Nvidia's RTX 3070 was once a well-received graphics card product, but its 8GB graphics memory configuration has gradually become stretched in the face of the growing graphics memory requirements of today's games. Now, a hardware modding enthusiast has shown what this Ampere architecture graphics card could have looked like if Nvidia had been more generous. He used recycled parts from scrapped graphics cards to successfully create a fully usable 16GB version of the RTX 3070 graphics card.
This project comes from ComputerBase forum member AssassinWarlord, who started with a Gigabyte RTX 3070 Gaming OC graphics card and an AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT graphics card with a damaged GPU chip. The original RTX 3070 uses eight 1GB Samsung GDDR6 memory chips to form a standard 8GB configuration, while the Radeon graphics card provides eight 2GB Samsung memory chips, enough to double the memory capacity of the Nvidia graphics card.
This modification is much more than a simple swap of chips. AssassinWarlord removed the memory chips from both graphics cards and reballed them, a delicate process that requires replacing tiny solder balls on the bottom of each memory package so that it can be mounted on a new PCB. He then used a 3D printed GDDR6 template fixture to weld 16GB worth of video memory modules onto the RTX 3070 PCB board.
Modified graphics cards will still initially show up as the 8GB model, as the memory strip parameters will also need to be modified so that the GPU can select the correct BIOS timings. After replacing the band resistor, the RTX 3070 started successfully and displayed 16GB capacity, but it was not immediately stable. The graphics card will experience black screen and solid color crashes when switching power states, especially when exiting a benchmark or switching between desktop and load states.
AssassinWarlord ultimately traced the issue back to the 16GB timing configuration in the BIOS, which appears to be because Nvidia had internally experimented with a 16GB version of the RTX 3070 design but never completed the implementation. Since modern Nvidia's BIOS files cannot be freely modified without breaking security checks, the final solution is a workaround rather than a clean BIOS repair. A registry tweak called DisableDynamicPstate forces the graphics card to remain in the high-performance P0 state, preventing throttling behavior. The disadvantage is that the no-load power consumption reaches about 70W, which is not ideal, but it does make the 16GB mode stable.
The modder also added a physical switch that allows the card to switch between 8GB or 16GB mode after a complete power outage and restart. This allows AssassinWarlord to compare two memory configurations on the same graphics card, making it easier to see the effects of additional memory.
On synthetic benchmarks, the performance gains are not significant. In some cases, the 8GB mode was slightly faster at default frequencies, possibly because the 16GB timings were never properly refined. But the improvement in the game is even more obvious. When running "Marvel's Spider-Man 2" at 4K resolution and ultra high preset, the frame rate in 8GB mode stuck at about 20fps. In 16GB mode, after using 13.3GB of video memory, the performance jumped to more than 40fps, and the frame rate actually doubled.
This is not the first time someone has made a 16GB version of the RTX 3070. Modder VIK-On made a working version years ago, but also encountered stability issues before finding a workaround to lock the clock. But what makes AssassinWarlord's version stand out is that he turned two broken graphics cards into a more practical GPU, and also added a cool 8GB/16GB switch.