Is a GPU RAM replacement mod possible?

[eligray]

Could you replace RAM on a GPU with very similar RAM by the same manufacturer that is binned higher or just has higher stock speeds?

I'm picturing say replacing 1000mhz DDR3 chips on my 4850 with 1200mhz chips from the same ram manufacturer. I would imagine that these chips would be compatible with the lower spec'ed ones.

Obviously this is ignoring the difficult soldering that would be required.

Just thinking that we could take extreme GPU benching to another level :)

[okorop]

I think it is not a good idea; anyway I am waiting for your news..... :)

[Power5]

I would think as long as the power requirement is not more than the supplied power of the card, you should be ok.

[eligray]

I would think as long as the power requirement is not more than the supplied power of the card, you should be ok.

I'm positive that power would not be an issue for RAM.

[Ozzfest05]

and if so volt mod it up

[celemine1Gig]

It is possible and has been done before many times, by poeple who know what they are doing. ;) The problem is: You need the right equipment for BGA soldering and that's not quite easy to come by. And even if you have the right equipment (optimally including a x-ray apparatus to check the connections after soldering) there's no guarantee that it'll work 100% all the time. There's the possibility of solder bridges beneath the chip, that's why I talked about x-ray. And resoldering is also restricted to a certain amount of retries, before the pads get damaged.
So, yes it can be done, but as you already suspected it's not the easy way at all. If you don't get the replacements (nearly) for free, I'd say that it's not worth it.

[cirthix]

Soldering the ram is the easy part. Reballing it is the hard part.

[jasonelmore]

It's not going to work unless you have access and skill to some very expensive equiptment. And even then i still doubt it could be done. Are'nt some pcb's multiple layers with leads in seperate layers ?

The volt modding or soft modding would be simple stuff compared to the task you are thinking of embarking on :)

[eligray]

volt mods? been there, done that.

This is basically what I thought the answer would be guys. It'd be pretty cool to work at EVGA for this. You could come in after hours, pop 8 of your RAM chips into the machine, and have it solder it up like a normal card.

[HuffPCair]

I definitely want to see this if it ever happens. Really interested to see how it turns out.

[celemine1Gig]

It already has been done. Just do a search. I remember that when the Radeon 9500/9700 series was the current state of the art, someone here did replace the RAM to have higher overclocking results. It's not a new idea, but not easily done.

[HuffPCair]

ah ok cool. I have never seen it done, while its pretty smart I dont know if I have the balls to do it. Plus warrenty would be gone and I wouldnt want that.

[celemine1Gig]

ah ok cool. I have never seen it done, while its pretty smart I dont know if I have the balls to do it. Plus warrenty would be gone and I wouldnt want that.

Sorry, but if you care about warranty, this is definitely not for you. And I doubt that you really understand how this would need to be done, if warranty is on your mind right now. :D

[HuffPCair]

Thats why I am not doing it just wanted to see how it was done.

[iddqd]

if you have equipment that can do ball grid array soldering, yeah, you could. I don't think you could do this by hand.

[lism]

Solder off the Graphics chip is'nt an option?

[eligray]

Solder off the Graphics chip is'nt an option?

it is, but there are tons of very small solder joints under the chip that you must have special equipment for