Brazilian GPU modder Paulo Gomes is at it again with a new mod doubling the RTX 2080 VRAM capacity. Using higher density 2GB memory chips, the modder managed to upgrade an EVGA GeForce RTX 2080 from 8GB to 16GB.
This mod required some advanced soldering skills and professional tools, plus the replacement 2GB VRAM chips. It’s much more complicated than my little mouse switch swap. Besides replacing the memory chips, a couple of SMDs needed relocating to signal the changes to the BIOS. Only after that was the extra VRAM capacity detected in Windows.
Before the mod, the card produced between 55 and 65fps in Resident Evil 4. After doubling the VRAM capacity, it now delivers between 65 and 75fps for a 15% average uplift. Most importantly, the card now has much better 1% lows. Instead of 3fps minimums, it now hits around 55fps. After some testing, the modder said that the improvement hovered around the 8% mark. Not bad at all.
The excessive frame rate drop may be due to the smaller 8GB VRAM. These drops feel like stuttering, as shown by Hardware Unboxed testing of 8GB vs 16GB cards. Removing this issue alone may be worth the mod if the games played suffer from low VRAM capacity.
That said, this is far from a scientific testing methodology. The team only tested one game one time without trying to reproduce the exact actions to have an apple-to-apple comparison. Even so, the gains are definitely real and worthwhile for many users willing to take the risk of modifying their graphics cards.
Doubling the VRAM alone is a good excuse to make this mod, as many games come with large texture packs. Promising results from a single title show better texture quality and an 8% performance improvement. Assuming other titles also benefit from this, the value is even higher.
