VIK-on is a Russian modder and repair professional who is most known for upgrading an RTX 2070 and RTX 3070 graphics cards to 16GB of VRAM. This time, he used his powers to increase the VRAM capacity of an RTX 2060 by a factor of 2.
Since Nvidia is expected to deliver an actual RTX 2060 12GB SKU very soon, his timing couldn't be more perfect. By releasing the 12GB mod, VIK-on has given us an extremely brief glimpse into what the RTX 2060 12GB's additional RAM might be capable of.
The Asus RTX 2060 Turbo that had been mended with a new phase on its power distribution system was the GPU that VIK-on opted to modify. He chose Samsung K4ZAF325BM-HC14 integrated circuits for the memory, which have a capacity of 2GB. Because the normal card already has 1GB integrated circuits, it is simply a matter of swapping out the 1GB ICs for the Samsung 2GB ICs.
Always keep in mind that memory IC swaps such as this will not work with every memory chip available on the market. This is due to the fact that each GPU has a limited number of supported memory chips that it can use, and the specs of those memory chips are seldom ever made public. Thus, memory conversions like these are extremely unusual, as previously stated.
The card was then reassembled, and VIK-on ran both Superposition and an Ethereum miner to test if there were any performance advantages above the 6GB model, which there were none. Superposition and mining tests found that the performance of the 8GB model was identical to that of the 6GB variant.
The additional 6GB of memory, on the other hand, is merely a capacity upgrade and should have no effect on performance as long as GPU memory remains below the 6GB threshold. However, for programs that require more than 6GB of VRAM, you should see a performance improvement.
Even for gaming, the additional 6GB of VRAM may be beneficial depending on the games you are playing. In fact, we are already seeing 2021 AAA titles, like Battlefield 2042, that may put the current 6GB 2060 to its knees when the graphics settings are cranked up to 11. As a result, increasing the VRAM capacity would resolve the problem.
Our best guess is that this is the reason why Nvidia is supposed to be re-releasing the RTX 2060 with a new 12GB option, but that's just a conjecture on our part. More information on this GPU can be found in our previous coverage. We believe the card could be coming in January of 2022 and serve as an alternative replacement for the RTX 3050/3050 Ti in the entry-level GPU market, thanks to TSMC's relatively unused 12nm process making the RTX 2060 cards relatively cheap to build.
Modder Upgrades RTX 2060 6GB to 12GB
