Samsung 3 GB GDDR7 Chips Sold in Chinese Retail, Attracts Memory Modders

[btarunr]

Samsung-branded 24 Gbit (3 GB) GDDR7 memory chips are being loosely sold in the Chinese retail market. The chips are being sold in OEM packaging meant for PCB pick-and-place machines, although the seller offers to sell these chips on a per-unit basis, priced at RMB ¥72.50, or approximately USD $10 per chip. This opens the door for graphics card memory modders to, in theory, give the GeForce RTX 5090 a 50% memory boost with $160 worth of memory chips. An RTX 5090 with 48 GB of memory would accelerate AI models with larger parameter counts than a stock card.

Given that off-brand RTX 5090 cards are being sold in China in board designs meant for commercial AI acceleration farms, this sale opens the door for off-brand RTX 5090 cards with 48 GB memory. Much of the RTX 5090 gray-market in China runs in complete disregard of U.S. export controls that prevent NVIDIA from selling the RTX 5090 in the Chinese domestic market, instead selling the RTX 5090D, a card with nearly identical gaming performance to RTX 5090, but with reduced AI acceleration and blockchain performance.



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[ZoneDymo]

forget the 5090, add it to the 5070 to make it somewhat worthwhile

 

[N3utro]

Isn't vbios modding also required for the increased vram capacity to work?

 

[Macro Device]

forget the 5090, add it to the 5070 to make it somewhat worthwhile

5070 honestly is more whacked by being too laxed rather than having too little VRAM. No, I agree, 12 GB for 550 is anemic but the performance isn't great regardless.

 

[Chaitanya]

Isn't vbios modding also required for the increased vram capacity to work?

You can find programers for those as well for sale in China, I recently picked up programmer for controller of my torch.

 

[bonehead123]

"When there's a will, there's a way"

'nuff said

 

[londiste]

I suppose the really interesting part about this is that this means there are properly in mass production. Nvidia using them throughout the PRO series and in mobile implied that but availability "on the street" should be a nice confirmation. Lets see how long until 5000 series gets a refresh or Supers with bigger VRAM capacities thanks to that availability.

 

[TechLurker]

Reminds me of how the 2080 Ti blower variant is still selling with the modded 22GB memory straight out of China. Would be neat to see more memory mods done to more GPUs, including the low end.

 

[igormp]

Isn't vbios modding also required for the increased vram capacity to work?

Depends, nvidia sometimes just leaves the configs already in place so no changes are needed, such as the modded 48GB 4090, which just added the extra memory in a clamshell config with a new PCB, with that bios config being already in place (likely a leftover from the L40).

 

[Rightness_1]

There would surely be more interest in 3Gb GDDR6 modules, do they make such a thing? I do wonder if a viable business could be made out of VRAM modding midrange gfx cards...

 

[Ultron1337]

There would surely be more interest in 3Gb GDDR6 modules, do they make such a thing? I do wonder if a viable business could be made out of VRAM modding midrange gfx cards...

GDDR6 is pretty much legacy stuff, when it comes down bringing new modules to the market. It's like asking big DDR4 modules, while planet is already moving to DDR5. Yeah it would be cool, but no one is going to do it.

 

[Rover4444]

Thank you China, very cool.

 

[sLowEnd]

forget the 5090, add it to the 5070 to make it somewhat worthwhile

I would not be surprised if that's what the 5070 Super ends up being

 

[Rightness_1]

GDDR6 is pretty much legacy stuff, when it comes down bringing new modules to the market. It's like asking big DDR4 modules, while planet is already moving to DDR5. Yeah it would be cool, but no one is going to do it.

GDDR6 is 98% of the market...

 

[londiste]

GDDR6 is 98% of the market...

Depends on how you define "market". Stuff that is currently produced and sold is probably already skewing towards GDDR7.
In the end, GDDR6 tops out at 20 MT/s while most GDDR7 are 28 MT/s and even the 3 GB chips are 24 MT/s and this is basically the first generation of using it.

 

[Rightness_1]

Depends on how you define "market". Stuff that is currently produced and sold is probably already skewing towards GDDR7.
In the end, GDDR6 tops out at 20 MT/s while most GDDR7 are 28 MT/s and even the 3 GB chips are 24 MT/s and this is basically the first generation of using it.

I think there could be a market for people that want to try and upgrade their older cards with more memory. People aren't made of money these days, and shelling out a fortune for a new card might not always be an option, but spending maybe $100 on some new memory chips to increase capacity might be something some may like. My 2070 could do with 12GB or VRAM, that's for sure.

 

[londiste]

Switching out VRAM chips is not and will not be a simple thing. In the DIY way at least.

 

[Rightness_1]

Switching out VRAM chips is not and will not be a simple thing. In the DIY way at least.

I never said it was. It can be done with skill and the right equipment. All I said was that there could be a service for people who would like to upgrade their VRAM.

 

[Ultron1337]

GDDR6 is 98% of the market...

I think you are referring to market share, not currently sold units.