$142 Upgrade Kit and Spare Modules Turn Nvidia RTX 4090 24GB to 48GB AI Card

upstart writes:

The RTX 4090 48GB looks like a whole different card:

Remember those Frakenstein GeForce RTX 4090 48GB graphics cards emerging from China? Russian PC technician and builder VIK-on [17:17 --JE] has provided detailed insights into how Chinese factories are transforming the GeForce RTX 4090, once regarded as one of the best graphics cards, to effectively double its memory capacity specifically for AI workloads.

As a mainstream product, the GeForce RTX 4090 does not support memory chips in a clamshell configuration, unlike Nvidia's professional and data center products. Essentially, this means that the Ada Lovelace flagship only houses memory chips on one side of the PCB. In clamshell mode, graphics cards typically feature memory chips on both sides of the PCB. This limitation is addressed by the GeForce RTX 4090 4GB "upgrade kit," which sells for around $142 in China.

The upgrade kit comprises a custom PCB designed with a clamshell configuration, facilitating the installation of twice the number of memory chips. Most components are pre-installed at the manufacturing facility, requiring the user to solder the GPU and memory chips onto the PCB. Additionally, the upgrade kit includes a blower-style cooling solution, designed for integration with workstation and server configurations that utilize multi-GPU architectures.

VIK-on demonstrated the process of extracting the AD102 silicon and twelve 2GB GDDR6X memory chips from the MSI GeForce RTX 4090 Suprim and installing them onto the barebone PCB. The technician utilized spare GDDR6X memory chips from defective graphics cards, thereby obtaining additional GDDR6X memory at no cost. Clearly, this operation requires specialized soldering skills and access to appropriate high-end tools.

The technician also uploaded a leaked, modified firmware onto the GeForce RTX 4090 48GB. It is important to note that each graphics card possesses a unique GPU device ID, which contains all pertinent information. During the system initialization process, the firmware verifies whether the GPU device ID corresponds with the one embedded within the chip. Hacked firmware has been present for some time.

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