Modders Turn GTX 970 into an «8GB Beast», Mocking NVIDIA's Policy

A full decade after the release of the GeForce GTX 970 — a card that became a symbol of "half-truths" in the industry — a group of Brazilian modders has successfully modified the card by replacing the original memory modules with higher-capacity ones, effectively turning 4 GB into 8 GB. Despite the architectural limitations that remain, synthetic benchmarks showed nearly double the performance.

In 2014, NVIDIA introduced the GTX 970 as a flagship card with 4 GB of GDDR5 memory. However, it was soon discovered that 0.5 GB of the advertised capacity operated at seven times slower speeds due to memory bus segmentation. This revelation led to class-action lawsuits and $30 compensation payouts per card. Interestingly, even 11 years later, NVIDIA continues to provide driver updates for the GTX 970, making it one of the longest-supported GPUs in history.

Brazilian engineers decided to fix the GTX 970’s "original sin" by replacing the 512 MB memory chips with 1 GB modules running at a higher clock speed (8 Gbps instead of 7 Gbps). While the GM204 architecture still limits 1 GB of the total 8 GB, tests in Unigine Superposition 8K showed a performance jump from 800 to 1500 points. The experiment highlighted a chronic problem in the industry — the persistent "VRAM shortage". Even in the RTX 40-series era, manufacturers continue to release 8 GB cards, drawing criticism from the gaming community.

The GTX 970, like the RTX 3070, stands as proof that insufficient VRAM shortens a GPU’s lifespan. Had NVIDIA not skimped on memory originally, these cards could have remained relevant for much longer. While the upgraded GTX 970 is unlikely to conquer modern games, the project proves that increasing VRAM can be key to extending a GPU’s longevity. After all, as the legendary GTX 1080 Ti (11 GB) has shown, generosity with VRAM is always rewarded with gamer loyalty.