand and BGA soldering skill, every BGA CPU is socketed. ^_^ Beginning is harsh, with every try it get easier.

No not really, for sure it can be done, but it's not like the "good old days" 20sec CPU swap.

 

Regarding the initial subject the memory upgrade can be done only if the actual vbios supports higher density memory (also means if the actual vbios was made when x memory density was available). So it's pretty hard on GDDR5, however on GDDR6 nearly all vbios supports the Samsung 16Gbit memory, that's including lower SKU like TU117, so we can upgrade almost all GPU except those with 16Gbit memory IC (like RTX5000/newer GPU).

 

I was wondering in which case would someone wants (and pay "that much") to double their memory. Right now I'm doing this cause I can resell workstation more easily/at slightly higher price.

[TheQuentincc]

I figured I should share the mod (along the memory IC replacement with K4ZAF325BM-HC14 or HC16) needed to upgrade RTX 3000 to 12GB on Precision 7730 and 7550.

[Reciever]

It looks like there is a guy also modding the 5700 xt to have 16GB of vram. Hasn't been completed yet but looks to be towards the tail of the project.