The 7-Year-Old RTX 2080 SUPER has been Revived with 16 GB of VRAM

Brazilian modder Paulo Gomes and his team upgraded the GALAX RTX 2080 SUPER HOF’s GDDR6 memory from 8GB to 16GB. The changes weren’t limited to just the capacity increase; the necessary configurations were also adjusted to ensure the card correctly recognized the new memory. Initial tests show that the old card still has potential, especially in games that hit the VRAM limit.

RTX 2080 SUPER Speeds Up by Up to 28% with 16GB VRAM

During the modification, eight 1GB Samsung GDDR6 memory modules were removed from the card and replaced with 2GB modules. Then, the graphics card’s memory configuration was changed to ensure the GPU correctly recognized the new 16GB capacity. The team also noted that they couldn’t find any previous examples of the same modification being done on an RTX 2080 SUPER.

The difference was quite noticeable in tests with Resident Evil Requiem. In a demanding scene where VRAM usage reached approximately 11 GB, the stock 8 GB card delivered around 25 FPS, while the upgraded 16 GB version reached 32-34 FPS. This translates to a performance increase of up to approximately 28% in certain scenarios.

There’s an important detail here: the RTX 2080 SUPER’s TU104 GPU and memory bandwidth remained unchanged. This means the card hasn’t become faster in terms of raw processing power. The gain comes only from reducing the need to access system memory in scenes where 8 GB of VRAM is insufficient. It wouldn’t be accurate to expect a similar increase in games that don’t approach the 8 GB limit.

This modification is, of course, impractical for most users. It requires precise soldering, finding the right memory chips, and correctly configuring the card. Nevertheless, the 16 GB RTX 2080 SUPER clearly demonstrates why aging Turing cards can benefit from more memory in modern games.

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