There have been many cases where graphics card makers like NVIDIA work on models that never reach the market. That was the case with the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti 20 GB, a card that was recently seen running after a modder managed to push it beyond its limits.
A Modder Pushes the RTX 3080 Ti 20 GB to 555W
The existence of this graphics card went viral a few days ago. It was described as a hybrid design with a 320-bit memory bus and rear memory similar to what was seen on the RTX 3090. Since it was never an official SKU, its performance did not fully match what its specifications might suggest.
However, a modder managed to bring it closer to expected performance by removing power limits and improving the cooling system.
As seen on Reddit (thanks VideoCardz), the user carried out a stacked shunt mod using 10 mOhm shunts on the sensing rails of the 12-pin connector and the PCIe slot, without changing those for the memory or controller. Although the card had a 390W power limit, it was able to reach 480W in a stable way, with peaks of up to 555W when overclocked.
As expected, the higher power caused more heat, which began to limit performance. To solve this, the modder applied liquid metal to the GPU chip and increased mounting pressure using 0.5 mm washers. The thermal pads were also replaced, moving from 12W/mK to 20W/mK, which allowed idle temperatures as low as 31°C.
The main issue remained with the memory. Under load, temperatures reached up to 102°C, which caused visual artifacts. To fix this, the modder added external heatsinks to the card’s casing. After this change, memory temperatures stayed below 94°C even with ray tracing enabled.
This case shows how skilled users can push hardware beyond its original limits, even when the product was never officially released to the market.
