RX470 - memory upgrade 4GB -> 8GB ?

[DynaxSC]

Hi,

Does anybody know if it possible to change memory on a 4GB SAPPHIRE RX470 (a mining version with only one DVI connector) to 8GB only by changing the GDDR5 chips to higher 8GB capacity type ?

Will the card recognize this automatically, or needs something more to be done, eg. a different BIOS ?

Are the RAM chips to be same vendor, or can one use any vendor, eg. Hynix or Micron (the card has physically Samsung chips K4G41325FC-HC28 chips, although BIOS shows Hynix) ?

Attached the GPU-Z screenshot of the card.

[Per Hansson]

Most certainly it will require a new BIOS but that is not a problem because you have many to choose from:
https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/...emSize=&since=

[DynaxSC]

Just changed the memory to 8gb Micron D9TCB and changed the Bios to 8gb Bios (according to Techpowerup suitable for Samsung and Micron) . The card starts and gives a picture, shows also 8gb and is correctly listed in device manager, however its not stable, any test eg. OCCT freezes the system with a black screen. Also an attempt to mine ends in freeze. So there must be something more than Bios, or timings have to be corrected to the specific rams. I have also seen on Nvidia schematics some hardware coding for different ram vendors, maybe something like that? Or maybe AMD just deliveres for 4gb cards GPU's which have production failure in 5-8gb address area, and just can only work up to 4gb? I will dig more into the topic and get back if any success.

Anybody any other suggestions?

[DrasticRepairs]

The bios is the only thing that needs to be changed for a RAM upgrade. Was the card working properly before the upgrade? Have you tried running tserver on it? Maybe one of the modules has a bad solder joint. Does gpu-z say it's micron, or is it detecting as Samsung? You could try a micron only bios.

[DynaxSC]

Yes, the card was 100% working with 4GB ram, I'm not sure about the 8GB rams, as they came from an irreparably broken card (board destroyed by electrical arc), so couldn't check them at all. I'll try now to test the card with Lord of the GPU, but just received the pendrive to prepare the disk. GPU-Z shows the rams are Micron, same in Polaris Bios Editor. It seems that the info on Techpowerup is not correct, the Bios there for the Mining version of the card has only Micron option - according to Polaris Bios Editor. So than it means most probably some ram chips are bad.

BTW would be nice to have an option to test gddrs w/o need to soder them, I've seen such sockets, but they are extremely expensive and very difficult to buy.

[DynaxSC]

BTW, I just found out on Micron page, there are two types of D9TCB memory chips, one with 1,35V supply, and another with 1,5V supply, however they do both seem to be D9TCB. I wounder now, if my rams are not 1,35V, and the supply on the board is 1,5V, maybe thats the reason why it does not work reliably ?

Does anybody know how to distinguish these two types on Micron chips ?
Micron seems not two supply any data sheet for these rams on their page.
Unfortunately I also can't test the board which I have taken the rams from, as it is too much damaged.

[DynaxSC]

It is strange as accordning to Micron online part decoder D9TCB is only one chip: MT51J256M32HF-80:B, and it has according to micron site 1,5V supply, but I measured a few cards, and some of them supply 1,5V and some 1,35V for this memory type. I'm lost.

[DynaxSC]

Tested now finally the memory on the card with "Lord of the GPU", but it shows no errors, now I'm completely BSOD.

[DynaxSC]

Installed the card on a newer motherboard and booted. During boot Bios gives me the following message:

There is no GOP (Graphics Output Protocol) support detected in this card.
'BIOS CSM/UEFI Mode' settings in BIOS will be changed to 'CSM'.
Press F1 to run setup.
Press F2 to load defauls values and continue.

Read somewhere this is a conflict in the HAL (mobo and card bios conflict), to be resolved by changing to UEFI again. Unfortunately if I do this, the Bios resets again to CSM, so no way forward.

After booting Windows in CSM mode, device manager shows error 43. The card runs, but only under Microsoft Basic Display Driver, not under the AMD driver. GPU-Z shows Open GL 1.1 only, Furmark does not start, requires Open GL 2.0 as min..

Any help appreciated.

GPU-Z.gif

[DynaxSC]

Changed the Bios of the card to another from Techpowerup, the GOP issue is gone, but the card is not stable under Windows, driver installs correctly, but system freezes when trying to use the card. So no progres.

[DynaxSC]

Tried a dozen of Bioses from Techpowerup, either GOP error, or card not stable.
Reduced also the RAM voltage to 1.35V, no change, card not stable, system freezes.

I'm out of ideas. Maybe somebody of you guys will have ?

[DrasticRepairs]

The 1.35v vs 1.5v difference doesn't seem to matter. I've tried mixing the hynix 1.35 and 1.5v versions.
I'm guessing the memory does have a bad chip, but it's not bad enough to show up on your Lord of the gpu. It's actually called tserver. You can get it to run the test with a higher memory clock by navigating to the folder that tserver runs from and running

./agt -mem=1000
Then
./tserver -boardtest=memfa

You can set the memory frequency to whatever you want. It doesn't have to be 1000. This might turn up some errors that wouldn't show up with the normal test.

[DynaxSC]

Hi, thanks for this good hint, I'll try it out during the weekend.

[LexNox]

Hi to everyone, I'm interested too in the RX470 Ram upgrade from 4GB to 8GB; in the end, you have been able to do the mod correctly? I've an XFX RX470 4 GB, I've seen there is this bios https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/197047/197047

[DynaxSC]

Hi, didn't manage so far to get this done due to lack of time, but I will write about once I have success with this. However currently do not know when I will be able to work on this.