The GeForce RTX 2080 Ti was once among the best graphics cards gamers can buy. While some of us may have forgotten about the six-year-old graphics card, the Turing-based flagship is making a comeback in China. Amidst the AI boom, Chinese workshops (via I_Leak_VN) are repurposing the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti into AI accelerators by doubling the memory from 11GB to 22GB.
Ever since the U.S. banned Nvidia from selling its most prominent AI products, such as the A100 (Ampere) and H100 (Hopper), and the flagship GeForce RTX 4090 (Ada Lovelace) in China, it has become challenging for Chinese businesses to get a hold of them. There have been desperate attempts to get around the U.S. export ban, including smuggling GeForce RTX 4090 graphics cards from other countries into China or domestic factories recycling previous-generation graphics cards, such as the GeForce RTX 3090 or GeForce RTX 3080.
The problem with salvaging old graphics cards is the stock. With Ada Lovelace having been out for almost two years, it's hard to find any significant Ampere stock around. So, what's the next move? Go back another generation. The Chinese workshops now focus on the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti. The only modification they are making to the Turing graphics card is doubling the memory from 11GB to 22GB to turn them into viable AI accelerators. There's a long precedence of user mods that swap out existing GDDR6 chips for higher-capacity ones on Turing. One enthusiast outfitted a GeForce RTX 2080 Ti with 44GB of VRAM not so long ago, so VRAM modification and upgrades aren't something from another universe.
According to the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 22GB posting on Goofish, the seller, who goes back by Aisawk, reportedly utilizes original Samsung GDDR6 chips and high-quality ALPHA OM-367 solder paste for the modification. He also claims that the modified GeForce RTX 2080 Ti will not face any Nvidia driver issues as the graphics card is seemingly supported and working without vBIOS modifications.
The photographs showed that the merchant is utilizing MSI's GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Aero 11GB for the project. The reason is likely due to the graphics card's blower-type design, allowing consumers to use multiple graphics cards in the same system. It's not the only model that the seller offers, though. He also shared autographs of a Founders Edition design. Besides selling the altered graphics card, the Goofish seller also offers an upgrade service for $120, which includes labor and materials, for GeForce RTX 2080 Ti owners who want to send in their graphics card for the 22GB modification.
The GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 22GB has found its way outside China. eBay seller customgpu_official, an upgrade and repair store in Palo Alto, California, sells a similar MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Aero with 22GB for $499. The store is touting the graphics card as a budget alternative for students and startups that want to get their feet wet in AI workloads. The graphics card is allegedly stable in Stable diffusion, large language models (LLMs), and Llama 2. According to the merchant's website, it has sold over 500 units of the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 22GB.
The GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 22GB may not be a bad deal. At $499, it has 6GB more memory than a GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super, costing $300 less or 2GB more than the Radeon RX 7900 XT with a $400 lower price tag. The obvious caveat with modified products is that you don't know if the graphics card was new to start with and the warranty.
While the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 22GB offers abundant memory for AI and deep learning training for an attractive price, you never know how long the graphics card will last you. For example, customgpu_official only offers a 30-day warranty with a free exchange for a malfunctioning graphics card. After that period, you're practically on your own. So, while saving a few bucks today, you may lose your entire investment in a few months if you're unlucky.
