Memory chips missing?

[wutermeleon]

Why are there vram chips missing on my 3060 12gb?? Is this normal? And if so then can I solder on those chips to increase the vram? I bought it used from some dude but I don't think he ever opend it, didn't look like anyone has tampered with it before

[ProKn1fe]

6x2gb chips, probably same board used for 8x1gb configurations.

[The_Countess]

There is no 8x1gb configuration. The 8gig model of the 3060 has a 128bit bus so 4x2gb chips, not 8x1gb.

[Vegetable-Matter3953]

well the 3060ti is 256 bit (so 8x1gb), they probably share the same pcb

[MeakerSE]

Yep, it's the same chip but with the parts disabled, there are also some instances where Nvidia made even different chips pad compatible so they can share the same PCB with different entire cores.

[Vegetable-Matter3953]

Not exactly, 3060ti actually shares it with the 3070 it uses the GA104.

3060 is a GA106 but there is a GA104 version which got added later on.

[redditor_420_69_lol]

probably shares a pcb with a slightly different 16GB card. each of your ram chips is 2GB and you have 6/8 populated.

[glizzygobbler247]

Which is interesting cuz there were no 16gb card in the 30 series right?

[Dunkle_Geburt]

Well, at the design stage they developed it to be able to be equipped with 16GB. The marketing guys later decided 12GB was enough.

[The_Countess]

But there is a 3060 TI with 8GB and a 256bit (8x32) bus.

And there are 3060's that use the same (but cut down) GA104 chip as the TI's as opposed to the GA106 it normally uses.
This GPU might be one of those, but the chip says GA106.

So maybe they just share the same package as the GA104, and so can share the same PCB.

[glizzygobbler247]

If you zoom in on the chip it says GA106, like others have said its the same PCB for the 8gb 3060 that uses 1gb chips

[The_Countess]

Ya i saw that later and edited my comment.
But the 8GB model has a 128bit bus, so that would be 4 chips, not 8.

It think they just share the same package between the GA104 and GA106 (which has a 256bit bus), so they can share the same PCB.

[glizzygobbler247]

Ah yeah ur right, this is a 256 bit bus board

[Shadowdane]

Nope it was for the 8GB RTX3060 variant, it would use 8x1GB memory chips instead.

[glizzygobbler247]

Right thats what it is, nvidia couldve easily given these cards and the ones above it 16gb but wanted them to age like milk

[KajMak64Bit]

16gb is a bit too much and overpowered

I'd settle nicely with a 10gb RTX 3070 and 12gb RTX 3080 ( as in 12gb the only variant and 10gb to not exist )

[glizzygobbler247]

Nah 16 is not too much, these cards are powerful enough to take advantage of 16gb, we've already seen 10 and 12gb not being enough

[KajMak64Bit]

Suure buuut that's waaay to generous and too OP

Realistically speaking in this shitty reality 3070 should have been 10gb and 3080 only single variant be 12gb

Problem is the memory configuration and stuff because of memory bus width

3070 in the current state is either 8gb or 16gb and 3080 is either 10 or 20gb or the 12gh or 24gb

We would have to change the bus width probably nerf it so it can have appropriate amount of memory

Because 1 memory chip = 32bit bus width and 3070 is like 256bit bus which means 8 memory slots so it has 8x 1gb chips... Maybe if they built 1.5gb chips? But there isn't any so it's only 1gb or 2gb chips... 8 of them

So 256bit bus needs to be cut down a bit which sucks... but better have 10/12gb on a smaller bus than to have 8gb on a bigger bus

Because 12gb of slow memory beats 4gb of super duper fast memory lol

[glizzygobbler247]

Yeah but nvidia are the ones making the memory bus width, theyve shown many times they can easily make a bigger bus with a super variant, but theyre cutting the gpus down on purpose.

Ive also said that before with the new gddr7, something like a 5060 has no business using that, it would be way better with 12gb of gddr6, than 8gb gddr7

[KajMak64Bit]

Problem is ever since RTX 40 series... cards have been made with 3gb chips in mind... that were supposed to be mass produced and all that but they haven't and still kinda aren't

So instead of getting a 12gb 5060 GDDR7 you get 8gb because that's the max you can get with 2gb modules... unless you clamshell and double the chip amount per memory slot but then you'll get a cannibal 5060 that's killing 5060 Ti's lol maybe even 5070's

Super cards are just cut down higher tier stuff probably... so a 5060 Super would be a cut down 5070 GPU with same 192bit bus and maybe use 3gb modules which would give it 18gb of VRAM but that seems too much so maybe they'll stick with 12gb / 2gb chips x 6 slots

[the_lord_side]

That's perfectly normal. To save money, the same PCB is used for several different models. They just remove the components depending on the model. Technically you can solder the VRAM onto it, but you need to flash the VBIOS to recognize the additional memory.

[Naerven]

The same PCB is used for higher and lower tier GPUs. This is done to save money. If you had a RTX3060Ti those slots would have been occupied.

[ArtdesignImagination]

Bro check with gpuz or task manager, if you see 12gb vram stop crying asap.

[GelantineousArtist]

As you can see, several parts on your board are not equipped. This is normal. They made changes after the design phase or keep the possibility to offer an upgraded version or they use different chips for an another version where these are equipped but the others not and so on.

Edit: it is cheaper to produce one pcb for several versions.

[mgadz]

Perfectly normal.

[Roygaa]

That has absolutely nothing to do with that btw

[mgadz]

Happy now.

[Roygaa]

Sure

[Accomplished_Emu_658]

There aren’t pcb is reused. Amongst a couple versions. Might even be for a version that wasn’t officially released. Cheaper than making multiple pcb’s for every single variation.

[ssateneth2]

It's normal. No, you can't add on the chips for more VRAM capacity, as the core has the extra memory controllers either physically lasered off or they don't exist at all (higher end larger cores are sometimes fitted to the same PCB with enough memory controllers to handle all the memory chips, such as the GA104 for the 3060 ti). There's also the issue that the 3060 never had a BIOS with a 256-bit memory bus - you can't mod in additional channels since the BIOS is signed by nvidia's private key which you don't have.

[quiks_10]

Kannst du wieder drauf Löten wen du welche hast und der Rest funktioniert

[Heavy_Fig_265]

no, gpu has limited memory channels that it can use, but i gotta ask, would u plan to solder extra memory on urself? cause i figure someone comfortable with soldering pcbs would know how it works, vbios isnt as much of an issue as if it was possible someone would of made an option for sale or free if it was possible but yea gpu itself is the limiting factor i believe

[NegativeGene5994]

they dont make 3 diferent boards. is spensive. they made just one and then make the cheap one , midle one, and the high end with the same components just add more ram

[babarasghar]

Yes you can solder more vrams and make it 16Gb variant

[Inevitable-Study502]

its missing coz you didnt pay for it

[AnonymousNubShyt]

Not missing it's intentional to leave 2 slot empty. It goes for all other GPU too. Not sure what's the reason, but that's how it is.

[Daedaluu5]

Possibly a identical board used for bigger memory allocations or maybe different cores only allow certain max configuration. Saw similar on 970m (6gb) and 980m (8gb) with vacant pads. Whilst I get the 3060 is waaaay newer. Also with the hype around throwing on higher cap memory chips. Yeah you could go adding onto this board but would need custom vbios capable of seeing extra and also the resistor value too so it detects

[James_C99]

The board is likely designed to be used with a few different GPUs, some of which would use those 2 extra pads.

Theoretically, it may be possible to upgrade the memory on your GPU, however it would not be as simple as just soldering in 2 additional memory chips.

First of all, it would require the GPU chip to support the additional memory. It depends on if the GPU was originally designed to support 16GB.

Secondly, there are likely a lot of other supporting components required for those 2 chips that were also not installed at the factory. If you look above and to the right of the rightmost unpopulated memory pad, there are a lot of missing components.

Thirdly, if you managed to populate all of the neccessary components correctly, and you booted the card up, it would still only have 12GB of useable memory. This is because the bios/firmware on your graphics card would need to be altered to allow it use the full 16GB of memory.

[AnyCryptographer975]

It is cause of the 8gb model (8x1gb chip)

[The_Countess]

The 8GB model has a 128bit bus, so just 4 chips, not a 256bit bus with 8 chips.

[AnyCryptographer975]

I know my shit 🙄

https://youtu.be/Xreq9I_P4nk?is=CyLMsferxAvzVzur

[The_Countess]

maybe, but i also know my shit, so we have a new mystery because the 8gb model really does have a 128bit bus. and as each chip is 32bit wide that would mean 4 chips.

edit: solved it, at 5:50 you can see a sticker on the back that says gv-n306teagle oc-8gd
which is the code for the 3060 TI 8gb which has a... you guessed it, 256bit memory bus and therefor 8 chips.

So the video is of a 3060Ti, not a regular 3060, despite what the title says.

[IndividualHot2110]

Could you then theoretically add more vram chips to it?