Cutting corners: As the memory crisis makes modern graphics cards less affordable each month, users, manufacturers, repair shops, and resellers are finding creative ways to squeeze every gigabyte of VRAM out of a skewed market. One method involves upgrading a nearly decade-old flagship GPU.
Budget users shopping for a path toward mid-range 4K gaming or heavy AI workloads might want to investigate a Hong Kong-based reseller. The vendor recently began offering Nvidia's RTX 2080 Ti with double its original memory for less than its current average price.
Originally released in 2019 with 11GB of GDDR6 VRAM, the 2080 Ti was a flagship in its day and still keeps pace with more recent mid-range cards. The GPU launched with an MSRP of $999 but can typically be found for roughly $670 these days.
However, users still holding on to eight-year-old 2080 Ti cards can double the GPU's memory to 22GB by replacing its 11 1GB modules with the same number of 2GB modules. Less savvy users can pay repair shops like the UAE-based GPU Solutions to perform the operation, and Zhou's store recently began selling pre-modded units on eBay for $529. The reseller notes that the modded GPUs come from various manufacturers, including Gigabyte, MSI, Asus, and Leadtek.
