After equipping first the GeForce RTX 2070 and then the RTX 3070 of the double the graphics memory, the Russian modder and youtuber On VIK has decided to embark on a new project: to create an RTX 2080 Ti with 22 GB of GDDR6 memory. The enthusiast bought a “broken” RTX 2080 Ti, physically damaged and unable to pass the boot process.
The card in question already had filmed three workshops where, instead of repairing the damage, they had made it worse: Amidst missing components and other problems, the card seemed to be lost forever. VIK-on succeeded in give it new life. After resoldered the GPU and all memory chips, he even managed to restore the broken traces on the PCB.
After that he would have liked to proceed with the removal of the original 8 Gbit chips with 16 Gbit solutions, but it was not possible to do this due to the shortage of the components. Thus, the youtuber limited himself to the usual checks to understand if the card could really support 22 GB, and was able to prove that the card it can really work with double the memory via a mod. This mod (called “strap mod” and able to trick the GPU BIOS into believing that there is more memory installed), without supporting chips, does not allow much more than booting, as they occur artifacts that do not allow for acceptable and stable use of the card.
In conclusion, even if it is not a complete modification, what VIK-on has done shows that the modification is possible and maybe in the future, when there won’t be this shortage of components, it will be materialized. On the other hand we must not forget that the TU102 GPU is installed on cards like the Quadro RTX 8000 with 48 GB of memory, so 22 GB is certainly in its strings.