Soldering on more and faster RAM onto R9 285X

There are digital analog converters for newer cards if you need more pefromance.
As for memory replacement I do not think it would work.
 
There are digital analog converters for newer cards if you need more pefromance.
As for memory replacement I do not think it would work.

This card is a stopgap until the HDFury 5 is out.
 
I don't know why you would even try when you can just sell that card for at least $40 prolly and get a RX 570 8GB for like $80 or less used or on sale.
 
I don't know why you would even try when you can just sell that card for at least $40 prolly and get a RX 570 8GB for like $80 or less used or on sale.
That card has no analog out
 
That link you posted is of a non-stock item with a minimum order quantity of 1,260 pieces.

If you really want to spend $12,512.35 + tax to upgrade the RAM on an R9 285X.. plus wait almost a month for them to get the, in stock... go for it.... or is this for an R9 380X? The thread title says one thing while your post says something else.

On top of that, you would need to modify the card's BIOS to recognize the additional RAM AND you would probably also need to modify the RAM timings and clocks in the card's BIOS.
 
There are plenty of people who use modern cards on analog displays. They use converters. And they are less of a hassle and guaranteed to work, and you get much better performance.
 
That link you posted is of a non-stock item with a minimum order quantity of 1,260 pieces.

If you really want to spend $12,512.35 + tax to upgrade the RAM on an R9 285X.. plus wait almost a month for them to get the, in stock... go for it...

Not for me...

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Regardless, there are many similar options/prices for one, but I don't blame you for going for the smart-ass reply, I prolly would have done the same. :p
 
I doubt the address lines are there to support the additional capacity, especially if there wasn’t ever a variant with that much vram.


Not for me...

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Regardless, there are many similar options/prices for one, but I don't blame you for going for the smart-ass reply, I prolly would have done the same. :p

I think he was talking about the availability of RAM chipsin the OP
 
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Not for me...

View attachment 251779

Regardless, there are many similar options/prices for one, but I don't blame you for going for the smart-ass reply, I prolly would have done the same. :p
this is the best choice get a RX 580 or 570 and one adapter or perhaps upgrade the monitor aswell... Acer has some cheap ones
 
I doubt the address lines are there to support the additional capacity, especially if there wasn’t ever a variant with that much vram.




I think he was talking about the availability of RAM chipsin the OP

D'oh, my bad. Missed that there was a link in OP.
 
I doubt the address lines are there to support the additional capacity, especially if there wasn’t ever a variant with that much vram.


I think he was talking about the availability of RAM chipsin the OP
GDDR5 also includes a physical 170 pin/ball form factor as part of the standard, hence why you can manufacture the same board with two different brands' memory. If he removes the old chips, and installs new ones, there's nothing physically missing to prevent them from working...

I'm getting an R9 380X for CRT gaming. I found some GDDR5 8Gb 2GHz (8Gbps) modules for sale. If I had these GDDR5 chips soldered on, would the card recognize them: https://www.digikey.com/product-det...M32HF-80-B-TR/MT51J256M32HF-80-BTR-ND/7920485

...nevertheless, the short answer is no. Your problem would likely not be the hardware, but rather the software that wouldn't be compatible. You would need a BIOS image for the card that includes provisions for the the larger capacity memory ICs, including the proper timings, which are probably different. You may be able to create a hacked bios image for a 200 series card that would work, but I suspect you'd be in mostly uncharted territory.

Then you get to the driver issues. It's hard to say whether or not the drivers would play nice with a 285 with more memory, but I don't think it's a safe assumption to assume that they would, even if you could get a BIOS image that allows the card to address the extra memory properly.

It's a vastly better solution to just use a newer card and some sort of adapter to provide VGA support if you're hell bent on running a CRT for some reason.

Edit: And, all this doesn't even consider the difficulty of soldering sixteen large BGA devices. This is non-trivial, and not guaranteed to work even for someone who has the appropriate equipment.
 
I was talking about the PCB itself not having the traces for the necessary address lines running to the solder pads, or the GPU itself not being capable of addressing more RAM (though it seems that’s not an issue in this case).
 
rabidz7, check my answer i quote to your query in the fw900 crt forum, a quick advice is to stay away from cheap untested from that forum members digital to analog adapters, most of them will give poor signal quality and limited to low resolutions and refresh rates, i am using a gtx 1080 ti with fw900 crt via sunix dpu3000 adapter with very good results, and allows me to use monitor high refresh rate and high resolutions, eventhough that adapter seems to become hard to get, however there are alternatives, more info on the mentioned forum, also i personaly believe waiting for a thing such the hd fury 5 is worthless, many people have been waiting for it for years with no signs of arrival and also if it arrives some day probably will be very expensive, since HDFURY X4 is about 300 usd, just imagine how expensive would 5 be.
 
There are plenty of people who use modern cards on analog displays. They use converters. And they are less of a hassle and guaranteed to work, and you get much better performance.
how exactly do you get better performance?
 
Would it be an option to use two graphics cards? One with native VGA that drives the display, and a more modern one that does the rendering? I think Windows 10 even comes with a built-in function for that since 1803.
 
Lets say it did work, your performance would eventually be bottlenecked by the GPU. Just doesn't seem worth it.
 
the question is why on earth anyone would play on CRT monitor? specially knowing CRT damage your eyesight..
 
Because they're faster cards. You could use a Titan with a VGA display if you had a DP or HDMI to VGA converter device.

I thought it was implied that you get better performance because of using VGA.
 
you've never owned a fw-900 i see.
I own FW900 and to me this monitor is not second coming of Christ like some people suggest it is.
SMPTE-C phosphors used in this monitor are actually pretty meh when compared with eg. typical European TVs and many much cheaper VGA CRTs. Better darker phosphors eg. EBU give gamut that is very close to sRGB and better contrast ratio with less dependence on ambient lighting and with less flaring and inner glass reflections and also less phosphor trails.

Only saving grace and reason for FW900 popularity is its rather big size and wide screen aspect ratio. It is however not really any reference how picture quality of CRT should look like.
 
Don't listen to the naysayers! We'd still think the earth was flat if everyone did.

Buy the RAM. Show us pix as you solder them on. Then show us performance stats before and after. C'mon. This is [H]: upgrading video ram is part of it. ;)
 
Don't listen to the naysayers! We'd still think the earth was flat if everyone did.

Buy the RAM. Show us pix as you solder them on. Then show us performance stats before and after. C'mon. This is [H]: upgrading video ram is part of it. ;)

As razor said earlier, if you do not have the proper tools you're almost guaranteed to screw it up and destroy the card. I'd put it at 100% if he does not practice first on another card.
 
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