Updated
Updated · Hackaday · Jun 14
Modder Doubles RTX 3070 VRAM to 16GB, Finds Gains in Only a Few Games
Updated
Updated · Hackaday · Jun 14

Modder Doubles RTX 3070 VRAM to 16GB, Finds Gains in Only a Few Games

2 articles · Updated · Hackaday · Jun 14

Summary

  • [AssassinWarlord] upgraded an RTX 3070 from 8GB to 16GB of GDDR6 by transplanting eight Samsung memory chips, then benchmarked the card to measure real-world impact.
  • The mod required reballing salvaged RX 6900 XT memory, custom tooling and firmware-style tuning after power-state and power-draw changes initially failed to unlock stable higher-memory operation.
  • Benchmarks showed little change in most synthetic workloads because they were compute-bound, making GPU overclocking more effective than the VRAM increase alone.
  • A handful of games ran better by avoiding slow system-memory spillover, but the tester concluded the time, effort and complexity were not justified for most users.

Insights

A modder doubled a GPU's memory, but did he expose a flaw that only new AI can truly fix?
With NVIDIA's new AI, will risky VRAM hardware mods soon become a relic of the past?