AMD RX 480 4GB Retail Cards Have 8GB Of Memory, Unlockable Via BIOS Update

Early on AMD RX 480 4GB retail units really accept 8GB and information technology'southward unlockable via a BIOS update. A discovery we made in our retail RX 480 4GB carte. Which we have published a review of earlier today. We'd highly recommend checking out the review before proceeding, equally some of the results were quite surprising.

We bought our XFX RX 480 4GB retail unit straight from newegg on launch day for $199 and information technology's still bachelor as I'm writing this. We heard from other reviewers and publications that AMD supplied two BIOS profiles alongside the RX 480 review sample units. By simply switching between the two profiles the memory configuration changes from 8GB running 8Ghz to 4GB running at 7Ghz. Allowing reviewers to test both 4GB and 8GB configurations of the RX 480 with 1 card.

AMD's 4GB RX 480 Early on Retail Cards Have 8GB of GDDR5 Memory, Unlockable Via BIOS Update

Soon after the RX 480 was released some rumors began to surface suggesting that early on retails units of the 4GB RX 480 are really 8GB versions flashed with the 4GB BIOS. We thought that this was quite bizarre as the whole idea backside offer the 4GB configuration of the RX 480 was to cut costs and deliver the RX 480 at the more affordable price point of $199, vs the $229 MSRP for the 8GB configuration.

The theory goes that AMD, sticking to its word, wanted to make sure that the RX 480 was bachelor at launch for the advertised MSRP of $199. All the while supply of the lower density memory chips for the 4GB variant were notwithstanding ramping. This meant that instead of going ahead with the launch and simply having the 8GB RX 480 version bachelor on mean solar day i, the company decided to bite the bullet and sell 8GB RX 480s with the 4GB BIOS instead.

Essentially taking a $thirty loss on every 8GB unit sold equally a 4GB RX 480, to encounter consumer demand. How many of these 8GB cards existence sold as 4GB RX 480s are in circulation is still unclear. But if our retail RX 480 4GB unit of measurement is any indication we're probably talking about all of the initial stock of 4GB RX 480 cards.

Confirmed, Our XFX RX 480 4GB Retail Unit Has 8 1GB, 8Ghz GDDR5 Samsung Retention Chips

Naturally we were very much intrigued past the rumors and wanted to see for ourselves. And so we took apart our own RX 480 sample to wait at the memory chips. Lo & behold, they're the exact aforementioned i gigabyte 8Ghz chips from Samsung found in the 8GB RX 480 and GTX 1070.

AMD Radeon RX 480 4GB Version with 8GB Samsung Memory AMD Radeon XFX RX 480 4GB retail carte with 8GB Samsung GDDR5 memory chips.

In fact, nosotros were able to observe the specs for the chips quite hands on Samsung's website. The GDDR5 retentivity chips in question are Samsung'southward K4G80325FB.

Density	Organization	Vdd/Vddq(Five)	Production Status
8Gb / 1GB	256Mx32	1.305 to i.597	Mass Production

The reference RX 480, which is what our sample is, does not come with a BIOS switch. So at that place's a serious risk of rendering the card a paperweight if things go horribly wrong and flashing fails. So naturally we wouldn't recommend that you try this on your 4GB RX 480. At least not yet.

Until a working 8GB BIOS leaks out and its success is replicated on multiple retail 4GB RX 480 cards this volition stay as a "do it at your own hazard" sort of thing. And remember, if you lot don't have 8GB of memory on your carte to beigin with, at that place'south nothing to unlock. So take a practiced look at the retention chips on your 4GB RX 480 outset attempting to wink the BIOS. It will exist interesting to see if the regular RX 480 8GB BIOS will work, we bet that it volition. And that's what we'll be testing out over the next trivial while.