Russian modding genius VIK-on has just shared a memory upgrade video for the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti on YouTube. It is known that this previous-generation flagship gaming graphics card came originally with 11GB @ 352-bit memory, theoretically allowing for a doubling of memory capacity. It's noted that the throne of the new generation flagship gaming graphics cards has already been taken by the RTX 3090 with 24GB of GDDR6X memory. However, before long, we will welcome the RTX 3080 Ti which comes with 12GB of GDDR6X memory.
Screenshot from the video (Credit: VIK-on / YouTube)
WCCFTech pointed out that Nvidia launched the RTX 2080 Ti in 2018 which uses the Turing TU102 GPU core, complemented with 11GB of GDDR6 memory.
RESTORATION _ RTX 2080 Ti AND _ UPGRADE_ TO 22GB (via)
However, what is baffling is that for the new generation RTX 3080 Ti, the company has only added an extra 1GB of GDDR6X memory (i.e., 12GB VRAM).
Comparing this to the RTX 3090's 24GB GDDR6X memory, it's apparent that Nvidia has "held back" on the potential performance of the RTX 3080 Ti (with potential memory capacity doubling upgrade space).
Due to the repeated delays in the launch of the RTX 3080 Ti (allegedly set to release on June 2nd), VIK-on decided to first try his hand on a previous generation flagship gaming graphics card that was already damaged beyond the ability to boot.
This twice-repaired RTX 2080 Ti appeared to be in poor condition, not only missing components but also with damaged PCB tracks.
With the mindset of "treating a dead horse as if it were alive," VIK-on decided to try once again the memory upgrade trick that he had previously experimented with on the RTX 3070 (doubling it to 16GB GDDR6).
Practice has shown that the RTX 2080 Ti can indeed recognize up to 22GB of GDDR6 memory (using single 16Gb / 2GB memory chips), but due to certain technical limitations (VBIOS firmware / driver support), VIK-on was also regretful that he couldn’t conduct further testing.
As shown in the image, the RTX 2080 Ti's PCB has 12 pin contacts suitable for GDDR6 memory chips. However, due to GPU memory bus width limitations, the original factory design only provided it with 11GB of GDDR6 memory (using single 8Gb / 1GB memory chips).
In terms of compatibility and frequency performance of memory chips from different manufacturers, VIK-on believes that Samsung has a slight edge over Micron. Finally, VIK-on is also looking forward to possibly upgrading the upcoming RTX 3080 Ti with double the memory to 24GB GDDR6X (thereby replacing the RTX 3090?).
